Let me be clear on the headline for this piece- I haven’t spoken to Simon Gagne, or heard from a source, or bought a crystal ball from a gypsy that has told me he will never return to Philadelphia. I wouldn’t even write about this if I hadn’t heard so many people tell me, “I heard he’s coming back!”
The truth is that he is unlikely to return to the orange and black until there is a change in management and/or ownership.
When Gagne was traded last July to the Tampa Bay Lightning, he spoke with John Boruk of CSNPhilly about the transaction. In Boruk’s report, it was indicated that Gagne had initially declined to waive his no-trade clause but was pressured by the organization to leave. With rumors following him for weeks, it eventually became too much and he gave Holmgren five teams he’d be willing to play for.
The main reason he was willing to waive his no-trade clause for Tampa Bay was because they had the salary cap space to be able to extend him it he had a successful season.
He didn’t want to be a one-year rental, even though early reports are that Tampa Bay is unlikely to re-sign him.
The Flyers organization has such a misguided concept of salary cap management that I doubt he would be willing to knowingly put himself in that situation again, as much as he loves Philadelphia. With so many names of current Flyers being thrown out as potential cap fodder to sign Ilya Bryzgalov, why would he want to be back in the middle of this mess?
All he wants is stability and a decent contract, neither of which he will get as long as Paul Holmgren and Ed Snider are at the helm. Having Gags back would be great, but I don’t see it happening.
For the latest Flyers news, and in this case speculation, you can follow me on twitter (@JoshJanet).
Why the hell would they resign him anyway. Although I loved Gagne, he’s one hit away from permanent brain damage, & hasn’t had a good or healthy season since forever. Also, how the F^@K do you criticize the best ownership that this city has ever had. Any player that has ever played for the Flyers love it here, & are treated like family. Josh your an idiot. Who gives a crap if he comes back here or not. This isn’t the days of Clarkies retreds, muckers & grinders. BTW, why would it be great to have him back? You want to get better, not rehash the past with old sentiments. Do you want Lindros, Primeau, Brindamour & LeClair too. Stupid useless article. 10 minutes of my life gone forever.
The Bottom Line is that the Flyers are “coddled” by Ownership, Management,Local Media and the Fans and I see very little accountability to the Players who are highly paid to perform.. Where are all the Championships for one of the conisistently highest payrolls year after year in the NHL.. They have become a lot like the Yankees (but without the Championships)…They are Primma donnas who don’t have the heart of a Champion.. It’s been since 1974-1975… That’s over 30 years ago.. City’s Best Franchise is a fraud as is Owner (Mafia wanna-be) Ed Snider…
I’m not going to argue against being an idiot. I’ll leave that discussion up to my family and friends.
I wasn’t intending to sound critical of the organization as a whole; I think they generally do a great job with treating players like a family, as you said DD, and assessing NHL talent. They wouldn’t be competitive every season if they weren’t.
Where I am typically critical is their development of prospects and internal talent as well as their contract management in the salary cap era. There are organizations like the Penguins, Red WIngs, and Bruins that can be competitive every season post-lockout without being forced to lose high draft picks or trade quality players for a bag of pucks.
My main point with this post is that several web sites have written pieces suggesting Gagne could return, but based on the reason he was forced to leave, I don’t think he would. While he’s never going to get a $5.4 million contract again, he shouldn’t have a problem getting $2+ million elsewhere.
Josh, sorry I called you an idiot. Was having a rough day. Bad choice of words. You & others on here do an admirable job for the most part. I think Gagne would take a pay cut right now, to retire here. He only probably will play another 2 years, if that. IDK. 😀
HEY, No worries! I was joking about the idiot thing. It’s completely your prerogative to call me an idiot. There are times I will be, and I need people to call me out on it.
I think Gagne’s going to take a significant pay cut no matter where he signs, but I think he’s still young enough at 32 to where he can get a decent contract on a competitive team (think $2 million, 2 years). He’s a playoff machine, honestly. I’ve just read so many articles saying he would sign back here for cheap, but seeing as how the only person who thinks we can even re-sign Leino is Holmgren, I don’t think he would prefer to be back under these conditions.
I suspect he will be back when he’s older, if he hasn’t had any more serious injuries, on a further pay cut.
Nah, I wasn’t raised like that.
With the salary cap being raised $5 million, hopefully they won’t have to lose much. They might be able to get away with hiding Lapy, Walker, Shelley & Leighton contracts. Who knows. Man did Holmgren make some absurd contract signings.
If you ever have free time, the web site http://www.capgeek.com has a salary cap calculator that allows you to play around with team contracts to see what works. It includes all bonuses in a player’s contract.
The way I looked at it, if we sign Bryzgalov for $5.75 million and waive Shelley/trade Hartnell and Versteeg, we can stay competitive if we bring up Matt Read, Eric Wellwood, Tom Sestito and Erik Gustafsson while signing free agents Erik Cole and Jussi Jokinen. As I mentioned in previous posts, though, I’m not an NHL general manager so who knows. If the Flyers managed their existing contracts a little tighter we wouldn’t be in this scenario.
Thanks will do. I would like to see them sign Cole, also.