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The Flyers love doing these type of deals– trading for unrestricted free agents and then trying to sign them.

Flyers insider Anthony SanFilippo:

The Flyers began their offseason re-modeling of the roster by trading for a veteran defenseman Wednesday.

The Flyers shipped a fourth round pick in the 2014 NHL Draft to the New York Islanders for Mark Streit.

Streit, 35, is a pending unrestricted free agent, but the Flyers now own his rights and will have an opportunity to sign him to a new deal before he hits the free agent market July 5 and could sign with any of the 29 other teams in the NHL. He made $4.1 million last season as a member of the Islanders.

“Mark is a player we would have had interest in on July 5th,” said Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren. “We now have exclusive negotiating rights and we are hopeful that we can get an agreement in place prior to him becoming an unrestricted free agent.”

The Flyers also sent Shane Harper to the Isles.

Interesting how SanFilippo twice (once in the story’s sub-head) referred to the Flyers’ off-season remodeling. This is probably the first of many moves on Homer’s PS 3 controller.

The trade for-and-sign is a tactic previously used on Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen, Ilya Bryzgalov… and Dam Hamhuis, who never signed here.

Streit was the Isles’ captain. His Wikipedia is, impressively, already updated, if somewhat incorrectly:

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A respected defenceman? Can’t complain. Another… positive? He looks like the love child of Danny Briere and Roberto Luongo.

The trade marks the start of Homer crazy season. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!