Mark Stone has been traded to the New York Rangers.
To New York:
Mark Stone
Brooks Laich
Brett Pollock
To Philly:
Wayne Simmonds
Rene Bourque
We've been hounding the Rangers about Simmonds, off and on, for well over a month. The scoring has really been lacking, so Philly targeted the 2nd leading CPHL goal scorer in an attempt to change that. We flirted with a couple of other options, but came back to our first choice. The kid's a mega stud, with 39 CPHL goals, and we hope he's the boost our middle 6 needs.
Pollock is doing great for the Oil Kings, but we were happy to add him to Stone instead of a 1st.
Unless there's an injury, I don't anticipate Bourque to ever see ice time in a Flyers uniform.
We tried Stone on multiple lines, but he just wasn't working out on our team. He seemed to spend more time trying to figure out how a water bottle works, instead of how to put a puck in the net. Hopefully he has better luck in the Big Apple.
Loosing Brooks Laich was a surprise 13th hour addition to make this deal work, cap wise. Dale Weise jumps in to fill that void, and Borkee will play injury relief for now.
Moving Stone was as much about cap management for next year as it was scoring. He's due for a decent raise. With Giroux, Benn and McDonagh also expecting one, we knew Stone had to go. The bonus is that not only did we save on Simmonds, but shed the $3.77 that Laich was owed next year as well.
Thanks to Mike for the very pleasant back and forths!!
[Trade] Mark Stone Shipped to Rangers in 5 Man Deal
