The Luca Sbisa situation right now is a little odd. No announcement has been made by the Flyers or Sbisa’s junior club, the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes. But, there is certainly evidence that Sbisa has been in fact sent down.

For starters, we have the report from a French-language website based in Switerland, Planete Hockey. As reported here on B&P yesterday morning, the site said that Sbisa had been sent back to Lethbridge, but that the news was not yet official.

Then, we got a report from an English site, forecaster.ca, which despite its 1997 design, is usually a pretty reputable source for  information. They also reported that “the Flyers have assigned rookie defenseman Luca Sbisa back to the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes.”

He was not placed on the Hurricanes gameday roster on Friday night against Prince George as I initially reported yesterday. In my defense, he was on the official game report at first, but they must have realized their mistake and fixed it because he no longer is there.

And that makes it all the weirder that Saturday nights game report from Lethbridge’s game against Red Deer has Sbisa listed on the roster, yet a number of people who attended or listened to the game last night (via the WHLFans.ca message board) contend that Sbisa did not lace up the skates for the ‘Canes. The Flyers have still not announced anything, and neither have the Hurricanes or the WHL.

One final twist to the story: Kevin Kurz, the Flyers manager of communications and new media, or someone posing as him, wrote on the flyersphans.com message board that “This is a BS rumor.” Nobody is questioning the integrity of the post over on that site, leading me to believe it’s true, but as it is with any message board post… it could be anybody.

All the other evidence, besides this message board post by “KKurz”, points to Sbisa heading back to Canada.

I guess we’ll only know for sure, though, when he next takes the ice.

With Danny Briere falling to injury again, again, again, and most recently again, this season, the situation has been most reminiscent of the Peter Forsberg saga from last year. We were dragged along all season, wondering if he’d sign with the Flyers, as he hurdled ankle setback after ankle setback before feeling better — kinda — and signing with Colorado.

So it would be weird, crazy even,  for the Flyers, currently reliving a similar situation with their highest paid player, Briere, to go after the still-injury-riddled Forsberg, right?

Paul Holmgren doesn’t ascribe to that logic, apparently.

Ed Moran of the Daily News reports this evening that Holmgren has in fact inquired about Forsberg’s status.

“Ah, we’ve inquired about Peter’s health,” Holmgren said. “I talked to his agent last week so I kind of know where they’re at, but I don’t know that he is certain that he can come back.

“As of last week or 10 days ago when I talked to [Forsberg's agent] the jury was still out if he could come back.”

“I know where we’re at in the conference [sixth place],” Holmgren said. “I know that the road is going to become more and more difficult as we get closer toward the finish line. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to look around to try and improve ourselves.

The GM clearly feels that Forsberg would make the team better, and if he’s healthy, I don’t think anybody in their right mind would or could disagree. But, if his potential comeback this season is anything like last seasons, he’ll be out of the lineup just as often as he’s in, and that kind of shuffling in and out can be derailing for a hockey club. Perhaps it was for Colorado, who exited the playoffs in the second round last season.

And we cannot be sure that Foppa will be 100%.

“If it doesn’t work now I’m forced to give it up for good,” Forsberg said.

If he’s not sure of his condition anymore, who is? This has bad news written all over it.

If Danny is going to be out all season as it has been speculated, and the Flyers are to invest in a replacement, it should be someone who is more of a certainty than Forsberg.

Flyers talking to Forsberg; Briere out 4 weeks (Philadelphia Daily News)
Forsberg eyeing another NHL comeback? (CBC Sports)
Briere could be done for the year (phillyburbs.com)

5:10 PM UPDATE: Via a text from the Flyers..

Flyers center Danny Briere will be out for at least two weeks following surgery tomorrow.

The Flyers website elaborates more on the situation.

“Due to lingering discomfort in his groin/stomach areas, Danny (Briere) will have an exploratory surgical procedure done tomorrow (Thursday, January 22) by Dr. William Meyers (at Hahnemann University Hospital). Recovery time will be a minimum of two weeks,” said Holmgren in making the announcement.

