Philadelphia Flyers Place Goalie Michael Leighton on Waivers

Wouldn’t you know, Michael Leighton finds himself in a familiar situation.

Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren placed the 29-year-old Leighton on waivers on Monday after not being able to find any takers via the trade market, according to the team’s twitter account.

With the emergence of 22-year-old rookie Sergei Bobrovsky and the solid play from 34-year-old veteran Brian Boucher, it should come as no surprise that Leighton was the odd man out in the orange and black’s crease.

If there was any surprise, it’s that they placed him on waivers rather than trying to seriously find a trade partner for him.

With Tampa Bay acquiring Dwayne Roloson, the list of teams that are in need of goaltending became shorter and thus made it a lot easier for Holmgren to place Leighton on waivers. The Flyers hope he clears waivers so they can send him to Adirondack.

The only team that could be a threat to claim Leighton is the New York Islanders, who traded away Roloson. Their current goalie situation consists of Rick DiPietro and 27-year-old rookie Nathan Lawson. The Islanders (11-19-6) have $19,070,347 in cap space (per capgeek.com), and could easily afford Leighton’s $1.555 million salary.

Leighton played in one game for the Flyers after returning from back surgery earlier in the season to repair a herniated disc. He let in four goals in a 7-4 win against the Kings.

Despite earning the victory, Leighton was awful.

What this means for the Flyers is that Boucher and Bobrovsky have earned the trust from the coaching staff and front office to be the team’s netminders. Who gets the most starts from this point forward is still in question, but at this time, Boucher has moved into the No. 1 spot on the depth chart.

Then again, we all know Bobrovsky is not a backup goalie.

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