Recently it has appeared that Bob Clarke is recycling Flyers. Faces we saw in the late 80s and early 90s are reappearing back in Flyer colors. While the trend is frequent, it's not exclusive to the Clarke era. The Flyers have been doing it for a long time.

Below is my list of Frequent Flyers and some background on their travels. See how many of these you remember! To qualify a player must have participated in at least one Flyer game then played at least one game for at least one other NHL team prior to playing at least one game again in Philadelphia. The players are listed in a loose chronological order (but in some cases if one player's story ties in with another, they are listed adjacently.)

  1. Rick Tocchet is the most recent recylcee. An original Flyer draft choice from 1983, he played with Philly until February 19, 1992, when he was sent to Pittsburgh in the Mark Recchi deal. He returned in a trade for fellow recyclee Mikael Renberg.
  2. Mikael Renberg A 1990 draft pick, Renberg, a member of the famed Legion of Doom line, was lost and reacquired in the disastrous Chris Gratton mess. Because Gratton was signed as a free agent from Tampa Bay, the League rules dictated that Tampa would receive FIVE first round selections. In order to prevent that, we gave them Renberg, along with Karl Dykhuis, to recover the draft picks. 15 months later, when it was obvious Gratton wasn't meant to be a Flyer, he was sent back to Tampa for Renberg and Daymond Langkow.
  3. Karl Dykhuis The other member of the Gratton free agent signing was reacquired 16 days after Renberg's return, in exchange for Petr Svoboda.
  4. Mark Recchi Acquired in 1992 from Pittsburgh, Recchi's style of play made him a fan favorite. Less than three years later he was dispatched to Montreal in the deal that brought LeClair and Desjardins to Philly. A trade-deadline deal returned him to Philly in 1999.
  5. Mike Maneluk Here's one who barely qualifies for this list. After being given on 13 games to prove himself he was traded to Chicago in November, 1998 for Roman Vopat (who already appeared in games for two other NHL teams and was the property of a third in the six weeks this season was in action!). He returned to Philly the next year and played one game in the 1999-2000 season.
  6. Kjell Samuelsson Acquired in December 1986 from the Rangers, he was part of the Pittsburgh trade that netted Mark Recchi. After four seasons as a Penguin, he returned to Philadelphia for three seasons before ending his career in Tampa Bay.
  7. Craig Berube Recently departed to Washington for his second tour as a Capital, Berube started his career in Philly in 1987. After being traded to Edmonton (where he never played a game), he played in Toronto and Calgary. After many years in Washington, he was purchased from Washington on the same day we traded to get back the next guy on the list.
  8. Steve Duchesne On May 30, 1991, the Flyers acquired the rights to Jari Kurri from Edmonton as part of the three-way deal that included Los Angeles. When we transferred Kurri's rights to LA, we received defenseman Duchesne as part of the package. A year later, Duchesne would be part of the blockbuster trade to get Eric Lindros from Quebec. He was the last of three of the departed players to return, when in 1999 he was reacquired, after spending part of the year with Los Angeles again. He's also a two-time St. Louis Blue.
  9. Dave Brown An original Flyer draft pick, Brown spent five and a half seasons in Philly before being traded to Edmonton for Keith Acton and a draft pick. He was reacquired in 1991 in the trade that sent Berube to the Oilers. He ended his playing career in San Jose then returned as an assistant coach for a few seasons, making him one of the few members of the "three-peat Flyer Club".
  10. Ron Hextall Another of the Flyers dealt away in the Lindros acquisition, Hextall has always been a Flyer in his heart. In 1994 he was reacquired from the Islanders along with a draft choice that would eventually be Dmitri Tertyshny.
  11. Kerry Huffman He's kind of an obscure one! He, like Hexy and Duchesne, was part of the Lindros blockbuster June 20, 1992 but then returned in a trade March 19, 1996 and played a whopping four games!
  12. Dan Quinn This poor soul played 67 games for us in 91-92, then combined for only 68 the next three seasons between three different teams. He returned to Philly for 37 games in 1995-96.
  13. Ed Hospodar is one of my favorite names (sounds like a Spanish infinitive) is another that most people don't realize is a two-time pumpkin because he wasn't gone long. After just 17 games he was traded November 29, 1985 to Minnesota but turned up on our doorstep in time for the 1986-87 season.
  14. Darren Rumble Presumably (but not yet confirmed) taken in the expansion draft by Ottawa in 1992 after 3 games as a Flyer and 3 full seasons in the system. He resurfaced to play a few more games over the next three seasons but mostly stayed in the AHL.
