Not one, but two (!) rather respected national hockey writers are reporting this morning that the average annual value of Ilya Bryzgalov's deal with the Flyers could fall around $7 million dollars per season, and that the deal is in place. The Flyers can't announce it though until July 1

Yes, that's $7 million dollars.

Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet first reported that Bryzgalov was Iooking for a deal around 7 years, $50 million, and then Elliotte Friedman of CBC responded to him on Twitter saying that he's heard that the deal "will be around $7 million."

If Paul Holmgren can get the salary cap hit down to somewhere manageable -- $5 million to $6 million per year -- I can live with the signing of Bryzgalov. It'll mean the departure of somebody important, but if done right, I could learn to accept it and I'll get over the anger of what I believe is ultimately a bad move for the long-term (and short-term) future of the team.

But $7 million is an incredible amount of money against the cap each year, and it would make Bryzgalov one of the highest paid players in all of hockey. In the top-20, for sure, and with a cap hit that high, he'd probably be the highest paid Flyer too. More than Danny Briere. More than Chris Pronger. More than Mike Richards.

He'd certainly be the highest paid goalie in the sport. Is he the best goalie in the sport? No, unfortunately he is not.

I can't even get into what this would mean for Jeff Carter or Scott Hartnell or Kris Versteeg or Matt Carle or whoever else. I'm just irritated over this. $7 million dollars a year. Whatever, I'm going on vacation tomorrow.