sorry guys,philly is a good team but crosby burned u again lol..say what u want about him…his stats do the talkin for him GO PENS

1. Keep Biron, let Nittymaaki go, and draft a goalie prospect – The Flyers haven’t developed a bona fide NHL starting goalie in God knows how long. Now is as good a time as any to do it, and Biron can hold down the fort for 2-3 years until that kid is ready.

2. Knuble – The Flyers would like to bring him back, and he wants to come back. He’ll need to take a pay cut, but I could see him back at 2 years for 2 mill per. He’s the Flyers’ only true net-crashing power forward.

3. Defense – Jones might be movable (in our dreams at least) because his contract could provide a nice cap space boost to some team after the 09/10 season. Alberts will be a UFA and I don’t think he’ll be back. Ideally, the Flyers sign either Komisarek or that kid from BU that’s supposedly the greatest thing since sliced bread (he’s indicated he likes the Flyers, as I recall). Sbisa will also probably play the whole year with the big club.

I don’t think the team’s cap situation will fit J-Bo unless they want to have a repeat of this year, or unless they can trade Briere, which seems almost impossible.

4. Lupul/Briere – Like I said, i think the Flyers are stuck with Briere because of the contract. However, Lupul’s is more reasonable at 4 million per, and the Flyers could probably find a suitor for him. If moving him means they have the flexibility to do improve the team in other areas, I wouldn’t be at all stunned to see him go.

Considering the cap situation, I could see at least one of Jared Ross and Andreas Nodl, if not both, on one of the top four lines.

5. Braydon Coburn – I love his game, but I have to think that his skill combined with his affordability means that he is a valuable trade commodity. If there are good offers for him, Holmgren should listen. That doesn’t mean he should come cheaply for anyone, though.

Matt Carle is another possibility to be traded, but he is expensive and played great in the playoffs. Could go either way. I would rather Carle go before Coburn.

6. I’d give Stevens one more shot with this group, because they probably only have one or two more years left together before they’ll get too old/expensive.

Step 1:
Don’t. Panic.

The Flyers have a LOT of really young talent, and the farm system ain’t even bare.

Potential 25-30 goal scorers 2010-2011 assuming player status quo:
Carter
Gagne
Richards
Hartnell
Lupul
Giroux
Briere
vanRiemsdyk (least likely given age, but eh)
Knuble (he might fall off a cliff, but he was supposed to have done that 5 years ago)

That’s a ton of offensive talent right there. Even if just a portion of those guys reach the 30 goal plateau, that’s impressive. If we don’t change a thing, then a year of experience and chemistry building points towards a longer playoff run next year.

Step 2:
Create cap space where you can.

Okay, so maybe Briere is untradeable, but he’s also a dynamic offensive threat. Where can you cut salary? Jones, certainly, if anyone would take him. His replacement is already there in the form of Sbisa. Niitty could be dropped, although I think there’s still potential there and wouldn’t like to see him go. Carle could be traded for another puck-moving d-man, but as was noted he’s so young and just now coming into his own.

I would be against trading Lupul, because I think he’s at the tip of his offensive iceberg. He’s not bad on defense either (a solid 2-way player, albeit not elite). His shot is getting better, he’s very young, and he’s still developing. I think he’s a guy that could break out for 30-odd goals within the next year or two, which brings me to my next point:

It might be time to trade Gagne. He’s coming off an awesome year, and I really don’t want to trade him, but he’s expensive & also coming off a rebound-from-serious-injury year. Given his age and severity of that injury, who knows how much longer he’ll last? Still, I think he’s more of a tradeable commodity than Briere, but that we could simultaenously slide Briere into the LW spot on the 1st line if we have to. Or, hopefully, vanRiemsdyk will impress and can take that spot right over. Getting that cap space could allow us to run for an elite defenseman.

3. Realize our D was good.

We’re young at D as we are at O. We’ll get better there, too. The only real weak links are Jones & Alberts, and Sbisa could take over for either. Still, we do need another D. Hopefully one that could either put the puck in the net or deliver crushing checks, but hopefully he’s elite at whatever it is he does. We have a few hybrid defenders, that can move pucks but don’t put it in the net and that are defensively minded but don’t deliver crushing checks. That’s a good thing, but maybe get one or two that are really good at one or the other (preferably bouwth (badumch))

4. Develop a young goalie

The one thing we’re really lacking is the type of goalie that can take a game over. Even in Biron’s shutout, most of the shots were easy, and the couple incredible saves he made were mitigated by the 4 awful goals he let in in game 6. I know it’s almost impossible to accurately scout goalies, but at this point it doesn’t seem crazy to draft 2-3 really high and hope one of them pans into something worthwhile. Look what a great young goalie can do for franchises: Pittsburgh, Columbus, LA, just to name a few — those’re just a few that can dominate games and singlehandedly win it for us. Biron’s good, but he’s not that type of goalie.

Yeah, I’ve been following this blog for a few months now, since I’m always looking for Flyer info. I dunno, I’m really annoyed at the Lupul hate. The guy is great, and you saw how badly Harty and Carter played with him gone. He does alot of things right, and is a solid player.

Anyway, I’m just frustrated as all hell still. Beating the Caps and the Habs last year was great, especially with all the obvious ref bias, but if there was any team I ever wanted to see the Flyers beat this year, it was the Pens, and they couldn’t get the job done. I’m putting all the blame on Stevens for that mess. I mean, when the flyers go down a goal or two, you can see it on the ice just how much it hurt the team. They rely almost entirely on momentum, which is a surefire sign of a complete lack of discipline.

