The Philadelphia Flyers are in the midst of one of their best regular seasons in franchise history. They don't have any holes in their NHL roster and could make the case for being the deepest team in the league. On offense, there are 14 forwards available to play minutes each and every night, and on defense, there's organizational depth for call-ups should injury occur.
Philadelphia Flyers At The 2011 NHL Trade Deadline: Rumors, Needs And Expectations
In goal, the Flyers are also comfortable. Helped along by a stellar blueline, Brian Boucher and rookie Sergei Bobrovsky have handled the duties in the Philadelphia crease better than anybody could have imagined. The goaltending isn't the league's best, but it's certainly better than the duo of Boucher and Michael Leighton that got them to the Stanley Cup Final a year ago.
If they have their way, another Cup Final is in their future.
Status: On The Bubble. It's tough to call the Flyers a buyer in the classic sense, especially since they've already made their one move in acquiring Kris Versteeg. There's simply no more room to acquire any more players unless they move NHL assets, so calling them a buyer would be an inaccurate assessment.
At the same time, they’re certainly not a seller, either, even though they could ship out one of those forwards in an attempt to gain some extra depth on defense or to get back one of the draft picks they traded away in the Versteeg deal.
Needs: There are literally no immediate needs on the NHL roster in Philadelphia. Draft picks and organizational depth at forward are overall needs, though.
Players On The Block: Nikolay Zherdev ($2 million), Jody Shelley ($1.1 million), Dan Carcillo ($1.075 million)
Prediction: Paul Holmgren will find a buyer for Nikolay Zherdev despite No. 93’s bad reputation. Philly will get a draft pick in return to help ease the sting of giving up two picks in the Versteeg trade.
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