Another case where stockpiling can help and hurt at the same time

With Antero Niittymaki holding his teammates to two goals as the Phantoms beat the Flyers, 4-2, on Wednesday, Paul Holmgren once again has an overflow in the crease.

Last year, the decision on where to shuffle the deck was easy. Brian Boucher was looking to re-establish his career back where it began, and keeping him in the AHL as the presumed starter was the obvious choice.

This year, though, the signing of Jean-Sebastien Aubin creates a good backlog as far as personnel goes but might be tricky from a psychological standpoint.

Aubin's one-year deal was a smart move given Niittymaki's hip problems and the original diagnosis that he'd be out for the early part of the season. Plus, since Aubin is a proven netminder with steady experience, he can be recalled at a moment's notice for the back-up role if Nitty's hip flares up again.

Now that the Flyers' presumed back-up looks healthy and played well, how do you keep Aubin's spirits up when you send him to the minors?

Boucher's homecoming last year was a case of convenience. He'd been jettisoned by the Blue Jackets and with no other interest, had a solid done to him by the club. There was little to no expectation that Boosh could have seen any NHL action except from the bench.

Aubin, on the other hand, is a one-time starting goaltender who has been a bit of a mercenary in recent times. He'd gone 9-0-0 down the stretch for the Leafs three seasons ago, but languished on the bench in Toronto and Los Angeles for the last two years.

Then, after he's inked to a legitimate deal and (presumably) told that he'd most likely be the go-to guy after Biron, he finds that his next step on the two-way deal is the opposite way most professionals like to go.

On top of that, Aubin's signing plus the glut of defenseman forced Holmgren to release Bryan Berard and Jim Dowd - both veteran unrestricted free-agents which could have made immediate impact.

I understand the stockpiling as an insurance policy, but what has transpired so far with the necessary moves has made Holmgren's decisions seem to complicate the process.

Granted, the whole thing could have been solved had the choice not been made to shuttle Boucher off to San Jose at the trade deadline; there would have been no need to tack on extra insurance cash to the salary cap because Boucher's two-way deal would clearly be for less money.

Now, in the front office's frenzied attempt to swallow up all the puzzle pieces at once to try and spit them out in the correct order, all the cardboard comes out jammed up.

It should have been a no-brainer to keep either Berard or Dowd right from the start. It should have been a no-brainer to invest in a injury-surgery-recovery timetable for Niittymaki right after the playoffs ended which would have certainly avoided the logjam in the net and the salary cap trouble.

Will the Flyers have this all sorted out before Saturday? Of course they will. Will they make the correct moves that might bring order to the chaos? That remains to be seen.

My guess is no, especially after they decided to keep Luca Sbisa on the roster when Ryan Parent went down. Sbisa has a 10-game limit before he's returned to juniors. Berard would provide the only other veteran presence besides Kimmo Timmonen. Without that, it's Kimmo and six scrubs. Shifting money for one year on the Rhode Island native and former Calder winner would be worth the cap hit.

Stuff like this is a main reason why I won't predict the Flyers will go any further than they did last season. They might end up with a win and point total close, but in the end an even-more inexperienced defense with a revolving-door goaltending policy are going to cause more problems than solutions.