Back in (Orange and) Black
It only took the NHL and NHLPA five months to come to their collective senses enough to (tentatively) agree to play hockey this season. The one and only person that comes away looking heroic from this mess is mediator Scot Beckenbaugh. Without him, I think the two warring sides very well could have burned down the other half of the village come Friday.
From a Flyers' personnel standpoint, the team should be OK in terms of financial flexibility for next season. Assuming the widely reported $64.3 million cap ceiling and two buyouts for 2013-14 are accurate to the final deal, the team should have enough wiggle room against the cap to address their on-ice needs rather than simply shedding salaries.
Tomorrow, I will look at the current team heading into the shortened season. My main focus will be on the biggest trouble spot on the team right now: defense. For today, I wanted to look a little bit more about the direction the team may head when the ceiling drops by $6 million for next season.
The Flyers currently have $57 million of salary cap space committed to 16 players for the 2013-14 season. Come this summer, the club will have to start thinking long-term about addressing the following needs:
1) Locking up
Claude Giroux,
Brayden Schenn and
Sean Couturier in new contracts that would kick in for the 2014-15 season. The team also needs to figure out what to do with
Matt Read before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2014. Barring other roster restructuring, I don't think they'll be to retain Read beyond the 2013-14 season as much as they would like to.
2) Solving a more immediate need to strengthen the blueline, with at least two bonafide top-three defensemen. The club must also figure out whether to push to re-sign unrestricted free agent
Kimmo Timonen.
3) Making a decision on what to do with
Ilya Bryzgalov: buy him out to shed his $5.66 million cap hit or retain him for up to seven additional seasons. By the end of the 2013 season, the choice the Flyers will make will become fairly obvious.
In order to remain a Flyer beyond this season, Bryzgalov is going to have to play at a very high sustained level and have a strong playoff on top of it. That may be tough to accomplish with the defensive question marks surrounding the club but we'll see what happens. Bryzgalov did set a new franchise shutout record in March of last season with essentially the same defensive cast -- minus the now-departed Matt Carle -- in front of him.
If the Flyers buy out Bryzgalov, I think they will target Minnesota Wild impending unrestricted free agent goaltender Niklas Bäckström as his replacement. The Finnish goaltender could be available at a significantly lower cap cost -- and on no more than a two-year contract -- than Bryzgalov. Detroit Red Wings starter Jimmy Howard will also be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Backup goaltender
Michael Leighton will also be an unrestricted free agent after this season. As such, the Flyers could be in the market for two goaltenders.
4) Making a decision on whether to buy out
Chris Pronger or keep him on long-term injured reserve for the duration of his contract. It is unclear for the moment whether a) compliance buyouts will permit buyouts for severely injured players to retire and b) whether the long-term injured reserve list rules from the last CBA will carry over to the new one. Preferably, the Flyers will be able to buy out Pronger, let him retire with dignity, and for the organization to gain space on its summer salary cap.
Now, enough with the future salary cap talk and CBA stuff for awhile once the NHLPA and the NHL Board of Governors ratify the tentative agreement. Drop the puck and let's get the 2013 season going at long last.
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Ghost Wins Gold
Congratulations to Flyers defense prospect
Shayne Gostisbehere and the rest of Team USA for bringing home the gold medal from the 2012-13 World Junior Championships in Ufa, Russia. Yesterday morning (U.S. time), the Americans capped off their magnificent run with a 3-1 win over Sweden.
Gostisbehere played well during the tournament for the most part. Unfortunately, he got himself tossed out of the Slovakia game in the first period and suspended for the quarterfinals against the Czech Republic as a result of a spearing incident. He played sparingly in the semifinal against Canada (there was no need for coach Phil Housley to change the rotation that was clicking so well). He received more ice time in the gold medal game, including a shift late in regulation with the U.S. still leading by one goal.
"Ghost" played a very solid first period in the game against Sweden. Later in the game, he had a few scary moments. It was Gostisbehere who turned a puck over and needed John Gibson to make a spectacular save to prevent a game-tying shorthanded goal for the Swedes. It was also the Flyers prospect who initially got beaten one-on-one on the sequence in which Gibson did the splits make a lead-preserving save at the post.
There has yet to be a hockey player who is perfect. Mistakes are part of the game. On the whole, Gostisbehere showed a lot of poise under pressure and mobility both in the gold medal game and his other tournament outings. The team's confidence in tournament MVP Gibson was part of the reason why the defensemen -- including Gostisbehere -- were able to pinch on the play with a high degree of confidence.
Gostisbehere pinched frequently throughout the tourney. In most cases, they were good reads. The other thing that stands out about him, of course, is his vicious one-timer. He scored a goal with it in the Germany game as well as scoring the pre-tournament game winner in overtime against eventual gold medal game opponent Sweden.
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Phantoms win, Titans lose
In the final AHL game for its contingent of locked out young Flyers players, the Adirondack Phantoms avenged their ugly Friday night loss in Hartford with a 2-1 overtime win against the Connecticut Whale.
Sean Couturier blasted home an overtime power play goal to end the game.
Tye McGinn opened the scoring early in the first period. Meanwhile,
Cal Heeter was excellent in goal for the second straight night, making 30 saves for the victory.
With the NHL lockout having come to an end, Couturier,
Brayden Schenn,
Zac Rinaldo and defenseman
Erik Gustafsson will rejoin the Flyers as soon as the team conducts its first practice in Voorhees.
Eric Wellwood, who dressed in every playoff game for the Flyers last season, is also likely to rejoin the NHL club from the get-go. However, that decision is not an absolute lock based on his frequently unassertive play in Adirondack during the lockout.
Gustafsson has missed the last couple weeks with an ankle injury sustained while blocking a shot. He practiced, albeit sparingly, last week so he should be ready to join the Flyers. The status of his Adirondack defense partner and Flyers teammate,
Marc-Andre Bourdon is less clear. Bourdon is still sidelined indefinitely due to concussion-like symptoms.
With Bourdon having sustained three concussions in less than one calendar year (and over a span of roughly 25 games played), the organization can only proceed with the utmost caution. It could be awhile before Bourdon is cleared to play again.
Last night in Wheeling, the Trenton Titans got hammered by the Nailers, 5-0. All five goals came in the first period, with starter Scott Wedgewood getting victimized for the first three and
Niko Hovinen (coming off a good performance the previous evening) getting quickly greeted for two more.
With the end of the NHL lockout, there are now roster openings in Adirondack. As such, it is likely that some or all among
Shane Harper,
Matt Mangene and/or
Andrew Johnston will return to the AHL. Hovinen will stay put in Trenton. Right now, his chances of an AHL call-up this season are not very good unless either Heeter or veteran minor leaguer
Scott Munroe gets injured.
In tomorrow's blog, I will devote a subsection to looking at what comes next for the Phantoms and Titans. The rest-of-season outlook in Adirondack in particular is not a pretty one but the silver lining is there will be more ice time available at the AHL level now for the developmental players.
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