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Then neither does Buium’s 4 inconsequential playoff games where he chipped in one PP assist. Six points in 7 AHL playoff games at 18 is still nothing to turn your nose up at. Zegras is the 1C, Sanheim is the 1D until further notice. Zegras has to get back to the .75 PPG offensive level and surpass it at least a little. There aren’t that many defensemen in the league better than Sanheim. There are about 225 NHL defensemen in any given season. How many are better than Sanheim? I see Top 20 lists without Sanheim on it, but I wouldn’t trade him straight up for some guys I see there.
FWIW, recently saw a fantasy hockey list where Sanheim was listed at #61 (his average ranking) with his highest ranking being #55. Seems about right to me… on a good team, he’s a 2 at best.
Worst goaltending in the league mixed with a defense that ranked 29th out of 32 teams, and the only significant additions/changes were Dan Vladar & Noah Juulsen…
Counting on a goalie who’s never played more than 30 games in an NHL season (and will most likely be counted on to play closer to 40 or more than 30) with a career save percentage under .900 combined with a bad defense whose only addition is an AHL/NHL tweener doesn’t seem like much of an improvement plan to me. The old band aid on a severed arm cliche comes to mind.
Any bad blood with smith leaving?
Went back to Edmonton (where he spent most of his career) to coach the Oil Kings.
Had a pretty good run in Kelowna a few years back… would guess it’s more of a comfort thing for him than anything else, especially if there wasn’t an option to be the head coach of an AHL team.
It’s looks to me like they have plenty of forward prospects, and only one D prospect, who look like they will be regular NHL players. Martone, Luchanko, Nesbitt and maybe Berglund will play for the big team. Bonk will too. None of that will happen this season, but it’s on the way.
Is this a fact, or just your hypothesis?
See what I did there?
What if Buium isn’t the next Cale Makar but is the next Jamie Drysdale? We can obviously keep tabs on all four of Buium, Perrault, Luchanko and Bonk. We’ll see how that works out but it’s a little early to claim the Flyers are terrible at drafting based on a completely made-up hypothetical future.
Everything I say is hypothetical, yet you repeat ad nauseam that every player drafted a few months ago, kids who have yet to play an NHL game, will automatically make the Flyers tougher to play against?
Think I’ll go talk to a wall. I’m sure it will be a far more intelligent conversation.
Haha! The old “if that happens, then this will happen” argument. Tippett is the safest bet to have a full and productive season, then Zegras. Drysdale will be a project. It a turnaround doesn’t happen, a project with dwindling ice time.
Is it any different than you claiming they’ll somehow be harder to play against over and over again? Sounds like a big if to me, but since it fits your narrative, it’s okay, right?
Only three? What a catastrophe. Florida had one, Vegas had two covering the last three cups. Michkov will take some of the new surplus. Zegras is already making $5.75M. If he goes from the .75 PPG guy that got that deal to a .8 PPG guy with the Flyers, how much of a raise would he get? Drysdale needs to pull a rabbit out of a hat this season.
If and when the Flyers ever get to the current level Florida, Edmonton, and Vegas has attained, I’ll gladly listen to how they built a top-tier defensive corps via free agency. I’m guessing I won’t be hearing of this astounding success for a decade or more, or ever if they keep employing the incompetent because it’s the Flyers way.
And if Zegras and Drysdale show any inkling of improvement, not only will they get a bag of money, they’ll get a maximum term contract as well… it’s how the Flyers operate (just ask Owen Tippett).
I’m looking at the small picture on D? I’m looking at the D corps of the best teams currently and in the recent past. If Sanheim, York and Bonk can comprise the Top 6 next season, that’s half your D corps and that’s more than most of the recent better teams have built their D.
The Flyers will have a bundle in cap space next July. Dead space gone, cap jumps, more young players on cheaper deals and some contracts won’t get extended. Somewhere around $20M I’m guessing.
If you’re only looking at the D, then yes, you are not looking at the big picture.
You keep bringing up the Panthers, Oilers, and “recent better teams” as building their teams by bringing defensemen from outside the organization in. Well, if you haven’t checked, only 3 of the Flyers starting defensemen (if you’re considering the gimp Ristolainen as a starter) are home-grown talents. Despite the Flyers already “building” in the same manner as the Panthers and Oilers, they still can’t sniff the playoffs.
While I think your estimate of $20M may be a little low (based on RFA/UFAs at the end of the 2025/26 season, which I may delve into in another post at a later time), that money will dry up quickly if they choose to extend Michkov at the end of the season (the earliest they can do so), if Trevor Zegras meets or exceeds expectations, and if Drysdale finally takes a step forward. And that’s just the easiest 3 examples heading into the 2026/27 season.
