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The Philly draft will be free to fans. Season-ticket holders will be invited, and there will be a lottery for other tickets, Luukko said, adding that he wants to make sure tickets are available to youth hockey leagues. The Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation has more than 3,000 players.

"It's a great summer party for the fans," said Luukko, adding that the draft would pump "millions" into local hotels and restaurants. "It's going to bring people from all over the world."

It will be the first time Philadelphia has hosted the event, and Flyers officials expect capacity crowds of around 20,000.

"It shows we're not just a hockey town, but a real hockey town," said Luukko, who is also trying to lure an All-Star Game to Philly. "And the Frozen Four is coming, so it's a real evolution of a hockey hotbed."

The Frozen Four, matching the nation's best collegiate teams, will be at the Wells Fargo Center April 10 and 12. In addition, the Wells Fargo Center hosted the Stanley Cup Finals in 2010, and the city staged the Winter Classic in 2012.

Shawn Tilger, the Flyers' senior vice president of business operations, said he has been "brainstorming" with NHL officials and plans to meet with them Friday to get some suggestions on next year's event. He said the Flyers want to make the week leading up to the draft - and that weekend - "all about the fans by hosting a lot of hospitality events around the city."

Tilger will be at Xfinity Live at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, when a party will be held for this year's draft. TV analyst Steve Coates and former Flyer Todd Fedoruk will host the event.

As for Sunday's draft, the Flyers have the No. 11 overall pick. They have a need for a young, physical defenseman.

Rasmus Ristolainen may be available and could fill that need. Holmgren said Ristolainen might be NHL-ready.

The 6-foot-2, 189-pound Finn also plays with a nasty edge and is regarded as a solid two-way performer.

The Flyers are also intrigued by defenseman Ryan Pulock, a 6-1, 211-pounder who has a 100-m.p.h. slapshot.

Then again, they may trade up in an attempt to draft Darnell Nurse, a rugged, 6-4, 195-pound defenseman who is Donovan McNabb's nephew.

Philadelphia Inquirer / Daily News LOADED: 06.28.2013

682740 Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers need to trade a defenseman

POSTED: Thursday, June 27, 2013, 2:50 PM

Frank Seravalli

They say you can never have enough defenseman, not in an 82-game NHL season which is more like a war of attrition than anything else.

Is the same true for the Flyers?

When the Flyers officially announce defenseman Mark Streit’s 4-year, $21 million pact - which is expected to come on Thursday or Friday - they will suddenly have eight NHL defensemen on their roster.

In other words, if the Flyers are going to be making major trade news at some point prior to Sunday’s draft in New Jersey, expect a defenseman to be involved.

“Do we have too many defensemen? I don’t know,” Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said when asked on Thursday. “I don’t know if you can ever have enough. But I do know that we have a lot of money tied up there.”

The Flyers currently have $27,675,000 committed to seven defensemen for next season:

Kimmo Timonen - $6 million

Mark Streit - $5.25 million

Braydon Coburn - $4.5 million

Andrej Meszaros - $4 million

Luke Schenn - $3.6 million

Nick Grossmann - $3.5 million

Bruno Gervais - $825,000

That is north 43 percent of the Flyers’ overall $64.3 million limit, yet defense only normally accounts for 30 percent of the 23-man roster limit in terms of bodies.

It’s a number that needs to come down.

It’s also a number that has a potential to rise. Defenseman Erik Gustafsson is coming off his entry-level contract and needs to be re-signed. Holmgren said Thursday negotiations had not yet begun, but added that Gustafsson’s is likely to be the most tenuous out of the team's restricted free agents, even though he anticipated it wouldn't be a problem.

Gustafsson, 24, earned $900,000 last season. He’s played 60 NHL games and represented Sweden in the World Hockey Championships. It’s fair to suggest he’s earned a raise to somewhere in the $1.2 million neighborhood.

Gustafsson’s agent is Ritch Winter, who also represents Ilya Bryzgalov.

So, let’s peg Gustafsson at $1.2 million. That brings us to $28,875,000 for eight defensemen - or 45 percent of the cap.

Those cap numbers also do not include Chris Pronger, who will once again be added to the long-term injury list once the season starts, thus removing his $4.91 million cap hit.

The Flyers have a problem in the sense that they’re paying No. 5 and No. 6 defensemen money that second-pair defensemen should be earning. That isn’t going to work in the salary cap world, where each position should be budgeted out accordingly.

