Thursday Morning Fly By: Paul Holmgren's Midnight Ride

Today's open discussion thread, complete with your daily dose of Philadelphia Flyers-related news and notes...

• While you were sleeping, the Flyers blew up the hockey world for the second time in 13 months, this time signing RFA defenseman Shea Weber to a 14-year, $100-plus million offer sheet. Weber signed it, and now Nashville has seven days to match. [BSH] [SBNation.com]
• They're trying to cope with this and figure out what it all means in Nashville. [On the Forecheck]
• A pretty timely post from Dirk at On the Forecheck yesterday afternoon on this very subject. [OtF]
• Meanwhile, here's Paul Holmgren this morning. [GIF]
• We'll have so much more -- like, so much more -- on this throughout the day today. Stay tuned.
• Simon Gagne had surgery to remove a mass from his neck: [SimonGagne.com]
• Then and now, Mark Greig: [Flyers Faithful]
• Former Flyer Rob Zettler was hired as new assistant coach of the Syracuse Crunch: [syracuse.com]
• Vote on which Provice/Nation of all-time great Flyers is the best: [Bill Meltzer]
• Seven breakout candidates, including Brayden Schenn: [NHL.com]
• Where do the CBA talks go from here? [Red Light]
• From Todd - Melbourne Ice captured the Trans-Tasman Championships: [NHL.com]
• Improving AHL Equivalencies with shot metric translations: [NHLNumbers.com]
• Accounting for teammates, choosing between Corsi Rel and WOWY: [NHLNumbers.com]