Yes if you are reading the title right, Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren says that Ilya Bryzgalov will not be bought out. In matter of fact, he thinks this buyout talk is out of bounds as he told ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun today. I know many Flyers fans that are reading this are saying well should we believe Homer because usually he does the opposite.
As Paul Holmgren told LeBrun about the Flyers current goaltender situation he said “I think right now with Ilya and Steve [Mason], we’ve got good goaltending moving forward.” He continued to say “any talk of anything other than that is out of bounds.” If I’m a Flyers fan coming into next season, you have to be confident that you have two solid goalies. Sure, Ilya Bryzgalov is 18-17-3 with a .898 save percentage but it could be worse than that and you actually have a good backup.
Yes I know we all miss Sergei Bobrovsky who is doing a tremendous job in Columbus and might win the Vezina trophy but look on the bright side you have Steve Mason and not Michael Leighton or Brian Boucher. Mason is still a young goaltender at the age of 24 that you can still build a franchise around. So far this season, he is 5-8-1 with a .908 save percentage. With better offense and defense from the Flyers, they could have easily been in the playoffs this season.
Finally, even if the Flyers wanted to buyout Bryz it would cost the team $23 million over 14 years that hurts but they could always amnesty him because each NHL team has two, but you might need to save those in the future for other players such as Danny Briere or Scott Hartnell.
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