With available options, Flyers should turn to Hal Gill

Photo Courtesy of AP/Yahoo Sports

By: Tom Dougherty | @todougherty

With 26 days until the trade deadline, it’s becoming clearer and clearer what teams are becoming buyers and sellers. It’s also becoming clearer who will be available and who will not be on the market.

It’s also no secret that the Philadelphia Flyers are in the market for a defenseman. The only secret here is who is on their radar because no one exactly knows how the Flyers are planning on replacing future Hall of Famer Chris Pronger, who appears to have played his last game in the NHL.

Will general manager Paul Holmgren try to replace Pronger at the Feb. 27 deadline or does he wait until the offseason? No one exactly knows that answer except for those in Philadelphia’s front office.

One name that we’ve heard to be on Holmgren’s wish list was Carolina’s Tim Gleason, but we can cross his name off the list as he signed a four-year, $16 million extension with the Hurricanes.

Then there is the big fish on the market in Nashville’s blue liner Ryan Suter (unrestricted) and Shea Weber (restricted), who both are impending free agents at the end of the season. All indications, to this day, are that the Predators have no plans on trading Weber.

On the other hand, Suter is a name that has been thrown around the water cooler a lot. But what we know about Suter is that he has said that he doesn’t want to sign an extension with the Predators before the trade deadline, but he would like to remain in Nashville.

Frank Seravalli of the Philadelphia Daily News reported Monday that an Eastern Conference GM told him that “the consensus among us is that Nashville will be hanging onto him.”

In last night’s Insider Trading on TSN with Darren Dreger, Jamie Duthie and Pierre LeBrun, Dreger suggested that to acquire Suter, it will cost a team to acquire the All-Star will be “an NHL player, an ‘A’ prospect, a ‘B’ prospect and a first round draft pick.”

That’s quite an asking price for a player with no guarantee to sign with a team who could acquire him, which leaves me to speculate that the Flyers are out on Suter if that is indeed the asking price.

For the Flyers, the question now appears where do they turn now?

The three TSN correspondents also suggested other possibilities which the Flyers could pursue: Niklas Grossman of the Dallas Stars, Luke Schenn of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Hal Gill of the Montreal Canadiens, Jaroslav Spacek and Bryan Allen of Carolina.

It appears right now that the best option for the Flyers is to turn to a minor move rather than pursue Suter or Schenn, who is another defenseman with a high asking price, and focus on replacing Pronger in the offseason.

For me, Gill seems like the most logical option because what he brings to the team.

“Gill is a guy who’s won a Stanley Cup, a lot of experience, shot blocking, PK, so that’s a guy they’ll keep an eye on in Montreal when the Canadiens finally decide to pull the plug.” Dreger said on Insider Trading.

Gill, 36, would be a ton of experience to the Flyers dressing room. Without Pronger, only Max Talbot and Jaromir Jagr have Stanley Cup rings. He’s also an imposing 6’7”, 241-pound body that blocks shots, which the Flyers covet.

In 45 games with the Canadiens, Gill is second on the team with 110 block shots. Currently, Matt Carle leads the Flyers with 99 blocked shots.

Montreal sits atop the league in penalty killing despite their struggles this season, and Gill is a huge reason for that. He averages 3:53 minutes shorthanded for the Habs, and that’s another area the Flyers could use some added help.

According to CapGeek.com, the Flyers could afford adding Gill’s $2.25 million cap hit without losing any players as they have about $3.3 million in cap space with long term injured reserve help.

Gill also wouldn’t cost the Flyers much. It’s safe to speculate nothing more than a late-round draft pick or a low-level AHL prospect.

Because of all these reasons, the logical thing to do for the Flyers is to turn towards a rental like Gill than mortgage the future for a defenseman like Suter who they could very well make a run at in free agency.