It appears that the Flyers have three players in mind if they decide to keep the 21st overall pick. Defenseman David Rundblad, defenseman Stefan Elliott, and center Chris Kreider.

just got home from work, its ungodly hot here [pittsburgh], as in muggy. please tell me at 7pm I have ounces of puckdaddy/bsh hockey to blog about, this is one friday night im excited to just chill inside and be a sport nerd.

/ i wouldnt mind kaberle but not lupul and draft pick, it should be kaberle and draft pick to lupul, although that wont happen.

It would be interesting, at the very least, if Lupul was traded away to make room for Pronger on two seperate occasions for two seperate teams.

Looks the Flyers are going hard after Chris Pronger according to Bob McKenzie via TSN.ca.

I would assume that we are done with JBO, right?

Paul Holmgren just walked across the draft floor with someone — I couldn’t tell who it was. They walked off the floor together and into a back room.

Doesn’t Pronger only have a year left on his contract? I guess it is worth it if it gets Lupul’s or Briere’s contract off of our cap.

Two big developments accoding to Darren Dreger’s twitter

1.) Sources tell TSN Scott Niedermayer is returning for at least another season.
2.) Kaberle deal to the Leafs is off.

Assuming Niedermayer returns to Anaheim, this now give the Ducks a better idea of whether they are gonna deal Pronger. Maybe to us?

The Leafs will most likely hold onto Kaberle and see if they can get more for him once all the chaos surrounding JBO, Pronger and all the only defensemen that have been rumored is determined. Anyone who misses out on those guys might then turn to the Leafs and make a deal for Kaberle.

Holmgren was chatting with Vancouver GM Mike Gillis.

Also saw Holmgren with Anaheim GM Mike Gillis… Dreger is reporting the same thing. Presumably about Pronger.

The Pronger talk is very real. It’s buzzing around on the floor here.

Here’s a small writeup on the Pronger rumors.

http://www.broadstreethockey.com/2009/6/26/926772/pronger-to-flyers-rumors-running

Tavares must be Obama… it’s taking him forever to get to the stage.

TSN said that it is Lupul, Snid, and 3 early draft picks for Pronger

Oh God I hope not.

That’s what I’m hearing here.

Pronger for Lupul, Sbisa, and two first round picks.

according to tsn’s front page

The Anaheim Ducks have traded defenceman Chris Pronger to the Philadelphia Flyers for Lukas Sbsia, Joffrey Lupul and two first-round picks

shit

this trade ****ing sucks

Of course deuchebag McGuire loves it.

“Timonen, Coburn, Alberts, and Randy Jones!” what a dumbass

Chris Pronger will be 35 years old in October. And we trade 2 1sts, Lupul and Sbisa. I hate to say this, but we just got robbed

The picture from Trav’s post, the logo reads “LNH”…

Here’s his Hockey’s Future profile
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/ryan_dingle

dammit i hate this move, next years first round too? are you kidding homer? like were the hell do you plan on getting future guys? the phantoms? theres no one on the team. this wreaks of desperation, and a poor choice, when timmonen and pronger go, we have NO defense, carle and coburn and then absolutely no one.

A ton of picks go to the Blue Jackets. Numbers 26, 37, 62, and 92 in exchange for the 16th pick and the 77th pick, which go to the Isles.

The Flyers cap hit is at $52.5 million, adjusted to include Emery and the Pronger deal.

we’ll have a TON of room next season if pronger doesnt embrace philadelphia and bring us a cup.

I am probably wishing too much but hopefully Homer can ship Briere somewhere

Don’t get me wrong, i’m gonna LOVE having Pronger on the blue line. The price however was Steep. Now we just have to hope Homer ships Briere or we’re gonna be strapped for case. I would like to keep Briere, and would have liked to keep him before this trade, but now we can’t afford him.

Audio of Holmgren coming shortly.

Well, I was excited all day and once I realize that JBO was outta the picture I figured we were in good shape and not gonna blow the bank. And then this happened . . . Nice idea, but we got HOSED!

Guarantee Sbisa turns out to be a real good player. I guess it was only a matter of time before Homer did something dumb. Unbelievable.

The comments to this trade are really mystifying to me.

Holmgren dumps an underacheiving, inconsistent forward with a bloated contract and sacrifices a developing, undersized, 19 year old, rookie defenseman that was at times used as a forward last year, a late first round pick this year, and (hopefully) a later first round selection next season for exactly what we need right now, a big, strong, tough, #1, veteran, captain, 5 time all-star, Norris winning, Hart winning defenseman with something few members of our team have come close to, the experience of raising the Stanley Cup, and he gets complaints?

Bouwmeester is younger, of course. We need some cup experience, we need more veteran presence like that, someone who knows what it takes to get there and help lead there. Bouwmeester is clearly interested in western teams from most reports, in particular places like Edmonton. He’s going to be looking long term and he’s going to be looking high dollar. We’ve got defensive prospects, we’ve got Timmonen, we don’t need another high dollar long term deal right now.

What we need is a Stanley Cup.

It will be forever etched as the move that won us a cup, or the move that set us behind 5 years. (Or the hockey world will even out and the Flyers will continue to be relegated to 1st and 2nd round playoff bounces…)

Yes, Pronger is a great defensemen. A top tier d-man by anyone’s standards, and really a “dream come true” scenario for the Flyers. He fills a huge need of a veteran, shutdown defender . And that scoring thing helps out a bit too.

As for the rest of the trade, well, that’s where the questions start to arise. And I’m ignoring the Dingle and 3rd round compensatory pick because of the confidence I have that either will be productive. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere before, I needed good value to move Lupul. In this case, I’m okay with the move. Yes it means we have a void to fill, and with less money to do so, but it can be done. Losing Sbisa wasn’t ideal, but it’s always hard with speculation. He looked promising, but we just never (and now, will never) know of what he could have developed into as a Flyer. The youth is a big thing to give up, but somewhat understandable – Ducks need a replacement, and if the Flyers weren’t willing to move their top, proven players, a young prospect will have to do.

So Lupul, with his 20+ goals and $4+ mil cap hit are out the door, along with a rising star in Sbisa. Then there are the two draft picks. It’s feasible that the first round pick for this year is a throw-away – Homer didn’t see anyone with whom he was in love, and threw it in as extra trade bait to pick up a solid d-man for now. I’m just left scratching my head over the one for next year. Just seems like overkill with the payment already given.

Overall, not the worst trade we could’ve made. We made huge gain in a guy who is one of the top defensemen in the league – a sure thing, if you will. But the price is steep – another cap hit, while losing a scoring forward, a promising d-man, and two 1st round picks. The only upside is that there is a lot of risk in the words “promising” and “draft picks”. Not perfect, but far from horrible.

I’ll discuss filling out the rest of the lineup in another post… somewhere…