Flyers Sign John Vanbiesbrouck

Free agent goalie John Vanbiesbrouck signed a two-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.

Terms of the contract were not immediately disclosed.

Vanbiesbrouck, 34, spent the last five seasons with the Florida Panthers and was a member of Team USA at the 1998 Winter Olympics. He was 18-29-11 with a 2.87 goals-against average in 60 regular season games for the Panthers last season.

In 717 career NHL games, the Detroit native has a 306-285-90 record with a 3.12 goals-against average.

Florida took Vanbiesbrouck from the Vancouver Canucks in the 1993 NHL expansion draft. Vancouver had picked him up in a trade from the New York Rangers, where he played parts of 11 seasons from 1981 to 1993.

Flyers goalie Ron Hextall, 33, is entering the final year of a three-year contract, with a no-trade clause, to pay him $2.5 million for the 1998-99 season. Flyers general manager Bob Clarke has said that the last year of Hextall's contract may have to be renegotiated if the team signed a big-name free-agent goaltender and Hextall became a backup.

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