The New Blood (Again) – Brian Boucher – And Some News

As I sit to write this installment of The New Blood, I have come to realize a couple of things.

1. I’m not sure if Brian Boucher should be considered, “New Blood” since this will be his third tour of duty with the Flyers organization,

2. I honestly never knew that Brian was a 1st round draft pick back in 1995 by the Flyers,

3. Brian Boucher is a pretty darn good net minder.

Most people probably missed his second tour with the Flyers since it was spent entirely with the Phantoms (23-16-1, .917 save%, 2.47 gaa). Then we traded him to the Sharks where his numbers were good (15-7-4, .920 save%, 2.10 gaa over 2 seasons). Now he’s back in the city of brotherly love as a back-up to Ray Emery with a two year, $1.85 million contract ($925,000 per).

Brian is more remembered for his first run with the Flyers in the 1999-2000 season where he put up impressive numbers as a rookie (20-10-3, .918 save%, 1.91 gaa) and a strong playoff run (11-7, .917 save%, 2.03 gaa). He suffered the “sophmore jinx” (8-12-5, .876 save%, 3.27 gaa) and started to rebound the next season (18-16-4, .905 save%, 2.41 gaa).

However, it wasn’t meant to be as the revolving door policy of goal tenders in Philly was in full swing. He was off to Phoenix where he spent 3 seasons with some time in Sweden and San Antonio of the AHL, then a season in Calgary (3 starts), off to Chicago (1-10-3 in 15 starts) for a year, 3 starts in Columbus, back to Philly for the Phantoms, then to San Jose where he reemerged as an NHL goalie.

Being a fan as well as a writer, I was really hoping for Boucher to wear the orange and black again. A lot of other stat heads like myself would wrinkle up their nose at the thought of bringing him back. But I say no to that for this main reason…

Boucher played the best hockey of his career in Philadelphia. He’s 46-38-12 with the big club and 23-16-1 with the Phantoms. Outside of Philly he’s 48-68-18-7. He’s still fast, he still has good lateral movement, he doesn’t give up a ton of bad rebounds and he is easier on the cap than 80% of the free agent, back-up net minders would have been.

Welcome back to Philly, Brian! Can’t wait to see you between the pipes, doing what you do best.

Oh, and before I forget, the Flyers signed Tollefsen today! So who’s going to be the next Flyer on the waiver wire? I can tell you who it’s not going to be, but that would take the fun out of it.