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And LTIR is there if they need it.
They might need LTIR for Chinakhov soon enough. Hahahaha! Again, I have no problem with Danny picking up the phone and kicking the tires. 186 combined NHL/AHL games in 4 years is worrisome though. That would be my biggest concern there.
4. no idea. off load tippets contract
They probably overpaid on Tippett but I don’t see any reason to dump him. He has three consecutive 20 goal seasons. Last year, his goals did drop but his assist numbers were status quo. I have more concern with his consistent minus numbers actually. He’s among the least of my question marks going into this season. I’m OK with a middle six winger who seems a lock for another 20+ goal season. Hopefully, he can find another level. He’s in that low 300 game slot where it’s getting to the point where he is what he is.
1) Foerster won’t start the season healthy, so it provides an immediate stop-gap (and lessens the temptation to rush Martone),
2) He’s flat out more talented than Brink, bigger and faster,
3) If he can stay healthy (big if) he’s a 20-goal guy who has a decent all-around game,
4) He shouldn’t take much to acquire.
Sounds like you would do Brink for Chinakhov straight up. Would you? Chin’s cap hit is $2.1M, so they’d have to juggle a bit to make him fit even if Brink is the price. The Flyers already have a few guys with recent injury issues. Not sure they want to stockpile that. They do have other young guys they can get a look at if Foerster’s health remains an issue. As an aside, an infection after an elbow injury sidelining Foerster? That’s sounding like a staph infection which is pretty damn serious. Hoping it’s not that. That would be a problem. Remember Kalinski from a few years back? I would have no issue with Briere doing due diligence here.
Chinakhov requesting trade out of Columbus. Pick up the phone Danny.
Why? Seems like he’s roughly in the same range as a stack of guys we already have.
I truly hope you are right. I do not believe the path the Flyers have chosen will yield real success.
Briere is making the calls, so I hope he’s right. As an outside observer, the moves make sense to me and I think they’ll work out. We’re not even talking about injuries and other mishaps that can derail any plan. My bar is pretty low for this year. I want to be entertained. That’s it. I have little concern for the future, although again, I think the moves for the future make sense to me.
Then why aren’t the flyers building around those 2?
Of course they are. The guys with the longer term contracts are the guys they’re looking to build around. Money, and term, talks.
Are those 2, guys you can currently build around to become cup contenders?
Neither are what anyone would call superstars but yes. You can continue to build a cup contending team around those guys. As an example, the last time the Flyers went to the finals, Richards was their 1C and his scoring numbers were never elite. A couple seasons he did hit 1 PPG. Up to that season, Kimmo had been their #1 Dman. A fine Dman but they went out and added Pronger and got to the finals that year. I’m not a big fan of “the core isn’t good enough” argument. The core is what you’ve got and the Flyers have plenty of holes and question marks before even worrying about if the 1C and 1D are good enough.
I did not move anything. All of those teams had a #1 C and D. My point is the cost of acquiring one or both of those pieces is far less when drafting in the top five. You can get them outside of the top 5 but the percentages are against that.
Here’s what you initially wrote. You’re seriously backpedaling:
“The real issue is that they picked in the top 5 once in the last seven drafts. Picking once in the top five in 7 drafts is not going to get you the players you need to win a Stanley Cup. Even when you factor in the gift that Michkov turned out to be. Having a deep team is a good thing. I think they will get there on that front. If you are fine with that then so be it. I am a firm believer that you need top level talent at C and D to win in this league.”
The draft is not the only way to get a top #1 Dman or #1 center. FLA did get that through the draft but they built most of the rest of the team through trades and free agency.
Getting top level players via UFA requires those players to be available first and foremost. That is pretty rare. You also need to have cap space which the Flyers never seem to have. That situation looks better going into next year but let’s see what they do with it and if any of those types of players are available. Again low probability of that.
The Flyers had some cap space this off season and will have more next season. Top players do move through UFA.
Getting top level players via trade requires that you have top assets to move. The Flyers really do not have any top level assets they can afford to move at this point.
We agree on that. Trade talk and the Flyers is a fool’s errand. Briere did pull a rabbit out of a hat with Zegras. Trades remain tricky.
The Flyers rarely pick in the top five. So the chances of landing top level players is lower. They also are not acquiring desirable assets to include in trade for top level players. They never have cap space to get top level players via UFA and when/if they do those players are rarely available. The Flyers have not utilized RFA recently either. So how are they getting top level players? Not good (TK, Sanheim) players. Top level (MacKinnon, Makar) players. Having a bunch of middle six players is great if you have legitimate top line players. Having a bunch of middle six players and forcing five of them to play above their capabilities is not.
Konecny and Sanheim are both excellent players. You don’t get chosen to the Canadian national team by being not good. The issue the Flyers have is building around the spotty good they do have.
Great job moving goalposts!
Boston has two top five picks (Kessell, Seguin) in the five drafts leading up to the 2011 cup. They also traded away the #1 overall from 1997 in Joe Thornton.
Kessell and Thornton were both gone when they won their cup. Seguin was a depth player.
Kings had a top five (Doughty, Schenn, Hickey) pick three years in a row.
