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Quick Hits: Jones, Gostisbehere, LTIR, TIFH (Clarke's Blueline Makeover) |
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Quick Hits: June 29, 2021
1) Elliotte Friedman reported on Friday that it appears that the Flyers remain one of the most active pursuers of a trade with Columbus for Seth Jones among the many teams expressing interest. According to other sources, it would be a deal that includes the Flyers sending NHL roster players, draft picks and/or prospects. There may also be another piece (a goalie such as Jonas Korpisalo?) coming to Philadelphia in a potential blockbuster deal. Presumably, this is predicated on Jones signing an extension and forgoing unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2022.
We shall see. Right now, the Flyers seem to get mentioned in most every rumor involving a prominent name -- Pierre LeBrun linked the Flyers as one of the teams on the radar screen for Buffalo center Jack Eichel, for example, although the New York Post's Larry Brooks said the New York Rangers have had preliminary discussions with the Sabres and are doing their due diligence on Eichel's neck injury as part of the process.
2) The fact that no team claimed Shayne Gostisbehere off waivers this past season, according to two non-Flyers sources, had much more to do with salary cap economics (two seasons remaining on his contract at a $4.5 million cap hit) than the absence of any teams that saw him as a fit hockey-wise.
Keep in mind that, with a waiver claim, a team only has 24 hours from the time the player goes on waivers to clear cap space if it's needed. Also, unlike the offseason (when a club can go 10% over the cap until opening night rosters have to be submitted to the NHL) it cannot exceed the cap in-season to do it. An exception to this would be transferring an injured player from the Injured Reserve list to Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR).
3) Speaking of LTIR, there's been a lot of blatant abuse of the CBA provision the last couple seasons, most notably this season by Tampa Bay and previously by the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the Bolts' case, it was a primarily a work-around for Nikita Kucherov, who returned for the playoffs after sitting out the regular season. With Toronto, it was a strategy of acquiring NHL-contracted players they knew could not pass a physical to return to the NHL but could be placed on LTIR for the cap allowance to go over the cap (the Leafs used $13.7 million worth of LTIR allowance in 2019-20 overall).
In the past, the Flyers have used plenty of season-long LTIR allowance to stay cap compliant after players on their own roster suffered what proved to be career-ending injuries (Mike Rathje, Ian Laperriere, Chris Pronger) and had remaining years of term on their contracts.
In 2020-21, the Flyers incurred no overages on their final cap spending even with bonuses and IR figured into their final cap total, so the team will not have any penalties deducted from their 2021-22 cap. The club currently has $13,085,477 of available cap space this offseason. Internally, Carter Hart, Travis Sanheim (arbitration eligible), Nolan Patrick, and Carsen Twarynski are restricted free agents. Brian Elliott. Sam Morin (Group 6) and Alex Lyon are unrestricted free agents.
4) Today in Flyers History: June 29, 1994
The 1992-93 and 1993-94 Flyers were good offensive teams but they struggled mightily keeping the puck out of their own net. Entering the summer of 1994, when Bob Clarke returned for his second stint as general manager, the Flyers had the following defensemen in the rotation: Garry Galley, Dmitri Yushkevich, Yves Racine, Jason Bowen, Stew Malgunas, Rob Zettler and Jeff Finley. Waiting in the wings on the Hershey Bears were offensive defensive Milos Holan, Bob Wilkie, hard-hitting Russian defenseman Vladislav Boulin (who soon suffered a major knee injury) and rugged Dan Kordic (being converted from a D to a LW).
Within a season, Clarke completely remade the blueline. Rookie prospect Chris Therien was ready to compete for an NHL spot. Yushkevich was a hold-over (for one additional full season) and Zettler stayed as the No. 7 defenseman for one additional year. The rest was changed over via trades.
The process started on June 29, 1994, when the Flyers traded offensive defenseman Racine to the Montreal Canadiens for highly mobile puck mover Kevin Haller. Racine had produced 52 points in just 67 games for the Flyers in 1993-94 but was a significant liability defensively. Haller was the better all-around player, more consistent and chippier.
New Flyers head coach Terry Murray was not impressed in camp by what he saw from 1992 first-round pick Jason Bowen (who dressed in 56 games a rookie in 1993-94 for former head coach Terry Simpson). Malgunas was coming back from knee issues and struggling physically. Therien, who eventually won NHL 1994-95 All-Rookie Team honors, impressed in training camp and jumped into the starting six when the lockout ended and the season began. Bowen and Malgunas were demoted, except for brief subsequent NHL recalls. Finley was also sent down to Hershey.
Shortly before the start of the NHL lockout that went until January and resulted in a 48-game regular season, Clarke upgraded the goaltending. He reacquired Ron Hextall from the New York Islanders in exchange for the talented but inconsistent Tommy Söderström.
One of the biggest trades in Flyers history was made on Feb. 9, 1995: That was the deal that sent Mark Recchi (later reacquired) to the Montreal Canadiens for All-Star caliber defenseman Eric Desjardins and forwards John LeClair and Gilbert Dionne. Desjardins immediately became the Flyers' No. 1 defenseman and was reunited with Haller on a D pairing.
On Feb. 16, 1995, Clarke traded Wilkie to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for the physically gifted by enigmatic Karl Dykhuis. Originally a first-round pick by the Blackhawks in 1990, Dykhuis showed flashes of two-way brilliance amid multi-week struggles. As a result, he was spending more time in the minors than the NHL. After coming to Philadelphia, however, Dykhuis was plugged into the NHL starting lineup and had more ups than downs for the rest of the season and playoffs. Wilkie never resurfaced in the NHL.
Erstwhile Flyers No. 1 defenseman Galley spent most of the 1994-95 season with Philadelphia but was dealt at the trade deadline (April 7, 1995( to Buffalo for rock steady veteran Petr Svoboda. The Czech blueliner had nearly annual injury issues but was a model of consistency when he was in the lineup. He was paired with Dykhuis, and the two worked well together. Oddly enough, several years later, the two former D partners were later traded for another when Dykhuis began his second stint with the Flyers.
Thus, by the end of the 1994-95 campaign, five the Flyers top six defensemen plus their starting goalie were players who weren't there one season earlier. The defense pairs by this point were Haller-Desjardins, Therien-Yushkevich, Dykhuis-Svoboda.
To me, the rapid remake of the entire defense corps (Yushkevich would be traded in the 1995 offseason), the hiring of the detail-oriented Murray and, of course, the instant impact that LeClair made in replacing Recchi was arguably the best set of moves within a single year that Clarke made during his two tenures. In team history, it ranks up there with Paul Holmgren's set of moves that turned the Flyers from the worst team in the NHL in 2006-07 to an Eastern Conference Finalist in 2007-08.
After five straight years of missing the playoffs, Clarke's 1994 offseason and 1994-95 in-season moves were the driving force in why the Flyers won their division and went to the Eastern Conference Final that year and remained perennial Stanley Cup contenders for the remainder of the decade.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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