So, what can the Flyers do?

Believe it or not, the best-case scenario would be that Andrej Meszaros is not healthy enough to play this season and he can be added to the long-term injury list. It probably wouldn’t be that hard to convince Meszaros, 27, that he isn’t healthy enough to play, since he admitted that all of his injuries have been mentally draining.

One Flyers front office member said it’s “hard to count on Meszaros” after all of his injuries (Achilles, back surgery, shoulder surgery).

He still won’t be fully cleared to play until late July for a surgery that was performed on April 2 to repair a torn left rotator cuff. He also missed the bulk of the 2008-09 season with the Lightning because of an injury in the same shoulder.

Meszaros is in the final year of his 6-year, $24 million pact (signed in Tampa Bay) anyway. The Flyers would LOVE to move him to another team, but that will be hard to do given his injury history - he’s played just 72 out of the last 141 Flyers games (52 percent).

Let’s pretend, though, that adding Meszaros to the LTIR list is not possible. And that he’s 100 percent healthy for the start of the season.

The Flyers still need to shed salary.

Who’s next most likely to go?

Braydon Coburn will draw a lot of interest this summer. Coburn, 28, does have a modified no-trade clause, and I believe that he can submit a list of teams to which he will accept a move.

There are rumblings that Calgary has been pursuing the Alberta-born Coburn, who also spends the bulk of his time in the summer there. Such a deal could include Calgary's No. 6 overall pick.

Coburn, the longest-tenured Flyer and one of only four remaining from the 2010 Stanley Cup final, seems like the wrong guy to trade. For a team that lacks speed, he is probably the Flyers’ best skating defenseman (other than maybe Streit) and he isn’t old.

Fans may gripe about his salary cap hit ($4.5 million) or his inconsistency on the ice, something that rankles the Flyers, but he might be one of those players that you regret trading in the long run.

Understandably, Coburn is the Flyers’ easiest defenseman to move. Luke Schenn follows next in that category, but I don’t get the sense the Flyers have much interest in moving Schenn, who played quite well toward the end of his first season in Philadelphia and has a manageable salary cap number.

A defenseman the Flyers should consider moving to make cap space is Nick Grossmann. Yes, Grossmann was the Flyers’ best shot-blocker when he was in the lineup, but he has also missed a lot of games because of injury.

Grossmann missed the final 18 games of last season with a concussion. Holmgren said Grossmann is now cleared, but it was serious enough that Grossmann did visit Pittsburgh concussion specialist Dr. Micky Collins twice for consultation. He also missed time with a knee injury during his first run with the Flyers.

Grossmann, 28, is not old. But he isn’t fleet of foot, either. And a premium should be placed on speed, something the Flyers were clearly lacking.

The Flyers probably jumped the gun a bit on signing Grossmann to a 4-year, $14 million extension just weeks after acquiring him in 2012, one that included a modified no-trade clause.

So, to recap, here are the Flyers’ options to trade:

Andrej Meszaros - often injured.

Braydon Coburn - modified no-trade clause.

Nick Grossmann - often injured, modified no-trade clause.

It doesn't look all that promising. If I had to bet, I’d say Coburn is the most likely to be changing addresses.

It’s just one thing to keep on an eye on this weekend at the NHL draft.

Philadelphia Inquirer / Daily News LOADED: 06.28.2013

682741 Philadelphia Flyers

For Straka, it's a fantasy on ice New Flyer Petr Straka during the IIHF World Junior Championship in 2011.

FRANK SERAVALLI, Daily News Staff Writer

Posted: Friday, June 28, 2013, 12:18 AM

Philadelphia Inquirer / Daily News LOADED: 06.28.2013

682742 Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers' Paul Holmgren talks draft; Ilya Bryzgalov bids fans farewell

By ROB PARENT

VOORHEES, N.J. — The fallout from the Flyers making goalie Ilya Bryzgalov the NHL’s richest buyout winner continued Wednesday, as Bryzgalov issued a message to the fans through his agent, Ritch Winter, and Flyers club chairman Ed Snider issued a statement of support for what he pointedly called Paul Holmgren’s decision to use the Flyers’ second and final compliance buyout on the eccentric goaltender.

