Salary Cap

So where do the Flyers - after a very good regular season that morphed into a very weird playoff showing - go from here? Well, in a best-case scenario, they would become one of the NHL's best teams if they somehow signed New Jersey winger Zach Parise and Nashville defenseman Ryan Suter, a pair of prospective free agents. Will they have the cap space for both? Doubtful. And even if they were to make a deal to free cap space, the odds of them beating out a long list of suitors for both players would not be favorable.

General manager Bob Clarke, an old-school hockey person, isn't wasting any time leading the Flyers into the NHL's new salary-cap era. Clarke, speaking yesterday at a news conference at the Wachovia Center, said what had been long expected - that he had placed longtime team member John LeClair and Tony Amonte on waivers for the purpose of buying out the final year of their contracts. Clarke announced that defensemen Mattias Timander and Marcus Ragnarsson will stay in Sweden instead of joining the team.

With two visits to doctors, the Flyers' long-awaited roster issues disappeared yesterday with physicians' signatures. At least for the time being. Three moves, with varying salary-cap implications, were made. Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren activated a healthy Michael Leighton to the 23-man roster, but in order to do that, he moved defenseman Matt Walker to injured reserve to make roster space and officially added Ian Laperriere's salary to the long-term injured reserve to create enough cap space for Leighton's $1.55 million salary.

The National Hockey League is shutting down for the second time in 10 years. Yesterday, the league's Board of Governors unanimously endorsed commissioner Gary Bettman's proposal to lock the players out of training camp this morning because the league had not reached a new collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players' Association. The major sticking point has been the league's desire to cut losses by instituting "cost certainty" - a cap on player salaries. The union has steadfastly rejected a salary cap. The NHL "will not play again until there is a new economic system," Bettman said at the Westin Times Square hotel.

You can't sell air conditioners to Nanook of the North. You can't sell elevator shoes to Shawn Bradley. But yesterday, Richard Ravitch undertook a selling job of similar proportions. By trying to sell a salary cap to the baseball's players union. Wish him luck. Ravitch, the owners' chief labor negotiator, finally made it to the negotiating table yesterday to present his side's long-awaited salary-cap proposal - a proposal he described as "critical for the game of baseball.

NEW YORK - The NBA players' association, not Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, proposed the elimination of the salary cap during negotiations aimed at ending months of labor strife, a league official said yesterday. NBA senior vice president Mike Bass said union executive director Billy Hunter made "several misstatements" during an hourlong podcast with ESPN.com on Monday. Among them was the revelation of the salary-cap plan, which Bass said was actually an exception to the cap, not the elimination of it. Hunter said that, during a meeting last week, Cuban proposed what he called a "game changer" - a plan to replace the salary cap with a heavy tax for teams that spent to a certain level.

A reported deal that would have made ex-Eagle offensive lineman Antone Davis an Atlanta Falcon never was, said his agent, Jim Solano. Solano has been working on a deal most of this week, but yesterday the Falcons rejected a new proposal because its structure is not agreeable with Atlanta's salary-cap allotment for this season. Solano has been seeking an average of $1 million per year for Davis, the Eagles' No. 1 draft pick in 1991, who is an unrestricted free agent. The Falcons' offer was reported to be a two-year package worth approximately $1.8 million.

The NHL is going to a $39 million salary cap. And, as they have in the NFL, teams are designating personnel to fill the role of capologist. Barry Hanrahan, assistant to general manager Bob Clarke, has been given that task for the Flyers. Hanrahan met with Eagles president Joe Banner late in the 2003-04 NHL season, getting a four-hour crash course in managing a salary cap. Banner has been the Eagles' cap wizard for a decade and is considered one of the sharpest cap managers in pro football.

The talk on the day 32-year-old Raleigh McKenzie officially jumped from the Washington Redskins to the Eagles was about creating competition along the offensive line. Sure. The Eagles have been shopping veteran center David Alexander around the NFL for about a month now. Alexander knows it, the Eagles' coaches know it, agents know it, the Eagles' personnel types know it, management knows it. Alexander read coach Ray Rhodes's handwriting during the Eagles' unsuccessful courtship of ex-Cowboys center Mark Stepnoski.

The Flyers' courtship of star free-agent goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov officially got under way in style yesterday, as they fueled up Ed Snider's private jet and sent it to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to ferry Bryzgalov to Philadelphia after his 9-hour flight from Moscow. The Flyers acquired Bryzgalov's exclusive negotiating rights in a June 7 trade with Phoenix that cost them a third-round pick in 2012, the rights to Phantoms forward Matt Clackson, and a conditional pick if Bryzgalov inks a deal.

