Knuble back with Flyers, where he feels right at home

SUNRISE, Fla. - When Mike Knuble packed his bags at the end of a disappointing playoff run against the Penguins in 2009, he did so kicking and screaming. He knew there was a strong possibility that he would not be back for another season.

Sure, Knuble was happy to accept a 3-year, $7.6 million deal from the then-promising Washington Capitals. But his heart belonged in Philadelphia. He had his best seasons in Philadelphia, stringing together 221 points in 310 games with the Flyers.

The Flyers wanted him back, too, but lacked the salary-cap space - with big names Mike Richards and Jeff Carter soon requiring mammoth contract extensions - to keep him.

"I never really wanted to go, and I said that at the time," Knuble said Friday. "It's a place where you feel very comfortable. The staff, the people you see at the rink every day, you know your way around [the city]. It's a great organization and a place I kind of had to leave because of salary-cap reasons."

Three years later, Knuble is back. And ready to prove that even at 40, he's available to contribute to a lineup desperate for depth.

Knuble cleared his medicals Friday morning, shortly before inking a 1-year deal that will pay him a pro-rated salary of $750,000. He will wear jersey No. 9 instead of his familiar No. 22, which defenseman Luke Schenn now sports.

Knuble will be available to play in this weekend's back-to-back set in Florida. The Flyers are already without forwards Scott Hartnell (left foot), Danny Briere (left wrist), and Zac Rinaldo (right leg laceration), in addition to defenseman Andrej Meszaros (left shoulder).

"I think it's a great opportunity to come back and help out," Knuble said. "I think I'll be ready for anything . . . I'm ready to go."

During the lockout, Knuble said he did give some thought to the fact that his career might end on Gary Bettman's terms and not his own.

"It was tough for a while," Knuble said. "Life moves on for everybody. You adjust and move on in your own world; other things come into focus. I stayed active this fall."

He stayed active enough to believe that he had an outside shot to crack Mike Babcock's roster with the Detroit Red Wings, despite entering an abbreviated training camp on a tryout. Without any exhibition games, Knuble failed to earn a contract for a 16th NHL season. So, he took the Red Wings up on offer to play for the team's AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids, Mich. The 25-game contract allowed for an out-clause in the event of an NHL deal.

Once the season started, Knuble was confident that teams with injuries would be looking for help. No team has been hit harder than the Flyers in the first week of the season.

Knuble said he is "realistic" when asked about his upcoming role on the team, trying not to put too much stock in his drop-off last year with Washington, when he went from 40 points in 2011 to 18, his worst season in a decade.

He averaged 13:57 minutes per game with the Capitals, and just a little more than 1 minute of that was on the power play. The Flyers could use a consistent, big-body presence in front of the net - especially with the man-advantage. Knuble likely enters the roster this weekend a bit rusty, with only Wednesday night's game in Grand Rapids under his belt.

"A guy like me, I'll be a spot-filler, and I'll fill some holes at times," Knuble said. "I'll play where I'm needed to play and I'll try to do my best in that role that night."

Off the ice, Knuble will be looked upon as another leading voice in the Flyers' locker room. He'll be joined by teammates Sean Couturier, Brayden Schenn and Scott Laughton, who were born after he was already drafted in the NHL in 1991. With 1,040 games under his belt, something he called his biggest accomplishment, Knuble has likely spilled more blood on the ice than most of the Flyers' kids have seen in movies.

"I think that's part of being a veteran guy, that's part of the role," Knuble said. "You want to talk to guys, be a good guy and act like a veteran player. Sometimes, it's a 'do as I say and not as I do' type of thing. I want to be someone that the staff can count on to do the right things, on and off the ice, to be a positive influence."

Slap shots

Paul Holmgren said Danny Briere is still "50-50" to make his season debut this weekend after sitting out with a wrist fracture. The probability of his return increases with each game, according to Holmgren . . . Zac Rinaldo could return as soon as Sunday in Tampa Bay from his leg laceration suffered in Buffalo last weekend . . . With back-to-back games this weekend, the Flyers did not practice on Friday before boarding their charter flight to Fort Lauderdale.

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