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NEUVIRTH ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH PHILADELPHIA
Although he did not have an introductory media conference call or in-person press conference, newly signed Flyers backup goaltender Michal Neuvirth is already well-versed on the city of Philadelphia and the culture of the Flyers.
The 27-year-old Czech goalie, who is a tennis fanatic and former junior-level standout himself (his father, Petr, is a tennis coach while his sister, Petra, used to play doubles and practice with Wimbledon women's singles competitor Kristyna Pliskova), is currently attending the Wimbledon tournament. From London, he spoke to Czech publication iDNES about his decision to sign with the Flyers.
According to Neuvirth, his agent Patrik Stefan (a former first overall NHL Draft pick) fielded multiple offers from NHL teams on July 1 but the player did not need very long to decide to come to the Flyers. Neuvirth quickly accepted the Philadelphia offer and the signing was announced roughly an hour after the official start of free agency.
Neuvirth told iDNES that star Flyers right winger Jakub Voracek talked to him about the merits of coming to Philadelphia rather than other suitors. Voracek spoke very highly to Neuvirth of the direction of the retooling Flyers team as well as its history and culture, the day-to-day camaraderie with the teammates he'd be joining and of the lifestyle Voracek enjoys in the Delaware Valley.
The goaltender added that, during his time playing in the American Hockey League with the Hershey Bears, he took his share of off-day trips to Philadelphia and thought it would be an area he might enjoy living. Voracek's endorsement of the Flyers and the city helped solidify that impression.
As with Neuvirth, countryman Voracek is a big tennis fan. Neuvirth said that he can't wait to get Voracek out on the court and jokingly predicted a blowout victory for himself.
Neuvirth conceded that his goal heading into this offseason was to become a starting NHL goaltender rather than a backup. In Philadelphia, he will once again be entrenched in a backup role barring injury to Steve Mason.
At his end-of-season press conference, Mason said that his goal for the 2015-16 season is to play in the vicinity of 60 games, including back-to-back games. Despite dealing with a knee injury, a lack of goal support and spotty team defense, Mason is coming off a statistical career year in every department except wins.
Interestingly, in discussing Neuvirth's signing, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall envisioned that Neuvirth is "probably going to play more than the typical backup." Hextall added that he did not bring in Neuvirth as a means of competition for Mason but rather as an upgrade of the backup goaltender role.
"I don’t think Mase necessarily needs to be pushed, but when you can upgrade at any position, you take advantage of it, and this is an opportunity for us," said Hextall.
Neuvirth is an athletic goaltender with quick reflexes. The biggest knock on him -- and the primary hindrance in his quest to become a regular starter -- has been a tendency to go down too quickly and to over-rely on his athleticism to erase mistakes.
During his stint with the Washington Capitals organization, the Caps' 2006 second-round pick (34th overall), worked hard with David Prior (his goaltending coach at the time) to make a few adjustments that likely stemmed from being trained on the big-rink game in Europe before joining the OHL's Plymouth Whalers. In Europe, it is far more common for the puck carrier on the rush to look to make a pass even when he has a shooting lane.
As a young goaltender, Neuvirth had a tendency to get caught anticipating a pass rather than holding his ground and staying square. As a result, he gave up a few too many "soft" goals to the short side or to leave rebounds out in dangerous areas. Additionally, Neuvirth had a tendency to drop too quickly into the butterfly when moving laterally and gave up a little more net to a patient shooter.
Neuvirth had a painstaking journey to the NHL, which included a stint in the ECHL as well as a lengthy gestation period in the AHL (where he won back-to-back Calder Cups as Hershey's starting goaltender). At the NHL level, he had stretches where he seemed on the brink of winning the starting job but could not topple his competition -- which included the likes of veteran Tomas Vokoun and fellow prospects Semyon Varlamov and Braden Holtby.
