Flyers Buy Out Contract of Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov - East Idaho News
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Flyers Buy Out Contract of Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov

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Getty Ilya Bryzgalov?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1372222463349Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images(VOORHEES, N.J.) — Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov will only serve two of the nine years on the contract he signed with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Bryzgalov signed a $51 million contract with the Flyers in 2011, but Tuesday the Flyers announced they will buy out the remainder of the 33-year-old’s contract.

The buyout will cost the Flyers two-thirds ($23 million) of what is still owed to Bryzgalov. By buying out the goalie’s contract, the team saves $5.667 million on the cap for each of the next seven seasons.

“Obviously it’s a costly mistake that we made,” Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said. “You know Ilya, it’s hard to fault him. I still believe he played pretty good, but in a salary cap world you need to make decisions from time to time that put you in a better light moving forward and this is one of those.”

Bryzgalov played 99 games for the Flyers the past two seasons. During that time he compiled a 52-33-10 record to go with a .905 save percentage and a 2.61 goals-against average.

Each NHL team gets two compliance buyouts between the end of the 2012-13 season and the start of the 2014-15 season. The Flyers are now out of compliance buyouts after using their first one on forward Danny Briere last week.

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