Schenn was gone when LA won their Cups. Hickey was a bust.
Pens had a top five (Crosby, Malone, Malkin, Staal and Fleury) pick five years in a row including two first overalls.
None of them are defensemen.
Caps had a top five (Ovi, Backstrom, Alzner) 3 out of 4 years.
Alzner was gone when the Caps won the Cup.
Stamkos was a center his whole career with Tampa and led them to multiple Stanley Cups
Stamkos was playing wing for Tampa when they won their cups. Do some research.
LVK: Might want to review that roster again. That team has had multiple top five picks on the roster and on the team that won the cup.
THIS JUST IN: They traded for them! This is not complicated. It’s not the argument you initially made. Again, keep moving those goal posts when the myths you believe are disproved.
LVK: Nobody fits. Might want to check again. Same with the blues off top of my head
It is cute to see peeps still defend the flyers. Never gets old.
What have the flyers done to give you confidence they can get out of this decade plus hole they have dug?
Specifics please. Not sure discussing how Cup winners are actually built in the NHL, not in some fantasy hockey league is defending the Flyers, but OK.
Over the last couple seasons, they’ve taken steps towards building what wins in the NHL not what some Ice Capades fans think wins in the NHL.
The real issue is that they picked in the top 5 once in the last seven drafts. Picking once in the top five in 7 drafts is not going to get you the players you need to win a Stanley Cup. Even when you factor in the gift that Michkov turned out to be. Having a deep team is a good thing. I think they will get there on that front. If you are fine with that then so be it. I am a firm believer that you need top level talent at C and D to win in this league.
I am willing to bet that both the Hawks and Sharks will be cup contenders a few years ahead of the Flyers. Hawks last made the playoffs in 2019-20 same as the Flyers. Sharks last made the playoffs in 2018-19. Both teams were more aggressive than the Flyers with the rebuild they executed.
When you look at Cup winners more closely, you’ll see while Top 5 picks have had impact here and there, it’s not the only way to build a Cup winner.
CHI: Kane and Toews. Their top Dman was a late 2nd round pick.
BOS: Nobody fits your criterion.
LAK: Doughty fits. Kopitar was a mid-1st rounder.
PGH: Crosby and Malkin obviously. Letang was a 3rd rounder.
WSH: Ovi and Backstrom obviously. Nobody on D.
STL: Pietrangelo. Nobody fits up front.
TBL: Stamkos is a winger. Hedman fits.
COL: MacKinnon and Makar. The best fit to your claim.
LVK: Nobody fits.
FLA: Barkov and Ekblad. Another good fit but FLA has so much more than those two guys.
So two good fits to your claim accounting for 3 Cups over the last 15 seasons. Hardly persuasive.
I agree that incremental improvement is what you need when you are ready to start to compete. The Flyers are not ready to compete in my opinion. Until the Flyers get the high end (specifically #1 C and #1 D) talent they need competing for a playoff spot is counterproductive in my opinion. Teams do not trade out of the top 5 and teams do not let #1 C’s and D’s go in trade or FA.
Martone seems like he could be a piece. Michkov is here. What else are you seeing that will be near the level of Michkov? Surely nothing at center or D that could even be considered in that class.
So the Flyers should just deliberately tank until 2030. Sounds like a plan. You seem so focused on “top end talent” you lose sight that it’s a team game. Michkov? He looks well on his way to being a “top end” scoring winger. Martone will be too. That’s two slots out of 20 on the team. I like the forwards but have written the D and goalies need to get better and the off season additions there are underwhelming. The Flyers have a #1 Dman in Sanheim, might have a #1 center in Zegras.
None of that has any bearing on you saying: The rest of the conference sucks worse than the Flyers.
Please define significantly better.
They may be marginally better. From 4th worse to 8th. Is that really progress?
Ten to fifteen points better. The wheels fell off the wagon in net last year. That hurt a lot.
It would be hard to be worse. I think they will fall short of the playoffs. So somewhere in between 4th worst and 16th worst overall. Still not making the playoffs is not “significantly” better to me. I am not upset that they will not make the playoffs. Just feel like finishing outside of the bottom five does not do much for their long term success.
You don’t get to long term success without incremental improvement from where they were at the end of the season. The goaltending was putrid. Ersson has to play better and it would be nice if Vladar can be close to this year’s Kevin Lankinen. If that doesn’t happen, yeah they’re in trouble. The D remains an issue too with two Top 4 guys coming up short of what was needed in York and Drysdale. That has to improve too. Briere decided in season last year that Frost and Farabee weren’t answers and essentially gave them away. I think those slots were filled nicely this off season. The forward corps actually looks good. Being competitive for a playoff spot this year will be satisfying to me. If they sneak in, great. Again, the rest of the conference isn’t that great.
Finished last in conf. Facts don’t back that up
The Flyers finished last in the league in 06-07 by 11 points and made the conference finals the next year. That’s not going to happen this year, but I just mention it in passing. In 24-25, MTL improved 15 points and OTT improved 19 points over 23-24.
The Flyers will be significantly better this year. Do you think they’ll be worse? How come?
