Giroux Sent Down to Make Room For Briere

by Geoff Detweiler on Feb 28, 2009 5:11 PM EST

Editor's note: The Flyers sent down Claude Giroux and Lasse Kukkonen to the Phantoms to make room for Danny Briere, who will play tomorrow afternoon. Nate Guenin was also called up to fill the hole left by the departing Kukkonen.

I don't know about all of you, but I'm sure most of you agree this is a bad move. I'm not saying Briere shouldn't be activated, but if this team can't find room for Claude on its roster, then they shouldn't be fighting for home ice in the playoffs. I can think of four players I'd rather see sent down to make room: Asham, Ross, Cote, or Powe. Jared Ross just got called up and he should be the first one down. Aaron Asham and Riley Cote don't need to both be on the team, so either can go, and Darroll Powe simply because he's not as good as Claude Giroux. I like all four of those guys, but with the way Giroux has been playing, I don't see how he hasn't earned a spot on the team yet.

I can only assume this has to do with money, because it can't be skill, flexibility in position, vision, trust, stats, or size. Hopefully somebody can add insight because this doesn't make any sense to me.

Related note: Guenin up and Kukkonen down tells me the team still isn't sure if Timonen will be healthy, because why call up Guenin to sit rather than leave Kukks the constant scratch?

This item was written by a member of this community and is not necessarily endorsed by Broad Street Hockey.

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Yeah, it without a doubt simply is all numbers. Timonen wont be ready to go again tomorrow (holy shit, this flu is nuts) so they couldn’t do the simple fix and just send Kukkonen down. When you look at the numbers (note, the salary cap page has been updated with all of these moves), you can see how it works out. As of right this second, the Flyers are just $252,500 under the cap.

The Guenin call up makes sense because he’s cheaper than Kukkonen.

Say you send down Jared Ross and his 500k comes off. You’re then $752,500 under, but Giroux has a cap hit of $821,667. Sending down one of Powe or Cote wouldn’t get the Flyers under either, if you want to keep Giroux. The only guy who the numbers would work out for is Arron Asham. He makes 640k and if you send him down and keep Giroux, you’re $70,833 under the cap. That’d probably be the closest any team has ever been to the cap.

I see how the Flyers want to keep Asham in against the Devils, and I’m sure they’re probably assuming that Briere nullifies Giroux’s output for the time being — however long Timonen is out.

I’m sure that whenever Timonen is healthy, Guenin and Ross will be back down and Giroux will be back up.

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by Travis Hughes on Feb 28, 2009 5:38 PM EST reply actions

Well, either way, Homer has to do something because this is not good cap management. You can complain about Briere and Jones making too much, or injuries causing this, but no matter what, this should not be a season-long issue. And even if your Briere for Giroux one day wash theory was correct, if Homer had done something a month ago, imagine Briere and Giroux in a critical game like this. Chances go way up if the cap was not an issue. I’ll reiterate: Trade Randy Jones

by Geoff Detweiler on Feb 28, 2009 5:50 PM EST reply actions

?

could this be because homer is gonna deal giroux soon? idk

by ABails8 on Feb 28, 2009 8:00 PM EST reply actions

I sincerely doubt that one. If the Flyers were going to trade him, they’d want him in the lineup proving his worth.

I’ve been thinking though: the rush to get Briere in the lineup could be the same thing… to prove to potential buyers that he’s healthy. I think moving Briere would be a severe mistake though.

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by Travis Hughes on Feb 28, 2009 8:09 PM EST up reply actions

i dont know…id swap briere for bouwmeester in a heartbeat.

by njh3293 on Feb 28, 2009 8:16 PM EST up reply actions

this team

has bent over backword to accomodate briere’s return.

briere had better put up some numbers or this town will crucify him.

to send giroux down at this point is a horrible mistake. every time giroux touches the puck there’s a scoring chance.

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by psudrozz on Feb 28, 2009 8:17 PM EST reply actions

Like I've said numerous times before to all of my fellow Flyers fans...

Don’t doubt Danny.

When he’s healthy, the points he puts up are insurmountable. I’d suspect that he’s going to be just fine during his return, and will have a stark impact on whichever line he is going to skate with. I expect him to have at least one point tomorrow, if not more. Chalk it up in the G category, too.

by OrangeAndBlackk on Feb 28, 2009 9:14 PM EST reply actions