WILL READ RETURN TO PREVIOUS FORM NEXT SEASON?

In a season filled with disappointment, the offensive struggles of Philadelphia Flyers winger Matt Read stood out among the biggest let-downs for a club that finished 22nd in the NHL with 215 goals one season after ranking tied for ninth with 236 tallies. For much of the season, the hoped-for scoring depth beyond the Claude Giroux line and the top power play unit wasn't there.

Read, a late bloomer who will turn 29 in June, had always been one of the Flyers' most reliable 200-foot players from the time of his arrival in the NHL. The Flyers went into the season penciling in Read for 20 to 24 goals and 40 to 48 points based on his previous NHL history. Instead, he slumped to just eight goals and 30 points in 80 games.

How much of Read's struggle was physical and how much was mental? It's hard to say.

The player went through a period of two-plus months where he was not skating very well; never a good thing for a speed-based player who relies largely on his skating and hockey smarts for success. On December 15, former Flyers head coach Craig Berube revealed after practice that Read had been dealing with a foot injury but was feeling better. It was said several weeks later that Read played through a high ankle sprain for a portion of the season. The player himself downplayed any physical problems.

In the meantime, Read's confidence in the offensive zone seemed to suffer as the season progressed.

At one point early in the season, he asked Berube to switch from left wing to right wing, saying he felt he could see the ice better from that side. Linemate R.J. Umberger moved from the right side to the left wing of Sean Couturier's line. The positional switches made little difference, as both Read and Umberger continued to struggle. Later, Read returned to the left side while Wayne Simmonds played right wing on the line.

On multiple occasions during the season, Berube said that he had not given serious thought to splitting Couturier and Read as linemates while the two players endured lengthy slumps because he "didn't think separating them would fix the problem." He said that neither player had been moving their feet enough, getting to scoring areas or showing a willingness to shoot the puck when they had open shots.

A microcosm of Read's season: a shorthanded goal the Flyers yielded to the Islanders in the second period of a 7-4 loss to the New York Islanders in a President's Day matinee. Read made a poor decision in shooting the puck with no lane -- Nikolay Kulemin was about five feet away, and Read shot the puck directly into the Islander's shin pad, leading to a breakaway.

More notable was what happened as Kulemin sped off on the breakaway. Kulemin blew right past him and got separation. Read made a concerted effort to backcheck and atone for his mistake but he skated like his feet were in cement.



That was not the Matt Read the Flyers had seen for most of his first three NHL seasons. After the All-Star break, Read's skating came back to normal but his finishing ability in the offensive zone remained AWOL. Even when Couturier experienced point surges when Brayden Schenn was placed on his line (first on left wing for a stretch in early November and, late in the season, on the right wing after Simmonds was lost for the season), Read still had problems scoring goals.

Late in the season, Read was not lacking for scoring chances, including ones of the shorthanded variety (something the Flyers as a team did not get nearly as much abundance in previous seasons). Nevertheless, the goals remained few and far between. Read often wound up either missing the net, holding a split second too long and losing the chance or else winding up shooting right into the goalie's chest or pads.

On the final day of the season, Read scored the Flyers' lone goal in a loss to Ottawa. It was a Johnny-on-the-spot sort of goal that been very tough for Read to come by all season. Even when he got himself to scoring areas, loose pucks rarely seemed to take a favorable bounce for him.

That's how it goes in hockey sometimes. The only way to turn bad puck luck into good luck is to keep getting to the same areas and the breaks will even out. Combine the favorable-bounce goals with the speed and fast shot release tallies and you have a 20-plus goal scorer; which is exactly what Read had been before this season.

It is worth noting that the 2014-15 campaign was the first season in which a four-year contract extension kicked in. First announced in September 2013, the deal is worth $14.5 million, with an annual cap hit of $3.625 million. Read had a $900,000 cap hit on his original contract with the Flyers, which expired after the 2013-14 season.

Read would not be the first player to have a new contract with a big raise weigh him down in the first season, as he tried too hard to live up to the deal and wound up doing the opposite of what got him the deal in the first place. For example, Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald admitted at his own post-season press conference that he put extra pressure on himself in part because the new contract was in the back of his mind when things did not start out as planned early in the season.

Prior to the 2014-15 season, Read had been one of best recent undrafted free agent signings the Flyers have made in their recent history. The player made an immediate splash in the AHL after completing his collegiate career at Bemidji State University, posting 13 points in 11 late-season games on amateur tryout (ATO) status for the Phantoms in 2010-11.

In the first year of his entry-level contract, Read made the Flyers' NHL roster out of camp and went on to score 24 goals and 47 points in 79 games. He added five points in 11 playoff matches, and was one of the few Flyers who looked decent in the team's five-game loss to the New Jersey Devils in the second round of the 2012 playoffs.

During the locked-out portion of the 2012-13 season, Read played in Sweden. joining Allsvenskan team Södertälje SK, at the behest of SSK player Emil Billberg (a close friend and former Bemidji State teammate). Read became an immediate fan favorite for his skill and two-way hustle, posting 24 points in 20 games. He centered the team's top line, most notably playing with New York Rangers forward Carl Hagelin and French national team forward Damien Fleury as his wingers.

