Holmgren speaks about goalies, trade deadline

by Travis Hughes on Feb 13, 2009 8:50 AM EST in Philadelphia Flyers News

Paul Holmgren speaks to Craig Custance of Sporting News Today. Here are the highlights. A hat tip to Kukla.

On the goalie controversy:

I think we have a good goaltending tandem. Marty Biron, if you look at the goalies around the league, is he upper-echelon? Probably not. There are very few guys in the upper echelon. (Antero Niittymaki) proved to be a good goalie as well. Last year (Biron) had a good year heading into the playoffs and he'd never played a playoff game. I thought he responded very well. ... I think there are a lot of similarities this year to last year, and when the time comes, he's our goalie. I don't think Marty is a goalie who is going to play 79 games. He doesn't have to. We have another guy who can play games and play well.

On the trade deadline:

There are some areas I wouldn't mind shoring up. We'd like to get a little bigger up front, if we could. Some of the teams now in our conference, the Devils are a big team, Washington is a big team, the Bruins are a big team. We're okay, but we have a little bit of a size differential up front.

The entire article is linked here, but be prepared -- the formatting is a weird newspaper style. They make a big deal about a misleading quote from Holmgren that states the Flyers "need to get better to make the playoffs" but in my eyes the focus of the article is the statement on Biron. He's not an upper echelon goalie, but he's sufficent, is basically what Holmgren is saying.

I think it's clear that the goalies we have now are going to be here until the summer at least, so the question then becomes "is Holmgren happy with a guy that isn't upper echelon"?

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Comments

Thank God I finally found this website, and no, Homer is not happy

First, great site. Philly born and raised, living in Amsterdam for school, so it’s great to have this nice of a Flyers blog site to keep me up to date. GO FLYERS!!!

As for Homer, do I think he’s ‘happy’? Would you be happy with a sufficient, but non-top echelon goalie? You’d probably say, yes, well, it could be worse. And I think that’s where Homer is at. I don’t know if it’s as glaring of a need to address at the trade deadline as, like he said, matching size up front with the rest of the conference, and another puck moving defenseman. Does it need to be JayBo? No. But did you see the game Randy Jones played last night? You can’t have that as a top-4 defenseman making $2.75 mil a year. And the Flyers can’t have that if we’re going to make a solid run for the cup.

by Dave Killer Carlson on Feb 13, 2009 9:08 AM EST reply actions

I’ve been a proponent for the past two seasons that Randy Jones needs to go. He’d be nice as a guy with a lesser role, but you’re completely right — exactly like I mentioned in the game recap last night. You can’t just bump him down because you can’t be paying a third pairing guy the money he’s getting. He has to go.

So is Amsterdam as awesome as it’s cracked up to be?

Broad Street Hockey - SB Nation's Philadelphia Flyers Blog
Because the Broad Street Subway is orange for a reason.

by Travis Hughes on Feb 13, 2009 9:23 AM EST up reply actions

Despite only being in Amsterdam for a weekend, I must admit it is a pretty cool city. Definitely want to go back.

by Geoff Detweiler on Feb 13, 2009 4:57 PM EST up reply actions

goalie has been an issue for this team since the beginning of time. I’ve been saying Nitty should be the starter all season, but he has consistency issues. it seems like when he feels he has to compete for the spot he plays a lot better, which is not reassuring because that doesnt help come playoff time,

as far as defense goes it is our biggest issue by far. I’m kinda enamored by the prospects of Jay Bo in the orange and black but he would cost a lot and we cant afford to trade the house only to have him leave as a UFA this summer. the flyers absolutely need to adress their blueline. they have a good crop of solid players back there but they are all asked to play over their heads and overachieve (Jones is a perfect example of this). Their are plenty of good names available, im optimistic that Holmgren will work something out.

we probably wont be able to trade for a top goalie but bolstering the defense will help the goaltending as well as the rest of the team.

by njh3293 on Feb 13, 2009 9:42 AM EST reply actions

I love this blog.

When was the last time we had a goalie make the all-star team?

Not that it really matters, I just think njh is right. We may have had an all-star season from a goalie here and there, but the position itself has always been an issue. Jeez, how many have we had since hextall? Every time I think the next solid goalie is between the pipes we go on a losing streak and find out he’s not the right guy.

by Have a Seat on Feb 13, 2009 10:14 AM EST reply actions

In defense of all Flyers goalies since Hextall (Snow, Vanbiesbrouck, Boucher, Cechmanek, Esche, Niitty, Biron, and why not consider Pelletier, Ouellet, and Little) it must also be mentioned that Clarke never put a priority on the position. Jeremy Duchesne was a 4th round pick, highest goalie drafted by the Flyers since 1999 (with #22 overall Max Ouellet) until Jacob DeSerres in the 3rd round this year. Pelletier was a 2nd rounder in 1997, Boucher 1st in 1995. Either way, there was a priority placed on the position and those that were (Ouellet, Pelletier, Boucher) weren’t trusted/given the opportunity to be the guy. Remember Boucher coming off the sophomore slump, winning his job back from Cechmanek only to get hurt? Yeah, never trusted again.

by Geoff Detweiler on Feb 13, 2009 5:07 PM EST up reply actions

excellent post Shagg and I completely agree. Clarke’s priority was the team in front, and rarely the goalie. Somewhat justified, but in the end, the goalie is your last guy keeping the puck out of your net, and you need him to be damn good. Big weekend this weekend! LETS GO FLYERS!!

Travis: yes, Amsterdam is real….is it coincidence that the Dutch National Soccer Jerseys are also mostly Orange and Black?? LETS GO FLYERS!!!

by Dave Killer Carlson on Feb 14, 2009 7:51 AM EST reply actions