The strange case of Blair Betts took another twist on Monday.
Betts was returned to the Flyers by the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday as damaged goods, reversing an earlier waiver claim by Les Miserables.
Emerging from the restricted area of Skate Zone on Monday afternoon, Betts said hes not part of the team and conceded his knee issues were something that had been giving me grief on a daily basis during much of his past two years as a Flyer (Read more of what Betts had to say).
Even though Betts locker stall once again has a name plate over it, he did not practice with the club because of his condition.
Now while Betts is still on the roster and the Flyers cap, coach Peter Laviolette admitted he doesnt figure into his game plans.
By outward appearances, it would seem, Betts career as a Flyer is over. In reality, not quite.
General manager Paul Holmgren sounded unwilling to concede anything on Betts. He said when the club waived the 31-year-old last week, Betts was medically cleared to play for Montreal.
NHL
Holmgren said the team is going to have Betts thoroughly re-examined by their own doctors. Betts wants to know whether surgery is an option.
Well get him checked out in the next few days and see what the issues are, if there are any, and then well deal with them if we find out, Holmgren said.
I dont know anything more. We knew that he had a bone bruise from a game when he got hit with a puck and he had some blood taken off his knee before.
But our doctors cleared him and we placed him on waivers, and obviously, when he got to Montreal, they did their own work on him, an MRI or whatever, and they found something that was worrisome to them.
Betts played in preseason and while he, along with Andreas Nodl, seemed to be on the bubble to make the roster over several younger players, such as Sean Couturier and Matt Read, Betts did not appear any more banged up than we had been used to seeing.
Apparently, Montreals medical staff didnt agree.
Well, the one thing Ill say about Blair is hes a tough player, Holmgren said. I think hes had a lot of issues the last couple of years. He continued to play and I believe he stills wants to play. Well find out in the next few days what were doing with.
Its an awkward situation, for certain, for a classy player, who appears to be going out the door much the same way as Keith Jones did, coming out of training camp only to realize his knees were shot.
Jones career ended in retirement eight games into the 2000-01 season.
Blair has been a big part of our team, Laviolette said. I think with the faces here, you have to accept the decisions that are made here, but to have him back here, we welcome him back.
It didnt work out for him to play in Montreal. Hes back here now and well see where it goes from there. Im sure he wants to play, but right now weve gone with a set of lines here and well probably continue with that.
Flyers assistant general manager Barry Hanrahan said since the waivers were reversed by the NHL, technically, Betts would have to clear waivers again just to be assigned to the Phantoms.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net