By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
In the minutes after the trade deadline, Flyers GM Ron Hextall met with the media to go over what was a busy day for the Flyers. Just not the kind of day you would have completely expected.
As expected, the Flyers moved one of their pending free-agent defenseman, sending Mark Streit to Tampa Bay. The return was certainly interesting, as the Flyers added two draft picks — a fourth and seventh-round pick — and forward Valtteri Filppula. The Flyers also re-signed goalie Michal Neuvirth and forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare to two-year deals earlier in the day.
Hextall explained the moves shortly after the deadline expired.
"It was a deal we felt made our team better, also fit moving forward," Hextall said. "I think we all know what we've got coming. We want to be better now, we want to be better next year."
The Flyers have spent all season with eight defensemen on the roster with a lot of shuffling in and out of the lineup around a few injuries here and there. Hextall admitted that bothered him for the duration of the season and he wanted to get something in return for a defenseman.
"The eight defensemen, I haven't been comfortable with it the whole year nor have our guys," Hextall said. "So this gives us a little bit of clarity on the back end where you have seven defenseman like most teams do. We had a chance to get a young asset in a fourth and seventh-round pick and we got a centerman. We get a couple more picks and we added a piece that we felt could help us this year and next year."
The Flyers are just four points out of a playoff spot, but with 20 games left, the team that said they wouldn't be buyers sure looked like they made a neutral move — selling off a defenseman and buying a forward. Hextall explained that Filppula has been on his radar for several years.
"Valtteri makes plays. You talk about a scorer, a scorer is not real good if someone's not making plays to him," Hextall said. "There's two pieces, there's someone making the plays and someone shooting the puck. We will continue to look for a finisher so to speak, but the more plays you make, the more chances you get. I look at this as an upgrade in our playmaking on the team. This was a guy we've liked for years."
In addition, the Flyers made the move to bring Neuvirth back. Despite recent struggles and injury woes, the term and cap hit were respectable enough for the Flyers to sign Neuvirth while they continue to wait for their plethora of goalie prospects to develop. Hextall also didn't trade Steve Mason at the deadline, leaving the door open for his return as well.
"We like the term and we like the cap hit. I did not want to go into July 1 with no goalies because that's a recipe for disaster. We felt this one was a reasonable deal and a reasonable term, so we'll do this. That doesn't suggest we won't sign Mase, just the timing. I wanted to get something done before the deadline and we felt very comfortable with this deal."
The Flyers are back on the ice on Thursday night against Florida at home, where they will have one new face in the lineup. Filppula will wear No. 51 and we'll see where he slots into the lineup.
As for the rest of the possible Flyers moved on deadline day — Michael Del Zotto, Nick Schultz and Mason — that will have to wait until the offseason.
