Sixers and Flyers Inactive at Start of Free Agency
Both the NBA and NHL free agency periods began this week and plenty of teams have made major moves to improve their teams. Unfortunately, both the 76ers and Flyers have held back from signing any key players. Rather, they have made minor deals that are barely making headlines. The only free agency headlines in Philly are rumors of possible players that are out of the 76ers and Flyers reach. The Sixers have contacted Ben Wallace but they are already over the cap and there’s no chance Wallace wants to come to a struggling team that can’t pay him a bundle.
While both Philly teams have been slow to make moves, their division rivals have upgraded their players so the Flyers and Sixers better grab some players soon. The Boston Bruins signed the best defenseman available in Zdeno Chara who formerly suited up for the Senators. Meanwhile the Senators picked up Martin Gerber from Carolina to replace Dominik Hasek in net. Toronto picked up Pavel Kubina and Hal Gill which will improve their depth. The Flyers only signed 2 no name defensemen (Nolan Baumgartner and Lars Jonsson) and a prospect named Brad Tapper. Obviously Bobby Clarke has to start getting on the phones real soon in order to replace Kim Johnsson (Minnesota), Eric Desjardins (Most likely retiring), and Peter Forsberg (Half year injury). Some names that I would look for the Flyers to possibly sign within the next two weeks are Mike Grier, Eric Daze, Ruslan Spacek, Jay McKee, and Jamie Langenbrunner.
As for the Sixers, they’ve yet to make a big free agent splash and they really haven’t done one in quite a few years thanks to their terrible cap situation. Other than Ben Wallace, Billy King contacted Jared Jeffries from Washington but he is a restricted free agent and I don’t see the Sixers offering an amount that the Wizards cannot match. I don’t think there is much out there for the Sixers to sign considering their cap room so the most likely way of obtaining better players would come from trading Allen Iverson unfortunately.
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Posted on July 3, 2006 by Kyle Garis | Filed Under Sixers, Flyers, Philadelphia
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