PHILADELPHIA — The voicemail Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren got Thursday morning wasn’t a big surprise.

He had spoken with winger Daniel Cleary’s agent the night before and knew the 34-year-old found a better offer elsewhere.

Cleary called Holmgren himself to give his side of the story and exchanged text messages with the GM throughout the morning.

Instead of attending the Flyers’ training camp on a tryout, Cleary agreed to a reported one-year, $1.75 million contract with the Detroit Red Wings, his team for the past eight seasons.

“I don’t feel (used),” Holmgren said. “Dan was upfront right from the get-go in my first conversation with him. He loved Detroit, wanted it to work out there.

“One of the things that makes him a good player is that he’s a character guy. Obviously, he had deep roots to the Red Wing organization. I can’t fault him for that. I actually probably think more highly of him now than I did two days ago.”

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