The players union claimed Wednesday that the NFL imposed a secret salary cap during the uncapped 2010 season that cost the players at least $1 billion. The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, which oversees NFL labor matters. But the league says the union has no grounds for the action and is prohibited from filing it by the collective bargaining agreement. The complaint claims a "conspiracy" to set a $123 million salary cap for the 2010 season, when owners did not have the authority to do so. The Cowboys and Redskins have had their future salary caps lowered for overspending in 2010, Dallas by $10 million over two seasons, Washington by a whopping $36 million.

THE PLAYERS UNION claimed Wednesday that the NFL imposed a secret salary cap during the uncapped 2010 season that cost the players at least $1 billion. The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. But the league says the union has no grounds for the action and is prohibited from filing it by the collective bargaining agreement. The complaint claims a "conspiracy" to set a $123 million salary cap for the 2010 season, when owners did not have the authority to do so. The Cowboys and Redskins have had their future salary caps lowered for overspending in 2010, Dallas by $10 million over two seasons, Washington by a whopping $36 million.

AN ARBITRATOR upheld the NFL's salary cap reductions on the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins for this season and next. Stephen Burbank ruled Tuesday in favor of the league and dismissed the grievances by both teams. The Redskins lost $36 million over 2 years. The Cowboys lost $10 million for overloading contracts during the uncapped 2010 season despite league warnings about such maneuvering. The Cowboys and Redskins, who filed their grievances against the league and players' association, said in a joint statement they would "abide by the arbitrator's decision to dismiss.

So where do the Flyers - after a very good regular season that morphed into a very weird playoff showing - go from here? Well, in a best-case scenario, they would become one of the NHL's best teams if they somehow signed New Jersey winger Zach Parise and Nashville defenseman Ryan Suter, a pair of prospective free agents. Will they have the cap space for both? Doubtful. And even if they were to make a deal to free cap space, the odds of them beating out a long list of suitors for both players would not be favorable.

THE BLOOD HAS barely dried on the Flyers' season, yet so many questions remain after their shocking second-round departure at the hands of the New Jersey Devils. Here are answers to five burning questions: 1. Will Jaromir Jagr return? Judging by the way Jagr performed in the regular season, with 54 points in 73 games, the Flyers would love to have the No. 9 all-time point scorer in league history back for another campaign. Judging by the way Jagr performed in the postseason, with eight quiet points in 11 games, the Flyers could probably think of better ways to spend money in a salary-cap world.

PALM BEACH, Fla. - The NFL, which already has allowed fans to sit in on Super Bowl Media Day and the predraft scouting combine, gave them yet another up-close-and-personal peek inside the league Monday. Nineteen fans got the opportunity to attend part of the afternoon session at the league meetings at the posh Breakers Resort (we assume they had to wipe their feet on the way in). They spent more than an hour behind closed doors with commissioner Roger Goodell and the league's owners, coaches and other club executives.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - As they would prefer, the Eagles arrived at the NFL owners meetings under the radar while two NFC East rivals filed a grievance to have a combined $46 million in salary cap penalties overturned. Earlier this month, the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys were fined by the league for front-loading contracts during the uncapped 2010 season. The Redskins were hit with a $36 million penalty, and the Cowboys took a $10 million blow. The penalties will be split evenly over the next two seasons.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - As they would prefer, the Eagles arrived at the NFL owners meetings under the radar while two NFC East rivals filed a grievance to have a combined $46 million in salary cap penalties overturned. Earlier this month, the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys were fined by the league for front-loading contracts during the uncapped 2010 season. The Redskins were hit with a $36 million penalty, and the Cowboys took a $10 million blow. The penalties will be split evenly over the next two seasons.

Out of the race to nab Peyton Manning, the Arizona Cardinals are moving on with quarterback Kevin Kolb. The former future of the Eagles remained on the Arizona roster at a 4 p.m. deadline Friday, ensuring him a $7 million roster bonus that the team would not have paid if they had landed Manning. Coach Ken Whisenhunt issued a statement acknowledging that "acquiring Peyton Manning is no longer an option for us. " Also on Friday, the Cardinals agreed to terms on a five-year contract for offensive tackle Levi Brown, who had been released by Arizona on Tuesday in a salary cap move.

NHL GENERAL managers ended 3 days of meetings yesterday with little discussion about upcoming collective bargaining negotiations between the league and the NHL Players' Association. The current agreement, that ended the seasonlong lockout in 2005, expires Sept. 15. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told the GMs to conduct "business as usual" according to the current agreement, including working under the salary cap of between $63 million and $64 million. "The update is, there was no update because there's nothing going on," Bettman said.