When the Philadelphia Flyers traded then-captain Mike Richards and goal-scoring phenom Jeff Carter 30 minutes apart during the 2011 NHL offseason, eyebrows were raised so high they caused permanent wrinkles to the forehead of the hockey world.
Just one year removed from a Stanley Cup Finals appearance, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren decided that his team was due for an expansive makeover. He captured highly-esteemed goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov from the Phoenix Coyotes and signed him to a nine-year mega-deal with hopes that he had now found that elusive cornerstone goaltender—one who could perform consistently and would not clam up in the pressure tank that is the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
Signing Bryzgalov, however, would require some budget readjustments. Bryzgalov wanted to be paid like the Vezina finalist he was in 2010, and the Flyers needed some wiggle room to make that happen. One might suspect after a disappointing second-round exit in the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs that Holmgren would be questioning the strength of the Flyers’ core. Most probably didn’t expect such an immense foundational shakeup.
Richards w ...
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Article written by Daniel Robaczewski
Philadelphia Flyers: Re-Examining the Trades of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter
May 26th, 2012 by Daniel Robaczewski Leave a reply »
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