Veteran Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn will have his work cut out for him in the first season of the four-year contract extension he signed earlier this year. First and foremost, he will be expected to play against other teams' top lines and perform to the same standards he did down the stretch and the playoffs last season. The team is also likely to rely on Coburn to play a bigger offensive role than he has at any point since the 2007-08 season.
Five years ago, former coach John Stevens regularly used Coburn on the power play. He compiled a career high 36 points (9 goals, 27 assists) to go along with a plus-17 rating in conjunction with Derian Hatcher (his main defense partner in the first half of the season) and Kimmo Timonen (second half).
When the Flyers acquired Matt Carle early in the 2008-09 season and then made a blockbuster trade for Chris Pronger the next summer, Coburn's offensive tasks were gradually reduced. His offensive role was further downsized when the club acquired Andrej Meszaros before the 2010-11 season.
Coburn's point totals decreased correspondingly. He went from 36 points in 2007-08 to 28 in 2008-09. With Pronger's arrival, Coburn dropped to 19 points in 2009-10 and, with Meszaros added to the blueline mix, he posted 16 points in 2010-11. In the meantime, his defensive game continued to mature. As he gained experience, Coburn went from a "junior partner" role on his pairing (i.e., Timonen directed traffic and did the heavier lifting in terms of coverages) to being more of a take-charge defenseman.
Last season, with Pronger lost for the season (and possibly for good) in mid-November and Meszaros lost for the stretch drive and playoffs, head coach Peter Laviolette and defense coach Kevin McCarthy encouraged Coburn to be a little more aggressive in triggering or joining the rush. He still didn't see much power play time in the team's umbrella setup -- the team often used one defenseman and an extra forward up high on the man advantage -- but Coburn still produced eight more points than he did the previous season.
Come next season, Coburn figures to find himself on the second power play unit. The team will need him to produce offense at a clip similar to 2007-08 without losing anything off his defensive game. The reason, of course, is that Pronger is still unable to play, Carle departed for Tampa as a free agent and Meszaros could be lost for most of the regular season. By process of elimination, Coburn will have to be one of the primary players to help pick up the slack.
Timonen already plays on the top power play unit. The All-Star defenseman is also aging, with mounting injury concerns. Coburn's current partner, Nicklas Grossmann, is strictly a stay-at-home defenseman. Likewise, new arrival Luke Schenn has relatively little to offer offensively (although the 22-year-old did produce a career-high 20 assists last year).
Youngsters Erik Gustafsson and Marc-Andre Bourdon have shown glimpses of offensive potential -- Bourdon as a shooter, Gustafsson as more of a playmaker and puck-mover -- but they are still trying to establish themselves in the NHL. New acquisition Bruno Gervais likes to join the rush and was primarily an offensive defenseman in both junior hockey and the AHL, but that has not necessarily translated to the NHL. It also remains to be seen how many minutes Gervais and the two young defensemen will play in the rotation.
Truth be told, Coburn is probably best suited to playing the type of role he played last season and is not an ideal offensive defenseman. He has the physical tools to produce points -- well above-average skating ability, a high-velocity shot -- but he doesn't consistently show that split-second offensive anticipation that makes all the difference in creating or capitalizing on a scoring chance. That is why Coburn was never a huge point producer even in junior hockey or the AHL, where one would figure that his physical gifts alone would have enabled him to dominate at the offensive end.
Nevertheless, Coburn showed five years ago that he can do a decent offensive job at the NHL level when the opportunity presents itself. Now that he's in the prime of his career and the Flyers need more offense from him again, it's time for "Coby" to challenge himself to become the complete package of shutdown defense AND above-average offensive production from the blueline.
At the end of the 2012-13 regular season, if Timonen stays healthy enough to play at his accustomed standard AND Coburn plays to a level worthy of winning his first Barry Ashbee Trophy, the top end Flyers defense should be fine. But those are two pretty big "ifs" at this point, and the club still needs Grossman, Schenn and others to stay healthy and excel in their respective roles.
One ray of hope for the Flyers is that Coburn really started to hit his stride as a two-way defenseman in the second half of last season. In offensive terms, over the final 33 games of the regular season, he produced 12 points without the benefit of much power play time (an average of about 20 seconds per game). Defensively, Coburn and Grossmann drew the stretch-drive assignment of playing against opposing lines anchored by the likes of Evgeni Malkin, Steven Stamkos and Pavel Datsyuk. How did they do? Coburn was a plus-10 dating from February 1 onward and Grossmann was plus-5 dating from the time of acquisition.
Come next season, whenever it begins, Coburn is eager to do his part to prove the team's naysayers wrong. People forget that the team was missing Meszaros (as well as Pronger) in March, and a pre-surgery Timonen was gritting through a lot of pain in his back and knees. Nevertheless, the club elevated its two-way play, and a pre-injury Ilya Bryzgalov reeled off his franchise-record shutout streak and won Player of the Month honors despite suffering a chip fracture in his right foot late in the month.
There is no doubt that the Flyers blueline is filled with health and/or performance question marks and could really use upgrades in certain areas. It is pretty tough to say right now that the defense has done anything but go backwards a bit with the departure of Carle and no clearcut replacement for him. Even so, the situation need not be disastrous, especially if Coburn has a career year and Timonen holds up physically for one more year.
In order to accomplish this feat, Coburn would need to produce about 8 to 10 goals and 30 to 35 assists (or an equivalent clip over a shortened season) while continuing to be the team's #1 shutdown defenseman. If he's healthy, I think he's capable of doing it.
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