Danny Briere made a handful of signings on the opening day of the often busy free agency period. The Flyers added Dan Vladar, Christian Dvorak, Noah Juulsen, Dennis Gilbert and Lane Pederson to contracts which should address some issues the Flyers were facing this offseason. Here’s what the Flyers general manager had to day after a rather eventful July 1 free agent frenzy.
On trying to fill holes in what is essentially a weak Unrestricted Free Agent market:
Well I think it also shows that we focused on term, short-term to try to fill those holes. Guys, they were willing to bet on themselves which is awesome. For us, term was way more important than anything else. But sometimes you got to give in somewhere to those types of players to come in. We know the salaries were very competitive, but where it helps us is it keeps the flexibility moving forward in our favor.
On where Dvorak fits into the lineup:
I’m excited about him. I think part of the enticement for him is the opportunities that he’s going to have. It’s no secret that we’re pretty thin in the middle, Couturier, Cates really are the only two for sure. We hope that Zegras can play center as well, but there’s opportunities there for him. Probably more than he would’ve seen somewhere else. I feel that was probably very enticing for him. So to get a big body like that, that can play a 200-foot game, win faceoffs for us. I think he makes us a better team having him down the middle.
On what attracted the Flyers to Vladar:
Well first of all he wanted to come to Philly, and then we had discussions with a few other agents on different guys. At first ask, it was three, four, five years on the goalies. It was already a pretty thin market going in. Dan Vladar told us very early on that he saw an opportunity, he wanted to come in and compete in Philadelphia, so we jumped on it. So for us the most important thing ideally is we’re looking for a one-year deal, but we realized to get some help we needed to step it up a little bit. But when he told us he wanted to come, we jumped on it. Our goalie coaches were excited about the package. There’s no perfect goalie that was available out there, but we feel he gives us a chance to come in and compete with our group and push the envelope.
He has a chance to become our number one depending on how he plays, how the other guys play. The one thing at the end of the year when I met with our group of goalies I told them, ‘You have to be ready at training camp. We’re probably going to go out (and sign someone), this wasn’t good enough last season. We’re probably going to bring in some reinforcements and you’re going to be in a battle, all of you guys.’ So it was really clear right from the get-go and we hope that Vladar comes in and brings a little or a lot of competition to the group and they have to fight for it.
On if he’s looking at four goalies this season or focusing on a Sam Ersson and Dan Vladar tandem:
It looks that way obviously, the way they’ve played the last couple of years it probably is Ersson and Vladar. But how many teams go with only two goalies? Not too many of them. You need three or four goalies. My message to them is it doesn’t matter where you slot in right now, come in, be ready. And when it’s your turn you got to perform. I hope we can create that environment that every single night they’re battling for their spot. We’re going to need at least three goalies, maybe more. We know that. I think Vladar helps us put us in a better position.
On Vladar (who has only played 30 games once) playing more if required if he becomes the number one goalie:
I do believe that. Ideally it would be having a good tandem, whoever that is. You look at Fedotov and Kolosov, they never had the chance to play in the NHL, they haven’t played very many games themselves. I think Sam, maybe one year. Sam is also a goalie that needs to be fresh, he’s at his best when he’s fresh. He worked really well that one year when he was a tandem with Carter Hart, that was probably his best year. If we can get him there again that would be great.
On whether the Flyers looked at trading for a goalie:
We did. Because the market was so thin, teams were aware of that and the prices were way more than we were willing to pay. So value wise it made more sense to go the free agency route.
On signing Dennis Gilbert and Noah Juulsen and the reasoning behind signing them:
Yeah one-year deals, bigger guys. We talked in the past about how we were a little small on defense. We wanted to bring them a little bit of size. It’s a common theme but term was important for us. If they perform well and we want to keep them. But we wanted to make sure we don’t block our young guys past next year. That was really important to us. But the fact they bring size and grit is important also.
On if Rick Tocchet played a role in the signings of Dvorak and Juulsen:
Well it’s not like he came in and said, ‘I want those guys.’ They were already a target of ours before going in. Obviously we asked his opinion of the players, he had good things to say. But it’s not like he came in and decided those are the guys we wanted to have. But we definitely used his opinion.
On whether Rick Tocchet may have been a factor in Dvorak and Juulsen coming here:
That’s a question for them. I have a sense that yes, that’s my feeling. The sense that we get from a lot of players around the league is that players wat to play for Rick Tocchet. He has that approach that we’ve heard a lot of people love in his coaching style. So I would think so but you would have to ask the players.
