MONTREAL _ Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said he wanted "a hammer."

    He got one Friday night in a stunning deal with the Anaheim Ducks.

    During the NHL draft here, the Flyers acquired Chris Pronger, a veteran defenseman whom they hope will fill the missing piece to their 35-year Stanley Cup quest.
   Pronger, 34, gives the Flyers a much-needed physical presence in front of the net.
   Oh, and he also gives the Flyers a blue-line scorer _ something that was missing from a defense that netted a league-low 20 goals last season.

   The Flyers sent Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa, last night’s No. 1 draft pick (21st overall) and next year’s No. 1 draft selection to the Ducks for Pronger and AHL forward Ryan Dingle.
  The Ducks, who later traded the No. 21 overall pick to Columbus, also received a conditional third-round pick in 2010 or 2011.
  A five-time all-star, Pronger collected 11 goals and 37 assists last season and averaged 26 minutes, 56 seconds of ice time per game. The 6-foot-6, 220-pounder is known as one of the NHL’s most physical players.
   "I'm very excited. It’s obviously a city that’s very passionate for the sport of hockey," Pronger said in a conference call with reporters. "The style of play that the Flyers have been known to play certainly fits my game. They’ve got some great young talent and I hope to help not only develop the team into being regarded as one of the top teams in the league, but winning a Stanley Cup."

    The Flyers paid a lot. But no one will care if the move turns the team into Stanley Cup champions for the first time since 1975.

   The move was risky, however, because Pronger will be in the final year of his contract (at $6.25 million) and can become a free agent after next season.

   General manager Paul Holmgren said he hasn't talked with Pronger's agent yet, but that they will get together in the near future and attempt to work out an extended deal.

  "We haven’t had the opportunity to talk to Pat Morris, Chris’s agent," Holmgren said. "I’ve talked to him a few times over the past few days … he represents a couple guys on our team and a couple guys we were looking at in this draft. When we get back to Philadelphia, we’ll sit down and see where we’re at, and see what we can do. He’s certainly a guy we’ve invested a lot in, and we realize we have our work to do to get him tied up for more than one year."

    Holmgren called Pronger "one of the top defensemen in the league, and I think he makes everybody around him better on our defense. It puts things in the proper pecking order. First of all, he’s a winner. He’s won a championship. I know Chris from our days together in Hartford. He’s a tremendous character player who works hard and cares. Obviously he’s a great defender. He’s one of those guys who brings a presence in all zones on the ice, and in terms of what he’s been through as a player in our league and his accomplishments, he’ll be a guy who’s looked highly upon by our younger players and a good role model for those guys."

   Holmgren was asked if he had been searching for a physical defenseman.

 "I made it sort of clear myself, would I like to get a hammer, a guy who makes life miserable for the other team?… This is one of those guys," Holmgren said. "I think we’ve made some strides in terms of revamping our defense over the last few years. You put Chris in our mix, and it makes our defense a good group of defensemen."

   Call it The Hammer Era, Part II. The first one ended with consecutive Stanley Cups as Dave "The Hammer" Schultz helped the Flyers finish atop the NHL in 1974 and 1975.

    Notes. Holmgren said the deal doesn't mean the Flyers won't make a move when the free-agency period starts Wednesday. By trading Lupul (25 goals last year), re-signing Mike Knuble becomes almost a necessity....It'll be interesting to see if coach John Stevens pairs Pronger with Kimmo Timonen. Or he may reunite Timonen with Braydon Coburn _ they were together the previous season _ and put Pronger with Matt Carle or Ryan Parent....Rounds 2-7 of the draft will be held Saturday starting at 10 a.m. (NHL Network).

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  There was some good economic news for NHL teams Friday.

   The NHL and NHL Players' Association announced that the cap for 2009-10 will be $56.8 million. That's a $100,000 increase from last season. Since it was introduced, the cap has gone up each year, starting from the original $39 million at the end of the NHL lockout.

   There had been fears the cap would shrink for the upcoming season..

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_ Sam Carchidi  

   Reggie Lemelin has been fired as the Flyers' goaltending coach, general manager Paul Holmgren confirmed Thursday.

   The easy-going Lemelin, 54, who was stunned by the decision, was the Flyers' goalie coach for 14 seasons.

   "I just felt we needed a change," Holmgren said.in Montreal, where he is preparing for Friday's first round of the NHL draft

   Flyers goalie Marty Biron was inconsistent during the last two regular seasons _ and perhaps that influenced Holmgren's decision. The Flyers were 16th in the NHL last season with a 2.83 goals-against average, just ahead of the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins (2.84).

