This is a story I caught wind of last night on SBNation.com and just had to share.
As Pens fans have experienced first hand this season, injuries can really bring some unexpected occurrences to a team's roster. What started as a seven-man defensive corp comprised of NHL-caliber blue liners quickly turned into a display of Pittsburgh minor league talent that may ultimately stand as a preview of next year's pairings. However, through thick and thin, the Pens were able to rely on a healthy farm team to get them through.
Now Philadelphia is starting to experience a similar bout with injuries. Just last week Ray Emery hit the IR for roughly four weeks with an abdominal tear. This left Philly with a dilemma: Do they promote the inexperienced, unchallenged Johan Backlund from the AHL, or do they look elsewhere for a fill-in behind the temporary starter Brian Boucher.
Take the jump. This is where it gets fun.
...the Flyers may be looking to settle on John Grahame, who has played a total of 224 NHL games and was a part of the 2004 Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning. For the last few years though, Grahame has been out of the league, playing half a season over in the KHL and most recently, in his local men's league.
Over his career, Grahame has accumulated stops in Boston, Tampa Bay and Carolina (under Flyers new head coach Peter Laviolette) before shipping off to the KHL's Avangard Omsk in 2008. His tenure in Russia didn't last long, as his contract was canceled by December 2008 for reasons that have been rumored to include a drinking problem. As of this past Saturday, Grahame is on a tryout contract with the Adirondack Phantoms, Philly's AHL affiliate. Before that signing he was playing for a men's rec league.
As the Philly.com article points out, despite a few stops in the NHL and an otherwise erratic career up to this point, Grahame does have his name etched on the 2004 Stanley Cup from when he was a member of the Lightning and Nikolai Khabibulin's backup. That's already a bigger claim than most of the Flyers can make.
Injuries can and will decimate teams from time to time. Combine injuries with the sort of situation that the Flyers face and you'll start to uncover some rather interesting scenarios such as this one.
Whether or not the Flyers sign Grahame isn't so much the focus of this piece as it is the fact that he's even being considered. And even if he doesn't make the team, you have to at least admire the entertainment value of this story.