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Ah yes, in the never-ending, quickly gaining momentum Steven Stamkos saga, beat writers Sam Carchidi and Frank Seravalli are going to the mattresses over whose source is right.

Carchidi, a longtime Inquirer reporter who once took on Brett Myers, claims the Flyers will make no attempt at signing Stamkos: [Philly.com]

Forget the reports about Tampa Bay superstar Steven Stamkos becoming a Flyer.

Two sources connected to the Flyers dismissed the rumors on Tuesday.

"Not happening," one club executive said.

"I think we're blockbustered out," said Peter Luukko, another club executive, referring to the bombshell trades that sent Mike Richards to Los Angeles and Jeff Carter to Columbus last week.

 

Seravalli, the Daily News’ Flyers beat writer and young cub in the pantheon of sports reporting (albeit one who "gets it" and does a good job of separating himself from curmudgeon hockey scriptuals), says the Flyers may submit a ludicrous offer sheet… today. Luda! [Um, also Philly.com]

Sometime today, the Flyers could take a big step in bringing electrifying restricted free-agent forward Steven Stamkos to Philadelphia.

A source close to the situation told the Daily News that the Flyers' brass spent yesterday afternoon crunching numbers and mulling over whether to send an offer sheet to Stamkos' agents.

The offer sheet, which would still allow Tampa Bay first right of refusal, would be expected to be a deal of around 13 or 14 years and north of $100 million, which would put Stamkos on the Flyers' payroll for a manageable cap hit if the Lightning chose to not match the deal.

 

As you are probably already aware, the Inquirer and Daily News are owned and operated by the same company, Philadelphia Media Network (previously Philadelphia Media Holdings, McClatchy, and Knight Ridder- phew). They share a building, printing facility, advertising staff, and management team. They are reporting completely opposite stories.

Carchidi is convinced that the Flyers will make no attempt at signing Stamkos. He sources Peter Luuko (it's worth noting here that the Flyers lie). Conversely, Seravalli’s sources say that the Flyers are working hard on figuring out a way to offer Stamkos a league-shaking contract. One of those reports is accurate… we'll find out soon which one.

UPDATE: Anthony SanFilippo sheds some more light on the situation, detailing what the Flyers would have to do to get Stamkos.