Heads Start To Roll

Less than 24 hours removed from their most embarrassing loss in better than five years, the Flyers have waived forwards Niko Dimotrakos and Petr Nedved along with defenseman Nolan Baumgartner. If all three clear waivers, Dimotrakos and Nedved will be assigned to the Phantoms while Baumgartner will remain with the Flyers. Forwards Stefan Ruzicka and Ben Eager, along with defenseman Alexandre Picard, have been recalled to take their spots. There It Is take: This is a move that's unfortunately necessary. The team could not have continued to play without making any moves as this would give the players the hint that there would be no accountability from management about poor job performance. That being said, are these three players the right ones to move or are they just fall guys for the rest of the team? I think it's a bit of both. Dimotrakos never really clicked here like Clarke thought he would, despite registering nine points in the last 19 games of the season last year. By playoff time, he was being benched by Hitchcock and it was made clear during the preseason that he needed to get going if he wanted to stay around. Well, he didn't and he won't. The 27-year-old is making $675,000 and is in the final year of his contract. At the end of the preseason, Nedved was charged with becoming the club's shutdown center in the wake of the retirement of Keith Primeau and the trading away of Michal Handzus. How you can ask a 34-year-old who has never been a team-first player to completely change his game is beyond me, but the Flyers did and the results are obvious. Nedved is making $2.356 million this season. Baumgartner was a free agent who was signed merely because the Flyers needed a right-handed shot from the blueline. He was a former number one pick (1994, Washington) who was never able to earn regular playing time in the NHL until last season. Baumgartner is, at best, a depth defenseman. The only reason I can possibly fathom that he wouldn't be assigned to the Phantoms is as insurance in case there are any lingering injury concerns about Lars Jonsson and/or Mike Rathje. He will make $1.2 million this season and next. All told, the moves will save the team $4,231,000 in cap space. This will give the Flyers some flexibility if they would want to try to make a move. Meanwhile, James Mirtle asks some very good questions: This season, the Flyers have simply looked positively awful, to the point where you have to wonder how low this club could sink this season. If Niittymaki's not going to be good to go, where does GM Bob Clarke turn in goal? And what does this poor start mean for Philadelphia's playoff aspirations? The only question I want answered is when will it be Clarke's turn? UPDATE: Click here for more on this from James. He seems to be on top of this.