Today marked a huge moment in the history of the BRHL2 Philadelphia Flyers.

Today we have acquired the best player lacing up skates anywhere in the world, Alexander Ovechkin.

News of the deal are just now beginning to leak, but you are getting the true details of the trade here first. Coming to Philly along with AO are Chris Drury and Petr Prucha.

Also heading to our Philadelphia Phantoms organization in the BRHL2 minors are Patrice Brisebois, Brian Willsie, and Nathan Oystrick.

Leaving town in this blockbuster is the newly acquired Tomas Fleischmann, and two perennial Flyers mainstays, the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel.

Our beat reporter Bobby Clarke had the chance to sit down with GM Rex Leak shortly after the deal was completed:

BC: So this is obviously a clear #1 favourite for trade of the year, how did such a huge deal come into place?
RL: Well first off, everyone knows San Jose was right up against the cap with some very big raises due to key players in the offseason. I had inquired in the past about Parise, Chara, and to a lesser extent, (thinking it would be impossible) AO. I was approached by John via league email (everybody needs to use it!) after seeing that I had listed both Sedins on my trade block (great tool to attract trades via the STHS program guys, use it!). He first suggested some kind of 2-1 base deal of the Sedins for AO, which peaked my interest. Due to other work commitments on his part and my own, the structure of a 2-1 sedins for AO deal was basically stalled for the last 4-5 days... we did stay in touch via ICQ throughout this time (yet again guys, a great tool to use for quick and much faster negotiations than email or PMs.. use it more!). After staying in touch, yesterday I was presented with a base offer of AO, Drury, Prucha for Sedin, Sedin, and Fleischmann. I was initially hesitant about moving an up-and-comer in Tomas, so we slept on it through the night. A deal was finally completed when I asked for some help with my AHL squad which is off to a very strong start, in which time a combo of Brisebois, Willsie (both UFA's), and young dman Oystrick were added to help balance out the deal in my mind, because I was taking on extra salary.

BC: How do you feel about the players leaving?
RL: We would like to wish Daniel, Henrik, and Tomas all the best in their futures with the Sharks organization. Daniel and Henrik are top 20 point producers over the past half decade in the NHL. Tomas plays with AO in the NHL, and is definitely going to benefit from that relationship. However, we felt the chanced to acquire the most prolific goal scorer since Wayne Gretzky was something that we just had to do.

BC: What will AO and the others bring to the Philadelphia lineup?
RL: Well, as you can see, we have been getting abysmal point production from our top line of Daniel, Henrik, and Marian Hossa. I was only days away from calling them out publicly for caring too much about their NHL duties and not enough about their BRHL2 duties, but John in San Jose saved me the trouble. You may also notice Drury has quite good rates and a very reasonable salary, and he will pencil in as a PKer and my top line C for both even strength and powerplay. Prucha will replace Tomas for this year on our 3rd line RW role.... I should also point out that AO has 100 DU, SK ratings, as well as something very important for our top 9 forwards: a 88 CK, and 76 ST rating which helps balance out smaller forwards such as Ray Whitney and Mike Comrie in our top 9.

BC: Last question Rex, where do you feel the organization is at now, after this deal?
RL: Well, to be honest, getting the best player in the world brings our organizational confidence to a new level. We realize this is still a fairly old team, and we will continue to need to get younger and cheaper. None of our organizational goals for the season have been reached yet, and hopefully Alex, Chris, Petr and the others will help us to acheive those goals.

BC: Thank you for your time, and congratulations!
RL: Thank you.