Read returned to North America shortly before the end of the lockout. He was unexpectedly leading the Flyers in goal scoring -- as much a reflection of the team's slow start as anything else -- when he sustained a ribcage injury in the team's 6-5 win over Pittsburgh on Feb. 20, 2-13. At the time, Read had seven goals and six assists for 13 points in the club's first 18 games.

The initial timetable on Read's injury was for him to miss at least one month of action. Instead, the player was back in the lineup on March 7; an absence of just six games. The early return ended up doing the player no favors, as he struggled for several weeks. Read went goalless and had just one assist in his first eight games after his return.

Thereafter, however, Read returned to his accustomed form. He rattled off a five-game point streak (two goals, three assists) and saw all-situational ice time for former coach Peter Laviolette's club. There was one six-game span in which Read averaged over 20 minutes of ice time per game.

After going through another offensive downturn in the month of April 2013, Read closed out the shortened season on an up note. He had a three-point game (one goal, two assists) amidst a four-game stretch in the next-to-last week of the season that saw him tally a pair of goals and post five points.

Read finished the 2012-13 year with 11 goals and 24 points in 42 games. That more or less prorated to 22 goals and 48 points over an 82 game schedule. After the campaign, he represented Canada at the IIHF World Championships, where head coach Lindy Ruff quickly gained confidence in the player and used him in a larger all-purpose role than initially planned.

During the 2013-14 season, in which Berube replaced Laviolette as head coach just three games into the season, Read became entrenched in a line pairing with Couturier. While the third member of the line varied and rotated, Read almost always played on a line centered by Couturier.

Over the course of that season, Read posted 22 goals and 40 points, including four shorthanded goals. During the 2014 postseason, his line with Couturier and call-up player Jason Akeson was one of the Flyers more effective units against the Rangers. Read had three points in the seven-game series.



Based on the weight of three straight years of playing at a 20-plus goal, 40-plus point level over a full season, there is reason to believe that Read's down season in 2014-15 was an aberration from which he can recover next season. The big question this summer: Will Read be seeking a bounceback campaign in a Flyers uniform or with some other team?

Roster change is inevitable over the summer, and general manager Ron Hextall no doubt wants to reshape the forward corps a bit as well as opening up some cap space. At a $3.625 million cap hit, Read is a rather highly paid role player. Nevertheless, teams around the NHL have seen him enough over the years to know that he's been a valuable penalty killer and reliable in applying both forechecking and back-pressure in addition to his offensive contributions.

As such, Read is still a tradeable player despite his struggles in 2014-15. Vincent Lecavalier and Umberger may be unmovable this summer. Lecavalier carries a $4.5 million cap hit and has three seasons left on his contract. Umberger has a $4.6 million cap hit with two seasons left on his contract and has dealt with a variety of injuries both in his final season with the Columbus Blue Jackets and the first year of his second stint with the Flyers. Read is also the youngest player of the three.

Unfortunately for the Flyers, Read's trade value this summer is lower than it was a year ago. He's coming off by far the worst season of his pro career. Additionally, the Flyers are not dealing from a position of strength relative to the salary cap, for which the projected ceiling for next season is $71.5 million.

As such, it would be a sell-low scenario. That is never how a team wants to trade if it can be avoided.

If the Flyers were to move Read this summer, their best option might be to do so as part of a multi-piece deal that can be justified in hockey terms. Otherwise, it's more likely to be a straight salary dump, which rarely brings back anything of value except the space to pay (or, quite often, overpay) someone else.

In time, someone such as young forward Taylor Leier may be able to grow into a similar role to Read's current one except at an entry-level contract price. However, based up Leier's rookie season with the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms, that ascension does not seem imminent. Leier needs additional seasoning at the American League level.

At the NHL levels, the Flyers still have an immediate need to upgrade speed on their roster. Read is one of the relatively few current forwards in the lineup who -- when healthy -- can accurately be deemed a plus skater. As such, if Hextall can find other ways to create cap space, the team may simply prefer to hold on to Read and hope that the offensive side of his game returns to its previous levels.

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FLYERS ALUMNI UPDATES FROM FlyersAlumni.org

* The Flyers Alumni will host a fantasy hockey camp from August 21-24 in Atlantic City, open to anyone age 21 and older. Instructors and Alumni participants will include Bernie Parent, Brian Propp, Ian Laperriere, Todd Fedoruk, Andre "Moose" Dupont, Dave "the Hammer" Schultz, Joe Watson and Bob "the Hound" Kelly.

The registration deadline is June 1. Participation costs $3,000 apiece but it is free to register a spot online. Over on the Flyers' Alumni website, there is more information on camp-related activities and on-ice schedules.

* Today in Flyers History: The Flyers close out their brawl-filled 1996 Eastern Conference Final series against the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 6-1 blowout win. With 2:04 left in the game, Eric Lindros fights series-long nemesis Igor Ulanov. Despite two losses (both in OT in Games 2 and 3), the Flyers only trailed for seven minutes, 30 seconds in regulation for the entire series. Nevertheless, the series takes a lot out of the Flyers as several key players sustain or exacerbate injuries that affect them for the rest of the playoffs. For more, click here.

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