The Hard Decisions That Have To Be Made

Unless there is an unforeseen setback in a pre-game skate tomorrow, Danny Briere will finally make his return to the Flyers lineup after missing a whole mess o'games.

Since Briere's contract will once again be on the books, Paul Holmgren has had to make some minor moves to accomodate the extra cash. Two came down today, as defenseman Ossi Vaananen and forward Glen Metropolit were placed on waivers.

Even with that, the club is still roughly $500,000 over the cap, and that may be satisfied if Lasse Kukkonen goes on waivers once again to give the team a surplus under the cap.

With two defensemen and a fourth-line forward relegated, possibly to the Phantoms if no other NHL team is interested, it sounds like there are the beginnings of a set-up with Wednesday's trade deadline approaching.

Is it really fair to someone like Metropolit to basically be given his walking papers? Yes.

Is it a potentially costly long-term move? I'd say yes as well. Aside from Mike Knuble and Kimmo Timonen, the Flyers will lack another elder voice in the room should Metro hit the bricks soon. Last year, the club was rife with those experienced tongues, and the club needed that.

This year is no different. The kids need more level-headed presence on their way up, and because Holmgren tied himself in knots by stacking up defenseman by the cord in the offseason (plus the Aubin contract), he's going to have to make hard (and maybe unnecessary and stupid?) decisions to clear room for salary if there are deals to be made.

On the whole, it should be Darroll Powe who should take the hit. However, he's younger, comes cheaper, and I assume the organization saw something they liked in him to spare him a visit from the NHL's version of The Turk. We need players like him to hone his game in the minors a bit more before blossoming into a player in the franchise mold.

Guys like Metropolit don't come along very often, and he's the kind of guy this team needs now. He's someone looking for one final shot to prove hism worth to a team on the rise. If he should land in the AHL, I suppose if the need was great enough, Holmgren could pluck Jim Dowd from the NHL's radio network and stuff him onto the checking line once more.

One thing's for sure, despite the fact that the salary cap has risen over the last four years, it's still a major sticking point even with good planning in mind.