There seems to be some serious disconnect between the players we have, and the style that’s played. We go down 2-0 against the pens, can’t buy a goal, do everything we can, so to get the momentum which we so desperately need, we send in Asham, right? Or Carcillo, Right? No. We watch the flyers mope around for 50 minutes before scoring a lucky goal. It’s pathetic.

Get rid of Biron. Whatever streak he had last year is clearly gone.

Keep Nitty till we find a better Goalie. He’s proven he’s the better goalie when given faith (the kind of faith you don’t have when you get put back on the 2nd line every bad game.)

Make a trade worth a damn for crying out loud. We hear how big an impact almost every trade made against the teams we play, meanwhile we did jack shit.

Get rid of Gags. He’s going to be Primeau this year or the next.

Asham, Cote, Carcillo. Pick one, dump the other two.

JVR, playing next season, or get rid of him. He’s not going to step up if he keeps getting pampered.

Jones… No one likes Jones. Niether do I. Drop him.

Alberts. Worthless.

I am not a capologist by any stretch, but if they can keep this team together for the next two years I would try to stand pat. A lot of these guys are young. They all have shortcomings but they have progressed. I don’t want to tamper with the chemistry too much. I know the Upshall deal needed to be done because of the cap situation we are in, but i really think that move hurt the team from a chemistry standpoint. Do we get any cap relief from Hatcher this year.

Hatcher has no effect on the cap because he was on IR the whole year so his salary didn’t count anyway. Lupul’s contract increases next season, and Knuble needs to be signed. I’ve heard the Flyers want him back, and they should. He’s still filling his role just fine. He’s not here to be fast in the defensive zone. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lupul go. Jones or Alberts should be moved to make room for Sbisa. The Flyers need to solidify this as the Holmgren era, not the Clarke era, by keeping young talent instead of trading for quick fixes. They don’t work.

Briere doesn’t fit in his contract. Maybe he could be asked to take a paycut like in football. It’s almost unconscionable that a third liner should make that much money. And the signing is looking bad now that we have so much talent at center and Briere is a logjam for them to play more minutes. Umberger is gone for this reason (plus the money).

Biron — I was really disappointed in Game 6. Some of those goals were awful, especially the third and fourth. Even on the first one he seemed to leave his feet to dive for the puck, which is how it got under his pad. He makes really strange decisions with the puck. We can’t keep underperforming veterans around if we expect to develop. Goalies are almost impossible to predict, but I think it’s time this franchise gets back to FINALLY having a clear #1 goaltender, and a younger one at that.

Alberts was easily the most consistent defensemen we had, and without a doubt the most physical. Getting rid of him would be a huge step back.

Lupul? Yeah lets get rid of one of the hardest working wings, from the line that for long stretches of the season was the best in the NHL. What do you think happens to that line then?

We all know what they can’t do.

Getting rid of Upshall was a stupid decision that just about derailed the team. Did that move help the Flyers this year? Did it make players feel good about playing for the organization? I’ve heard so many former players who played for the Flyers organization in past decades speak glowingly of what a quality, class act the Flyers are, and then we get the kiss off of a heart and soul guy like Upshall who hears about his trade from a REPORTER. What the hell is going on in the back office? I know how I felt, and I wasn’t friends with the guy like the players on the team. Yes I know it’s a business, but can anyone really continue to argue at this point that dumping Upshall at the 23rd hour of the deadline was the move we absolutely needed to help the team make its run into the playoffs?

One place the team has to make a move, and I think will make a move is at Goaltender. I see one of two things happening — if the french canadien mafia stays together: Gags, Briere and Biron, then we have to dump Nitty. Nitty is Steven’s guy, and he probably has never gotten a fair shake here, but he’s gotta be moved to make room for whomever is going to actually challenge Biron for #1.

Biron had periods this season when he was solid, and even backstopping, but the guy is incredibly unpredictable. He always has issues with his rebounds, and also seems to have a frequent problem knowing where the puck is. He did have a subpar game 6, and while you can’t pin the loss on a single mistake, I’ll probably see him lunging for the puck like a Polar bear batting at a salmon in the river, in my summer nightmares. If he simply stays down in the butterfly there instead of literally pouncing forward, that crappy goal doesn’t go in, and we’re watching game 7.

We can’t draft a goalie, we’re really, really, really, really, bad at it. And this year’s crop doesn’t have a Marc Andre Fluery or a Carey Price so most likely we wouldn’t see a goalie from this years draft for another 5 years at least, so drafting a goalie is out. We need to go out and poach a young goalie if possible (or one of detroit’s goalie scouts, have you seen there goaltending prospects?). You probably won’t keep Biron unless you want him as a starter. I think sign Nitty as a backup and maybe try giving the reigns to a guy like Clemmensen or Anderson. Probably more Clemmensen if your going to try and make a guy the #1 guy. It’d be cheaper (salary cap) to keep nitty and try out a new goalie, then resigning biron and going to get someone else. Gives us the money to maybe go out and get a strong defenseman as well. (And no we don’t have the cash to get Bouwmeester and we won’t anytime soon.)

Nevermind, Detroit signed him… How many goalies do they need in there system? Seems like they could have all their NHL and AHL goalies go down with swine flu and still have someone that could step in and play.