Flyers Deal for Young Defenseman

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Philly Flyers have dealt young goalie Bernd Bruckner for 2nd round selection of the Dallas Stars, young offencive defenseman Johan Fransson and 4th round selection Matt Christie.

This deal opens up playing time for promising young goaltender Al Montoya and also give the Flyers more depth on the Junior squad. Last season in the SEL, Johan Fransson had 6 points in 44 games, 3 goals and 3 assists in a professional league playing as a 18 year old.

Fransson, 19 year old native of Sweden will have a big role this season as part of the PhillyJR team and the same will be said over the coming years as he gets older. "Johan is a skilled offencive defenseman and people underestimate his defensive side of the game, I would consider him a solid two-way defenseman..." said the Flyers GM on draft day. "We traded one of our assets to get something the team needed, The deal worked out great in our favour.."

Matt Christie will bring some much needed depth to the center position on the PhillyJR team. The native of Ajax, Ontario had a solid season as a 17 year old scoring 36 points in 33 games, 15 goals and 21 assists, with Miami University (Ohio) of the NCAA. Christie was a 4th round selection, 115th overall by the Flyers and the team hopes he can turn out to be a solid pickup at that position in the draft.

With the draft now over the Flyers are looking forward to the start of training camp and finally finding out how the new young squad will fare this season.