Max Talbot Agrees To Five-Year Deal With Flyers
Paul Holmgren’s phone bill will be large next month, but no one in Pittsburgh will give him any sympathy.
The team announced they came to terms with Talbot on a multi-year deal Friday afternoon. TSN reports it is a five-year deal worth a total of $9 million. He had eight goals and 13 assists with the Penguins last season in 82 games.
“It was not only about the money, it was about trying to find the right fit for me,” Talbot said on TSN.
After stealing away Jaromir Jagr from the Penguins, the Flyers followed up by nabbing center Max Talbot from them as well. Oddly enough, the former Penguins star and Talbot have never met.
“Never met the guy,” Talbot said on a conference call with the media. “I’ve heard about him. There’s a reason why there was so much interest and so much hype about him in this free-agent market – it’s because he’s a good player. I think he showed the world at the last World Championships that he can definitely play.”
The’ll get to know each other as teammates now and will look mighty strange to the Penguins faithful. The interstate rival between the Flyers and Penguins will certainly go up a notch with the signing.
“IIt’s obviously going to be really challenging,” Talbot said. “It’s such a big rivalry, obviously. A couple guys called me from the Flyers today and were just telling me what a great place it is to play in Philly. For me, leaving Pittsburgh was never easy.”
Talbot said he knew last Thursday that he wasn’t going to be back in Pittsburgh next season.
The 27-year-old was 48.6 percent on faceoffs last season, an area where the Flyers hoped they could improve. Talbot has versatility though; he can play on the wing as well as at center. He is also a penalty killer and played on the Penguins kill unit that was the best in the league last season.
With the gigantic makeover the team got last Thursday has certainly changed the face of the Flyers, but Talbot says he believes those changes are good, mentioning the addition of Ilya Bryzgalov and new forwards Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and newly-signed Jakub Voracek as big reasons.
“From what I’ve heard, they have a great bunch of guys, great leaders, and for us, the earlier the better [to build chemistry],” Talbot said. “It was one of the things when I talked to Paul Holmgren today, it was about my leadership, and in Pittsburgh we were such a tight core and I was part of building that room that had been so great.”
It will be interesting to see where the Flyers make room for Talbot. He can take faceoffs, but also plays the wing and is open to whatever Peter Laviolette wants him to do.
“I think versatility is one thing, but we haven’t talked about it,” Talbot said when asked if he thought he’d be the third line center. “I think maybe kind of mentioned about third-line center, but there’s so many things that could happen.
“I feel like the team should be about performance as well. If you play well you get more, and if you don’t play as good, you don’t get as much. I’m expecting that, and if it’s a third line center I’ll be really happy and I’ll work as hard as I can to make the line work.”
Talbot is also on Twitter (@max25talbot). The Flyers will play the Penguins for the first time on Dec. 8, 2011, after two full months of the season will have expired.
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