NHL Free Agency: Flyers Re-Sign Michael Leighton
BREAKING NEWS, Flyers, News, NHL Sunday, July 1st, 2012
NHL free agency kicked off at 12:00 p.m. At 12:03 p.m., news broke from Josh Rimer of NHL Home Ice that the Philadelphia Flyers have re-signed goaltender Michael Leighton to a one year, $900,000 contract.
The news isn’t necessarily “shocking,” but it is surprising that it would come so quickly after the opening of free agency. Goaltenders Martin Biron and Scott Clemmensen had each signed ahead of the clock to $1.3 million and $1.2 million deals, respectively, but Chris Mason is still available.
It’s also possible that this signing is merely “insurance” in case they can’t acquire another goaltender that they’d like, but the market for Leighton can’t have been that wide open at the price tag they offered.
Regardless of how the 2009-10 season ended, Michael Leighton was the only reason that the Flyers went to the Stanley Cup Finals that year. Many forget that the team was in 14th place in the Eastern Conference before he stabilized the situation in net with Ray Emery on the mend.
Leighton does, however, have a post-lockout record 2.94 goals-against-average and 0.901 save percentage. Neither stat is what one would call “good.” If you take out the season for the Flyers in which he was the starter, and just a back-up, that number dwindles to a 0.896 save percentage.
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Posted by Josh Janet
on Jul 1 2012. Filed under BREAKING NEWS, Flyers, News, NHL.
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JJ, 1 way contract. He’s the back-up! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! I need pepto & motrin.
1 way contracts can still be buried in the minors. Example: Matt Walker
Or example leighton last year
DCar, that is correct- Leighton is the one and only back-up (http://flyers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=636744)
I posted this around 12:30 p.m. It was still a wide open free agency at that point. Chris Mason ended up taking a discount to return to Nashville, so he may not have been willing to look at offers from the Flyers anyway.