General Manager Paul Holmgren

So he's now entering his third full season as General Manager of the Orange and Black...

If you had to grade Holmgren on his performance as the GM? how would you do it?

2006-07: The Beginning

Holmgren became the GM, taking over for Bobby Clarke, back in 2006-07 when the Flyers got off to an awful start and ended up finishing with the worst record in the entire NHL. On his watch, John Stevens, former Calder Cup winner with the Philadelphia Phantoms, was promoted to Flyers' Head Coach in relief of former Stanley Cup Champion (with the Dallas North Stars) Ken Hitchcock.

Then they added Goaltender Marty Biron, which was an upgrade from Robert Esche and put less pressure on Antero Nittymaki. The Flyers were out of playoff contention by then, so there was no pressure on Biron and he could show the Flyers' management what he was capable of. Defensemen Braydon Coburn and Winger Scottie Upshall was added and they focused on developing talent like Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, RJ Umberger, Randy Jones, etc and this game Holmgren an idea of what the team had and what they needed.

2007-08: The Miracle Turn-Around

Then for the 2007-08 season Holmgren went on to add Center Danny Briere, Left Winger Scott Hartnell, Right Winger Joffrey Lupul, and Defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Jason Smith. The team played well for the most part that season, despite injuries and 5 suspensions (to Steve Downie, Jesse Boulerice, Randy Jones, Scott Hartnell, and Riley Cote)...the team also had Ben Eager, Jim Vandameer, Jarclov Modry, Ryan Parent, and Patrrick Thorsden at various times throughout the season.

Late in the season the team added Vaclav Prospal....for their playoff run, to replace the injured Simon Gagne.

The result was a complete 180 from the season before.

By the end of January of the 2007--08 season, the team was in first place in the Atlantic Division and seeded 3rd in the Conference, but they hit a bump in the road in February where they dropped 10 straight....but at the end of the 10 game slide, they were still in the Playoff picture..and they got on another hot streak in March and finished the season with 42 wins, and 95 points, good enough to earn the 6th seed in the Conference. In the post-season, during the Conference Quarter-Finals, the team jumped out to 3 to 1 series lead, but then it took them until game 7 to final finish off Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals.

The team then faced #1 seeded Montreal Canadiens in the Conference Semi-Finals and knocked them out in 5 games, to advance to the Conference Finals against arch rivals, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Flyers defeated the Penguins in 5 out of the 8 meetings in the regular season, but were only 1 - 3 in Pittsburgh, 0 - 2 in Pittsburgh when Fleury played..and 2 - 2 overall against Pittsburgh when Fleury was in net. To make matters worse, Defensemen Kimmo Timonen was put on the DL with a blood clot...and the team went down 3 to 0, and eventually would see Timonen return for Game 5, but the Flyers lost the game 6 - 0 and were eliminated 4 games to 1.

Despite not bringing home the Stanley Cup or not even making th Stanley Cup Finals...I think that season was a big success, considering where they were the previous season....so Holmgren's 2007-08 offseason moves looked brilliant...but caught up to him for the 2008-09 season.

2008-09: The Cookie Monster goes down and the Cap Kills

With the NHL Salary Cap looming and the Flyers overboard..Holmgren couldn't keep the team together and add to the weaknesses, instead he had to make moves to keep the "core of the team" which created other weaknesses.

The Flyers were forced to say good bye to "Captain Gator" Jason Smith, as well as "The Penguin Killer" RJ Umberger, Veterans Vaclav Prospal, Jim Dowd, and Sami Kapanen.

The Priority was to sign, former first round draft pick and up and coming star, Jeff Carter to a long term deal (and did that move pay off!)

