Pronger to IR, Walker to Phantoms clears room for Holmstrom, Zolnierczyk

Bunch of roster moves today. Lots going on, but we'll get through this all together. *deep breath*

According to the various beat writers at practice this morning in Voorhees, Chris Pronger has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to a week ago when he took that puck to the eye. It's the seven-day IR, so he's eligible to come off, but he won't be coming off for very obvious reasons.

Matt Walker has also been sent down to the Adirondack Phantoms, and our long national nightmare is over. 

With injuries to Danny Briere and Matt Read that will apparently keep both out of Wednesday's game in Buffalo, the Flyers have called up forwards Ben Holmstrom and Harry Zolnierczyk from the Phantoms to fill their places. Holmstrom earns $750,000 against the cap on his contract while Harry Z earns $900,000, totaling $1,650,000. 

Sending down Walker and his $1.7 million salary clears that space, but it also sheds the seventh defenseman from the roster. With Pronger on IR, the Flyers are left with just six defensemen until -- at the very least -- one of Briere or Read is ready to return to the lineup. Once that happens, one of today's callups can be returned to the Phantoms and another defenseman can be called back up.

The problem? Only Kevin Marshall and Oliver Lauridsen seem like realistic, waiver-exempt options on defense to be called up from the Phantoms at this point. Walker would have to clear through re-entry, and if he gets claimed the Flyers would be screwed with half that cap hit stuck on their number for the rest of the year -- a silly risk to take. Same goes with Oskars Bartulis, although half of his $600,000 cap hit would be easier to swallow. It's still a number that the Flyers really can't afford to take on. 

It'll be interesting to see what happens there, especially considering Erik Gustafsson is already in Philadelphia. 

There was an erroneous report earlier that said the Flyers would likely put Pronger on long-term injured reserve. That's not happening. He's on just plain old injured reserve, which clears his roster spot and gets the Flyers down to the 23-man active roster limit, but also keeps his cap hit as an obstacle the Flyers have to work around. 

*exhale*