Time to replace Jeff Reese
by FlyGuy1337 on Jan 22, 2012 7:15 PM EST
The goal tending problems we hoped were solved with the signing of Bryzgalov are clearly still present. The common denominator with the goalie carousel in Philly is Jeff Reese. I think that his message or methods are flawed in some way that results in good goalies underperforming. Mental toughness being the number one issue. He was a mediocre goalie and an even less effective coach. It is time for a new voice. Agree or Disagree?
Planning for the Future: What will the Flyers do at the deadline with latest Pronger news
by RoadRaider3 on Jan 20, 2012 6:44 PM EST
Wednesday night, Lauren Pronger was at the Flyers Wives Fashion show talking about Chris, who was not able to make it because he was having a bad day. For those who have not seen the interview you can see it here http://bleacherreport.com/tb/bdpCn. Basically the news on Pronger is just as bad as everyone is lead to believe by the fact that Pronger is out for the season. Pronger has had good days and bad days, but apparently has not had two or three good days in a row, which of course is not good. Pronger's condition has been compared to Keith Primeau's problems that still affect him six years later. Long story short Chris Pronger is not doing well at all and if he isn't well enough to go to a fashion show, he is a very long way away from playing and the way things sound, he may not play another game in the NHL.
So the question becomes, what are the Flyers to do with Pronger? For those who don't know, Pronger has 5 years left on a 7 year, 34.45 million dollar contract, and it is a 35+ contract, which means his salary stays on the cap for the full duration if he indeed retires. With the type of contract he has, seemingly the only way to get his cap hit off our books is to go over the cap every offseason (legal, see: Buffalo Sabres), since the Flyers love being pressed against the cap, and then Immediately putting him on the LTIR as the season starts, to free the cap space. This is a very tough prospect not only for the Flyers but for Pronger as well, who will, if he can't play anymore, end up in hockey purgatory, not retired, but can't play. Even trying to stash him in the minors won't work, as that will only lessen his cap hit by 100,000.
So now the question is just about answered, will the Flyers acquire a top defenseman at the NHL Trade deadline. It seems that the news that Pronger is not doing well at all could twist Paul Holmgrens arm in trading for a defenseman at the deadline. Pronger's absence puts a gaping hole in the defense, and the search at the deadline may not be for just depth, but for a new top pair defenseman. So the new question is, what are the Flyers options as we approach the deadline.
I feel I have to start with Shea Weber, dream on, The Nashville Predators would be really dumb to trade Shea this Trade Deadline, he's an Restricted Free Agent, so there's absolutely no way hes not a Predator next season. That won't happen, let's move on to real options. In the same place, The Predators have Ryan Suter, star defenseman who will be a UFA at the end of the season, here we have some real possibility. Though Nashville is in a playoff hunt right now and will likely make the playoffs, I feel like Suter could be had if Nashville is given the offensive firepower they need. In the Flyers' case, this would likely mean giving up the likes of Jake Voracek plus draft picks or a healthy James Van Riemsdyk, which could happen, but may not be enough to pry a stud defenseman like Suter from Nashville.
One of the biggest rumors out there is Tim Gleason of the Carolina Hurricans being shipped to the Flyers. Gleason is a solid defenseman but not really a solution to the Pronger problem, as he would only serve as a slight upgrade to Eric Gustafsson as the Flyers 5th or 6th defenseman. Solid option if Holmgren is confident that Pronger will return in the future, but if you're like me and you doubt Pronger will return to the NHL, you would like a defenseman that you can keep around for a while.
The Flyers have also shown interest in Ducks defensemen Lubomir Visnovsky and Francois Beauchemin. Both men are over 30, where they would be better options than Gleason, neither really solve the Pronger problem.
Enter one of the hottest rumors of the past few weeks, Luke Schenn of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Before word came out of JVR's concussion, rumors had him being sent to Toronto for the elder Schenn. Schenns welcome may have run out in Toronto but he is still a stellar defenseman and is only 22 years old. A JVR for Schenn trade would be a fairly good move for the Flyers, despite the bad stigma that will come to the Flyers after dealing a third player after giving them a long extension. Schenn has 5 years on his contract at an amazing 3.6 million cap hit, making this an optimal move for the Flyers to have a top pair caliber defenseman at a manageable cap number.
