5 random players you forgot were on the Philadelphia Flyers

Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble: Part Deux

Before you all go crazy and throw me off the top of the Wells Fargo Center, hear me out.

Mike Knuble and (to a greater extent) Simon Gagne are both staples of the 2000s era Flyers. Both skaters could score in bunches and played styles that seemed to work no matter what the era. Gagne was an effortless skater with a blistering wrist shot and elite hockey IQ, while Knuble was a power forward with a knack for cleaning up greasy goals in the crease and creating havoc in front of the net.

Gagne played his first 10 NHL seasons in Philadelphia, racking up 259 goals and over 500 points in 664 regular season games, and helped provide countless playoff memories, including his OT winner in game six of the 2004 Eastern Conference Final, and his heroics in the reverse sweep of Boston in 2010.

Knuble’s tenure in Philly was shorter, but he still managed to record seasons of 24, 27, 29 and 34 goals in his four year stint, also filled with electric playoff moments like his double OT winner against the Washington Capitals in the 2008 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

However, age and injury concerns ultimately ended both athletes’ time in Philadelphia, with Knuble departing after the 2008-09 season and Gagne being traded the following year.

So, with all these credentials to their names, how does this duo find a spot on this list? Because during the 2012-13 season a desperate Flyers organization brought Knuble and Gagne back to Philly in one of the most ill-fated attempts at bringing the band back together in Flyers history.

The Flyers lured Knuble out of retirement just before the start of the lockout shortened 2012-13 season and traded for Gagne shortly thereafter. At the time it seemed like a move to help the team retain its momentum following the exciting, but short lived playoff run they had the previous season.

While it did give us a couple cool moments like this:

And this:

It was clear that the two elder statesmen of Flyers hockey didn’t have much left in the tank. Knuble recorded four goals in 28 games while Gagne scored five in one fewer game.

The 2012-13 season was incredibly disappointing for Flyers fans as the team failed to reach the playoffs for just the second time since the 1993-94 season. Though Knuble and Gagne reuniting with their former team was the bright spot in an otherwise miserable season, you’d be hard pressed to find any Flyers fans that have a lasting memory of the duo’s second stint in Philadelphia — or that it ever even existed.

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