Friday, January 28, 2011

Flyers do some tweaking

The Flyers have waived Matt Walker, removing his $1.7 million salary from their cap hit.

Panaccio also tweets;
As I speculated weeks ago, sources say the Flyers would make a play for Erik Cole at deadline. Walker move may be start
CAR would not deal Cole if Rutherford feels he has a chance. Month away from deadline but are interested in him

Erik Cole is 32 years old, pending UFA with a $2.9 million cap hit. He's not a high end scorer, but he complements high end players well, and can be a physical and productive player in that role. His best years came when playing with Eric Staal in Carolina, under then Carolina coach Peter Laviolette.

I have no reason to doubt what Panaccio reports. The trickier part is where the teams can meet on a deal. As with the Langenbrunner trade interest, the Flyers forward situation remains crowded, and they don't have much trade bait. What Carolina wants back in a trade could vary widely by how close they are to a playoff spot.

Aside from the Flyers probably throwing some picks to Carolina, the most easily identifiable trade candidates on the Flyers are Carcillo, Zherdev and Nodl. Personally, I wouldn't trade Nodl. He's young, cheap, is one of the best skaters on the team, strong on the puck, and is smart and very good defensively. Second, I really can't see the Canes having much interest in Carcillo, though I could be wrong there.

That leaves Zherdev. The chances of him resigning with the Flyers are very low I think. He's scored some pretty goals this year, but hasn't yet staked out a clear role on this team. Might Zherdev's high-end offensive ability tempt the Canes? Possible.

Zherdev and a mid-round pick for Cole seems the most plausible possibility to me. Either way, no trade will be imminent, and both the Flyers and Canes will see how things play out the next few weeks and reassess their needs and options.

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