Thursday, January 08, 2009

Kukkonen placed on waivers

Courtesy of CSNPhilly.com

Flyers defenseman Lasse Kukkonen was placed on waivers Thursday.

The move was anticipated center Danny Briere is expected to come off long-term injury either this weekend or next week.

Kukkonen will save the Flyers $875,000. Briere carries a $6.5 million salary cap hit. Once Briere comes off LTI, the Flyers will need to lose about $4.5 million off their cap. The cap this season is $56.7 million.

Waiving Kukkonen is just part of what the Flyers intend to do to get under the cap. They are also expected to move several player back to Phantoms and perhaps send rookie defenseman Luca Sbisa back to his junior club.

General manager Paul Holmgren could not be reached for comment.

In addition to waiving Kukkonen, the Flyers placed Jon Kalinski (thigh surgery) on injured reserve and activated Arron Asham. Asham, who earns $640,000, also factors into the decision to place Kukkonen on waivers.

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