I’m certain more than a fair share of fans have already dusted off their No. 29 Emery jerseys, and he’s only been back three days now.
Things will be sharper in net for the Philadelphia Flyers when they take the ice next season, and most of it will be due to the return of one Ray Emery, the goaltender whose previous run between the pipes was cut short by a horrible medical condition that he has been fortunate to rehabilitate from. Paul Holmgren made some surprisingly shrewd moves so far in the off season, landing perhaps the three top rated UFAs on the market for what seems like yard sale value (when compared to some of the eye popping numbers some other teams threw at a few other not so highly rated free agents), but this feels like the best of them on paper.
Emery had plenty of interest; especially from the team he had just won a Cup with in the Chicago Blackhawks, who according to reports, had thrown a longer contract possibility in his direction. There were a few other teams in the market for a goalie, and for all intents and purposes, Emery could have signed anywhere else for longer. This is what makes the 1 year deal for a mere 1.65 million seem all the more interesting…it gives one the feeling that Ray is coming here with the notion that he is looking to impress, and land a long term home by proving his worth.
All this rests on the fact that he will compete with and hope to draw more ice time than current incumbent Flyers goalie, Steve Mason.
Mason is in a dissimilar situation than Emery, although he provided a glimmer of possibly returning to the form that helped him win the Calder Cup as a rookie, it was still quite a small sample size. The hope is that they will push each other to be better while vying for the No. 1 spot, and in the process improve the weakest position on the team.
Together, the duo will be paid less combined than the previous cosmonaut failure, Ilya Bryzgalov, but the team must make a couple of other moves to get under the salary cap. All signs point to either Coburn or Meszaros being shipped out for picks in a salary dump maneuver. Personally speaking, I truly feel impressed by what I’ve seen out of Holmgren’s moves (so far), and quite a bit more comfortable about the goaltending situation.
It no longer feels like a mind numbing crisis, and may lead to less screaming at televisions during Flyers games next year.
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