Flyers Get Zherdev on one-year deal

Posted by egolden610 on July 9, 2010 · 1 Comment 

Adding Zherdev might spell the end of longest-tenured Flyer, Simon Gagne.

The Philadelphia Flyers announced today that they have signed 6’2’’, 203-pound free agent right-wing Nikolai Zherdev to a one-year contract, according to club General Manager Paul Holmgren.

“Nik is a highly-skilled player who, at 25-years-old, we feel will be a good fit to our core of forwards,” said Holmgren.  “Prior to playing last season in Russia, Nik ranked as one of the top young point-producers in the NHL. We are pleased to add him to our team.”

Zherdev has appeared in 52 games with Atlant-Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League in 2009-10 where he recorded 39 points (13G,26A) and 79 penalty minutes during the regular season.

This is going to be a move that will likely cost the Flyers a highly paid player such as  Briere(6.5Mill Cap Hit), Gagne(5.2mill Cap Hit), Carter(5Mill Cap Hit) or Hartnell (4.2Mill Cap Hit).

Zherdev, from a talent standpoint cant be questioned; 99-goals 140-ast for over 200 pts is nothing to sneeze at. But he has a reputation of being very lazy and un-inspired when things are not going his way on the ice.

This comes as a risky move for Homer who will either have hit a home run with this deal or have struck out as he did with Ray Emery. Only time will tell

Filed under Eric Golden, NHL/Flyers