The Flyers placed both Andreas Lilja and Brian Boucher on waivers today, according to Renaud Lavoie at RDS. The pair of moves are not exactly shocking developments.
In Boucher’s case, the acquisition was made on Sunday simply for insurance in case Ilya Bryzgalov or Michael Leighton get hurt. Boosh will play for the Adirondack Phantoms and will be recalled if necessary. There’s no such thing as re-entry waivers under the new CBA, so we won’t have to worry there. But NHL players on one-way deals do count against the cap under the new CBA according to the following formula:
cap hit — [league minimum salary + $375,000]
So, with Boucher’s cap hit of $950,000 and the league minimum set at $525,000, he’ll cost against the Flyers’ cap at $50,000 even while he’s with the Phantoms.
As for Lilja, the Flyers were never going to carry eight defensemen. By placing him on waivers, the Flyers have all-but solidified their opening night defense — it’s likely Bruno Gervais as the seventh defenseman and Kurtis Foster as the sixth defenseman. Since his deal is a 35-plus deal, the Flyers only get $100,000 in cap relief. Lilja will count against the Flyers cap at $637,500, then. Update! No cap hit!
OK… so the new $900K threshold waiver rules combine with the existing over-35 rules on waivers. Makes sense. No cap hit on Lilja.
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) January 16, 2013