  15. Moe Mantha He sandwiched three seasons with the Winnepeg Jets between two partial seasons in Philadelphia (he was here in 88-89 and 91-92)
  16. Kevin McCarthy This guy racked up frequent flyer miles by playing in western Canada and PA. First Winnepeg, then here, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Vancouver again, and back to Pittsburgh before coming to rest in Philly a second time. So he's a three-time two-timer, just like Duchesne!
  17. Paul Holmgren Traded as a player in 1985 only to return in 1988 as the coach. Oh, and the guy who traded him to Minnesota in '85, Bob McCammon, was fired as coach and replaced by Pat Quinn who then was fired in favor McCammon Chapter II. Since McCammon was run out of Philly by an angry mob of Flyer fans, we won't give him his own spotlight.
  18. Jack McIlhargey After two partial years in Philly he spent parts of four with the Canucks before returning to Philly and bouncing between the Flyers and their AHL affiliate Maine Mariners before being punted to Hartford.
  19. Rick MacLeish This man spent most of his career with the Flyers, after being acquired from Boston without ever having played a game with the Bruins. In the summer of '81, he was part of a large trade with Hartford. (2 of the 3 draft choices that accompanied him to the Whalers eventually were traded to Philadelphia. Remember Paul Lawless and Kevin Dineen?) He snuck back to Philadelphia for the '83-84 season, only to be traded again, this time to Detroit.
  20. Ken Linseman A Flyers' 1978 draft choice, the "Rat" spent four seasons in Philly before being the outgoing player in the Hartford deal that landed defenseman extraordinaire Mark Howe. (Incidentally, he never played a game for the Whalers, as they shipped him to Edmonton.) He was reacquired from Boston in 1990 for captain Dave Poulin. After 1/2 season back in Philly, he headed back to Edmonton to become another double two-timer.
  21. Terry Murray Our long-suffering former coach, who had 23 games as a Detroit Redwing wedged between six years of travelling between the Flyers and the AHL's Maine Mariners and Philadelphia Firebirds in the mid-late 70s. He came back as the head coach, qualifying him for the next level of Frequent Flyer-ing, the three-peater.
  22. Bob Clarke While he's one of three known Flyers (I'm still checking this for accuracy) to spend his entire NHL playing career (five or more seasons) with Philadelphia, his firing in 1990 and subsequent rehiring in 1992 qualifies him as a Frequent Flyer under the coaching category.
  23. John Paddock The former NHL player and coach makes the list, barely. He played 32 games with the Quebec Nordiques in 1980-81 which followed parts of two seasons in Philadelphia and preceeded 10 more games there in 82-83.
  24. Bernie Parent Bully fans will remember that he was traded in early 1971 to Toronto only to return just over 2 years later to lead the Flyers to the only two Stanley Cups they have.
  25. Larry Wright You'll need a good memory and a few decades under your belt to recall Wright, a 1971 Flyer draft choice who played 27 games in 1971-72 and 9 more the next season before being shipped to the west coast as part of the Reggie Leach deal and playing 2 games with the California Seals in 74-75. Somehow he snuck back to play a pair for us in 75-76 before heading to Detroit for his final NHL season.
  26. Pete Peeters/Keith Acton While they both make the list individually, they also are noted under my "exception clause", a trade so bizarre that it was investigated by the NHL! Hold on tight, here we go.
    Peeters makes the list because he broke into the League as a Flyer then was traded straight up for Brad McCrimmon in 1982. He returned via free agency in 1989.
    Acton gets in under the "coaching clause" (after parts of five seasons in Philly he ended his playing career with the Isles then returned as a coach)
    But &PP just can't ignore the infamous Waiver Draft Avoidance Deal of 1989. For those who don't recall WDAD89: September 28, 1989 - Peeters and Acton were traded to Winnepeg for "future considerations". On October 3, just five days later, we sent Winnepeg a fifth round choice in 1991 and a conditional draft pick (which we had acquired from THEM two months earlier in exchange for Shawn Cronin!) In return we got....Peeters and Acton. The League investigated and ultimately fined both teams for collusion. Basically Winnepeg didn't have a large roster of valuable players that season while we did. So to keep from having to lose anyone in the pre-season waiver draft, Clarke struck up a deal with the Jets where they would protect a few of these players for us in exchange for some compensation. The organization is still benefitting from that deal: the draft choice was used to select Juha Ylonen, who is still with the organization, which has since moved to Phoenix.
    For those keeping score at home, that equals Shawn Cronin and a draft pick as a huge thank you (and hopefully some consolation for the League fines) for helping us keep our roster intact!



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