According to a report by MTV.fi, a Finnish press service, Flyers striker Jori Lehterä was questioned by police in his country, Finland, about his involvement in a cocaine network.

Lehterä, 30, still has a year of contract with the Flyers, which brings him $ 5 million (the salary cap is $ 4.7 million). A Google translation of the report indicates that Lehterä is one of 23 suspects in the case of two kilograms of cocaine that began to spread from last January.

"We spoke with Jori Lehterä and the league office about reports from Finland," said General Manager Ron Hextall, "and we reserve any further comments on this for now."

"We will investigate the situation," Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly added to the Courrier Post in a statement to the league's public relations staff, "and will have no further comment pending the end of the process."

According to the translation of the Finnish report, Lehterä denied committing a crime. Seven people are already in prison in Finland and the translated report indicates that the police expect the investigation to develop and that the police have also seized 650,000 euros (about 762,000 dollars) in jewelery and of valuables.

We do not know if Lehterä was up front with this information when he announced his camp or if it blinded the Flyers when they heard about it Wednesday morning.

"I do not know any details, so there is nothing to say," said Hextall. "No comments."

That was also his answer to the question of whether Lehterä was still on the Flyers list, which was the case at 11:30 on Wednesday.

Lehterä scored three goals and eight points in 62 games last year for the Flyers. Due to the good performances of Corban Knight, Jordan Weal and Mikhail Vorobyev so far at training camp, Lehterä fought to retain his place from last season and appears on the bubble with less than a week before the alignments are due to NHL

"On the ice, Lehts does extremely consistent things every day," said coach Dave Hakstol. "He's a reliable guy in every role we've given him."

If the Flyers were to give up Lehterä and send him to the American Hockey League, while waiting for the NHL, they would save $ 1.025 million from the salary cap, but unlike most of the last ten years, the Cape Space Flyers.

Dave Isaac; @davegisaac; 856-486-2479; [email protected]

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