Falloon Traded To Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Flyers Thursday night traded for former Spokane Chiefs start Pat Falloon, the player selected No. 2 in the 1991 draft, one pick after a guy named Eric Lindros.

Falloon, a 23-year-old right winger, was obtained from the rebuilding San Jose Sharks for the Flyers’ 1996 first- and fourth-round draft picks and 18-year-old right winger Martin Spanhel.

“We’re going to need some scoring from more people, and this is a step in the right direction,” Flyers general manager Bob Clarke said. “We got a kid who is going to come in and score some goals.”

San Jose acquired goalie Chris Terreri from New Jersey on Tuesday, and then sent the draft picks and Spanhel to Buffalo for defenseman Doug Bodger, completing its third trade in three days.

Falloon was expected to join the Flyers for today’s practice.

After back-to-back 60-goal seasons with the Chiefs in the Western Hockey League, Falloon had 25 goals as a 20-year-old NHL rookie in 1991-92 and 22 goals in 1993-94.

But the 5-foot-11, 190-pounder was stuck in Sharks coach Kevin Constantine’s dog house this season and had three goals in nine games. In 258 career NHL games, Falloon has 76 goals.

“Whatever happened in San Jose the last couple of years, we’re not concerned about,” Clarke said. “We gave up a lot to get him.”

The Flyers needed to acquire a goal scorer because none of their second- or third-line forwards had more than five goals before Thursday night’s game against Ottawa.

“It was apparent that we needed more goals,” Clarke said.

Falloon is a good puck handler and could play center or right wing for the Flyers. Although he isn’t known as a natural goal scorer, Falloon is adept at collecting rebounds around the net and jumping on loose pucks.

The only knock against Falloon is his speed. But he’s regarded as a tough player in front of the net. On Jan. 10, 1993, Falloon suffered a dislocated right shoulder and missed the rest of the season.