(Photo Courtesy of Kate Frese)
By Rob Riches, Sports Talk Philly contributor
Sorting out the Flyers' bottom-six just got slightly easier.
Roman Lyubimov, who the Flyers tended a qualifying offer to last week, has rejected it and will return to his former KHL club, CSKA Moscow.
Former Army Man has decided to go home to @hccska (3-year deal) after 1 season with @NHLFlyers. pic.twitter.com/5eWJPhF67K
— KHL (@khl_eng) July 3, 2017
Lyubimov, 25, spent parts of six seasons with the Red Army, before heading to to the Flyers on a one-year deal last summer. He scored four goals and six points in 47 games last season, and as CSNPhilly.com's Matt Bowker points out, he spent 20 of the Flyers' last 22 games as a healthy scratch.
In his 47 games, Lyubimov typically appeared on the fourth line alongside Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Chris VandeVelde. With Bellemare headed to Vegas in the Expansion Draft and VandeVelde unlikely to be re-signed, the Flyers' fourth line figures to look entirely different in 2017-18, with Mike Vecchione and Scott Laughton emerging as early candidates for the center spot.
