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Daily Times beat writer Anthony J. SanFilippo takes you inside the locker rooms of the Philadelphia Flyers and the rest of the NHL.



Tuesday, March 3, 2009

WILL THE FLYERS ASK BIRON TO WAIVE HIS NO TRADE?

Spoke to several folks from around the NHL today, and there is speculation the Flyers are going to ask Marty Biron to waive his no trade clause to go home to Buffalo.

A lot of things would have to happen to make this all come to fruition, but here's what I've been able to glean....

Buffalo wants to upgrade their defense, blow out a contract they loathe and pick up a veteran goalie to fill in as they try to make the playoffs with starter Ryan Miller sidelined with a dreaded high ankle sprain.

The sequence of events that needs to happen is this....

1. Buffalo would have to work out a deal with Chicago sending forward Tim Connolly to the Black Hawks in exchange for defenseman James Wisniewski.

2. The Flyers would have Biron agree to waive his no trade clause to go back to Buffalo. Biron maintains his offseason home in Buffalo and his wife is originally from the area.

3. Assuming Biron agrees, the Flyers would trade Biron to Phoenix. What they get in return is uncertain a this time, but I'll speculate on two possibilities in a minute...

4. Phoenix would then send Biron to Buffalo in exchange for defenseman Henrik Tallinder and Maxim Afinogenov.

What the Flyers would be doing in this instance is twofold. One, they can trade BIron straight up for defenseman Derek Morris, a player they coveted twice before at the deadline only to lose out on acquiring him.

Morris' cap hit is $3.917 million which compared to Biron's $3.5 million is basically a wash. The Flyers would then only have to finagle their lineup around enough to lose about $150,000 in salary to be compliant with the cap.

This of course would mean they were turning the No. 1 goalie reins over to Antero Niittymaki, but would be left without a backup. They could then call up either Scott Munroe or J.S. Aubin, who has NHL experience, as Niittymaki's backup.

The other option is they send Biron to Phoenix as a salary dump and take nothing of salary value in return, clearing $3.5 million in space on their cap.

Then, with the $3.7 million in space available to them, the Flyers could strike the long-rumored deal with Florida for Jay Bouwmeester.

All along rumors have had it that the Flyers would send Joffrey Lupul and a defenseman to Florida for Bouwmeester, but if they clear out Biron, they would only have to lose one player off their roster, possibly throw in a prospect (or two) and/or a draft pick and could also get back Florida's backup goalie Craig Anderson, whose cap hit is $575,000 and is an unrestricted free agent at season's end.

For example, would Matt Carle, prospect James vanRiesmdyk and a future draft pick net you Bouwmeester and Anderson? Possibly.

The Flyers would then have about $650,000 in cap room to juggle their roster as they see fit.

It's a lot of speculation. There's a lot of ifs. But, after talking to people in each of the involved cities, it does make sense and there is a lot of talking going on..

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