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Quick Hits: August 26, 2024
1) Monday with Meltzer: It's the annual "bold predictions" episode in this week's Monday edition of the Flyers Daily Podcast with host Jason Myrtetus and yours truly. Podcast listeners also weigh in with some of their own.
Can Travis Konency reach 80 points if he stays healthy enough to play all 82 games? Will Ivan Fedotov challenge Samuel Ersson for the No. 1 job in goal, similar to how Roman Cechmanek had a stunningly good "rookie" NHL season at age 29? Is it realistic for Matvei Michkov to become the Flyers first-ever Calder Trophy winner? Can Owen Tippett, shatter his previous single-season goal high and not only bag his first 30-goal season but reach 35? Can Morgan Frost get 20 goals (previous career high is 19) and 40 assists? Can the power play improve to at least 18 percent after setting an all-time franchise low in 2023-24?
We discuss all of these scenarios and more on this week's 35-plus minute episode. Watch below via YouTube or click here.
2) Elliotte Friedman had some interesting takes in his late-offseason "32 Thoughts" edition regarding the Flyers push to terminate Ryan Johansen's contract and the counter drive by the NHLPA and agent Kurt Overhardt to have the National Hockey League prevent it. Most notably, Friedman wrote that "the Flyers wouldn’t pursue this without a behind-the-scenes wink from the NHL".
Friedman also notes that the fact Johansen not only missed no games with the Colorado Avalanche prior to Colorado trading him (as a contract dump-off for cap space) but he also was not even taking maintenance days at practice. Immediately after the trade, he claimed his hip issue was too incapacitating to play for the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms after he was waived and cleared -- or to rehab sufficiently to participate in NHL training camp.
Friedman states that the timing of Johansen being waived for termination purposes -- just three days after his wedding, where there's since been widely circulated video footage of him dancing aboard a moving party bus and pre-wedding photos that included Johansen lifting his bride off her feet -- could not have been totally coincidental. That may not have more than loose circumstantial evidence that the player's hip condition (for which Overhard says that "extensive surgery" has been scheduled) was not as much of a career/quality of life issue as claimed. Nevertheless, it may have been the final straw. If nothing else, the timing was quite striking even if it was, in fact, a total coincidence.
3) August 26 Flyers Alumni birthday: Recently retired power forward Wayne Simmonds celebrates his 36th birthday today. He was born in Scarborough, Ontario, on August 26, 1988.
4) Today in Flyers History: August 27, 1987
In an all-fated trade brought about by contract disputes in back-to-back offseasons, the Flyers made a trade that general manager Bob Clarke later admits was one of his biggest mistakes. The Flyers trade defenseman Brad McCrimmon to the Calgary Flames for a 1989 first-round pick (later traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Ken Wregget deal) and a 1988 third-round pick (goalie Dominic Roussel).
Years later, Clarke admits that he let his better judgment get overruled by personal clashes with McCrimmon's agent and the fact that Clarke did not particularly like McCrimmon as a teammate prior to the Hockey Hall of Famer's retirement as a player. The monetary gap in the negotiation that ended up with McCrimmon's trade was relatively modest and solvable. However, both sides dug in their heels and it ended up in a trade that cost the Flyers half of their most successful and formidable defense pairing in franchise history.
in 1988-89, as a member of Terry Crisp's Calgary Flames, McCrimmon was part of a Stanley Cup winning team. After reaching the Stanley Cup Final in both 1985 and 1987 (falling just one win shy in the latter), the Flyers would not reach the Cup Final again until 1997 and 2010.
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