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Unfortunately, the Flyers offered no proof of that last season.
Hahaha, well that was last season. It’s not like I see all roses on the way this year. I saw plenty of troubling things that may or may not get fixed. Guys who just weren’t delivering up to what their roles required and a lot of bad puck support. Watching the playoffs more closely this year, both those things really matter. Of course, when I name names, I’m criticized here for that by people who seem to prefer a more generalized and thoroughly more consistent dump on the team. The Flyers can’t do anything right! Hahahahaha! The puck support stood out as inadequate to me. I hear Tocchet say he’d like to see more give-and-go plays to drive offense. Well, you need puck support to be able to make those short, fast give-and-go passes work. I want to see how that plays out. One bright spot from last year: They were 8th in the league in allowing the fewest shots against. Weird.
Cheer up and enjoy!
1. zegras is not top end talent and marone hasn tplayed 1 nhl game as of yet. jumpong the gun a tad. hope and “ifs” the flyers mantra
2. vlader’s past play shows he is unlikley to deliver.
3. next brad shaw.
5. whats more important, developing zegras as a top 6 center or winning a few more games? not sayin dont use ex selke or dvorak in some situations. let zegras do it. see if he can handle it as better to fin out now than next season.
6. again no logjam at all. dvorak will likely play wing more than cates.
you say only need to make up 15 points or a tad more. they would have to pass 8 teams. you also dont accpunt for other teams being better. playoffs are an unrealistic goal imo.
1. You mean Zegras isn’t a needle mover? Hahahaha! He played well down the stretch last year. If he stays healthy, I predict he’ll top his PPG those first two years in ANA. Martone will deliver. So now, it’s not enough the Flyers acquire potential top end talent, they must already be top end talent. Very realistic.
2. Unlikely to deliver what I think they might need from him. .900+ sv pct is not wildly out of reach but I think he might need to do that in as many as 50 games. The Flyers also seem to have more confidence in Ersson than I do. We’ll see.
3. Rierden is the big add on D, like it or not. I still think they need to revamp a lot of their D unless Todd can pull a couple rabbits out of his hat.
4. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Zegras will take plenty of draws. You really put your best faceoff guys out there for key draws. Obvious example: A defensive zone draw late in a game when you have a 1 goal lead. Not complicated.
5. Dvorak is, without question, a better faceoff man than Cates. Of course Cates, like Zegras, can get better.
There are five teams in the conference that are already playoff locks: FLA, CAR, TOR, WSH, TB. The Flyers are light years away from being better than those teams. The rest of the conference is not that great. MTL, on paper, looks improved. NYR will get a boost from roster moves and Sullivan . . . or not. OTT ran a nice end season hot streak into the playoffs. NJ isn’t the team of the future as some predicted. The rest of the conference sucks worse than the Flyers.
1.the flyers need to add top end talent. first and foremost. once again the flyers are chasing their tail trying to emulate the current trend. Their is no payoff and wont be for years, if at all.
2. they still need a goalie. there is likely to be no payoff with vlader. not addressed in my eye.
3. they didnt and their is no payoff. they added a fn 6/7th dman at best.
4. agree.
5. doesn’t matter at this stage.
6. there is no logjam at center in any way.
1. Well, yeah but that doesn’t happen in one off season. The hope is obviously they added two TE talents in Zegras and Martone and already have three in Konecny, Michkov and Sanheim. I think a player can also be a top end talent in his role which can expand the definition a little. Cup winners have that.
2. We can just hope for the best that Vladar delivers what they need. His numbers don’t look bad except for games played. The Flyers might need him for 50 games. It is what it is now.
3. Todd Rierden will turn them all into Norris candidates. He’s that good a coach. What else can I say there?
4. What???!!!
5. When you’re trying to win hockey games in the best league in the world, every aspect of game play matters.
6. There’s already speculation from credible sources somebody will have to flip to wing. You heard it first from me here but scoffed. That’s without penciling in Luchanko and Nesbitt. There’s still a good chance Luchanko gets some games in this year. Nesbitt, of course, is a good two years away.
Pre-season optimism tells me the Flyers could be a bubble team and with some breaks sneak in. Only 91 points got teams in last year, so adding 15 points gets them there. On the down side, it usually takes 95-96 points to get in. The bottom of the conference sagged badly last year and the very top teams scooped up more points than usual. Lots of confounding factors. I just want to see entertaining hockey this year.
– yes it can be developed. that is why it is important to let zegras take the majority of the draws. let him learn on the job to improve. potential short term pain for long term gain. would that not be best for the future?
– its pretty obvious the path the flyers are on? do tell.
– Yes I want reasonably accurate prediction for what the flyers are going to do. again do tell.
You’ve already gotten several and are now pretending you weren’t critical of each of them at the time.
1. Flyers need to get bigger and stronger. Payoff: The draft and not tendering Pelletier.
2. Flyers need a goalie. Payoff: Signed Vladar. I’m not thrilled with this, but they did address it.
3. Need to upgrade the Dmen. Payoff: Again, not thrilled with the end result, but they did add there.
4. Need to fill holes at center. Payoff: Zegras trade and Dvorak signing.
5. Need centers who can win faceoffs. Payoff: Dvorak again.
6. An impending logjam at center might cause a center to be flipped to wing. Payoff: Now a few observers, not named FlyerFrank, are discussing this. I’ve been suggesting it since this board opened.
