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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

   The Flyers' interest in controversial goalie Ray Emery does not bother the agent for Flyers goalie Marty Biron.

   Gilles Lupien, Biron's agent, said on Tuesday that he knows how "the game is played" and how Emery's agent is "shopping" his client.

    The bottom line, Lupien said, is that the Flyers say they want to sign Biron, "and Marty wants to stay with the Flyers."

    Lupien said he was relatively confident Biron would sign with the Flyers, but that it "depends on the cap" and how much money the team is able to spend. He doesn't expect Biron to sign until around July 1, the day his client can become an unrestricted free agent.

   "Marty's first option is Philly," said Lupien, who can't contact other teams about signing Biron until July 1.

    Biron made $3.5 million this season; he had an up-and-down regular season but was solid in the playoffs.

   From here, the view is still this: Re-sign Biron and upgrade the defense by adding Jay Bouwmeester and/or Mike Komisarek.

  * * * * * 

   Flyers winger Scott Hartnell was named one of the NHL’s five dirtiest players in a players’ poll conducted by Sports Illustrated.
    “I guess any press is good press,” said Hartnell, who led the NHL this season with 54 minor penalties, one more than Komisarek. “If the players are talking about me, I think that’s a good thing.”
    Hartnell, who scored a career-high 30 goals, said he doesn’t consider himself a dirty player.
    “I play the game hard. I think I play it fair,” he said. “But I guess maybe after the whistles and stuff, that’s where I might get a bad name.”
     In the poll of 324 players, Anaheim’s Chris Pronger and Dallas’ Steve Ott each received 13 percent of the votes, followed by Ottawa’s Jarkko Ruutu (12 percent), the New York Rangers’ Sean Avery (10 percent) and Hartnell (5 percent).
    Hartnell said some of the players on the list “are going to be disliked for a long time. I will just keep chirping and getting in players’ faces. I guess that’s why I am called dirty.”
   

 

  

