The three-year extension signed by Claude Giroux yesterday is good news, both for the Flyers and the player. Beginning next season the deal will pay him an annual salary cap hit of $3.75 million ($11.25 million total over the three-year length of the deal). That is still relatively affordable for the Flyers, considering that they are unlikely to retain Nikolay Zherdev (pending UFA) beyond this season no matter what he does, and the club has several other pending free agents. Giroux will be getting a raise from the $821,667 he's currently making.
The big question mark at this point is whether the Flyers will be able to find a way to keep both Jeff Carter (pending RFA, UFA eligible after 2011-12) and Ville Leino (pending UFA).
Most people seem to think that the Carter deal will get done first, and there has, in fact, been progress reported in talks with the Carter camp. However, I am beginning to think that the organization has begun to prioritize Leino -- after seeing that he's been able to carry over his performance from last year's playoffs. I would not be surprised at all if a Leino extension is hammered out first, and then the club figures out a strategy for signing (or, if necessary, trading) Carter.
Here's why:
* From a hockey standpoint, it has been very obvious, both in the playoffs last season and early this season, that Leino isn't just a point-producer for the club. He's also a spark-plug with his aggressiveness on the forecheck and backcheck and his ability to control the puck for long stretches, creating scoring chances, powerplay opportunities and forced icings. Removing Leino from the lineup would take away a key element that drove the club to a higher level this past spring and so far this fall.
* Leino's deal is the less complicated of the two. He's clearly in line for a raise from his current $800,000 salary but both his side and the Flyers know there are limits on what any contending NHL club would be able to offer him. With Carter, tougher decisions have to be made, because the deal will be for bigger bucks and more years. It makes some sense to take care of the smaller contracts first and then see how creative you'll have to get.
* Paul Holmgren has a strong working relationship with Leino's agent, Bill Zito. The agent, who also represents Kimmo Timonen and represented ex-Flyer Sami Kapanen, has a history of being able to find common ground with Holmgren. While money is always an issue, of course, so is putting the player in a situation where he's likely to succeed. Zito is not the type of agent to play games in the media or make waves for the sake of getting his own name in the papers, and that's something that the Flyers respect.
So as long as the Flyers and the Leino camp are even remotely in the same ballpark price-wise, I think they'll get it done. I also suspect that groundwork will be laid soon (if it hasn't been done already) now that the Giroux deal is done and the club has a good sense of Carter's asking price.
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Speaking of Leino, I wrote a feature article for the Flyers' official site on his highly successful line with Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell. The article has been posted today on Philadelphiaflyers.com. Click
here to read.
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The Phantoms have fired head coach Greg Gilbert. Assistant GM John Paddock will at least temporarily step behind the bench again as interim head coach. Considering that Paddock and Gilbert are cut from the same cloth, there isn't going to be much relief in the dressing room in Glens Falls. Players know that Paddock is evaluating them first-hand. The club has lost nine straight games, many in blowout fashion.
And, no, there is no chance of Pat Maroon returning to the Phantoms. Paddock isn't about to show up Gilbert like that, and it was clear that -- regardless of how many goals he was scoring so far this season -- Maroon was part of the problem.
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I did not initially intend to devote space in more than one blog this week to the 25th anniversary of Pelle Lindbergh's death. But with the article in Inquirer on Sunday and others upcoming in the next couple days, I thought I would share a photo (via a Pelle Lindbergh Facebook group) and an unpublished excerpt from Pelle Lindbergh: Behind the White Mask.
These two photos were taken earlier this year at an observation of Pelle's 51st birthday at the gravesite where he, his older sister Ann-Christine, and his father, Sigge, are buried. The women in the top photo from left to right are Kerstin Somnell (Pelle's fiancee at the time of his death), his eldest sister Ann-Louise and his mother, Anna-Lisa.
Following is an unpublished section of Chapter 18 from the Pelle book:
Lindbergh quickly gets into the swing of life at the Spectrum and at the Flyers' training facility - The Class of 1923 Arena on the University of Pennsylvania's campus in West Philadelphia. It helps that several of his friends from the Maine Mariners, including trainer Dave "Sudsy" Settlemyre and assistant trainer Kurt Mundt, are now with the Flyers.
Likewise, former Mariners defenseman Glen Cochrane is now an established young defenseman on the Flyers, paired with Howe. The rest of the greatly improved cast includes the likes of 31-year-old Czech import Miroslav "Cookie" Dvorak, McCrimmon and Marsh.
On the rink, Lindbergh learns the peculiarities of the boards and the ice surface in both buildings. He shows greater focus at practice than he had in the past, but still has room for improvement.
Pelle's favorite part of coming to the practice rink remains his post-practice one-on-one duels with the team's top shooters, especially burgeoning star Brian Propp. He also enjoys challenging speedy Finn Ilkka Sinisalo, dipsy-doodling Ron Flockhart and one of the team's checking liners, Lindsay Carson (with whom Pelle broke in with the Mariners in 1980-81 and reached the NHL at about the same time).
Off the ice, one of of the first things he learns from teammates is that it's unwise to leave valuables unattended in his car at the practice rink. There's a good chance they'll be gone by the time he returns.
Teammates also suggest Pelle buy a used car to drive to practice every day, rather than risk having his Corvette stolen or vandalized. There has been a recent wave of thefts in the area. The goalie decides to chance it, and never has a major problem.
Dvorak, who usually rides to practice in best friend Brad Marsh's truck, isn't so lucky. One day after practice, he discovers that he’s had his valuables stolen. The chain-smoking, beer-guzzling Czech defenseman is usually a happy-go-lucky type, but he's enraged by the discovery.
The defenseman speaks very little English, but has learned the swear words pretty quickly. He returns to the rink, waving his arms and shouting in broken English, "Zay steal from Cookie! Zay foe-king steal from Cookie!"
Pelle and the other Flyers laugh hysterically. Dvorak isn't amused.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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