QUICK HITS: JUNE 28, 2016
1) Congratulations to former Flyers captain Eric Lindros and to the family of the late Pat Quinn for both men's selections to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will be in Toronto on November 14.
Not including legendary broadcaster Gene Hart, honored with the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 1997, and prolific Flyers writer Jay Greenberg, chosen for the 2013 Elmer Ferguson award, Lindros and Quinn will be the 17th and 18th men with Flyers’ ties at some point of their careers to be selected for the induction into the Hall. Twelve have been chosen for their playing careers, while six others were selected in the Builders’ category.
The players: defenseman Allan Stanley (1981), goaltender Bernie Parent (1984), center Bobby Clarke (1987), center Darryl Sittler (1989), left winger Bill Barber (1990), center/winger Dale Hawerchuk (2001), defenseman Paul Coffey (2004), Mark Howe (2011), Adam Oates (2012), Peter Forsberg (2014), Chris Pronger (2015) and Lindros (2016).
The builders: Flyers co-founder and chairman Ed Snider (1988), general manager Bud Poile (1990), coach and general manager Keith Allen (1992), coach Roger Neilson (2001), coach Fred Shero (2013) and coach Quinn (2016).
I will have full articles on their selection for both the Flyers' official website and for the Flyers Alumni official site. The
Hall of Fame inductee list on the Alumni site has been updated.
2) I am still not quite sure how, in a year with no serious first-year candidates for Hall of Fame induction that Mark Recchi got bypassed again. I thought he was a virtual shoo-in this time around.
This is a player with the career numbers (577 goals, 956 assists, 1,553 points), the longevity (1,652 regular season games, 189 playoff games), some gaudy individual seasons (three 100-plus point seasons, a 97-point season and a 91-point season, one 50-goal season and four with 40-plus points), the team honors (Stanley Cup rings with three teams), and the respect of his former teammates.
It should have been a no-brainer selection, yet he's still waiting. Some perceive that he was "merely" very good and not great. Well, he was a great offensive talent in Pittsburgh, in Philly (even months before Lindros' arrival and certainly afterwards), became a bit more of a well-rounded player in Montreal and was mighty good for most of his second Flyers stint despite declining scoring leaguewide.
Did Recchi benefit from having played with the likes of Mario Lemieux and Lindros? Of course he did. But they also benefited from having a player who could think -- and execute -- the game on a very high level in his own right. It's not all that different from the way that Bill Barber, Jari Kurri and Jaromir Jagr benefited from Bobby Clarke, Wayne Gretzky and Lemieux respectively and, in turn, the superstar centers raised their own games to even higher levels.
I always regarded Recchi as an even better playmaker than he was a goal-scorer, yet he was a damn good goal scorer, too, because he released his shot so fast. Recchi perhaps let emotions overrule judgment a few times during his career but for better or for worse, he gave his all and he cared.
3) Apart from Recchi, who will be the next Hockey Hall of Fame honoree with ties to the Flyers? I did not expect either Jeremy Roenick or Rod Brind'Amour to get into the Hall this year. I do think JR gets in at some future point. With Brind'Amour, if he gets in, it may be after the sort of waits that the candidacies of Mark Howe, Fred Shero and the just-selected Rogie Vachon went through before there was enough momentum to get the required 75 percent of the vote from the selecton committee.
Incidentally, since people always bring up Cam Neely's HHOF inclusion despite an injury-shortened career, how about the candidacy of fellow power forward Tim Kerr?
Neely played 726 career games, scoring 395 goals and 694 points. Kerr, whose career overlapped much of the same era, had 370 goals and 674 points in just 655 career regular season games. Neely had three 50-goal seasons. Kerr had four, and they came in consecutive seasons. On sheer numbers, Kerr was the better goal-scorer of the two. While he didn't fight nearly as often as Neely did, Kerr could certainly handle himself when the gloves were dropped. Kerr was more a quiet, stoic leader than the more up-front leader Neely but certainly led by example.
There was a time period during the 1980s when there may not have been a tougher player to stop from the slot or in a scramble around the net than Kerr. Opposing players would hack and cross-check away and Kerr would score anyway... from his feet, from his knees, even laying prone on the ice sometimes. He didn't just collect slam-dunk "garbage goals," either. He had a nasty backhander, great hand-eye coordination to deflect pucks, a hair-trigger forehand release and could also simply overpower a goalie in an era before Robocop goalie gear.
John LeClair is in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and had three straight 50-goal seasons plus a pair of 40-plus goal seasons. He also had a Cup ring in Montreal that he played an important part in with two overtime goals in the Stanley Cup Final. His career numbers come up a bit short because he was a late-bloomer and then declined in the 2000s as injuries (including major surgery on his back) took a toll. For a period of six seasons, spanning his entire run alongside Lindros, LeClair was a Hall of Fame caliber force.
4) Speaking of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, Philadelphia is said to be the leading candidate to host the next induction ceremony. The USHHOF class of 2016 could be announced within the next week or so. The ceremony will be in December.
5) The Flyers have enough cap space this summer to at least dabble in the unrestricted free agent market. It will be interesting to see if Philadelphia gets in on forward Brandon Pirri, who was not tendered a qualifying offer by the Anaheim Ducks and will become an unrestricted free agent on Friday. There seems to be a potential fit.
The 25-year-old Pirri has shown a bit of scoring pop and has the ability to either center or play left wing. He's not a big, bruising type like Milan Lucic but he could be a useful supporting cast piece.
Additionally, the Washington Capitals will not be giving a qualifying offer to Michael Latta. The 25-year-old, who plays a "heavy" game and is best suited to a fourth-line role, could also be a player of interest if Ryan White is not re-signed.
6) The Flyers have issued qualifying offers to restricted free agents Brayden Schenn, Brandon Manning, Nick Cousins,Jordan Weal, and Petr Straka. As expected, they turned loose minor leaguers Brandon Alderson and Derek Mathers to become UFAs.
7) According to McKeen's Grant McCagg, it does not look as though the Flyers will have any unaffiliated players invited to the upcoming development camp. With the team have held on to -- and added -- so many draft picks the last few years, the organization understandably wants to focus on players whose rights already under the organizational umbrella.
That does NOT necessarily preclude a late addition or a few unaffiliated players getting training camp invites. Last year, defenseman Philippe Myers was in the Calgary Flames' development camp after being bypassed in the NHL Draft. The Flames did not offer him an entry level contract, and the Flyers subsequently brought him to rookie camp and ended up signing him. Myers went on to have a breakout season in the QMJHL and is now considered a legitimate NHL prospect.
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