Blog  Articles playoffs 2008 |
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Thursday, 26 June 2008 |
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Habs won to prove role
Czech forward Vaclav Prospal will not play in the next season for the Philadelphia Flyers.
The former Tampa Bay Lightning player, who was traded to Philadelphia in exchange for young defenseman Alexandre Picard at 25th February this year, has spent five seasons with the Lightning and has been a very productive part of their offense mainly last season. With Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis as linemates, the trio was second-best productive in NHL. They combined for 202 points ( 80 goals ). Prospal also had a cereer-high 33 goals season and 38 assists in 80 games with Lightning and Flyers. In Philadelphia, Prospal finished the regular season with 14 points ( four goals ) in 18 games. He also helped the Flyers to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals with 13 points ( four goals ) in 17 games. After 386 games played in and with 108 goals, 218 assists and 37 powerplay goals he is high in franchise best rankings. The Bolts obtained rights to Prospal, but if they would sign him, a seventh-round draft pick ( previously acquired from Nashville in Jan Hlavac trade ) 196th overall, which already was the price in exchange for the rights and a fourth-round 2009 draft pick would be received to Philla. It would be the third time Prospal's joining the Lightning.
"After assessing the pending free agent market and receiving a great deal of input from our prospective new owners, the decision was made to attempt to pursue Vinny Prospal for a return engagement to Tampa," Executive Vice President and General Manager Jay Feaster said. "While we realize some of the risks involved in this strategy we also know that Prospal and [Vincent] Lecavalier have a very special chemistry together and getting Vinny back in the fold early would enable us to focus our time, attention and resources on other critical areas this summer while leaving our successful top line virtually in tact. At the end of the day, we felt that reacquiring Vinny now and attempting to negotiate a contract with him sooner rather than later was in the best interests of the organization." ( nhl.com )
Prospal was selected by Philadelphia in the third round ( 71st overall ) at the 1993 NHL Entry Draft and collected 226 points ( 74 goals ) in 310 games for them including a 95-point ( 32 goals ) 1996-97 season.
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