I’m not really sure what the logic here was, but the Flyers reportedly offered a two-way contract to former Montreal Canadiens defenseman Francis Bouillon last week. Boullion, 39, turned that deal down and we learned today that he signed with a team in Switzerland.
Francis Bouillon rejected a one year two way contract from the Flyers last week. He didn’t want to start the season in the AHL. #tvasports
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) October 14, 2014
Bouillon clearly would’ve just been depth for the organization, although with all the younger guys who are available to fill in as NHL depth — we’re not talking top prospects like Shayne Gostisbehere but instead guys like Brandon Manning and Mark Alt — it’s not really clear exactly what his purpose would have been.
Montreal fans love the guy, but even they recognized that his time in the NHL is rightfully over. Via Habs Eyes On The Prize this past offseason:
Bouillon saw massive spikes in his play whenever he was paired with P.K. Subban, which is about the most unsurprising thing I’ve written on this site in the last week. That’s not to say that Bouillon didn’t put in a yeoman’s effort, everyone knows that he’s one of the hardest working players in the league, but he’s clearly below replacement level at this point in his career. … He ended up playing over 30% of his shifts with Subban, and even that wasn’t enough to pretty up his numbers.
Not even P.K. Subban was good enough to pretty-up Bouillon’s numbers, and the Flyers do not have a P.K. Subban-caliber defenseman on their roster today, so it’s kinda scary to think what might’ve happened with him here. Boullion would have been a weird addition for the Flyers, to be sure.
