No Flyers Surprises On Unprotected List Ron Hextall And Luke Richardson Head The List That Expansion Atlanta Can Choose From Friday.

By Tim Panaccio, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: June 23, 1999

There were no major surprises yesterday as the Flyers released their unprotected list for Friday's National Hockey League expansion draft by the new Atlanta Thrashers.

As reported yesterday, the Flyers left goalie Ron Hextall unprotected along with defenseman Luke Richardson and forwards Jody Hull, Marc Bureau, Mikael Andersson and Roman Vopat.

Among the Phantoms exposed were Richard Park, Peter White, Jason Zent, Jeff Lank, Paul Healey and Mark Greig.

General manager Bob Clarke reiterated that he would not make a commitment that Hextall will be the Flyers backup goalie next season, if he is not taken in the expansion draft.

Some NHL observers suspect the Flyers will try to buy Hextall out of the final year of his contract.

``We'll worry about that after the expansion draft,'' Clarke said.

Clarke said he wasn't privy to what the Thrashers' thinking might be, but there are some in the NHL who believe the Flyers will cut a deal with Atlanta to take Richardson off their hands with the Flyers picking up the bulk of Richardson's deferred bonus money - $2.3 million.

Richardson has three years left on his original five-year, $12.6 million deal.

``I have no idea which way Atlanta will go,'' Clarke said. ``Whether they'll take young guys and keep their payroll down or go after veteran players to make a trade. I don't know.''

On overtime. The Flyers voted against the league's new overtime policy - four-on-four hockey. Clarke said some of the overtime proposals ``made no sense.''

``I don't see anything wrong with a tie game,'' he said. ``Obviously, the Flyers were in a minority in that thinking.''

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