Deal away Ryan Parent for essentially nothing? No problem for Flyers GM Paul Holmgren who swapped a second round pick in next year’s draft for Andrej Meszaros.
Meszaros, 24, comes in at a very reasonable $4-million per year until 2014 and will easily find himself a role on the Flyers powerplay. We’re hoping the move helps spark the former 30+ point defenseman back to life after he put up a dismal 17 points in 81 games. Philly defensemen are often very involved in generating scoring plays as shown by impressive 35+ point seasons by Kimmo Timonen and Matt Carle, as well as the 55 point season by Chris Pronger. Fitting into that top four helps Meszaros’ stock but I would still rank the other three ahead of him on your draft day until we find out where he’ll play.
As for Tampa Bay, this move looks strictly like an opportunity to dump salary and give Victor Hedman a more prominent role in his second season.