The final defenseman I'll go through that the Flyers have interest in is also the most intriguing, LA Kings D Jack Johnson. The Kings are looking for top six forward talent, so JVR and Voracek could possibly interest them, would it be enough? JVR definitely has enough value in the league that the Kings could go with it. Johnson is another example of a top level defenseman who may have fallen out of favor on their team but are still borderline elite, especially with his performance in the last Olympics for the US hockey team. Johnson is at the start of a 7 year 30.5 million dollar contract, which for his age (25) and his level of skill (top pair) is great value, by comparison Andrej Meszaros and Braydon Coburn have very similar cap hits to Johnson.
The long and short of it is, Paul Holmgren and the Flyers have a decision to make this deadline. That decision is whether to move on from Chris Pronger or to hope that he will be able to return next year or in the future. If he believes the latter, then a defenseman like Gleason, Visnovsky, and Beauchemin could come to Philly, but if he wants to look long term, defensemen like Schenn, Suter, and Johnson could be had. All indications show that the Flyers will likely acquire a defenseman this deadline, but who and what the plan is remains to be seen. Needless to say, this is one of the most intriguing and important trade deadlines the Flyers have had in years.
The Bone I Pick With Lavvy
by CoburnsCuddleBuddy on Jan 19, 2012 11:00 PM EST
I hold a rather unpopular opinion of Coach Lavvy, I've been told. I don't disagree with this assertion I don't like the man's strategy. He has a great attitude and gives his team platitudes and attempts to motivate them to do better, but as we saw in Carolina, that messages gets stale and ripe. The fact that Carolina cut him loose so soon after winning a Cup is a red flag to me. Lavvy had to have an inherent flaw for an organization to cut him loose after accomplishing such a monumental feat. From the evidence I gathered regarding the Carolina incident, the consensus was that Lavvy's message had grown stale to the players, and that they stopped listening. In hindsight, this is not surprising, because Lavvy's system requires an extremely high amount of leg strength and stamina, on a period in and period out basis. It's the type of attrition that would turn the most finely tuned off us into a puddle of physical exertion. When Lavvy's system is executed and the team plays a full 60 minutes, his team is hard to beat. Lavvy's defense is his offense, an offense that pinches at the blue-line and keeps the puck in the defensive end. This consistent offensive pressure cuts the ice in half, and any offense that the other team can muster is stifled by a back-check and in Carolina's situation, gobbled up by a terrific goalie in his own right, Cam Ward. Lavvy's teams also thrive on their ability to stay out of the box, because in order for a defenseman to pinch on a puck, they either have to be at even strength or the man advantage.
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Birthday Present Help
by t.hoefel77 on Jan 18, 2012 7:11 PM EST
Hello Everyone,
So I have a bit of a dilemma in regards to a birthday present for a friend. A group of my friends and I have grouped up to get my friend a Flyers jersey since he doesn't have one and really likes the Flyers. He hasn't outright said which jersey or player is his favorite and we don't want to flat out ask him so I thought I would see what the Broad Street community thought about my dilemma and hopefully provide some help in my efforts to get my friend what we hope to be is the best possible jersey. Thank you for your time I really appreciate it. I'm adding a poll to collect what everyone thinks is a good choice. The players he talks about the most are Schenn, Giroux, Timonen, and Couturier. I can't think of any more important information that I could provide.