Meanwhile, Holmgren went through with a pre-scheduled press conference on the pending NHL Draft, and successfully steered clear of the lingering Bryzgalov issue. Hard to do that, of course, especially when the trade-and-sign mistake of 2011 Holmgren owned up to cost the organization a $23 million buyout on top of two mediocre and ultimately disappointing seasons in which Bryzgalov was paid another $16 million-plus.

No wonder his agent was crying foul Wednesday.

Always a beaut when it comes to posturing and public relations, Winter first released a statement supposedly written by his client Bryzgalov that respectfully thanked Snider, the team’s management, the fans and even the media (sort of) for all their support and the good times he had in Philadelphia.

In part, the Bryzgalov statement read: “I have made many friends here — on the team, in the organization, among the media and throughout the community. Don’t ever think that I didn’t appreciate the kind comments of support made in the media by teammates and management and in private by so many very nice people I met on the streets of Philadelphia and in the surrounding area.

“I appreciate this experience more than many of you will know. I will learn from it. I have always said that a heavy sword makes a very strong arm. I intend to take this experience with me to my new team, to help me be stronger — a better player and, hopefully, a better person. At the end of the day, that is the challenge we all need to wrestle with.”

Then, as a closing in all capital letters, came this message: “FOR FURTHER COMMENT, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO WALK UP TO ILYA BRYZGALOV NEXT YEAR AT TRAINING CAMP. HE AND HIS ADVISORS WILL HAVE NO FURTHER COMMENT UNTIL THAT TIME.”

A nice epilogue, Winter style.

Ah, but the secret hockey agent wasn’t done. He promptly went on an Edmonton radio station Wednesday afternoon and ripped the Flyers, saying their shaky defensive system, Peter Laviolette’s habit of not listening to goalie coach Jeff Reese and on and on and on all played into his client’s woes.

As excerpted by the Edmonton Journal, Winter is quoted as saying, ”It’s terrible in Philadelphia for goaltenders. They block shots, they don’t open up lanes, goaltenders can’t see the puck. The goalie coach has no authority. The head coach doesn’t listen to him.

“I think there’s more wrong with Philadelphia’s goaltending than just the goaltending.”

How’s that for a $23-million thank you?

The only gratitude the Flyers feel, of course, is to be rid of everything surrounding Bryzgalov — all the quirkiness and quotations in particular.

For all that money two years ago, they thought they were buying a premier puck-stopper. Instead, they wastefully spent it on a world-class showstopper.

So Holmgren is taking his media lashings for what Flyers history should record as the organization’s greatest financial faux pas. At least publicly, Snider isn’t joining in on that chorus.

“I fully support Paul Holmgren in his decision to use our final compliance buyout for Ilya Bryzgalov,” he said in a statement. “It was a very difficult decision from a financial standpoint, but if Bryz remained a Flyer, the dollars would be far greater in a shorter timeframe. We now have cap space, which will allow us to improve our team. In the meantime, Bryz can try to find a situation where he can achieve true happiness.”

Yeah, good luck with that.

As for the Flyers, the fun is just beginning.

Holmgren has indicated he’s committed to signing team captain Claude Giroux to a contract extension, probably sooner rather than later. He also declared Wednesday (again) that he considers Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier “untouchable” when it comes to trade talks.

Beyond that, Holmgren spent a lot of time talking about possible draft prospects he might be able to trade up to get. He also admitted potential compliance buyouts by other teams might play a part in the Flyers’ immediate future.

That could shake up the already stirred offseason plans as the July 5 free agency period approaches.

“I think there’s going to be lots of funny stuff happening in the next nine days leading up to July 5,” he said. Asked if he thought the Flyers could be caught up in that “funny stuff,” Holmgren said, “We could be, I guess.”

As for another potential free agent, veteran forward Simon Gagne, Holmgren indicated a strong interest in bringing him back ... all the stronger now that he has more money to do so.

Having traded for two-time Flyer Gagne last season, the club retains his rights and could sign him to a contract extension before the free agency period kicks in.

“With the compliance buyouts, it’s given us a little more room to operate now,” Holmgren said. “We don’t know what the number is, but it’s something we’d like to entertain. We’re juggling what we’d like to do on July 5, or whether we could get it done before that. But we’ll talk to Simon and his agent and see.”

NOTES: The Flyers have the 11th pick in each of the first three rounds (Nos. 11, 41 and 72), and also will be selecting at Nos. 132, 162 and 192. ... While a lot of management people will be arriving in New York either late today or early Friday to prepare for Sunday’s draft at the Prudential Center in Newark, Holmgren said he wouldn’t be heading up the Turnpike until Sunday morning. Why? “What are there, 10 million people in New York?” Holmgren said. “So the odds of bumping into another GM in New York probably aren’t very good. So I’d rather just stay here.”

