From The Fourth Period...

Having already lured free agent goalie Ray Emery to town, a signing that will be made official as soon as the free agent market opens, the Flyers need a backup goaltender and are looking for an upgrade on the blueline.

[Jay] Bouwmeester sits atop Philadelphia's wish list, but signing him will require another body to move.

The Daily News suggests the Flyers are interested in re-signing Mike Knuble, who can also become a UFA this summer.

According to the paper, the Flyers might try to move Joffrey Lupul and his annual salary of just over $2.31 million.

The major plus that comes with signing Emery and dumping Martin Biron is that the Flyers presumably clear almost two million in cap space for next season. A move of the streaky Lupul would give the Flyers a lot more cap flexibility in chasing after Bouwmeester, and they're going to need it considering at least five other teams are in the running for the free agent defenseman.

Other teams are also very interested in Knuble, should the Flyers not re-sign him before July 1. The Rangers are rumored to want to bring Knuble to Broadway for the second time in his career, although the Flyers are just as eager to keep his strong veteran presence in the Philadelphia locker room.

In my opinion, this is all good news. Losing Lupul could hurt the locker room in the same way that losing Scottie Upshall did. But from a hockey standpoint, if his loss means the gain of a player like Jay Bouwmeester, we'll forget about Lupul rather quickly.