Thank you,
Ted
Former Flyers
by douglaskoehne on Jan 18, 2012 3:59 PM EST
Looking around the league, you could put together a great team of former Flyers. It might look something like this:
Forwards:
Versteeg Sharp Lupol
Williams Richards Prospal
Downie Carter Umberger
Knuble Langkow Gagne
Defense:
Sbisa Siederberg
Pitaken O'Donnel
Eminger Alberts
Goalies:
Emory Boucher
Additionally, you could almost come up with another team:
Asham Handzus Fedatenko
Upshall Leino Powe
Carcillo Nodl Eager
Jones/Woywitka
Picard/Vandermeer
There has been an amazing amount of high quality players that have passed through the Flyers team over the last decade. Some of them just didn't fit, some were too young and were traded away to improve the team immediately, some of them just left through Free Agency.
If I could get back an entire RW/C/LW line and a defensive pairing, it would be Williams/Sharp/Lupol and Sbisa/Pitaken. It seems like all these players were traded while young and they never were able to get a chance to really develop with the Flyers. All of them have gone on to be pretty good to great players for other teams.
It would have been nice to have Gagne finish his career here, but a decade of his best hockey I'll definitely take. Umberger seemed to like playing here and I enjoyed watching him. Richards and Carter I would have been happy to have as Flyers for life, but I think in the end both those trades were positives for the Flyers and could help them to be a dominant team for the next 5-6 years.
What about you? Which Flyers would you have liked the most to stay? Which trade or release of a player was the most difficult for you to accept?
Flyers youth and the Playoffs
by douglaskoehne on Jan 18, 2012 2:50 PM EST
First posting here on Broad Street Hockey from a Flyers fan down in Dallas, Texas. I didn't grow up with the sport, have never played it, but I've been a Flyers fan since the 80's when cable TV came to San Antonio and me and my best friend rooted for the underdog Flyers against the Oilers in their two Stanley Cup losses. I don't get to see them every game, just the miscellaneous game here and there shown on national TV, but I've been following BSH for a couple of years now and this site has become part of my daily routine.
It's that time of the year (at least for me) when I start thinking about how the Flyers shape up for the playoffs while reviewing their performance so far this year against the expectations I had for them going into the year.
As the season started, I was hopeful for a good Flyers team, but most likely not a great team. With so many new players, including important roles being held by NHL rookies, I was hoping for a playoff berth and maybe a first round win. I just couldn't see how everything would jell together in time to have hopes for more than that. I've been incredibly surprised and happy that the new guys have fit in well and the rookies have played like vets for most of the year (with some stretches of inconsistency here and there). Although I don't think the Flyers at this point of the season are a top 3-4 team, I do think they are easily a top 10 team and if a few things fall in their favor, I could see them being a feared team to play in the payoffs.
The biggest issue and what everyone seems to be discussing is the Flyers' defensive game - both the goaltender in net and the pairings in front of him. I think we can agree that the worst-case scenario anyone could have imagined at the start of the year has happened: Pronger is injured and out for the year and Bryz comes in and is actually a downgrade from the goaltending last year. With these two things coming to fruition it is even more amazing to me that the Flyers are where they are in the standings at this point in the season. It really is a testament to the players on the team and how hard they fight to win each night (and the coaching as well).
So do we trade one of our young Forwards for a Defenseman to try and improve the overall team? My thoughts tell me no, no, and a third no as well. If our top 6 includes Timonen, Carle, Coburn, Mesz, Bourdon, and Gus, I just don't think the substitute of any defensive player would be something that takes us from a playoff participant to a Stanley Cup Champion. The only thing that can do that at this point is if one of the goalies starts playing lights out each night and catches fire in the playoffs. Any of the proposed trades might make the Flyers more competitive (possibly), but with Bryz being so inconsistent and Bob still a bit of an unknown when it comes to playoff hockey expectations, I'd just as soon keep the Flyers youth intact, give Gus and Bourdon some playoff hockey experience and see how they react, and roll the dice hoping that a fire gets lit under Bryz or Bob.