I think those questions will get answered pretty quickly. If the team D, goalies included, doesn’t get better they’re in for another bad season. I frankly don’t think it can get any worse. They still have Dmen and at least a couple two-way forwards they can build around. You’re overestimating the importance of having originally drafted Dmen for good teams. Spent some time on this, and the majority of Dmen on top teams are usually acquired as already developed, plug and play pros.
You’re looking small picture here. I’m looking big picture. Outside of the players who are currently on the NHL roster (which as a unit, is below average) and Oliver Bonk (who right now one has to hope can get somewhere near his ceiling or he’s just another name we’ll soon forget), what defenseman in the system is NHL quality within the next 2-5 years? Ditto for the goaltenders. Until one of those kids shows he can perform at the NHL level, they’re all the second coming of Maxime Oulette to me.
And as replied on another thread… how many good defensemen are you going to acquire via FA when you constantly spend to the cap? And yes, there is money coming off the books this season, but is it enough to rebuild a bad defense on the fly, and realistically, can this team spend it’s way out of its troubles? They sure as hell haven’t done it the past 15 seasons.
Frost is better on faceoffs. Frost has also had injury issues that checked his progress. Zegras generates a lot more offense. He’s proven it over multiple seasons. Poehling’s only double digit goal seasons were his last two here. Dvorak has seven, basically every full season he’s had in the league, excluding two where he played a combined 50 games. Poehling has never scored 15 or more goals in a season. Dvorak has done it four times. Why spend to the cap with short term deals, when you have about $7M in dead cap space coming back and the cap will go way up for 26-27? Why not?
While I see and understand your line of thinking regarding Trevor Zegras, when was the last time a reclamation project put it all together in Philly? If he plays most of the season, I’m guessing he’ll match Frost’s production numbers. Bigger question… how big of a liability will he be in his own end? We all know the Flyers philosophy is a 200 foot game, and if he can’t provide that, how long will the leash be?
And since you brought up the $7M in dead cap space coming back, what will that get the Flyers? Keeping in mind you’ll need to overpay to get a good player to come to a non-playoff team, and that a shade over $7M was only able to get Kevin Hayes a few years back, how much can the Flyers realistically improve via the FA market? The old Ed Snider way of spending your way to contention is no longer a feasible plan, and that many in the organization still think that way is a big reason why many of us are apathetic towards this team.
It is all the above and a cumulative effort of other departmental failures. I do not think the flyers hire the right people. Start with “hilf”. He has no business leading a sports franchise. He is a fan boy who IMO is easily manipulated.
They have nothing to sell except the past which shows these guys are not too bright. No new ideas. No new direction. No new concepts. No new anything. It will not change until the team is sold (not likely) or a total purge takes place. Again, not likely.
I never ever thought I would see this franchise end up in the shape it has ended up in. Really sad for someone who has been watching for decades.
Much like their draft picks, the Flyers only seem to make comfortable organizational hires. It’s almost as if they don’t want to look outside of their little bubble as they’re afraid someone not entrenched in the “Flyers Way” might actually tell them what a brain-dead shit show this organization has become.
I’m like you… watched for decades, and never imagined they would fall to the depths they find themselves in now. And I’ll add to that I have zero confidence the people in place right now are the ones who can get things turned around.
Your definition is not the generally accepted definition. Yeah, a hard to play against team is a big team that has mean players who hit people, they’re willing to get nasty in the trenches. What was the last Cup champ that didn’t have that, that built their team around small, skilled guys who get pushed around like shopping carts? The Flyers do have enough legitimate short term questions on D and in goal. The fact they aren’t building in your preferred fashion is of no consequence to me. They’re building in my preferred fashion.
Defense and goaltending are long-term questions. Outside of Bonk possibly being a middle-pairing defenseman, what else of quality is currently in the system? And as I alluded to in a previous post, Flyers goaltending prospects have mostly been disappointing for the past 3 1/2 decades.
For whatever reasons, history shows the Flyers have had problems developing top-tier defensemen and goaltenders.
the nebraska cornsuckers are stepping into the 90s and going with a black uniform this year!
go sooners!
Sooners fans haven’t figured out they’re the new Nebraska.
Sarcasm Monday! Hahahaha! They dodged a bullet when Krug nixed the Sanheim deal. They’d be even worse if that went down. Not sure what the thinking was. Aside from that, things haven’t been flashy, not like the bold strikes Holmgren made even when he took over as GM mid-season 06-07. That turnaround was astonishing, they were in the finals in three years. That’s clearly not happening here but I do see some fundamental things being done right.
The proposed Krug deal is yet another reminder of the Flyers Front Office giving the appearance they’re not really doing their homework. How many injured players have they traded for/tried to trade for in the past 5 seasons? It’s a recurring theme at this point, and yet another reason they Flyers do not get (nor do they deserve) the benefit of the doubt from me.
Out of curiosity, what are these “fundamental things being done right?”
