Something about June 23 unleashes the beast in Flyers management.
Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, JVR and now Scott Hartnell all traded on this fateful day over the last, several years.
It’s been a busy couple weeks for newly-installed Flyers general manager Ron Hextall.
On June 4, he announced the agreement with Reading of the ECHL, completing his double link minor league system into Pennsylvania for the first time since 1997-98.
On June 11, he signed free agent winger Pierre-Edouard Bellemare with the hopes he might become another unknown quantity like Michael Raffl and perhaps play on Sean Couturier’s line with Matt Read.
On June 13, he re-signed defenseman Kimmo Timonen to an incentive-laced deal that actually works for the cash-strapped Flyers under the salary cap.
On June 18, he added Gord Murphy to the bench to handle the defense.
And on Monday, in a move that caught just about everyone off-guard, he sent Scott Hartnell Columbus for R.J. Umberger and later announced he had re-signed Brayden Schenn to a very cap friendly deal.
With having virtually nothing in real dollars to spend at his disposal, Hextall has managed to make some moves and still has about $1.86 million cap space left.
He still needs to bolster the defense. He still needs to sign a backup goaltender.
The one rumor you keep hearing is sending trying to work a deal with Nashville which is under the cap’s floor and needs to add salary. Send Vinny Lecavalier there for RFA defenseman Michael Del Zotto.
Personally, I would still like to see the Flyers promote one of their top defensive prospects this fall and force them into an NHL situation. Allow them to grow and work on the job.
The defense remains slow and older than it was when the season ended with the subtraction of Erik Gustafsson.
By no means do I feel Hextall is through. He’s going to try and make something else happen. By his own admission back in May, I don’t think he is going to spend excessively on a left wing.
He said twice the day he was hired that if he had to accept a position of weakness on his team, he would take it on the left side of the ice. He made no bones that strong down the middle also means strong d-men and something has to be done.
That’s why I feel if he is going to move Vinny’s $4.5 million salary in a major deal, the net result will be a defenseman and not a forward.
As perplexing as the Hartnell for Umberger deal is, it helps the Flyers lower their cap, lower the number of years left on an existing contract (from 5 to 3), and gives them a more versatile forward who can play several positions and both power play and penalty kill.
Hextall emphasized Umbie’s PK work as something extra the Flyers get.
The Flyers always make moves at the NHL Draft and often, before the draft. They’ve already made a few and the draft arrives this weekend in Philly.
You sense something else is coming.
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