When the Philadelphia Flyers acquired defenseman Andrej Meszaros from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a 2012 second-round draft choice, I was a little skeptical at the price tag surrounding the underachieving blueliner.
Meszaros, 25, scored eight goals and had 25 assists in two very disappointing seasons with Tampa Bay, where he was a minus-18 in 133 games.
At first glance, he didn't present a huge upgrade to the Flyers defensive unit, while carrying a bigger cap hit than Lukas Krajicek, Ryan Parent and Oskars Bartulis.
The Slovakian defender was two years into a six-year, $24 million contract extension ($4 million cap hit) that he signed after the Lightning acquired him from Ottawa in August of 2008.
Tampa Bay paid a steep price to obtain Meszaros from the Senators in the first place, parting ways with defenseman Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard, and the San Jose Sharks' 2009 first-round draft pick.
Technically, Tampa only acquired the negotiating rights to Meszaros since he was a restricted free agent. However, then-general manager Brian Lawton quickly signed him to his lucrative deal.
Lawton has since ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Tom Dougherty
Andrej Meszaros Quickly Showing He’s Worth the Steep Price Tag the Flyers Paid
November 9th, 2010 by Tom Dougherty Leave a reply »
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