I'm not a "wait until next year" guy and never will be. I still think if the right things happen, the Flyers can make a splash in the playoffs this year. In so many ways, it has been an incredible year so far. Out of the top 23 players heading into the playoff stretch, here is the breakdown in experience with the Flyers:
Rookies (7): Read (25), Schenn (20), Couturier (19), Zolnierczyk (24), Rinaldo (21), Bourdon (22), Gustafsson (23)
New Flyers (6): Jagr (39), Voracek (22), Simmonds (23), Talbot (27), Lilja (36), Bryzgalov (31)
Young Flyers vets (6): Giroux (24), Van Riemsdyk (22), Carle (27), Coburn (26), Meszaros (26), Bobrovsky (23)
Older Flyers vets: (4): Briere (34), Hartnell (29), Timonen (36), Shelly (35)
The youth on this team is just amazing! And how the Flyers have managed to fit 13 new players in one year without losing a step (or much of one) is just incredible. I'm excited to watch them finish out the second half of the season and if the goalie situation stabilizes (with either Bryz settling down or Bob seeing more time and maintaining his consistent level of quality), I'm happy to stay put with the Flyers as they are composed currently.
And I'm even more excited about where the Flyers are headed with the team. Potentially there are only 3 unknowns for next year: Jagr, Carle, and Pronger. A 4th unknown would be if there is an amnesty clause in the labor relations and if so, would the Flyers use it on Pronger or Bryz. My unqualified expectation would be that the Flyers keep Bryz, Pronger comes back healthy, and the Flyers sign Carle but can't get Jagr under the cap.
This would leave the team constructed as follows:
Forwards (top 6): Giroux Hartnell Van Riemsdyk Briere Voracek Read
Forwards (bottom 6): Schenn Simmonds Couturier Talbot Rinaldo Zolnierczyk Shelley
Defense: Pronger Timonen, Carle, Coburn, Meszaros, Gustafsson, Bourdon
Goaltending: Bryzgalov, Bobrovsky
(sending Lilja down to keep Walker company for the final years of their deals)
This team really excites me!! It's incredibly young, with 12 of the players 25 or younger, hopefully a year stronger, wiser, more experienced, and more comfortable playing together. And possibly Bryz would be a little more at ease in Philadelphia and be more consistent and play at a level more in line with his past experience. The potential 2012-13 version of the Flyers is a monster of a team - young, three scoring lines, three great defensive parings, an above average goalie pairing, and a nice sprinkling of veteran savvy.
Let's not mess that potential up by trading our youth for a rental who may or may not make a difference this year. At 21, Giroux was 9/18/27. At 22, he was 16/31/47, and at 23 he was 25/51/76. Van Riemsdyk at 20 was 15/20/35, at 21 he was 21/19/40, and at 22 (this year) he is on pace for approximately 40+ points again. Hopefully the Flyers will keep him and give him a chance to develop just as they let Giroux develop into the player he is currently.
Who Said JVR is Struggling?
by OrangeNblacK on Jan 15, 2012 5:32 AM EST
James van Riemsdyk has been a disappointment according to many people so far this season. Even before we found out that he's been diagnosed with a concussion and out indefinitly, people were throwing JVR's name around in trade rumors like he was having a horrible season and they were ready to give up on him. I just don't understand it and I feel like we're going to have another Jeff Carter situation with people all over JVR for no reason. Lets take a look at his numbers over the past three regular seasons and two playoffs.
Is there even a reason to keep Claude Giroux?
by RealSantaClaude on Jan 13, 2012 11:40 PM EST
I mean, he has like 0 goals in all the last games. And with even his birthday he like had no goal. I would thought he scored almost 3 that game. We have to get Amnesty for Giroux. Trade his for a Blue Jackets player.
I am so upset.
And he is not even a goalie though. We let like a hundred goals go and he is like whatever, I am not caring. Cut now!
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24/7 Episode 4
by Philly37 on Jan 13, 2012 12:14 PM EST
JVR for Schenn and other Ramblings (Seriously, rambling.)
by Pardini36 on Jan 13, 2012 9:41 AM EST
There's been a lot of talk recently about Luke Schenn for JVR. I wouldn't consider this trade without also asking for a first and/or making the Leafs take Matt Fucking Walker (MFW). After the jump Pros and Cons (my opinion of course) of trading JVR for Schenn, and other thoughts on the Flyers and some long term plans.
