Flyers honoring Simon Gagne, one of franchise's best wingers

Retired left winger Simon Gagne, who spent most of his outstanding career with the Flyers, will be honored in ceremonies before Tuesday's game against visiting Los Angeles.

"It's going to be fun to go back to where everything started, where my son was born, and we're really excited," said Gagner, who kidded his new job was as a bus driver for his three children. "We're going to stick around more than just one night. We're going to stay there for the week and just have some really good memories that happened there when I was in Philly for more than 10 years."
During his Flyers career, Gagne finished with 264 goals and 535 points; among left wingers, he finished fourth in both categories, behind only Bill Barber, Brian Propp, and John LeClair, in franchise history.

Gagne, one of the classiest players to ever play for the Orange and Black, was asked if he could pick a favorite memory of his Flyers career.

" I have more than one," he said. "The one that's sticking out in my mind, the first one, would be my first season playing with [Eric] Lindros, LeClair, [Mark] Recchi, [Eric] Desjardins, Rod Brind'Amour, and after that [Keith Primeau], Dan McGillis, Chris Therien, Keith Jones. I could go on and on with the list.

"I had so much fun. Even if I was only 19-years-old, those guys helped me to feel really comfortable as a young player in my first year, on and off the ice. And that year we went really far in the playoffs when we lost in Game 7 against Jersey, we were only one game closer to going to the Stanley Cup Finals."

Gagne said his rookie year is "always going to be special.  My other one would be the playoffs in 2010, my last year with the Flyers. The comeback against Boston; that's the fresh one in my mind, but a really special one, too."

The Flyers overcame a 3-0 series deficit _ and a 3-0 deficit in Game 7 _ to jolt the Bruins. Gagne scored the third-period, game-winner in Game 7.

Gagne did some hockey broadcasting last year and may do some in the future.

But if Quebec ever gets an NHL franchise,  Gagne said, he would like to get involved in some aspect.

"I'm not going to lie," he said in a conference call with reporters last week. "I'm in Quebec City and all the rumors that they said at one point that they might have a team here with expansion in the future, I would definitely like to .... bring my experience to help the team  have success here in Quebec City if that could be an option for me."

Stat of the day: The Flyers are 5-2-2 with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in the lineup, 1-6-1  without him.