Hextall has his Hands Tied During Free Agency

Forced to watch TV coverage of free agency all day because the Flyers are already over the salary cap, general manager Ron Hextall can’t help but be a little glad.

He saw a few of the big-deal signings — in the first hour of free agency teams dolled out over $191 million — and couldn’t help but be surprised.

“There were a few. I’ll leave it right at that, though,” Hextall said with a chuckle.

“There’s two days of the year where a lot of people get crazy: July 1 and the trade deadline. You’ve got to keep things intact that day if you can.”

Instead of the Flyers usual splash, they were forced to stay sane. All they did was re-sign Ray Emery, sign goalie Rob Zepp and forward Blair Jones to two-way contracts.

“I would have liked to bring a little bit of insanity here,” Hextall said, “but not too much.”

Instead, the Flyers barely spent any coin. The team was already a little more than $236,000 over the salary cap and paid Emery a reported $1 million for a one-year deal and Zepp, who will play with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, a two-way contract worth a reported $600,000 if he’s in the NHL.