The Flyers made a bit of an unexpected move this weekend, as they signed Chris Porter to a one-year, two-way deal.
It's easy to dismiss the move as a head-scratching signing. The Flyers are already stretched against the salary cap (with less than $600,000 to play with), and have 13 forwards committed to the club for next year (14 if you include Scott Laughton, who figures to contend for a spot with the team out of training camp next month).
The Flyers have their fourth line settled for next season — it's reasonable to expect that a Zac Rinaldo-less fourth line is already an improvement. But if Chris VandeVelde continues to follow-up on his best professional season from last year (which is possible, especially under his college coach) and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare can return to his scoring prowess from his days in Sweden (which attracted the Flyers enough to sign him last offseason), both of those players could figure to slide up to other scoring lines at some point, especially in the case of injury. At that point would Porter's addition to the bottom line (or even as a third-line mucker) make sense.
Don't expect the 31-year-old Porter to come in and show flashes of scoring brilliance, even though he himself was a Dave Hakstol product. In his eight seasons with St. Louis, he was a perennial bottom-six forward, with 11 goals and 27 points in 173 career games. He played a total of 322 games over parts of seven seasons with the Blues' affiliates in Peoria (and later Chicago), totaling 55 goals and 103 points.
In short, Porter's another veteran name added to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, joining players such as Tim Brent, Davis Drewiske, Chris Conner and Jason LaBarbera as savvy vets added to mentor the young prospects headed to Allentown.
Porter does have plenty of NHL experience, dating back to the 2008-09 season. But he also brings lengthy American League experience to the table as well, which will make him a suitable mentor for the Orange and Black's young guns. Add in organizational familiarity with a former teammate in North Dakota and his coach for four seasons, and you have a player that could fit in with the Flyers' lineup should his services be necessary.
It's not exactly a world-class signing, and not even close to the Flyers' biggest signing of the summer. But it makes sense for the organization, as Ron Hextall continues to build depth from the minors.
Rob Riches is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter @Riches61
