The Philadelphia Flyers are pleased to announce that they have added Niklas Backstrom. Backstrom was acquired from the Minnesota Wild for Fredrik Norrena and Keith Ballard. Backstrom is expected to the the long term goaltending solution for the Flyers with the 42 year old Hasek not expected to be in the teams long term plans. Backstrom is a proven starter and is expected to improve this teams goaltending now and for the seasons to come. His hefty 1.2 million salary will be a burden but one that GM moon feels he can work around.
Keith Ballard is a very good young defenseman and is tough to give up but with the young guys we have their and a top guy in Pronger we felt it was a postion of strength for the club and one in which we could solve our need for a goalie for next season. Fredrik Norrena has been a great back-up for us this year often matching Hasek's numbers and playing more games than your average #2 guy. However, he is a back-up and was a guy that we realised would be involved in a deal for a starter. We wish them both luck in the future whether it is with the Wild or any other Howe conference team.
With the addition of Backstrom and GM moon's constant shopping and bitching about Hasek you might think that the Dominator's days in Philly are numbered, well you would be correct. Unless we decide to keep him in which case you would be wrong!
As usual the Flyers GM has no idea what he is doing and will always be looking at new ways to confound his fans and make his team great! Talks of more deals coming from Philly are rampant but with this lazy GM you never know what you are going to get.
(Disclaimer: If any of this makes no sense then I ask all of you to come over to my house and spend couple nights trying a "new" plan to get a 1 year old to sleep through the night. I wouldn't call it the let him cry method so much as the scream, scream, scream while dad falls asleep on the floor method. Oh and yes the screaming is coming from me, not him.)
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