The Flyers organization finally figured out what to do with disgruntled forward Pat Maroon, who was dismissed from the Adirondack Phantoms several weeks ago due to his attitude towards teammates and the coaching staff. Maroon, along with Phantom David Laliberte, has been traded to the Anaheim Ducks for former Flyer defenseman Danny Syvret and left winger Rob Bordson.
Syvret, 25, was originally traded to the Flyers from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Ryan Potulney. In two seasons with the Phantoms and Flyers, Syvret was a solid, if not flashy, defenseman. Syvret spent most of the 2008-2009 season with the Phantoms, tallying 12 goals and 45 assists, and was given his shot with the big club in the 2009-2010 season. He played well in his time in Philadelphia, scoring his first NHL goal during the 2009 Winter Classic (which would sadly be the only goal scored in that 2-1 loss).
A grade III shoulder injury in mid-January sidelined Syvret for considerable enough time that he didn’t get another call-up for the remainder of the season. An unrestricted free agent, Syvret signed with Anaheim in the offseason on a 1-year, $600K deal. In my mind, Syvret is as good a defenseman as Matt Walker, and immediately improves the defensive depth of this team. Who knows if Syvret will be retained next year, but I’d much rather have him back for cheap than Walker for $1.7 million.
Rob Bordson is to this trade as Ryan Dingle was to the Chris Pronger trade- that is to say, he’s another body for the farm team. Bordson played three seasons with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, where he didn’t do much until his junior year, notching 12 goals and 28 assists. Seeing as how Flyers favorite Mike Testwuide put up much better numbers in college than Bordson but has yet to score a goal in Adirondack, my expectation of collegiate hockey players making it to the NHL still remains low.
While I’ve accepted that Pat Maroon being forced out of the organization could ultimately help the club if it alleviated locker room issues for the Phantoms, losing David Laliberte hurts. Laliberte had two goals in his first call-up with the Flyers last season, filling in for 11 games while injuries mounted. He hasn’t been performing as well with the Phantoms this season, but then nobody really is on that mess of a team. Aside from Eric Wellwood, the Flyers don’t have much offensive depth in the system and this just makes matters worse.
All in all, it’s nice to have Danny Syvret back in orange and black, but I hope the organization keeps him around a little longer before this turns into just a rental for the Phantoms.