“I am very disappointed,” said Briere. “It’s been frustrating not knowing what is going on, so we have decided to go in and check things out.”

I guess this voids the suspicion I had this afternoon and Danny really did suffer a sever setback. A bad blow for this guy and the team, and it’s getting to the point where we really have to question the Flyers medical staff more, I think. These sort of setbacks happen with our players a whole hell of a lot — much more than the average NHL team, it seems.

Briere situation dicey; trade winds still strong

1:36 PM Original Post: Sam Carchidi’s article in the Inqy today sheds some light on the subject.

“At this point, one game isn’t going to change much.” — Danny Briere

“He doesn’t feel 100 percent just yet.” — Paul Holmgren

Briere said he was “pretty close to 100 percent” and “confident for Wednesday” on Monday, noting that the games with the Phantoms over the weekend definitely helped him. When the news broke yesterday that Briere would not play tonight, Danny was asked if it was his groin or if it were the salary cap that was the sticking point.

“It’s a little bit of both, to be honest.” – Danny Briere

Holmgren quickly shot that down. If there is any slice of a possibility that it’s the cap and not his leg that’s keeping him out, I’m concerned. If that is the case, which it seems like it is, I’d expect a trade coming shortly. It wouldn’t make any sense for Briere to be held out of the lineup for cap reasons if a trade weren’t on the table, because the solutions are so obvious. Homer said he’s talked to Luca Sbisa and Claude Giroux about possible demotion, and Sbisa has been a healthy scratch in seven of the last 13 games. Demoting Sbisa, Giroux, and Kukkonen would put the Flyers under the cap.

As discussed the other day, Randy Jones has been mentioned in a lot of trade talk, and since this cap situation isn’t being solved the easy way, I’m going to take a guess that Homer is trying to dump Jones. Just speculation of course, but I can see him using the all-star break as time to complete a deal before Briere would re-enter the lineup next Tuesday.

With Danny Briere returning from his injury on Wednesday night against Atlanta, the Flyers will no longer be able to dodge the salary cap bullet. They have been able to stay under the cap, despite having more salary alloted than the $56.7 million the cap allows. But with Briere returning, the Flyers have to make some moves to get back under, and someone is going to have to go. Everybody is saying the Flyers are going to have to make a big time trade. Joffrey Lupul and Randy Jones have been mentioned in trade talk more than Terrell Owens.

But is a trade really necessary at all?

If you ignore Mike Rathje and Derian Hatcher, who have yet to play a game this season and quite possibly may never play for the Flyers again, the Flyers have $60.2 million wrapped up right now, meaning they are $3.5 million over the cap when Briere returns.

With injuries to Josh Gratton and Jon Kalinski, they can add those two to the long-term injury reserve, which means their salaries do not go against the cap. They will free up $1.13 million in cap space, and then the solution gets much easier from there.

Luca Sbisa is probably going to be sent back to juniors, and the Flyers can still do so without having this season count against his salary, thus putting him a year closer to free agency. I feel that would be a smart move at this point, as it would allow Ryan Parent to finally find his way into the lineup. His $875k added to Kukkonen’s $875k means that the Flyers are just $600k and some change away from getting under the cap. Send one of Claude Giroux, Glen Metropolit, or Darroll Powe to the Phantoms, which is going to have to happen anyway given that Briere needs a spot in the lineup, and you’re under the cap.

No trade. Just a little housekeeping. Look at that…

Better yet, Briere will hopefully give a needed boost to an offense that has fallen stagnant over the past few games.

Another solution, of course, does involve a trade. Randy Jones has long been a favorite goat of mine. It’s probably because he’s wearing Chris Therien’s number and I just get bad vibes, but regardless, I don’t think Jones is worth his $2.75 million a year contract, especially when cheaper solutions exist with Parent and Sbisa. I also am suspicious that Jones is playing hurt, as his play has not consistently been all that good since he’s returned.

