Still, general manager Paul Holmgren felt that making Lupul happy would benefit the team's chemistry, so Lupul's contract was extended for 4 years with an average salary of $4.25 million per year.

"Our team had very good chemistry right from the start of training camp last year," Holmgren said yesterday. "If you have the ability to keep a core group together for a long period of time, it can only help in the building process of trying to create a winning team.

"With the way the salary cap is structured and the uncertainty of some other things, we felt it was another opportunity to lock up another one of our young players and move forward. Joffrey is one of our young, core players that we are really high on and we look for good things to come from him."

Lupul's contract extension will not take effect until after this season so it will not count against the team's cap this year. He is scheduled to earn $2.3 million this season.

The Flyers are over the $56.7 million league limit by a little more than $1 million, which they will have to shed by the start of the season.

For Lupul, 24, the extension was a welcomed surprise.

"I'm just really happy and excited," he said. "This is not something I was really expecting this summer. But the Flyers kind of reached out to us after July 1. It was a real nice surprise, and I am really thrilled to be here."

Lupul had 20 goals and 26 assists in 56 games last year. He missed 26 games with a high ankle sprain, a concussion and spinal-cord contusion suffered in January when he was accidentally flattened by teammate Derian Hatcher during a game in Toronto.

The winger who was traded to the Flyers from Edmonton last summer said he felt the team has a lot to look forward to in the coming seasons.

"The Flyers have put a big commitment in me and a lot of other young guys who have been locked up for years to come," Lupul said. "That way we can kind of all continue to play and develop these relationships on and off the ice. It is pretty exciting.

"We just have to really continue to build on what we did last year. We took some big strides last year to becoming an elite team in the league." *