Will The Flyers Bring Ray Emery Back to NHL?
June 4, 2009 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under NHL, News, Philadelphia Flyers, Players
I’ve been reading reports all morning that the Philadelphia Flyers are in talks with goaltender, Ray Emery. Flyers General Manager, Paul Holmgren, confirmed the news.
“We have internal discussions about many players and their potential availability, including Ray Emery,” Holmgren said. “I have spoken to his agent a few times about Ray as well. Any further speculation about this would be very premature.”
Still, this is potentially HUGE news. I really had all but written off the former Ottawa Senators netminder – not because he wasn’t good enough but because he couldn’t seem to get control over his personal problems (for which he did take some responsibility). It was sad to me because he really has a lot of potential and even backstopped the Sens all the way to the 2007 Stanley Cup Final.
Unfortunately, things really started to fall apart after that (and, yes, his ego seemed to play a huge role in that) and he ended up playing for Moscow’s Mytishchi Atlanta in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League this season (though he did accuse the team of taking money from him).
Emery is 71-40-14 with a 2.71 goals-against average and eight shutouts in 134 NHL games and could fit in nicely with the Flyers (if he could behave) since both of their goaltender, Martin Biron and Antero Niittymaki, will become free agents this summer.
I would be happy to see Emery make a return to the NHL as long as he’s ready. As is the case with Sean Avery, I feel that a player’s personal issues can really ruin an otherwise excellent career so I hope that Emery gets himself back on track because the jury is still out on Avery.
image: TSN