Posted by Sam Carchidi @ 3:35 PM  Permalink | 11 comments
11
Comments   
Posted 04:53 PM, 05/05/2009
flyler
I know I'm in the minority on the boards. But Marty really is a good goaltender. And there really aren't that many good goaltenders out there as solid as Marty without some gaping hole in their games or personalities (Emery). Marty has been up and down, but his ups indicate another level of playing that if can at least stay around, he could be a driving force for a cup rather than the passenger people seem to be resigned to labeling him. Marty's got 2 seasons with Philly, both ended in the playoffs, one in the Eastern finals. Emery's had 2 seasons one ended in the Finals and one shipped him to Siberia. Now THAT's Hot and Cold.
Posted 05:38 PM, 05/05/2009
PhillyPhan35
I normally don't criticize the writers of these articles/blogs, but why should anyone care about what the player or his agent think? Free agency is a time to speak with other players and evaluate your options to make your team better. If one's feeling are hurt for speaking to another player, than tough.
Posted 05:38 PM, 05/05/2009
robm0202
Sam, tell me where the Flyers are going to get all this magic money to sign Komisarek, Bouwmeeser, and Biron. While Biron didn't have a great season, he is sure to get a raise from his current salary of 3.5 million based on the overall weak goalie market. Lupul's contract is set to go up 2 more million than this year because of his extension. The only contracts we are losing are Alberts and Knuble (who I know the Flyers would love to and probably will bring back). Those contracts combined equal about 4 million. So if Marty comes back at say 4 million, that leaves us with only 1.5 million plus whatever we are under right now, which I know is not much. How do you expect the Flyers to replace Knuble/Alberts AND bring on 2 very good defensemen. Bouwmeester alone will probably be around 6 or 7 million a year. There is no way this is happening Sam unless we find some fool to take Randy Jones' and Joffrey Lupul's terrible contracts off our hands.
Posted 06:16 PM, 05/05/2009
kprimo25
Anaheim will take Lupul, and Lupul would love to go to Anaheim. If I understand correctly, he lives in Newport Beach, CA in the off-season, so that would be a dream gig for him. That's $4.25 million off the cap. Knuble is 35+. He can be signed to a minimum contract with a heap of bonuses that everyone knows he's going to achieve that don't count against the cap. That gives you another million saved, so that's $5.25 million. Don't bring Alberts back and trade Matt Carle, and you've saved $4,687,500, which gives you close to $10 million. But everyone, enough with this J-Bo talk! What we were missing this year was the fear that tangling with Jason Smith/Derian Hatcher in the crease brought - that mean, stay behind and crush you at the blue line/in the paint, defenseman. Go back to '97 and look at the Cup winners each year. The one thing they all had in common on defense was a few puck movers, and a few head crackers. We need Chris Pronger, not J-Bo. Let him go skate for the ice capades up in Montreal!
Posted 06:58 PM, 05/05/2009
duffers
J-Bo is not an ice capades player kprimo. If you wouldn't take him on this team you're insane. I still think our biggest problem is Stevens and am still trying trying figure out how Homer can come out immediately after losing to the Pens and say he'll be back. What's the point of bringing him back only to fire him during our first prolonged period of inevitable braindead play next year? He's been a good stopgap to bring us back to respectability, but we need a new voice (MacTavish) to get to the next level
Posted 07:21 PM, 05/05/2009
robm0202
man kprimo, looks like you and Sam are living in the same dream world. Lupul is coming off another unproductive season and is signed for the next 4 years at 4.25 million a pop, this is not attractive at all. This kid had loads of potential coming into the league but he is not a kid anymore and he may have reached his peak. Also, why the heck would Knuble take the minimum, are you kidding me? All the guy has done is produce and come up huge on the power play since he has been here. It doesn't matter how old he is, he will still get a slight raise from what he made the past few years. Carle might be able to get moved because he is an offensive defensemen and wasn't too bad last year, but his salary isn't attractive at all either, so who knows. The numbers just don't add up for us to make big moves this offseason. We will be lucky if we can afford bringing Biron back and signing only Komisarek. By the way, the cap is not supposed to be going up this year, so we won't get any relief there. Also, Pronger is old, J-Bo would be way more attractive and they would probably cost the same, I'll take the younger one every time.
Posted 11:12 PM, 05/05/2009
AlaskaFlyerFan
robm0202 (or anyone else), You're going to have to convince me how Lupul didn't have a productive year. He had 25 goals & 25 assists for 50 points. Out 884 players that played in the NHL this year, only 59 players scored more goals. He was only 3 goals off his career high of 28! You're raving about how productive Knuble was! Compare Lupul and Knuble's productivity...Knuble only scored 2 goals more (3 points less) than Lupul with almost 3 minutes more ice time per game and he played 3 games more (Lupul played in 79, Knuble in 82)!!! Did Lupul have dry spells...yes. Did he at times play uninspired...yes. But it was far from an unproductive season.
Posted 11:25 PM, 05/05/2009
robm0202
Alaska, Lupul and Knuble are totally different players. For one, Knuble is a power forward who's job isn't only to score but to get in front of the goalie and screen him. You can't base his season off of purely numbers because he is a great two-way player. Lupul on the other hand is supposed to be a sniper and you would think he would have more power play goals, but he only had 6. I would much rather have Knuble on my team because of his leadership skills, his two-way play ability, his power play prowess, his physical play, and the fact that you know you will get 82 games out of him. Lupul's play was so spotty last year and 25 goals coming from one of the most productive lines in hockey (because of Hartnell and Carter) is not anything to write home about. When you are paying a guy more than 4 million a year and he's playing on that line you would expect more than 25 goals out of him, especially more production on the power play. When he scored 28 with Anaheim, everyone thought that it was the start of something great, yet year in and year out he hasn't come close to touching it, until this year and like I said he was very inconsistent. The real point though was that because of his contract and lack of consistency, he has no trade value. He is locked in for too long and for too much money for a 2nd liner at best. Knuble is cheap for a productive power forward.
Posted 11:25 PM, 05/05/2009
robm0202
Alaska, Lupul and Knuble are totally different players. For one, Knuble is a power forward who's job isn't only to score but to get in front of the goalie and screen him. You can't base his season off of purely numbers because he is a great two-way player. Lupul on the other hand is supposed to be a sniper and you would think he would have more power play goals, but he only had 6. I would much rather have Knuble on my team because of his leadership skills, his two-way play ability, his power play prowess, his physical play, and the fact that you know you will get 82 games out of him. Lupul's play was so spotty last year and 25 goals coming from one of the most productive lines in hockey (because of Hartnell and Carter) is not anything to write home about. When you are paying a guy more than 4 million a year and he's playing on that line you would expect more than 25 goals out of him, especially more production on the power play. When he scored 28 with Anaheim, everyone thought that it was the start of something great, yet year in and year out he hasn't come close to touching it, until this year and like I said he was very inconsistent. The real point though was that because of his contract and lack of consistency, he has no trade value. He is locked in for too long and for too much money for a 2nd liner at best. Knuble is cheap for a productive power forward.
Posted 12:23 AM, 05/06/2009
93phils
robm is making some great points. The Ducks have been cap strapped for a long time. Remember they couldnt even keep Bobby Ryan on the team in the beginning of the year due to cap problems. If they take Lupul, the Flyers are taking Giguere. No cap saved there. And if a team takes Carle, who showed that is he good but nothing special, dont you think they would make the Flyers take a contract back? Figure, the cap might go down and believe it or not, Giroux will be soon looking for $3 mill+ a year. http://www.nhlnumbers.com/overview.php?team=PHI&season=0809
Posted 12:25 AM, 05/06/2009
93phils
Sure, Lupul is good, but I cant think of any teams in the NHL with 6 forwards with a $4.2 mill+ cap hit...
About Sam Carchidi
Sam Carchidi, who has covered primarily South Jersey high school sports and the Phillies for three decades, is in his second year as the Flyers’ beat writer. He has followed the Flyers since their inception in 1967-68, and remembers when only the third periods of their games were broadcast on the radio - just seven years before they became the city's most popular franchise.

Carchidi has written three books _ the nationally acclaimed Miracle in the Making: The Adam Taliaferro Story, which he co-authored with Scott Brown; Bill Campbell: The Voice of Philadelphia Sports; and Standing Tall: The Kevin Everett Story, which was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

A lifelong South Jersey resident, Carchidi lives in Wenonah, N.J., with his wife, JoAnn, and he is a passionate sports fan of the colleges attended by his daughter, Sara (tiny Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland, which qualified for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament last season and is unbeaten in football since 1951) and his son, Sammy (West Virginia, an annual challenger for the nation’s No. 1 ranking in football and men’s basketball).