A year ago, they were desperate. They were coming off a season in which they had the NHL's worst record, and they reloaded by signing free agents Danny Briere, Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell.

Fast-forward to the present, and the Flyers feel they need a little fine-tuning, not a major overhaul, to improve on this season's surprising journey to the Eastern Conference finals.

Yes, the Flyers are in the market for a puck-moving defenseman, but landing a pricey free agent like Brian Campbell and fitting him under their salary cap - no matter how creative general manager Paul Holmgren gets - seems a long shot.

So they will search for a less-glamorous type to add to their impressive young corps.

"We don't have to sign one of the top free agents this year to be successful," said Peter Luukko, president of Comcast-Spectacor, which owns the Flyers. "In fact, you have to be careful to let the roster grow together and improve together and just add pieces to get to another level. We're in a nice position and don't have to retool the whole roster like we did last year."

After the Flyers traded a playoff scoring machine named R.J. Umberger to Columbus, the prevailing theory is that they are not as strong as the club that won two playoff series this season.

Luukko does not buy it.

"Obviously, losing R.J. was strictly financial, and, all things being equal, if there was a non-cap situation, we would have had R.J. back," Luukko said. "But that said, Paul and the staff expect the young kids to only get better, and we have prospects coming up who haven't had a chance to develop, including Steve Downie. We're getting [Simon] Gagne back, and [rookie winger] Claude Giroux is going to get an opportunity, and Paul picked up Steve Eminger on the back end, so I don't think we're any weaker."

Still, Luukko and Holmgren acknowledge the club would like to add a mobile defenseman. Mark Streit, who played defense and some forward with Montreal, is a free agent who fits that description.

"We had a shotgun approach last year and went out aggressively [for free agents] at 12:01," Luukko said. "Here, we'll deal with the agents through the upcoming days. The good news is that we have a solid nucleus and can be patient."

Luukko pointed out that when clubs sign expensive free agents like Campbell and Wade Redden, it may open things up for trades. The club has a surplus of forwards (Joffrey Lupul? Scottie Upshall?) to deal.

"Someone may sign a guy and then have to move someone else - say, a $2 million guy they want but can't afford, so the signings may affect us," Luukko said.

Luukko said the Flyers were close to the $56.7 million salary cap, but that number will be altered by trades and signings. The club yesterday agreed to a three-year pact with right winger Riley Cote for $1.65 million. The Flyers are close to signing defenseman Randy Jones to a two-year deal believed to be close to $5 million, and both sides were trying to complete the contract by midnight last night.

Cote and Jones were eligible to become restricted free agents at midnight last night.

Holmgren said the Flyers still had cap space and had "lists of guys we want to sign - both forwards and defense."

There's a strong chance the Flyers will lose defenseman Jason Smith to free agency. "We still have interest in him, but it's going to come down to dollars and cents," Holmgren said.

Flyers add blue-liner. The Flyers continued to stockpile defensemen, acquiring Tim Ramholt yesterday in a minor-league deal with the Calgary Flames for left winger Kyle Greentree.

Ramholt, 23, a second-round pick (39th overall) in 2003, is the fifth defenseman the Flyers have acquired in less than two weeks. The 6-foot-1, 194-pound Switzerland native had four goals, 20 assists and 73 penalty minutes in 77 regular-season games for the AHL Quad City Flames last season.

The 6-3, 212-pound Greentree, 24, had 24 goals, 24 assists and 83 penalty minutes last season for the Phantoms, the Flyers' AHL affiliate.

"We want to acquire depth," Luukko said. "You're going to have injuries and trades and you need guys to fill roles - and who knows, you just might find a diamond in the rough."

Later in the day, the Flyers traded recently acquired defenseman Janne Niskala - whom they feared losing to a Russian league - to Tampa Bay for its sixth-round choice in the 2009 draft.

Niskala, 26, who scored 19 goals in the AHL last season, was acquired from Nashville last week for forward Triston Grant and a seventh-round draft pick in 2009.

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