WEDNESDAY QUICK HITS
* Even when it was announced that Flyers captain Claude Giroux was among the top three finishers (AKA, a "finalist") in the Hart Trophy balloting, there was never much hope that he had actually won the NHL's Most Valuable Player award over Sidney Crosby. The Penguins superstar, like it or not, was a shoo-in for the award this year, and the respective second-place and third-place finishes of Ryan Getzlaf and Giroux were also predictable.
Giroux's slow start to the 2013-14 season -- which probably had something to do with his hand injury late last summer, although no player would use injury as an excuse -- cost him a shot at legitimately beating out (or at least battling neck-and-neck with) Crosby for the Hart Trophy.
Over the last five months of this past season, no player in the NHL was more dominant or more important to his team than Giroux. He deserved his spot in the top 3.
* Flyers third line center Sean Couturier finished ninth in the Selke Trophy balloting for the NHL's best defensive forward. He received one second-place vote, a pair of third-place votes, one fourth-place vote and 10 fifth place votes for 30 voting points. Boston's Patrice Bergeron (1,288 points) was the unsurprising runaway winner for the second time. Couturier, who turned 21 last December, was the youngest player to finish in the top 20.
* Flyers goaltender Steve Mason garnered a second-place vote and finished seventh in the Vezina Trophy balloting. Last year's winner, ex-Flyer Sergei Bobrovsky, was eighth. Overwhelmingly, NHL general managers gave to the top-spot nod to Boston's Tuukka Rask (103 points, 16 of a possible 30 first-place votes, six votes for second place).
* Flyers head coach Craig Berube finished sixth in the balloting for the Jack Adams Award as NHL Coach of the Year. He even managed to get one first-place vote and finished with 23 voting points. The runaway winner for the award was Colorado's Patrick Roy (399 points).
* As noted in yesterday's blog, R.J. Umberger played through a separated shoulder, herniated disc and broken finger this past season in Columbus. The Flyers said that Umberger has been given a clean bill of health and they are comfortable that he will be fine physically heading into next season.
* I was not able to attend Ron Hextall's NHL Draft-related press conference yesterday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees (I am in Texas, returning to Philadelphia today for Draft weekend), but spoke afterwards with a couple of the writers who attended. A
full transcript of Hextall's comments was published today on NJ.com.
* Although he is new to the role of a head general manager at the NHL level, Hextall is already good at the art of being honest and forthcoming enough to provide glimmers of insight into his thinking but vague enough not to tip his hand about his actual plans.
For example, Hextall said the Flyers would consider trading to move up from the 17th overall spot in the Draft and added that he believes there is an NHL upside drop-off after the top-10 prospects in the Draft.
Does that mean the Flyers will move up? It might and might not.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that the Flyers internal top 10 list of prospects for this Draft is likely to be very different from Central Scouting and the pundits' rankings. This year's Draft in particular is one where there is little consensus among scouts beyond the top four or five prospects, and teams' internal ranking spots for certain players could vary from other teams' by as little as one or two spots and as much as 20 or more.
All that Hextall actually said was that, beyond the Flyers' internal top 10 list, he thinks there's a drop off. As such, trading down is about equally likely as trading up but standing put at number 17 is still the most likely scenario.
Likewise, while saying that this year's draft was much deeper in forwards (with quite a few potential top-six forwards down the line) than defensemen and an "average" year for goalies beyond Thatcher Demko, Hextall said that he would not hesitate to take the right goalie or defenseman in round one.
During his off-podium session following the formal press conference, Hextall was asked about the pool of European players in the Draft. The Flyers general said that, if all things are relatively equal, he generally prefers to select a North American league player than someone currently playing in Europe. However, once again, there's a major qualifier attached: If the Flyers have a European league player in their top 10 (i.e., above the "drop-off point") and that player is available to be selected by the Flyers, they would not hesitate to take him.
One area that Hextall heavily emphasized yesterday was that he values character in players. He was referring primarily to work ethic and on-ice accountability.
When asked about specific draft candidates -- such as the USNTDP trio of Dylan Larkin, Alex Tuch and Sonny Milano -- Hextall gave thumbnail assessments of playing styles. He said all the right things but never gave anything close to a ranking.
All in all, while Hextall gave some rules of thumb for how he will approach the 2014 Draft at the Wells Fargo Center this weekend and future Drafts, he really didn't reveal anything about what the team will actually do. That is how it should be. The truth is: Not even the Flyers themselves know yet how things will play out.
* I always enjoy talking prospects and hockey in general with old friends Russ Cohen and Anthony Mingioni. There have been many nights in the Wells Fargo Center press box where we've stood around chatting long after the end of post-game interviews downstairs.
Yesterday, Anthony and Russ had me on as a guest on their
Off the Post show. We discussed the implications of the Scott Hartnell trade, the Hockey of Hall selections (specifically the snubbing of Eric Lindros) and then talked about the 2014 NHL Draft, with an emphasis on the European pool of players.
The time flew by, and I think the end result sounded more like a hockey discussion among friends than a stilted question-and-answer session. It was fun. I look forward to catching up with those guys and all my other media friends and acquaintances at the Draft this weekend.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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