Eds. Note: Mark Bell has officially been cut from the team.  The Training Camp roster has been updated here.

CSNPhilly.com's Tim Panaccio reports that Mark Bell has almost certainly been cut, as indicated by his absence from camp.

It's cut day in Voorhees, and it appears that Bell is one of the first victims. He hasn't been impressive in training camp thus far, seemingly just going through the motions while other players like Blair Betts and Mika Pyorala work much harder.

It's a sad day for Bell, but its arguably sadder for those who write about the Flyers.  Here are just some of the things we'll never get to write about Mark Bell:

• "Bell Chimes in on Goalie Controversy"
• "Mark Bell Shows More Cracks Than Brother Liberty Bell"
• "Bell Rings Up Sidney Crosby"
• "Flyers Playoff Hopes Saved by the Bell"

Feel free to share your memories of Mark Bell's time with the Flyers in the comments, as well as any puns you can think of that I may have missed.

With the Flyers current off season shaping up, here's a look at what the other teams in the Atlantic have done so far:

• New Jersey Devils
   
  Have lost John Madden, Mike Rupp, Brian Gionta, and Scott Clemmensen while retaining Johnny Oduya and Andy Green.
  
  With $11.7 million in cap space, they still have Travis Zajac unsigned and need a backup goalie, and two forwards to reach 20 players under contract.  In Lou We Trust says they need an offensive defenseman and an upgrade at number 2 center.
  
  



• New York Islanders
   
  Added Dwayne Roloson while retaining Doug Weight.  Also of note, former Phantoms goalie Scott Munroe signed with the Isle.
  
  Jack Hillen and Blake Comeau are still unsigned RFA's and the team also needs two forwards to reach 20 players under contract.  They have $21.3 million in cap space as it stands.  Lighthouse Hockey says they still require a winger with size and are debating whether Dwayne Roloson is the "1A" goalie they desired.
  

• New York Rangers 
  
  The Blueshirts have been busy making their usual big-name, question-mark news so far.  They lost Nik Antropov, Fredrik Sjostrom, and Colton Orr while bringing in Donald Brashear and Marian Gaborik.  In the biggest news the day before FA opened, the Rangers were able to drop Scott Gomez (along with Tom Pyatt and Mike Busto) and his enormous salary ($7.3 million) and still pick up Christopher Higgins, Doug Janik, Ryan McDonagh, and Pavel Valentenko.  Habs Eyes on the Prize has scathing reactions to that trade.
  
  With $13.6 million in cap space, they need to sign a backup goalie and 5 forwards to reach 20 players, but have big name RFAs Nikolai Zherdev, Ryan Callahan, Chris Higgins, and Brandon Dubinsky still unsigned.  Blueshirt Banter has reactions.
  
  



• Pittsburgh Penguins 
  
  Our cross-state rivals have been pretty slow so far, only signing Michael Rupp since FA opened.  However, they were able to retain Alex Goligoski, Craig Adams, and Bill Guerin all before July 1st.  They have lost backup goalie Mathieu Garon, Hal Gill, and Robert Scuderi.  PensBurgh is understandably content. 
  
  They need a backup goalie and a 6th defenseman, but don't expect any big signings coming from Pittsburgh.  With $4.7 million in cap space, they desire a top six forward and top 4 defenseman, and still wish to re-sign Ruslan Fedotenko.  Pittsburgh signed Fedotenko to a 1-year, $1.8 million contract.
  

In their own words, here are what Brian Boucher and Ian Laperriere told the media tonight via conference call.

I’ve always loved Philly. Being drafted by the Flyers, they were very good to me.  Paul Holmgren was very good to me in giving me a chance to come back a couple years ago and play in the minors and get my game back, and then allowing me to go to San Jose and get back in the National Hockey League.  I’m grateful to the Philadelphia Flyers and Paul Holmgren. I love Philadelphia.  I love playing here, the excitement… there’s nothing like playoff hockey in Philadelphia.

[Ray Emery] has a lot to prove, and hopefully I can be the kind of guy that can help him play well and be there for him and be a good tandem, and provide our team with great goaltending night in and night out -- doesn’t matter who’s in there.

>> Brian Boucher

Every time [the Flyers] make a move, like when they went to get Pronger last week, it’s exciting.  When they make moves like that, they show their fans and their team too that they want to win and they’ll do anything to win.  They go get a guy like Emery who’s got everything to prove.  He’s a hell of a goalie and he’s got everything to prove and it’s exciting.  We’ve got a lot of guys on this team who haven’t won yet and they want to prove to the hockey world that they’re winners. It’s very exciting.

I've been on losing teams and winning teams. I like winning teams much better.  I hate to lose like most of the guys.  Most of the guys in the NHL, you don’t make it to this level by liking to lose.  You want to win at any cost, and that’s what I try to bring wherever I’ve played before, and what I’m going to try to bring to Philly.