   A club source said the Flyers are expected to hire Tampa Bay goalie coach Jeff Reese, 43, as Lemelin's successor.

    Lemelin said he saw Holmgren talking with Reese during a Flyers game in Tampa last season "so maybe it's not something that just came up."

   Lemelin, who won 236 games during a 15-year NHL career, was baffled by his dismissal. He said he “tried to dig a little deeper” into the reasons for the firing, “but never got any answer. He (Holmgren) said you’ve been here a long time and he needed to do something different, something new.”
  Speaking via telephone from his Massachusetts home, Lemelin said: “They never gave any indication I was doing a bad job. I was pretty much on my own and everything seemed fine. I got along with my goalies very well and got along great with the other coaches. This came out of the blue a little.
  “I don’t know if my age was a factor, but I thought I related very well” with the goalies.
  Holmgren said Lemelin didn't disagree with the Flyers' decision to bring in controversial goalie Ray Emery. He said the goalie change had “nothing to do” with the coaching switch.

  The GM didn't want to elaborate on the decision.

Goalie Ray Emery was articulate and honest - and didn’t throw a single punch at Flyers trainer Jim McCrossin when he was introduced at Wednesday’s news conference in Voorhees.

OK, that was a cheap shot. But when you come with Emery’s baggage, you expose yourself to all types of criticism.

That said, Emery could emerge as the bargain of the year.

The Flyers announced Wednesday they had agreed to a one-year deal with the 6-foot-2, 196-pound Emery. The deal is for $1.5 million, and if Emery returns to his 2006-07 form - he led Ottawa to the Stanley Cup Finals - the Flyers will be feeling very good about themselves.

Though I was in favor of re-signing Marty Biron, I like this move - if it enables the Flyers to sign Jay Bouwmeester or Mike Komisarek, a pair of defensemen who can become free agents on July 1.

It would have taken about $3.5 million to $4 million a year to re-sign Biron. So the Flyers’ savings, coupled with some other cost-cutting moves (a trade of Joffrey Lupul?), could help the club improve its defense in the free-agent market.

In the playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Biron was not the reason the Flyers lost in six games. The Flyers’ defense and Jeff Carter’s scoring slump were bigger factors.

Emery, of course, has had a long list of off-the-ice problems, including an altercation with a Russian trainer in late January. There were also fights with Ottawa teammates, missed practices, suspensions and, oh, about 30 driving violations.

But he seemed contrite on Wednesday, seemed genuinely sincere about re-inventing himself after being, in effect, exiled from the NHL and sent to Russia.

He will add some fire to a laid-back locker room, and he should be more physical in scrambles around the net - a Biron shortcoming in the Game 6 loss to Pittsburgh.

The addition of Emery is a win-win situation for the team and the goalie, said Peter Luukko, the Comcast-Spectacor president.

“I think it’s a pretty good formula when you have a hungry young man who wants to prove himself,” Luukko said.

Emery, whose heavy partying became a part of his identity in Ottawa, vowed that his off-ice conduct will be much improved.

“At the same time, I’m not saying I’m not going to be a fiery guy,” he said. “I play hockey. I throw it out there. Like I said, I know I have the opportunity and I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize that or make people who are giving me this opportunity look bad.”

One of those people is John Paddock, who coached Emery during his tumultuous time in Ottawa and is now the Phantoms' coach.

Paddock recommended that the Flyers sign Emery.

Emery said he wishes he would reverse his final season in Ottawa in 2007-08.

“I didn’t have a great work ethic at the start of the year,” he admitted. “I came in out of shape and wasn’t willing to work like I had in the past. I made a lot of mistakes, but I know this is a last chance for me. I have that knowledge of that past and I’m getting a shot to correct those things.”

Coach John Stevens recently spent several hours with Emery and said he was impressed with the goalie’s makeup.

“He admits he made mistakes and now he’s ready to move on and make amends _ and we’re glad he’s going to do it here,” Stevens said.

On paper, Emery and Biron are about equal. But if signing Emery frees cap space that helps the Flyers land a top-notch defenseman, it will be a move that was worth the risk.

The next move is up to general manager Paul Holmgren.

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Holmgren seemed upbeat about the possibility of re-signing potential free-agent Mike Knuble….Holmgren also said Antero Niittymaki’s hip injury is not as bad as first feared. There is still a chance that Nitty, a potential free agent, will re-sign with the Flyers and be Emery’s backup....For what it's worth, Emery said he scored over 1,300 on his SAT.