"Philadelphia was like my second home," Gagne said. "When you stay there more than a decade you start to get familiar with the area. You build friendships with the players, the training staff and all the people working for the Flyers. The organization becomes like your family a little bit. But you have to understand that hockey is a business and that is the way it is. It is going to be tough."
Gagne, who joined the Flyers in 1999 just a month after kicker David Akers signed on with the Eagles, was Philadelphia's second longest-tenured athlete. He was due another $5.25 million this season in the last year of a 5-year contract.
With Walker's $1.7 million salary, the trade brings the Flyers back under the NHL's mandatory $59.4 million salary cap by approximately $1.05 million, with 13 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders on the roster.
Not surprisingly, Ilya Kovalchuk's signing of a 17-year, $102 million deal earlier in the day paved the way for Paul Holmgren to make his second trade of the summer with newly minted Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman.
Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi contacted Holmgren early in the process to inquire about Gagne as a Plan B for Kovalchuk. Lombardi's offers were not serious enough for the Flyers to ask Gagne to waive his no-trade clause specifically for LA and Gagne told Comcast SportsNet yesterday his intention was to stay in the East.
Instead, Gagne will join the now-formidable Lightning to skate with Vincent Lecavalier, Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis. He leaves Philadelphia with the ninth-most goals and 10th-most points in franchise history, despite missing 156 games over 10 seasons with various injuries.