Delaware County Times LOADED: 06.28.2013

682743 Philadelphia Flyers

Rob Parent: Dion Phaneuf worth a look as Flyers chart future

By ROB PARENT

In June 2003, in a bubbling building in Nashville, a glittering list of teen names were called out in the first two rounds of the NHL Draft. Not that many people there knew it at the time.

It included a pair of first-rounders in Jeff Carter (No. 11 overall) and Mike Richards (No. 23) going to the Flyers.

It included four players at the top of the draft — topped by No. 1 overall Penguins goalie pick Marc-Andre Fleury — who would all be in the NHL in short order. It included a guy named Patrice Bergeron who 10 years later would make injury a Stanley Cup finals fashion statement. And he didn’t go until the second round.

Then there were the defensemen. A string of standouts that included No. 7 overall pick Ryan Suter, who would become a free agent prize in 2012 along with Zach Parise, another Class of 2003 draftee. Suter went to host Nashville with the seventh overall pick, just one selection ahead of Atlanta defensive pick Braydon Coburn, who in a quick succession of trades would land as a Flyer just a few years later.

Meanwhile, Suter’s future Nashville teammate Shea Weber would fall to the Predators as a compensatory pick all the way down at No. 49 in the second round, nine years before the Flyers would make an ill-fated effort to get Weber as a restricted free agent, an attempt that would all-but confirm him as the league’s best defenseman, and solidify his spot as the league’s highest paid player.

There will be a lot of looking back at that draft now, as the 2013 draft Sunday is being called the deepest one since 2003, and seems especially well stocked with players who work at the position representing the Flyers’ greatest need, defense.

That would include top-ranked Seth Jones, the son of former NBA player Popeye Jones, who essentially grew up in Denver where he and his dad were befriended by then-star of the Avalanche Joe Sakic.

That’s the same Joe Sakic who is now the Avs’ top executive, yet he is claiming he is leaning toward drafting a forward rather than go for his defensive friend Seth.

Also there is defensive prospect Darnell Nurse, better known as Donovan McNabb’s nephew (by marriage), but someone who should quickly make a name for himself.

Holmgren is high on both Jones and Nurse, though he might prefer one of the lower-ranked of top-10 defenders, Rasmus Ristolainen, who has already served two years of elite league play in Finland. Another possibility as a defenseman is Ryan Pulock, who boasts more offensive upside than most of the others.

It’s all very exciting to think about, even if Holmgren says there’s no guarantee it will be a top defender the Flyers would end up chasing. He said the Flyers would be selecting the best available player at No. 11, though if one name there didn’t stand out to them ... “We’d probably lean toward a defensemen then,” Holmgren said, “just because of our needs.”

The Flyers have in the past chosen to move up in a draft to get a shot at a top defender, the easiest example being 2002, when they made a move for fourth-overall pick Joni Pitkanen. But there is another potential connection to that 2003 draft that Holmgren and the Flyers could consider, one that would likely cost them their current No. 11 pick and a rethinking of Holmgren’s thoughts about Sean Couturier being untouchable.

It would be to go after Dion Phaneuf.

He was the defenseman who went to Calgary in 2003, one spot after Coburn at No. 9 overall. Phaneuf did very well with the Flames, which there only means earning a ticket out of town. He’d go to Toronto, and is the Maple Leafs captain now, a team leader on defense who is physical and offensively effective. He is in rare company, and wouldn’t be so much of a step down from that Weber guy who caused a stir last summer.

Phaneuf is also scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent just a little over a year from now, which has put him in another classification — that of trade rumor player. In this year of the compliance buyout that has NHL general managers so a-Twitter, the crop of big-name players that could be moved is bigger than ever.

Phaneuf is part of that. He should also at least be part of the total picture as Holmgren and the Flyers survey this complicated offseason landscape.

Delaware County Times LOADED: 06.28.2013

682744 Philadelphia Flyers

Holmgren talks three possible Flyers draft picks

June 27, 2013, 9:00 am

VOORHEES. N.J. - General manager Paul Holmgren has made no secret of the Flyers’ longstanding draft philosophy: Draft the best player available, no matter his position or the team’s specific needs.