D Tollefsen Taking Physical for Flyers, Will Replace Jones?

by Ben Feldman on Jul 26, 2009 11:00 AM EDT

Multiple sources are saying that the Flyers have flown in UFA D-man Ole-Kristian Tollefsen for a physical today. If he passes, a deal will likely be worked out this week. Tollefsen, 25, has played in Columbus for the past three seasons and in the Columbus system since being drafted 65th overall by the Blue Jackets in 2002.

He's been significantly hurt by injuries over the past three seasons, though, according to The Columbus Dispatch:

In three seasons, Tollefsen played with a broken nose, busted ribs, broken hands and an overblown elbow. He played half a season with a cracked vertebra in his neck. He has had surgery to relieve pressure on a nerve in his cervical spine. He has had his knee carved, twice. He can't even begin to count the stitches.

He only played 19 games last season due to those two knee surgeries, which took place in December and April. If Homer's going to sign him, we have to take their word that Tollefsen is healthy -- he's never played more than 70 games a season in his time in the NHL, AHL or WHL.

Of course, we don't have much cap space to play around with, though if we were to sign Tollefsen, it's doubtful his cap hit would be much over the minimum. But we all know that Homer doesn't like to dress seven defensemen, even when he has the resources to do so. That means someone has to go.

The logical two to consider shopping are Randy Jones and Matt Carle, due to their high cap hits. Jones' contract is up after this season, while Carle is signed through 2011-12 with a higher cap hit, so it should be easier to trade Jones than Carle.

Anthony SanFillipo thinks Jones might be on the block (and he sounds pretty happy about it), especially since we're somewhere in the pack of teams going after Satan and Sykora. We probably wouldn't get much in return, maybe a draft pick or two, or maybe a few mid-level prospects, but given our need to dump him and his high cap hit, that's perfectly fine.

We're replacing the oft-injured Jones with another oft-injured player, but at least it'll cost us like $1.25m less.

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

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Comments

It would actually be over $2m

Jones’ cap hit is 2.75m (and he’s getting paid 5.5m this season), so by signing a guy for 650k and potentially trading Jones we’d save 2.15m in cap space this year. That ought to be more than enough to sign a Malhotra or scoring winger type.

by Alon on Jul 27, 2009 10:31 AM EDT reply actions

???

5.5 million for Randy Jones? Where are you getting your numbers? He has a salary of 3M and a hit of 2.75m … did you add those two? They are mutually exclusive dollar figures

Regardless Randy Jones will not be a Flyer after this season if he ends up staying. He is and UFA and Braydon Coburn is going to be due for a nice raise. They do not need to move Jones at all this season, unless they want some more cap space.

Also they do have enough cap space to fit in someone for 650k so it isn’t inconceivable to sign a player as a cheap 7th defense men that is a cheap waive once camp is over if he doesn’t pan out. And if he is good then you have some added insurance and you won’t have the situation you have last year and push yourself smack against the cap.

by ic0n67 on Jul 27, 2009 10:27 PM EDT reply actions

typo

meant, he’s getting paid 5.5m total, 3m this season, cap hit of 2.75

got my #s from
http://www.capgeek.com/players/display.php?pos=D&pid=62862#

by Alon on Jul 28, 2009 10:05 AM EDT up reply actions

Two Way Deal

I read that they are looking at a Two-Way deal to sign Tollefsen so we wouldn’t hit our cap unless someone went down.

by chrislanci on Jul 28, 2009 5:38 AM EDT reply actions

What kind of value does Jone really have? Unless we can truly dupe a team into taking his cap hit, Tollefsen is going to be an Alberts type, 7th dman.

by bak8976 on Jul 30, 2009 4:14 PM EDT reply actions