UNIONDALE, N.Y. (CP) – The New York Islanders traded defenceman Alexei Zhitnik to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday in exchange for blue-liner Freddy Meyer and a conditional third-round draft pick.

The move also gives the Islanders some cap room. Zhitnik is earning US$3.5 million this season and has another two years and US$7 million left on his contract beyond that. Meyer will earn just $525,000 this season and next.

Zhitnik joined the Islanders last year after playing 10 seasons in Buffalo. He has two goals and 11 points in 30 games this year.

Meyer signed with the Flyers in 2003 after going undrafted. In 83 NHL games over the past three years, he has eight goals and 32 points – including two goals and five points in 25 games this season.

This trade is basically replacing Mike Rathje. With Rathje going on injured reserve that freed up his 3.5mill salary against the cap and I expected the Flyers wanted some experience back on the blue line. Besides Hatcher the defense is very very young. Hatcher has played more games in the NHL then the rest of the defense combined. The other defenseman that has a decent amount of experience is Gauthier who has only played 14 games then was injured, won’t be back until mid-January sometime.

So it sounds like a salary dump for the Islanders and they get a young decent defenseman. The Flyers replace a vet on the blueline without taking on any more salary but lose a young defenseman.

I believe the thinking process for the Flyers is that there are other young defensemen coming up that might have better potential then Meyer.
Picard, Timonen, Jones and Jonsson.
Personally I am not sure how much I like this trade from a Flyers fan standpoint although the longer I think about it the more it seems to make sense.

I am glad that I don’t have to hear about how it is Freddy Meyer the Fourth anymore.