Flyers know Bryzgalov won't come cheap
Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger won his only Stanley Cup with Ilya Bryzgalov and ranks him among the top five goalies in the NHL.
When asked if Bryzgalov might be the answer to the Flyers’ decades-old goaltending woes, he made a clear and succinct point.
“I don’t think it’s ever going to be silenced until we win a Stanley Cup,” Pronger told the Courier-Post.
“You laugh, but that’s what it’s going to take. It doesn’t matter if the guy goes out and wins the Vezina Trophy. If he doesn’t help the team win the Stanley Cup — at the end of the day that’s what we’re all graded on.”
That being the case, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren is willing to invest millions of dollars — $30 million? $40 million? $50 million? — into a 30-year-old Russian who seems just as interested in becoming a Flyer as they are in making him one.
One day after the Flyers shipped minor-league enforcer Matt Clackson and a third-round draft pick to the Phoenix Coyotes for the negotiating rights to Bryzgalov, the acrobatic six-year veteran said all the right things.
“I am pleased the Flyers thought enough of me to make the trade with the Coyotes,” Bryzgalov said in a statement released by his agent, Ritch Winter. “Philadelphia is a great city, a great organization and a great team with a rich history.”
Bryzgalov said he is looking forward to meeting with Holmgren and would “very much” like to play for the Flyers to “achieve the ultimate goal.”
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