The Broad Street Blog

2009 Free Agency is here and Paul Holm­gren has con­tin­ued to re-tool the Philadel­phia Fly­ers. It started with a trade to acquire vet­eran defense­man Chris Pronger and con­tin­ued with the sign­ings of for­ward Ian Laperierre and backup goal­tender, and for­mer Flyer, Brian Boucher.

Let me start with the sign­ing of Boucher. I’m not big on teams bring­ing back play­ers they let go. How­ever in this case I’m will­ing to make an excep­tion. Boucher will make a great backup, espe­cially if the Emery exper­i­ment goes south. Boucher has shown to be a qual­ity backup, with the Sharks sign­ing him last year while he was play­ing for the Phan­toms. Dur­ing his time with the Coy­otes he put together a record shutout streak. Niit­ty­maki was look­ing for a start­ing job, but he didn’t inspire much con­fi­dence in me. He would show flashes of bril­liance, but when the start­ing job was his to take, he’d fall apart.

I’ll be hon­est, I don’t know much about about Ian Laperierre since the major­ity of his career has been played in the West­ern Con­fer­ence. Every­thing I’ve read about him shows the rea­son why Holm­gren signed him; it’s the intan­gi­bles. They say he is the con­su­mate team player, some­one that doesn’t gripe about where he is in the lineup. He doesn’t like to lose and will stand up for his team­mates. His stats may not knock you over, but when you read things like that and hear a for­mer player of the cal­iber of Luc Robitaille com­pli­ment him, I’m look­ing for­ward for him to suit up in the Orange and Black.

Now, on to the unhappy news. Mike Knu­ble signed with the Wash­ing­ton Cap­i­tals. He was a great player and I wish him all the best, but he just wasn’t worth the money he was look­ing for. While unlike many play­ers, he has actu­ally got­ten bet­ter with age. But, how much longer will that last? I’ve also heard about how his locker room pres­ence will be lost. (Like we know what really goes on in there, we can only sur­mise based on what we read from oth­ers). While a great player and con­su­mate pro­fes­sional, he was here dur­ing times when it seemed like this team would roll over and die dur­ing games. But any­way, he will be missed. I will always remem­ber that great goal in the sec­ond over­time of game 4 against Wash­ing­ton dur­ing the 2008 playoffs.