If you trade Jones and send down Powe, you get to keep Giroux and Metropolit around, while allowing Parent into the lineup. If Parent doesn’t work out, you’ve got Kukkonen. Or, you can just keep Sbisa instead. It creates one of those “good problems” on defense while cleansing the team of the expensive, and probably injured, Randy Jones.

…and I’m still confused about it. Ed Moran wrote an article in the Daily News today and he quoted Paul Holmgren as saying he’s interested in it. Well, of course he is… EVERYBODY is “interested” in Sundin. If Sundin wanted to come to Philly, of course Homer would contemplate the possibility.

But that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. Or that it’s even possible.

Just two days ago, Moran wrote an article that essentially debunked this Sundin to Philly rumor, and for good reason. The Flyers can’t afford it. If someone can figure out how, barring major trades, that they could possibly make this work, let me know. Please. I posted about the rumor on Friday, and then I posted about how happy I was Monday when Moran published how ridiculous it was. Quoting Moran on Monday:

Just yesterday I got a call from a reporter in Vancouver who asked if it were true that the Flyers were interested in Mats Sundin, to which I had to answer that I find it impossible to think that Holmgren hasn’t at least looked into it, and I find it equally impossible to think that he would follow through on it.

So if it’s “impossible” than why are you bringing it up in the paper again two days later Ed?! Nothing new happened! Getting a quote from the GM that doesn’t tell you anything new isn’t newsworthy. Sorry, Ed.

Mats Sundin isn’t coming to Philly. Don’t tease us with crap in the paper anymore, okay? Thanks.

12/07: Flyers know you shouldn’t believe the rumors [Daily News, philly.com]
12/10: Flyers GM Holmgren says he would take chance on Sundin [Daily News, philly.com]

There was a ton of crap circulating on the rumor mill over the past few days, including Mats Sundin possibly coming to the Flyers, the chance of Randy Jones heading to Columbus for RJ Umberger or goalie Pascal Leclaire or Gordie Howe or whatever. These rumors were all perpetuated by folks in the hockey world who are, in my opinion, less than reputable, including Spector and Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun.

But thankfully, the Philadelphia Daily News, more specifically Ed Moran, comes to the rescue in this mornings paper. Quoting Ken Hitchcock on the Jones to CBJ rumor, Moran wrote:

Well, Hitchcock’s reaction was, “Where did you hear that?” And his answer was, “No. It’s not true. But I hear that teams are calling.”

To which Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said simply, “No.”

We’ll see. The season is still just getting started and the rumors and second-guessing have been going full tilt. But that is the nature of professional sports, isn’t it? There are entire Web sites made for reporting rumors based on “sources.”

Some of it makes sense, much of it doesn’t, some of it gets denied for business reasons, and some of it is owned up to.

Just yesterday I got a call from a reporter in Vancouver who asked if it were true that the Flyers were interested in Mats Sundin, to which I had to answer that I find it impossible to think that Holmgren hasn’t at least looked into it, and I find it equally impossible to think that he would follow through on it.

Adrian Dater from the Denver Post thinks so. Via Puck Daddy:

I think Philadelphia and Chicago are the clubhouse leaders to land Sundin, according to my sources from the end of the bar. Vancouver has an existing offer on the table, at an astounding two years and $20 million (which would obviously be pro-rated now). But I’d place the Canucks third in the hunt at the moment.

…

Philly doesn’t have a lot of cap room either (about $4.5 million), but the Flyers have become one of the more attractive teams to NHL players now. GM Paul Holmgren is well respected around the league, and the Flyers have a good reputation with regard to taking care of players and treating them well. And their fan base is great (and that hurts to say, as a Boston fan growing up. I hated Philly. But, let’s face it, their fans are entertaining and passionate about things).

I can’t figure out how this would even work. According to nhlscap.com, the Flyers have $272,500 under the cap. That number doesn’t count Danny Briere going on LTIR, so with that it might be around $4.5 million, but he’s only going to be there for another month. Randy Jones and his cap hit are coming back soon as well. There is simply just no room on this team for Mats Sundin.