Homer has made some great moves and some poor ones. The Randy Jones fiasco was horrible. The Dan Carcillo acquiring was just sad. Spending lots of money on Shelley, Meszaros, and Leighton instead of keeping Gagne was ballsey, but Homer had the teams best interest weather we like it or not. There is no way to say how good we would be with Gags, Richie and Claude together; but can you really complain right now? This team is firing on all cylinders and we still have guys just staring to play well. As a GM, this year, lets look at how Homer has been:

No.    Player    How Aquired    $/Yrs      Grade
3    Bartullis    Resigned    .600/3        A: Great young 8th D-man for cheap.
5    Coburn    Resigned    3.20/2    (From ATL for Alexi Zhitnik)    B-: The money is high, but we can re-evaluate after only two years
6    O'Donnell    FA    1.30/1        A+: Yeah 1.3 is a lot for a 6th guy, but he's been amazing, atop the league in +/-
11    Betts    Resigned    .700/2    (FA via try-out)    A+: One of the top 4th line centers in the league for under a mil
13    Carcillo    Trade/RFA    1.075/1    (Trade for Upshall and 2R)    D/C: The trade was horrible but only because of the second rounder we had to give up. The signing was a little expensive for a 13th forward, but its only one year.
14    Laperriere    FA    3/1.66        B-: He's the man, but if he haunts our cap for two years, it would really suck.
15    Nodl    BEFORE HOMER    .850 Million        N/A: He gave him a shot and he's played well, but as a GM he's done nothing. Hopefully we'll lock him up for a few years this offseason.
17    Carter    Resigned    11/5.25        B: We'll see how this plays out. if he puts in 30 a year for 11 years can we really argue 5.25?
18    Richards    Resigned    12/5.75        B+: See above, but with 75 points instead of 30 goals.
19    Hartnell    Trade/Sign    6/4.2    (Trade w/ Timo for NSH 1R)    B: A little expensive but this move with Kimo and Briere made us immediate contenders just one year after being the worst team in the league.
20    Pronger    Trade/Sign    7/4.92    (Trade w/ Dingle for 2 1R, Sbisa, Lupul)    A-: Does Lupul fit in on this team? Sbisa definatly does not. Yeah the 2 picks suck, but big 20 is the man.
21    vanReimsdyk    Draft 2OA    3/1.65        B: Still very early. No one in that entire draft class aside from Kane has done anything.
22    Lieno    Trade    .800 Million    (Trade for OKT and 5R)    A+: Perfect deal. Hopefully he'll stay here.
25    Carle    Trade    3.437 Million    (Trade w/ 3R for Eminger, Downie, 4R)    B: I loved the deal, but he is awfully expensive.
28    Giroux    Resigned    3/3.75        A+: No need for explination. Best $ value in the league.
33    Boucher    FA    2/.925        B+: He got us to the playoffs. Then past NJ. Then turned aroudn the BOS series.
35    Bobrovsky    UDFA    3/1.75        A: Not giving the A+ just 20 games into a rookie's season, but i can't go lower than an A.
36    Powe    FA/Resign    1/.725        A: Leads team in hitting. Fights when has to. Great on defense. My favorite player. We better keep him.
41    Meszaros    Trade    4 Million    (Trade for 2R)    B: Too much for a 5th, but he's atop the league in +/-
44    Timonen    Trade/Sign    6/6.3    (Trade w/ Harts for NSH 1R)    B+: See: Hartnell, Scott

45    Shelley    FA    3/1.1        C: Too much money for too many years. Not in the top tier of fighters, but still a legit heavyweight. But a good guy to have who knows his role and is okay with 5 minutes a game. We are stacked up top so his minutes will go to guys who need those.
48    Briere    FA    8/6.5        B+: See: Hartnell, Scott and Timonen, Kimmo
49    Leighton    Waivers/Sign    2/1.55        A+/C-: Great pickup last year. Too much money for this new contract, but with Bob and Boosh playing fine, will he even be a Flyer again?
93    Zherdev    FA    1/2.0        B: too early to tell. Great player with tons of potential. If he nets 20-25 can we really complain? I'm writing this as he did his dipsy doo to score the first goal in the Calgary game.

The Homer for GM of the year got mixed reviews from us here at BSH, but I have stood by Homer for a while. Yeah his cap issues have hurt us, but he's done an extrodinary job to keep us competitive from day one. He's been able to play for the now (Harts/Prongs/Briere/OD/Timo) while setting us up for the future (Lieno/Richie/Carts/JVR/Giroux/Nodl/Wellwood). Yeah our Phantoms might be the worst AHL team ever, but they have what we need: Defense. With G/JVR/Carts/Richie our scoring is locked in for years to come. Even when Danny B is gone, and Harts and Zherdev and maybe even Lieno, that money will go strait to getting more scoreres, and there will always be scorers available. Pronger and Timo are getting older, but we have their replacements. Gustaffson, Bourdon, Marshall, Syvrett, and Bartullis have to be considered one of the better young D-core in the league. We don't have a "1" but with Mez, Coby, and Carle, they have all of the long term expierence we need to fill out a solid defense. Knowing Homer and Snyder, I wouldn't be surprised that when Pronger and Timo are gone, we'll have two new top guns via free agency. The Flyers play for the now, and with us atop the league being led by a great mix of young up and comers, wiley vets, and guys just entering their prime, I say Paul Holmgren has done a fantastic job to set us up for this year and the short term future.