On Tocchet’s thoughts about Dvorak:
He loves his overall game. He’s a player that isn’t going to hurt you defensively, you can rely on him and play him against any lines. That’s the interesting part, matchup wise it makes his (Tocchet’s) life easier with Coots being that way, Cates being that way, Luchanko is known as that way. So we have a lot of centermen in the organization. Dorwart is a little bit that way. I’m not saying they’re all ready to play that way, but they’re going to go and play against any of the top lines. You don’t have to worry about matchups.
So that was interesting on Dvorak’s side, the faceoffs, the penalty kill, he’s a big body. He might get some power play time. I think he had some power play time with him in Arizona before. Just overall I think he makes us deeper down the middle.
On if Dvorak’s signing blocks Luchanko from making the Flyers this year:
No. Luchanko is going to have to earn it, it’s not like we have him slotted in and giving him a spot. He’s going to have to earn it, we’re going to have to see how training camp goes for him. But the way the played last year at camp and early in the season, if he keeps improving. And also how he played in the playoffs and down the stretch in Lehigh Valley was really impressive. So hopefully he keeps that streak going and could hopefully end up on the team.
We have different options that are presenting themselves. Before we were trying to jam a winger into a center, that’s a lot harder than having a center and getting him to play the wing. Noah Cates is an example, Zegras the last few years has played on the wing. It’s a lot easier to move a center to the wing than the other way around. I’m not worried about that.
On your overall feelings on today’s signings:
We’re excited, we made the team a little better and that’s the goal. We wanted to give the players something to chew on to be excited a little bit that we’re more competitive. Now it’s up to the players to take the next step, but we wanted to start helping them. I’ve said it since day one we didn’t have enough cap space to go after the big fish. But it’s small steps that are not hurting us in the future, keeps the cap flexibility for the future but, at the same time, brings some hope. And shows the fans and players on the team that we’re taking steps forward.
On Tyson Foerster’s injury status:
So he had an injury at the World Championship that wasn’t supposed to be anything really serious. He came back here and there’s some infection that set in to the elbow and then it just got worse. So he came and saw our doctors and decided they had to go in and remove the infection. What I’m finding out is it takes a long time for all the samples to come back negative and that’s what we’re still waiting on. At that point we’ll re-evaluate and see if more needs to be done. Or if we’re lucky enough that’s the end of it and move on and he can be ready for the start of the season. There’s no guarantee of that. So we’re sitting and waiting right now to see how serious it is or not.
On trying to find a possible replacement for Foerster via free agency:
No, no. Even in that case he’s not going to miss the whole year, I hope he’s not going to miss the whole year. You’re going to need that money at some point. We have some young guys. Maybe if he does have to miss early in the season, maybe Alex Bump, maybe Porter Martone, Kaplan played at the end of the year for us. There’s other guys who could perform who maybe they get a look early in the season if they have a good camp. We didn’t feel we could spend his money not knowing how long he could be out, if he’s going to be out.
On if the team is done making moves and possibly putting Ryan Ellis on Long Term Injured Reserve:
We’re always open for business, I’ve always said that. Probably done most of the damage we needed to do today. But we’re still looking to see if there’s something else out there. Ideally we would prefer not going into offseason LTIR but obviously we’re getting close to the cap. And if there’s something that’s too good to pass up it’s something we’ll look into.
On the status of Maxim Shabanov and the timeline:
We don’t. I’m like you guys, I read the stories and get excited when I’m being told he’s being signed by the Flyers. It hasn’t happened yet or hasn’t appeared on my desk yet. We’re still waiting on that, we’re hopeful. We were told we were one of a few teams he’s considering still. But we have no inkling which way he’s leaning at this point.
On the last time the Flyers contacted Shabanov’s camp:
Today. We’ve had discussions pretty much every day with his camp. I’m sure like many other teams we’re hopeful he chooses the Flyers and the opportunities we can provide.
On who the Flyers lean on regarding the decision to sign Vladar:
Kim Dillabaugh has a big say. The goalies that we were looking at and the goalies that were available and made sense. So Kim has a big say.
If the core centers end up being Couturier, Cates, Zegras and Dvorak is there concern on getting a right-handed shooting center:
Ideally, they’re tough to find. We looked into it. We’re aware of that. Jett Luchanko is a righty but it’s like the right shot defenseman, a lot of teams are having a hard time finding them. If you look at our prospect boards they’re all righties, sometimes it just happens that way.
On why the Flyers are still confident in Kim Dillabaugh:
We believe in him. We feel he’s done a good job. It’s more than that. Unfortuately the Carter Hart situation. Carter was going on the right track, Ersson was on the right track, doing a really good job with them and unfortunately that went sideways. That put us in a little bit of a bind for the last year and a half. So we feel he’s earned it before. Hopefully it was just a bad year last year and our goalies get back on track. He deserves to have a look.
