Theres a lot of uncertainty right now around the Flyers with what they are going to do at this weekends NHL draft in Pittsburgh.Questions remain about how theyre going to fill Chris Prongers skates and whether Jaromir Jagr is actually going to re-sign given TSNs report on Monday that he now wants to test free agency.
His agent, Petr Svoboda, remains optimistic while general manager Paul Holmgren is less certain, a strong indication that Jagr very likely wants more money than the 3.3 million the Flyers paid him last season.
Svobodas other client, Jakub Voracek, got his qualifying offer of 2.25 million as a restricted free agent, guaranteeing the Flyers retain his negotiating rights through free agency.
The club also qualified defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon (708,750), plus forwards Harry Zolnierczyk (719, 250), Ben Holmstrom (605,000) and Tommy Sestito (605,000).
About the only thing that Holmgren seemed certain and optimistic about is that the club would re-sign defenseman Matt Carle, even though the July 1 deadline is fast approaching and the two sides still dont have a deal.
I think, like I said when the season ended, Matt wants to be a part of the Flyers organization and we would like to keep him, Holmgren said.
We can't do anything right now. I have kept in contact with both Matt and his agent Kurt Overhardt. I am fairly certain that we will get him signed.
NHL
Because of tagging space, the Flyers dont have enough money to sign Carle right now, but they can agree on a deal and have it go into place on July 1.
Whatever the Flyers do at the draft or during free agency to replace Pronger will have an impact on the dollars going to Carle and everyone else.
The loss of Chris Pronger is huge, Holmgren said. That is a huge hole on our team, and as I said he's a hard guy to replace if he can't play. I think short term and long
term we've got a lot to try and improve.
As I said, Nicklas Grossman being signed was big and hopefully we can get Matt Carle signed, I think that'll be big too. He's still a young guy and a good player.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net.