Coburn given contract extension; Pronger in lineup
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
Coburn given contract extension; Pronger in lineup
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
TAMPA _ Defenseman Braydon Coburn and the Flyers agreed to a four-year contract extension Wednesday that will pay him $18 million, a $4.5 million yearly cap hit.
He currently has a $3.2 million cap hit.
Coburn, 26, could have been an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Coburn's wife, Nadine, gave birth to a daughter, Rory, in October.
"I hit the jackpot," Coburn said of recent developments.
In 14 games this season, Coburn has three assists and is plus-1. He is the longest-tenured Flyer on the roster.
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Chris Pronger, who has missed six games with an eye injury, will be in the lineup Wednesday night in Tampa.
The Flyers have only six defensemen on the trip. Erik Gustafsson, who was plus-6 in his last game against Columbus, did not make the trip because he is bothered by an apparent wrist injury.
Gustafsson's injury is not serious, and there is a chance he could play later in the trip, a team source said.
Later in the week, Gustafsson, Brayden Schenn and Blair Betts will join the Flyers in Naples to take part in their bonding trip.
In tonight's game, the defensive pairings figure to look like this: Pronger-Matt Carle; Coburn-Kimmo Timonen; Andreas Lilja-Andrej Meszaros.
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Tonight's 7:30 p.m. game matches two of the NHL's best players, Claude Giroux (19 points, nine goals) and the Lightning's Steven Stamkos (15 points, 10 goals).
Tampa will be without key defensemen Victor Hedman and Mattias Ohlund. Both are injured..
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- I don't feel Coburn is worth 4.5 a year however, i think he is a good d-man. I like him more than Carle.Also you shouldn't have used Wisniewski to make your point. he is a minus 5 already and missed the first 8 games of the season so he is not doing great right now.
— debbyt - The signing wasa little high but not over the top 4.5 Million ... I would not of gone that high but at his age it is a good deal. There are D-men getting around the same as he will be getting who are not as good. Plus when he is with Timo he plays better so having him with Timo on the second unit is good.— srcdaddy1216
- I do not understand why did we have to overpay for Coburn. Where is home discount? I am a little disappointed.— Nitroglycerin
- momus, the market has one guy making more than 4.5 and he was called overpaid with that contract. You did not help your case.— mikemaddog
- Coburn stinks. period.— Gino D.
- you forgot about the eminger deal— daoust555
- listen to yourselves, we CANNOT afford to overpay anybody at this point. We're never going to win a cup if we over pay guys who really would have no impact on the lineup if they were out. Coburn is a good skater, he's not physical, he absolutely can't shoot worth a damn, and he's always out of position, heck the goalie threw him under the bus a week ago. WTH is wrong with you people? How can you blindly defend this?— Njtod10
- This was a good deal, Coburn faces the best quality of competition above any other defenseman other than Kimmo. And compared to recent offers made to similarly aged players, this fits the bill. Additionally, the Flyers will likely have roughly 6.5 million to either resign Carl or go after another D-man, and pick up a two forwards. Seems like a decent spot to be in. Lot of knee jerking going on here, which I guess shouldn't be all that surprising.— Momus
- Momus, you pay shut down d-men 4.5M a year? What are we? Toronto Maple Leafs?— Nitroglycerin
- No the asolute WORST deal of alltime is the Patrick Sharp for Matt Ellison deal.— Njtod10
- No the asolute WORST deal of alltime is the Patrick Sharp for Matt Ellison deal.— Njtod10
- See I would disagree that he isn't physical...Coburn had 177 hits last season, anybody want to venture a guess at how many hits pronger totaled in his first season with the Flyers (104)? Also, he will get his 20-30 points per season. I just don't see a problem in spending $4.5 mil over 4 years for a 6'5" 220 26 y/o defenseman who is a smooth skating, pucking mover, is arguably the Flyers most complete defenseman right now, and has additional upside as defenders usually take a little longer to fully develop. You negadelphians need to chill out.— Momus
- Furthermore, the fact of the matter is that there are VERY few mid-career defensemen playing top minutes against quality competition who are heading towards free agency. As such players like Coburn are, by definition, a very valuable commodity – and therefore command a premium. By signing Coburn semi-long term (while simultaneously avoiding his twilight years)the Flyers actually very likely SAVED money.— Momus
- Trade Matt Carle. Period. End of sentence.— RichieLemon
- Momus please tell me you're not a season ticket holder cause if you are you're not paying attention. You can't lable a guy a puck mover when he's moving the puck to the other team half the time. He's 3rd on the team in giveaways behind only Matt Carle and Hartnell.— Njtod10
