The summer of 2011 was a weird time to be a Flyers fan. After a goaltending carousel in the 2011 postseason, former team owner Ed Snider and former general manager Paul Holmgren decided the team needed a true number one goalie. Unfortunately, they concluded that their number one goalie should be Ilya Bryzgalov at the price of $51 million over the span of nine years.
Obtaining the rights to Bryzgalov was the first of five trades Holmgren made that summer in order to make cap space for the netminder’s contract. He then completed the Mike Richards and Jeff Carter trades before he dealt Kris Versteeg to the Florida Panthers, which gave them a draft pick that they used to coincidentally pick a Florida native Flyers’ fans may be familiar with.