Grading the 2009 Flyers: Simon Gagne

I agree. He does have excellent value right now but I think what he brings to the table is invaluable to this team. Not to mention that I believe he’s the longest tenured Flyer, the only guy remaining from the 2004 run, and he deserves to be around when (notice I’m not saying if) this team wins a Cup.

An assistant captain that has been with the team for 10 years is devoid of any leadership? Unless you’ve heard players say that or witnessed it from the inside, I don’t see how, on the outside looking in, you don’t give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean, that ‘A’ on his chest didn’t just appear out of nowhere.

And yeah, we made it further last year, but that was last year. This year, everybody disappeared in the playoffs except for Giroux… and Gagne. In case you forgot, Gagne led the team in goals in the playoffs. So we made it further last year without him, but if we don’t have him this year, do we even win game 3?

And Hartnell is not negotiable? Over Gagne? Yes, I’d much rather trade the guy who scores more, who is one of this teams three captains, and is on the first line instead of trading the guy who’s always in the box and throws his glove, creating a penalty shot.

Does he have trade value? Yes. Does he have value with the Flyers? Definitely yes. If he is traded, it better be for an elite player, not Giguere, Komisarek, or Kaberle.

You’re right in that it is NOT fair for you to say we made it farther in the playoffs last year without Gagne. Others have already mentioned Gagne’s value to the team during the series with Pittsburgh, but you seem to be awfully quick to forget that one of the reasons we DID make it so far last year was RJ Umberger, who is not here anymore! So yes, we we still need Simon. Also, if Gagne is “just a scorer”, why was he ranked 13th on the list of defensive forward statistics? You know, the list that generally hints at who might get the Selke trophy ? No, he was never going to win it, but he was only 6 spots behind Richards, who was a finalist for it. So NO, Gagne is not useless defensively!

I also don’t agree with your take that Gagne shows no leadership. Maybe you don’t have the luxury of living half a mile from the practice facility like I do, but I’ve seen the dynamics there and I’ve watched Gagne his entire tenure in Philly. Gagne doesn’t wear an “A” because he’s been here the longest, he wears an “A” because he deserves it.

Now, I look forward to seeing Giroux grow (although he wll grow much faster with Gagne as a mentor, lets not forget that!), and I love Carter and especially Ritchie, but Hartnell as non-negotiable? Seriously? I have nothing against Hartnell per say, but the logic of your statement just doesn’t follow for me.

Goaltending is a major issue, but I don’t think trading Gagne is the way to fix it. We have a lot of young players (i.e. Giroux, Powe…) who need mentors, and we can’t cut off experienced leadership. The departure of Knuble is likely, and Hatcher will probably never be back in the NHL healthy let alone as a Flyer.

You want to complain about cap space, complain about Briere. Briere is amazing when he plays, but his two seasons here as our highest paid player haven’t even come close to adding up to one season of actual playing time. Simon came back from injury and played a whole year with no major issues and played his heart out the whole time. I’ll happily contend that Simon earned his $5 mil and change, and Briere did not earn his 6 and a half million.

Theodore should have been out of the league a while ago. It’s ridiculous to think Washington thought he was capable of leading that team.