It appears to be turning into a pretty good week for the Flyers, who will lose Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in the NHL Expansion Draft to the Las Vegas Knights, according to several sources.
The squad had left Michal Neuvirth, Michael Raffl, Matt Read and others unprotected but Vegas decided not to nab one of the more high-profile players available from Philly and instead took the winger who has scored at the second worst rate of any forward over the last four seasons in Bellemare.
In addition to keeping until-now-vunerable players on the roster, the move potentially opens up a spot on a forward line to a young player — possibly the Flyers’ second round pick later this week in Nico Hirscher or Nolan Patrick.
Which leads us to the second piece of good news for Philly: They still have the second overall pick.
The NHL draft will commence Friday and the Flyers are expected to land one of the top two prizes in the annual event and might even have enough cap space to keep Jordan Weal.