>> Ian Laperriere

Paul Holmgren has also said that he'd like to add one more offensive player, given that the Flyers have lost about 50 goals from last seasons roster. One more scoring forward, plus full-seasons of Claude Giroux and Danny Briere should more than make up the difference.

Well... this isn't what was expected.  With the loss of Mike Knuble, the Flyers added veteran RW Ian Laperriere for 3 years and $3.5 million, a $1.17 million average.  Laperriere is a 17 year vet with over 1,000 games played.  He adds depth to the Flyers lineup, as well as veteran leadership and an effective penalty killer.  Some quick stats:

The 6'1" 200 pound winger received a 3-year deal despite being 35 years old.  Without seeing Laperriere play, I will base my opinions on the stats.  He is a defensive specialist, playing nearly three minutes of short-handed time a game.  His 163 penalty minutes are inflated, however, due to 17 majors, 3 misconducts, and 1 game misconduct.  He drew 19 minor penalties, one less than Arron Asham and the same as Mike Richards.  I am curious what the misconducts are, but in general, he's a disciplined player who drops the gloves.  Penalty wise, he had almost identical numbers to Arron Asham, who most people don't see as an undisciplined, lazy player.  In terms of hits, he had one less than Scott Hartnell.  In terms of blocked shots, he had more than any Flyer forward except Mike Richards.  He had exactly as many giveaways as Claude Giroux, and four less than Mike Knuble.  He had more takeaways than any Flyer forward except Richards and Jeff Carter, and his turnover differential was almost opposite Joffrey Lupul's (-23).  Those are a lot of stats, but mainly he appears to fight like Asham and do the little things as well as anybody we have.  He throws his weight around, sacrifices his body constantly, and protects the puck really well. 

Most importantly is his penalty killing time.  Both Richards and Carter averaged over three minutes of PK time per game.  I don't think anyone is under the impression that they can do that and carry the load offensively.  Having Laperriere might/could/should take Carter off the PK entirely.  Imagine all that can do for our team.  Carter averaged 3:03 per game on the PK.  Obviously having Carter on the ice for 21 minutes is good for the Flyers, but everyone agrees the team spent too much time killing penalties, and having their best offensive players doing it just compounded the problem.  Hopefully, this can allow Richie and Carter to focus more of their energy on scoring.

I will hold out judgment on Laperriere, mainly because I don't think he is Dan Carcillo, Riley Cote, Scott Daniels, or any of those other guys.  I think he can be a very important piece on this team.  Maybe the Flyers are done after this, but hopefully not.  This doesn't solve their face-off problem, which needs to be addressed.  The problem with that is the cap space.  Manny Malholtra is still available at press time. (Ha!)

After the jump, videos

Continue reading this post »

via cdn3.sbnation.com

View full size photo »

Brian Boucher is back where he started, signed by the Flyers from the San Jose Sharks.  Boucher will presumably serve as Ray Emery's back up.  Boucher was drafted in the first round by the Flyers in 1995, and played for the club for parts of three seasons from 1999 until 2002.

Boucher was the club's starting goalie during the 2000 playoffs, leading the team to within one game of the Stanley Cup Finals.  The playoff run included the Flyers' epic five-OT win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, during which Boucher stopped 39 shots in overtime. 

Boucher was traded to the Phoenix Coyotes in 2002, and with them he set an NHL-record for longest shut out streak, going 332 minutes over 5+ games without allowing a goal. 

After bouncing around to the Flames, Blackhawks, and Blue Jackets, Boucher landed across the parking lot with the Philadelphia Phantoms for the 2007-2008 season, before playing for the San Jose Sharks for the last season-and-a-half, proving a capable replacement during Evgeni Nabokov's time out with injury.

This signing makes it even clearer now that both Martin Biron and Antero Niittymaki have likely both played their last games in a Flyers uniform.

View full size photo »

At the three hour mark, here's a look at the Free Agent picture as it affects the Flyers:

• Mike Knuble signed a 2 year deal with the Washington Capitals, worth $2.8 million.
  
  This is the first point since this is probably the most disappointing development of the day (besides the fact that the Flyers have done nothing so far).  Simply, Knuble will be missed.  A lot.  In the locker room as a teammate and a leader, on the power play, as our biggest forward, as Mike Richards' longtime winger, Knuble will be hard to replace.  And James van Riemsdyk is not ready yet despite many people's wishes, so don't expect him to start the year with the club.  The bright side to this is that he didn't sign with the Penguins.
• Goalies are flying off the proverbial shelves.
  
