Lately, the Flyers have been playing things very close to the vest

You have a better chance of finding a leak under your sink than in GM Paul Holmgren's sound proof office.

Give them credit.

They did a fine job of misdirecting everyone with the Chris Pronger deal. All along, they were courting Jay Bouwmeester, but had the ace in the hole. Of course, we all know that "Ace" (Pronger) could very easily have been the Joker had Scott Niedermayer said to Anaheim GM Bob Murray last Friday that he was retiring.

Had Niedermayer retired, Pronger stays on the Left Coast and the Ducks still get to re-sign Francois Beauchemin.

Lucky for the Flyers, Niedermayer came back and Pronger's salary had to go off the Ducks' cap.

Ok, the Flyers are putting all the bang in their bucks toward defense. Which is why they signed Ray Emery for under market value at $1.5 million for next season. I asked Holmgren if he had a budget for goaltending this year.

Because the FLyers are again tight to the cap - $52.3 million for 17 players I feel are a lock to be on the roster and not including potential free agents, such as Mike Knuble), they need a "position" budget.

"That position will come in under $3 million," Holmgren told me of the goalie tandem. Which means, the Flyers intend to pay no more than $1.25 million for a backup goalie.

For that money or less, you could get 28-year Craig Anderson from Florida. Or Scott Clemmensen, who was simply outstanding for New Jersey. Or you could bring back Brian Boucher from San Jose.

There's a lot of goalie possibilities out there. At the same time, the Flyers have to wonder do they need someone here who could be comfortable as a starter "if" Emery doesn't work out this season? A reasonable question given Emery's explosive temper and off-ice problems of past.

So, the quizz for you Hockeybuzzers is, who would you take? Anderson has a bright upside and future.

But Clemmensen saved the Devils' season until Marty Brodeur got healthy last year. The guy proved he could be a starter. The safer bet in a backup would be him because he's already done it.

Now, onto the forwards.

I don't see Mike Knuble getting a multi-year deal here, so he's gone. Maybe to the Rangers? That's 25-30 power play points the Flyers are giving up. I feel this is a huge mistake even though Pronger will get some of that back.

Then again, throwing in lost goals from Joffrey Lupul and Knuble, that's about 50 a year and that is significant. Unless ... they intend to spend more money on a guy like Ruslan Fedotenko, who is younger and has two Cups.

Assuming Knuble is gone, what about letting the forward issue go into training camp? Why not give James vanRiemsdyk a l-o-n-g look?

Holmgren told me he "rooting" for JVR to make the team and save him having to find a body in free agency. The Flyers are going to be looking closely at JVR next week at their rookie camp.

It would not surprise me if the Flyers move slowly with acquiring a forward and quickly in signing a back-up goalie when free agency opens on Wednesday.

Then again, they always seem to do the unexpected.

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