Unless something falls into Briere’s lap, this is the team that goes to camp and opens the season.
Anything else?
Mentioned that above. Though id Zegras is a long term fit at center he will need to improve and take those face offs.
That can be developed but Dvorak and Couturier are both really good on the draw right now. Cates is sub-.500 at the dot too. I’ve been suggesting a Cates flip to wing was in the offing since before Dvorak was signed. It’s pretty obvious the path the Flyers are following and, in general, it’s the correct one based on their current composition. You want a reasonably accurate prediction for what the Flyers are going to do, just ask.
The likeliest scenario is that Tocchet will do a lot of experimentation in training camp and early in the regular season. Zegras may primarily play center but he may also periodically take shifts on wing. Ditto Cates for different reasons.
Zegras gets every shot at center. Cates could fill the Jochen Hecht/Ville Leino role on left wing the way those guys did for Briere when he was creating offense down near the goal line. Third man stays high. That’s Cates. Getting to suddenly play on a line with guys like Zegras and Michkov and jack his own scoring numbers will ease any pain. Cates and Dvorak are both too good to not be Top 9 guys on this team.
Maybe they use him on wing and take face offs
Dvorak- Zegras- mmHahahaha! Exactly! Seriously though, there will be instances of Couturier and Dvorak both being on the ice for defensive zone draws late in games where the Flyers are up. I think the better Dvorak plays, the more likely he’ll be traded if the Flyers fall out of any race by the deadline. That’s all speculation now. We need to think about more pressing matters like who claims Brink when the Flyers waive him.
Cap space matters but I can see the Flyers getting a 3rd round pick for Dvorak at the deadline if they don’t eat any cap for the rest of the season, maybe a conditional 2nd from a bona fide contender (AKA a late second-rounder) that is willing to overpay to take a run at the Cup. Big centers who can score a few goals in the playoffs and also kill penalties tend to draw overpayments as rentals.
Exactly. Maybe a 2nd if he has a good year. He does the kinds of things that help teams win. I did think adding Dvorak to solve this need was a bit of overkill compared to the underwhelming adds in goal and on D. I’m curious how it will fit together and am looking forward to the season.
Dvorak is a meaningless add to me. Doesn’t do anything to move the team forward. Wasn’t needed.
Cap space does matter. Limits what you can do all year. Maybe a player falls out of favor or vice versa. Can use it to be a middle man. Never know when a deal may pop up. Someone unexpected goes on waivers. Limits what you can do at the deadline
They still have wiggle room with the cap. They can waive guys on minimum+ deals and replace them with minimum contract guys. It’s not a lot but there’s some flexibility. Not sure what impact player is going to fall into anybody’s lap this year and the Flyers won’t be buyers at the deadline. Dvorak does fill a need, expensively and short term sure, but he fills it. Was I disappointed with the goalie and defense need fills? Sure, but how much turnover can any team really do in one off season? Maybe a third of the team, 6 or 7 guys, tops? The Flyers might have four. Let’s see what happens but it’s still three months off.
– The only major addition is Zegras. Is the master plan they will hit a grand slam in 2026 free agency?
– Completely capped out. No playoffs for 5 years. Will be 6.
– Would have been better to not sign Dvorak and keep the extra space.
– York ext was good on flyers end. Though can’t see them being contenders within that 5 year window.
– Wonder what kind of extension they will end up giving Zegras and when. I ride it all year as do not see any hurry to go down that road.
Dvorak, on paper, looks like a good add. Enough offense and he can win face offs. He could be a 3rd line center if Cates flips to left wing. Hahahaha! Yes, the one year deal is inflated. They might have been able to get roughly the same for a lot less but Tocchet likes him. For a year, I’m OK with it. It doesn’t matter they’re up against the cap because they have $6-7M in dead space going away next year, which more than covers any Zegras increase and gives them $5.75M plus any cap increase for next year to add more UFAs. Clearly, a big part of any current plan is more comprehensive coaching and development. That isn’t counted against the cap. I still think they needed a big addition on D, but it didn’t happen. We’ll see how it goes.
Absolutely no one… was simply responding to another poster still dreaming of a top-4 defenseman, which apparently you didn’t notice.
If you listen to Tocchet, Todd Rierden is going to turn them all into Top 4 Dmen.
Danny shot his wad… no more money to spend. In fact, was reading earlier that they’re now over the cap (though they can put Ellis on LTIR, something they’ve not done the past couple of seasons).
Can’t complain too much since Danny weaponized the cap space to help the rebuild
Ellis to LTIR is almost as big a Flyers tradition as the Wives Fight For Live carnival. The dead cap space goes away next season. It’s a ridiculous number but Briere got picks for Laughton. The team pretty much is what it is for the season’s start which is still three months away. I’m hoping for an entertaining season.
The number on this deal is so good, I’m even more disappointed the Flyers didn’t get a bona fide Top 4 Dman on UFA day.
I think the key here is the two years. Lyon also got two years and apparently wanted to come back.
I’ve seen a bit more of Lyon with him playing in the east. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Vladar play a game although some folks did talk him up as an option. Neither were in my top 3-4 choices. The lack of games per year looks like a sticking point. The guys I liked better have more more games in a season. I think the Flyers may need a guy who can go 50 games or more depending on Ersson.
