Flyers Do A Lot And Accomplish Very Little

The Flyers made several moves today, summed up here by Bill Meltzer.

To kick off the day, the Flyers added D Tim Ramholt from Calgary for Phantoms forward Kyle Greentree. You may remember Greentree from a couple games with the Flyers. He's a pretty big body, and he has a nice shootout move up on YouTube. Like a lot of forwards we have or had, there just wasn't much of a chance he could make an impact here with our depth.

Next, the Flyers placed D Denis Gauthier on waivers. They did this last year, and he cleared waivers and landed on the Phantoms. Paul Holmgren apparently promised he would try to avoid this, so he was waived with the intention of buying him out. That'll take a good chunk off the salary cap, but he'll still count against it a little. There are conflicting reports.

Finally, the Flyers traded D Janne Niskala to Tampa for a 6th round pick. Niskala was just acquired last week, and it's kind of a bad reflection on the front office to have to do this. They must not have done their homework when acquiring Niskala and weren't fully aware of his demands to have a one-way contract. Either way, it doesn't matter much, but the situation probably wasn't handed correctly.

Free agency kicks off tomorrow, and if you remember last year, the action is fast and furious. If you blink, you might miss a signing or two. This year, there aren't as many high-profile targets, but that's not going to stop teams from paying a lot of money to get players.

The Flyers probably won't be active. They won't be making a big splash, and you can definitely rule out guys like Brian Campbell and Wade Redden. Those guys are getting big bucks, and the Flyers don't have the money to spend like last summer. We should find out if Hatch is retiring soon, and that decision will impact what the team does.