Most fans and hockey experts have acknowledged – perhaps repeatedly – that the Ilya Bryzgalov experiment in Philadelphia was a disaster of epic proportions. In situations like these, one which forces a contract to be bought out, the team responsible rarely acknowledges the mistake and often never speaks of the player in question. That hasn’t been the case with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Flyers chairman Ed Snider was recently speaking to the media about the team’s goaltending and Bryzgalov’s name came up. Instead of dancing around the question or ignoring it completely, Snider met the question head on and discussed the buy out.
Via NJ.com:
“With Bryz, it was a lot less expensive than keeping him. We made a bad mistake.
I’m proud of Paul and our guys in the sense that they don’t hide behind their mistakes. They don’t say, ‘Oh, we’re gonna keep this guy because we’ll be criticized for making this horrible mistake.”
Snider is referring to Paul Holmgren, current team president and former GM, in his comments.
It’s pretty refreshing to hear a team come out and be rather blunt and honest in regards to a difficult subject. The Flyers made a huge and an expensive mistake when it comes to Bryzgalov and they recognize that fact. They’ve moved on, but they’re aware of where they came from.
