By the Numbers: Dangers of Signing Ilya

The Flyers are in the hunt for a top tier goalie this off season and one is packing his bags in Phoenix as we speak. The 30 year old russian goaltender, Ilya Bryzgalov is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1st. And with a sub-par goalie market the proven star will have the ball in his court.

Evgeni Nabokov's name will be ringing in the heads of both Ilya and his agent until pen is put to paper. Last season Nabokov refused to signing for what teams strangled by the cap, including the flyers, could offer him and went off to the KHL.

Making $4.25 million last season, Bryz's salary was in the lower range for bonafide stars, but once again he was playing in Phoenix and took a bit of a pay cut. Keep in mind that the Flyers and Capitals are the two cup contending teams who are looking to bring in a goalie. Washington has 8.5M in cap space and plenty more coming with the departure of Arnott, Sturm, and Hannan.

The Flyers on the other hand, have a tad over 860,000 right now. If Powe, Carcillo, O'Donnell, Boucher, Boynton and Zherdev are let go this off season, as all are potential free agents, the Flyers would have just under 7.5M dollars to spend.

The thing to pay attention to is the annual fluctuation of the salary cap. Since the NHL's profit grows every year the salary cap tends to grow accordingly. Here's is an excerpt from Larry Brooks article in the NYP,

"The NHLPA has told agents that the union projects a salary cap of approximately $62.2 million next season if the players vote to trigger the 5-percent escalator."

Cap room is precious to the Flyers as they will face a rough summer of 2012. Carle and Coburn will be UFAs if not re-signed and Kris Versteeg and James van Riemsdyk will be RFAs. Signing Bryz for a high paying long term deal would essentially strip the Flyers of two young, talented, core players.

Don't forget about the openings left by those who departed to make cap space for Bryzgalov. The Flyers would have 10 forwards on NHL contracts with Nodl and Leino set to be re-signed, filling out the offense. Sean O'Donnell's spot could be filled by one of Danny Syvret or Erik Gustaffson. Brian Boucher's back-up gig by Leighton or Backlund.

The effects of a hefty long term deal would not be evident at first but adding another big contract to a team of big contracts is well, refer to the Chicago Blackhawks. Am I missing the point? A top goalie could be all this team needs to win a cup. So does the risk out-weigh the rewards? That's your call.