The Flyers finished second overall to Washington in the Eastern Conference, but were swept by the Bruins in the second round of the playoffs.
Now, there is no guarantee Philadelphia will be among the East’s elite. It will take time to find their personality. Chris Pronger is likely to replace Richards as captain. The new leadership will include Claude Giroux, James van Riemsdyk, and Danny Briere. Meanwhile, the Bruins will be returning most of the personnel from their Cup club.
For the Flyers, the pieces started to move in January, when Columbus general manager Scott Howson started discussions with Philadelphia counterpart Paul Holmgren regarding a trade. In the last few days, Howson intensified the pressure.
“He kept delaying me,’’ said Howson with a smile. “It was obvious he was working on something else. You know that in this business, people talk to other teams. You’d be crazy not to. I wanted an indication to come. This deal [for Carter] just had to get done. We got it done.’’
Philadelphia, Washington, and Pittsburgh projected to be among the Bruins’ toughest competitors next year. Like all GMs, Holmgren made the deals to improve his team. But while the Flyers look for traction at the beginning of next season, the Bruins should have an opportunity to gain early momentum.
Kaberle in play No indication whether the Bruins will make an offer to Tomas Kaberle, who will become an unrestricted free agent Friday.
Two agents queried estimated the Bruins will have to offer at least $3 million per year to bring the puck-moving defenseman back to Boston. It is a high price for Kaberle, who settled into a third-pairing role in the Cup Final alongside Adam McQuaid. However, the Bruins could project Kaberle’s performance to improve once he gets a full training camp and becomes more comfortable in coach Claude Julien’s system.
“He’d played in Toronto for a while and gotten used to what was going on there,’’ said Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli. “I’m not saying it was good or bad, it was just different from where we were. We were at a higher level. We simply were. It took him some time.’’