Then Holmgren started the season by bringing in Defensemen Steve Eminger and Ossi Vanaanen, promoting Defensemen Lasse Kukkonen, and having the pleasure of starting the season with Defensemen Darian Hatcher, Ryan Parent, and Randy Jones all on the disabled list (Hatcher would remain there the entire season...only to announce his retirement at seasons end...Homer didn't see that coming did he?). Center Glenn Metropolit was added, fan favorite Steve Downie appeared to perminantly be replacing Sami Kapanen, and Right Winger Arron Asham was added to the club

The offseason was more about freeing up cap space, then improving the club and it showed in the first few games as the Philadelphia Flyers roared out from the gate, losing their first 6 games. Their prize acquisition from the 2007-08 offseason, The Cookie Monster, got injured and Steve Eminger and Steve Downie both got traded. Captain Mike Richards almost broke out into tears on camera and Holmgren made threats about bringing in NHL Veteran and Flyer nemessase, Brenden Shanahan...but that turned out to just be a bluff (I guess Ed Snider was breathing down Holmgren's neck like a fire breathing Dragon). The Flyers acquired Defensemen Matt Carle. Promoted Forwards: Darroll Powe, Andreas Nodl, Josh Gratton, and Claude Giroux. Lucky for the Flyers, Jeff Carter caught on fire and roared out to lead the league in goals scored. The Flyers also jumped out to leading the league in short handed goals, they had trouble killing off penalties at the sametime, or staying out of the box...but the good thing for fans of hockey...one of the teams would score when the Flyers were short handed. The Flyers seemed to turn the season around and looked like they were heading in the right direction as they were locked in the 4th seed slot for quite sometime. It looked like they would surely get home ice advantage in the first round of the post season.

But! the Salary Cap struck again, as the Cookie Monster was getting healthier and healthier a roster move needed to be made, and Holmgren managed to con Wayne Gretzky and the Phoenix-Winnipeg Jets-Coyotes in trading Goon Daniel Carcillo for scorer Scottie Upshall. They also had to trade, productive Center, Glenn Metropolit to free up cap room. Then Phantoms' Center from Alabama, Jared Ross, was in and out of the line up.

At this point in the season, the Flyers suddenly started to be unable to beat teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs, St. Louis Blues, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings, slumping Montreal Canadiens, slumping New York Rangers, slumping Ottawa Senators, or unable to play well when having the lead.

They started being satisfied with getting the 4th seed, instead of winning the Division..which the New Jersey Devils gave them every opportunity to do so. So, instead they slumped and gave the 4th seed to the Pittsburgh Penguins and got the 5th Seed instead. They finished with 44 wins, and 99 points (they could've easily have had 100 points on the season) . The team did impove on the 2007-08 season in Regular Season wins and points, but not in the post season.

In the Post Season, the inability to play with the lead haunted them, as in the Conference Quarter-Finals, they blew a late game lead against the Penguins in Game 2 and blew a 3 goal lead against the Penguins in Game 6, and were eliminated 4 games to 2.

So, the lack of leadership and the Salary Cap nipped Holmgren's brilliance.....from the season before...

And I think we saw a negative side of Holmgren and he seemed to be a "Back Seat Coach" at times ....

So, this coming season...

2009-2010: A New Offseason (The Penguins/Sidney Crosby are Champs)

Again the Salary Cap strikes...but the team also has a lot of areas which needs improvement. The Goalkeepers the past 2 seasons, were better than what they had in 2006-07, but they weren't going to help ya take the next step. So, the first thing was to find new Goalkeepers and they did...in Ray Emery and Brian Boucher.

They were persistant on adding a Defensemen....and they did....in Chris Pronger and Olle-Kristian Tollefsen.

The tradeoff was losing veteran Right Wingers Mike Knuble and Joffrey Lupul (Lupul was traded for Pronger, and Knuble left for cap reasons). Then they brought in Right Wing veteran Ian Laperriere. Then the team is content on developing Darroll Powe, Claude Giroux, Jared Ross, and Ryan Parent

I just hope....that if the Flyers are playing well come January.....and all their cards are in the lineup, that hey don't run into a Salary Cap issue where they have to get rid of a productive player, that could spoil the chemistry. Or, Ed Snider sees it as an opportunity to go "all in" and try and win it this year, by grabing something at the trade deadline which would require giving up too much of the current roster (the Flyers do this a lot).

But, so far......what do you think of Paul Holmgren....as a GM?

I give him an A- .... the A is for turning the team around, the minus is because he got sacked by the Salary Cap and in my opinion "Back seat coaches" too much.