  Dwayne Roloson, Ty Conklin, and Craig Anderson have all already signed (Islanders $2.5 mil/yr, Blues $1.3 mil/yr, and Avalanche $1.8 mil/yr, respectively) with clubs and the Flyers are still without a backup.  With Conklin and Anderson gone, speculation moves to Scott Clemmensen and Brian Boucher.  More on this later.  (Ed. Update:  Flyers sign Brian Boucher to 2 year, $1.85 million contract averaging $925k/yr.)
  
• Marian Hossa signs latest high priced contract, this time with Chicago.
  
  Not really Flyers related, but 12 years for $62.4 ($5.23 mil/yr) is a long time.  Not the money he could have made had he signed with Pittsburgh last year, but where will Chicago get the money to pay Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Brian Campbell, Patrick Sharp, Cristobal Huet, and all the other talented defenseman on that team?  Martin Havlat is as good as gone with the Hossa signing.
• Former Flyer Donald Brashear goes to the Rangers, and no one cares.
  
  Now they have Sean Avery and Brashear, but really, who even notices?  Brashear isn't the same player he was with the Flyers, let alone the Canucks, but he has apparently turned into a pretty good leader.  I would add more, but I don't even care.  Two year deal worth $2.8 mil total.
• Quick Hits:
  The Sedin twins are staying in Vancouver (5 years, $30.5 million each, $6.1 mil/yr for each)
  Scott Niedermayer is staying in Anaheim (1 year, $6 million)
  Mattias Ohlund heads to Tampa (7 years, $26.25 million, $3.75 mil/yr)

The NHL Draft over the weekend wasn't quite as busy on the transaction front as people had expected. Only two major moves were made, but the foundations for other moves and possible signings as free agency begins today could've been set while the hockey world gathered in Montreal.

The Flyers, of course, made the biggest move of the weekend, acquiring Chris Pronger. But they aren't done as free agency begins at 12 PM ET. Will they sign a goalie today? Will they re-sign Mike Knuble today? Where will Martin Biron land? Where will Dany Heatley be traded? WILL Dany Heatley be traded?

There are a ton of questions and a ton of excitement is bound to take place today. Spend the afternoon here at Broad Street Hockey.

Here is some reading material to set you up for the day...

• A Flyers free agency cheat sheet, and cheat sheets from all around the league.
  
• The Flyers salary cap chart, updated as of 11:59 AM today.
• The top 100 unrestricted free agents, a depth chart of available forwards, a depth chart of available defensemen, and a depth chart of available goaltenders.
• The top 10 free agent wingers, the top 10 free agent defensemen, the top 10 free agent centers, and the top 10 free agent goalies. Sorry, Devils... no top 10 coaches list. 
• We know Briere has a bad contract, but is it really Wade Redden bad? Danny is at least good at hockey still.
  

The free agency period begins at 12:00 PM ET today, July 1. For a cheat sheet on all the action and what to expect from the Flyers, click here. For a look at the updated salary cap numbers for the Flyers, click here. An open thread will be posted around 11 AM ET to discuss all the happenings of the day.

First, a quote from Mike Knuble regarding his pending status as a free agent. At noon, Knuble will no longer be a Flyer, but Paul Holmgren remains adamant that the Flyers are trying to re-sign the veteran forward. From Chuck Gormley of the Courier-Post...

The sticking point with the Flyers is term: Knuble wants two years, the Flyers are offering one.

"I need to start making plans for other things," Knuble said. "I've got to pull my head out of the sand and see what's going to happen (on Wednesday)."

Among the teams interested in Knuble are Tampa Bay, St. Louis, the Penguins  and Rangers.

Also from Gormley, the Flyers are apparently keen on signing Brian Boucher. Details from the reporter, who seems pretty keen on the idea himself...

Boucher makes perfect sense on all levels.  He was an excellent backup in San Jose last season and made no waves about riding the pine. He’ll come cheap at around $750,000. He loves this area and is a true team player. And he might be the ying to Ray Emery’s yang. Yes, Boucher can be emotional, but he’s calmed considerably since his rookie year in 2000 and he could be the perfect mentor for Emery.

I'm against the idea solely for the fact I feel the Flyers should be going after a player that can take over a starting position if Emery falters. With a player that is as uncertain to play at a high level as Emery, there needs to be an insurance policy. Not having a strong, potential starter behind him is too big of a risk to take, especially when the team is clearly going all out for the Cup this season.

As for Martin Biron, he knows his time in Philadelphia is nearing it's end. He is keeping the door open to the Flyers, however, in case something changes. Here's what he told ESPN's Pierre LeBrun yesterday...

I mean, we're less than 24 hours away, although I guess something could happen in the next day. I don't know. Unless I get a call that something very drastic has happened, I think we'll be looking to check and see what happens [in free agency]. But you never know; I've seen crazier things happen. I'm open to all options.