Knuble gone; 'character guy' Laperriere in with Flyers

It was a strange day yesterday for the Flyers in free-agent dealing. By 6 p.m., the Flyers had offered Knuble a deal he felt was "not even fair," allowing Washington to sign him away for 2 years and $5.6 million and then signed Laperriere, who is more of a fighter than a scorer, to a 3-year deal worth $3.5 million.

It was the second deal the Flyers made yesterday. Earlier, they signed Boucher for 2 years at $1.8 million a year to back up Ray Emery, completely revamping their goalie situation.

The Flyers seem to have given up a lot of offense with the moves that sent Joffrey Lupul to Anaheim for veteran defenseman Pronger, and replacing Knuble with Laperriere. Lupul had 25 goals last season, Knuble had 27. But the deals play into the move for character and toughness.

"We're still looking to add some offense somehow," Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said last night. "Obviously when you lose [Knuble] through free agency and [Lupul] in trade, that's a lot of goals that we have given up.

"We're still looking around, but the one area that Ian Laperriere is going to add is he is a role player that takes a little bit of the burden off some of our guys in other roles - like penalty-killing and faceoffs.

"He's a warrior-type player and he's very durable. Lots of energy. He is one of those types of character players that everybody is after."

Holmgren was referring to the amount of penalty-killing done last year by the top two centers, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter.

When the Flyers were eliminated by Pittsburgh in the first round, there was a strong belief that their top players were tired from the number of minutes they played.

Laperriere, 35, a 15-year veteran who played the past four seasons in Colorado, scored only seven goals and had 12 assists last season. His career high is only 21 goals in 2005-06.

Danny Briere, who missed most of last season with groin and abdominal injuries, can add some of that offense if he is healthy, and having Claude Giroux for a whole season will add some goals. Holmgren made that point clear.

But Briere sees the moves as positive, without taking goals into consideration. He is close friends with Laperriere and knows what he will mean to the Flyers.

"Our problem last year wasn't scoring goals. It was trying to cut back a little bit on goals that we were giving up, and we have now become a tougher team to play against," Briere said.

"Don't get me wrong. It's not great losing Knuble, but with Laperriere and the emergence of Darrol Powe, these guys can kill penalties and give Carter, Richards and [Simon] Gagne more time to play on the power play and maybe more time five-on-five.

"He's a great character guy," Briere said. "He is one of those guys, the kind of a player you need. He brings grit. He's a heart-and-soul player who will do anything for his teammates.

"He can play tough, he can fight if he needs to, and he plays his heart out every night. He is going to be a big player for our team. It might not show on a score sheet, but he can bring a lot to our team."

Laperriere found Briere's assessment heartwarming and quickly showed what Briere was talking about.

"Do I come in offensively? I don't know," he said, laughing. "I'm not known as a goal-scorer. I had one year where I fooled everyone and scored [21].

"But I come to work every night. I do the things like Danny said. I block shots, I'll get into a fight when it's the right time. That's how I made a career and that's how I play today.

"I won't be scoring goals like Danny does and stuff like that. But I'll tell you one thing: I'll be there for Danny when he's in trouble. That's for sure, and they know that."

For Knuble, yesterday's free-agent moves were both rewarding and disappointing. He wanted to stay in Philadelphia and was willing to take a pay cut, but what the Flyers offered was a "significant" difference than what the Washington Capitals had on the table.

So now, the veteran forward will play in Washington for the next 2 years at an annual salary of $2.8 million, exactly what he made last season.

"The terms were the same, a 2-year deal," Knuble said, "but the salary that [Holmgren] could offer, based on his cap situation, just wasn't what we were looking for; wasn't even fair."

"We drove back to Michigan [Tuesday] and we stopped in Ohio. Somewhere in Ohio I got the call what [Holmgren's] final offer was. We didn't feel it was very reasonable and it's just kind of the way it worked out."

Knuble said, however, that he would adjust, move his young family to the D.C. area, and settle into his new job.

"I feel good about Washington," he said. "I like the fact that it's on the East Coast. My goal was to stay in the East somewhere and I'm happy about that.

"It's another great city and a team, along with the Flyers, that has a chance to contend in the East." *