On the same day that Pierre LeBrun reported that the Flyers continue to "aggressively pursue" a trade for Columbus winger Rick Nash, Bob McKenzie reported that the Anaheim Ducks are once again willing to listen to trade offers for Bobby Ryan after temporarily putting a hold on any such discussions when Bruce Boudreau replaced Randy Carlyle as coach last December.
It is no secret that the Flyers have coveted Ryan for years. A native of Cherry Hill who started playing youth hockey in our area, his family has known members of the organization, specifically Bob Clarke and Paul Holmgren, very well for many years.
While Ryan would look good in orange and black, especially if the club does not resign Jaromir Jagr, I will reiterate what I said about him when there were rampant trade rumors last November. As is the case with Nash, Ryan is a fine scoring winger. Nevertheless, he really doesn't match up to the Flyers' current biggest need.
Ryan is a good, sometimes very good, offensive player with size, but he is not a franchise player. Ryan has recorded four straight 30-goal seasons, topping out at 35 goals in 2009-10.
Some have said the second overall pick of the 2005 Draft probably should be a 40-45 goal scorer by now given his natural gifts and the caliber of linemates he's played with in Anaheim, but that's a mighty tall order. Besides, at age 25, there is still time for Ryan to lift his game to the next level.
Ryan's relationship with Carlyle was sometimes solid, sometimes rocky. The hard-to-please coach got on the forward's case at times for cutting corners defensively and not using his size as effectively as he should. However, when Ryan gets hot, he can score in bunches.
Compared to Nash's $7.8 million cap hit, Ryan's $5.1 million cap hit is more reasonable and manageable. The cap hit is less than $1 million more than that on James van Riemsdyk's new contract ($4.25 million) and could be absorbed by the team without financially precluding other moves. Ryan's current deal runs three more seasons, so he would not be up for re-negotiation until the season before he hits UFA status in the summer of 2015.
If I were Paul Holmgren and had the option to trade van Riemsdyk for Ryan, I would do it. Ryan is still reasonably young and is already a 30-plus goal scorer whereas JVR has shown hints that he'll get to that point but is not there yet. In the long term, however, even a straight-up deal might be a lateral move.
The bigger problem is this: Anaheim apparently still wants a king's ransom of a trade return on Ryan, and he is simply NOT worth breaking the bank to trade JVR plus numerous other assets to acquire. I do not think the Flyers ought to sweeten the offer much beyond JVR as the main piece, and I don't know if that's acceptable to Anaheim when clubs like Toronto would be willing to put together bigger packages.
The Flyers should ONLY consider moving some combination of JVR, Brayden Schenn, Matt Read, a starting defenseman and/or first round picks if that trade would net a legitimate franchise defenseman, because those are harder to come by than even top-line forwards.
The odds are still decidedly against a Bobby Ryan homecoming. But he would make an awfully nice linemate for Claude Giroux for the next three years, that's for sure.
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As we continue the countdown to the NHL Entry Draft, I have authored a pair of articles focused on looking at non-first draft picks.
For the
Flyers Official Site, I wrote an article breaking down the numbers of first-round and non-first picks on the current rosters of the Flyers and other NHL teams, with a particular emphasis on non-first rounders who have gone on to become impact players in the NHL.
Over at NHL.com, this week's
Across the Pond focuses on six Finnish sleepers available in the 2012 NHL Draft.
The Flyers infrequently draft players out of European leagues nowadays. However, I think that four of the players mentioned in the NHL.com article -- puck-moving defensemen Ville Pokka, big-framed but mobile defensive defenseman Mikko Vainonen, offensive defenseman Esa Lindell and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo -- could be of some interest to Philadelphia depending on how the Draft shakes out.
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