Neuvirth publicly chafed at the idea of being a backup goaltender. Infamously, in 2012, he glibly told Czech publication iSport.cz that he considered Holtby his "weakest competition" in Washington relative to Varlamov or Vokoun. Since that time, Holtby has gone on to solidify himself as the Capitals' starting goaltender, while Varlamov is the starter in Colorado.
In the three years since that time, Neuvirth has matured. He dealt with playing in a tough situation last season as a member of a Buffalo Sabres club underdoing a complete rebuild. He also dealt well with being a backup to Jaroslav Halak on the New York Islanders.
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DO NOT EXPECT SHATTENKIRK TRADE TO PHILLY (OR ANYWHERE)
The Twitter and message board realms have been abuzz with rumors that the St. Louis Blues might be willing to part with All-Star defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk in the right deal this offseason. The player does not have a no-trade clause in his contract and the Blues have a deep defense corps even without the 26-year-old standout, who is coming of a season in which he was limited by an abdominal muscle tear to 56 games. When in the lineup, he posted 44 points and a plus-19 rating at even strength.
According to a July 2nd St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, "league sources and media reports ... have cited Edmonton, Columbus and Philadelphia as possible partners." Another outlet, CSN New England, cited a league source in saying the Flyers and New York Rangers have been in discussion with the Blues about Shattenkirk for several weeks.
Shattenkirk's agent, Jordan Neumann, told the newspaper that he has been told (presumably by Blues general manager Doug Armstrong) that the reports of a potential trade are off-base and the player will stay put. Neumann reiterated a similar message to Flyers beat writer Dave Isaac of the Camden Courier Post. The agent said he's "been led to believe there is no truth to these rumors."
For his part, Armstrong has made no public comment to date. That is par for the course for NHL general managers, especially nowadays where teams try to keep tighter and tighter controls on leaks to the media.
However, simply from a realistic standpoint, it would not seem as if the Blues would feel much inclination to deal Shattenkirk this summer unless another team made a greatly inflated offer that would solve other immediate team needs for the Blues and also includes various high-level assets.
The very same set of reasons for why the Flyers would covet Shattenkirk are also why they would have to massively overpay -- something that Hextall is vocally dead set against doing -- to land him:
1) He has two seasons left to run on his current contract, and cannot become an unrestricted free agent until the summer of 2017 or be eligible to negotiate a pre-emptive extension (kicking in for the 2017-18 season) until next summer.
2) Shattenkirk has a $4.25 million cap hit -- a bargain for an All-Star defenseman in the prime of his career -- for the next two seasons.
3) Although the Flyers are happy with what they've gotten from veteran Mark Streit -- their closest counterpart to the role Shattenkirk plays in St. Louis -- Shattenkirk is the better all-around player and is also 11 years younger. To top it off, both players have two years remaining on their current contracts but Streit carries the heftier cap hit ($5.25 million).
4) Shattenkirk is a righthanded shooting defenseman; a much in-demand trait especially for an offensively skilled blueliner. Although the Flyers have a cadre of five highly regarded blueline prospects in the pipeline, including three with potentially strong offensive upsides, all five are lefthanded shooters and most are presently more comfortable playing left defense.
It takes two sides to make a trade, and the likely demand from St. Louis in exchange for Shattenkirk would be prohibitive to the Flyers. It could take a package along the lines of Wayne Simmonds, offensive defenseman prospect Shayne Gostisbehere and a 2016 first-round pick (a lottery pick if the Flyers fail to make the playoffs in 2016-17).
In return for this theoretical trade package, the Flyers would upgrade something that already a team strength. Between Streit and arbitration-eligible defenseman Michael Del Zotto -- plus with Gostisbehere, Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim in the pipeline -- the Flyers are not in dire need of a point-producing defenseman, although Shattenkirk is a better all-around player than either Streit or Del Zotto.
In the meantime, the Flyers would rip open a hole in a different area by losing their primary net-front power play winger in Simmonds, who also brings some much-needed physicality and grit to the lineup. There is no immediate in-house candidate to replace Simmonds, nor is a comparable replacement easily available on the trade market.
On top of that issue, the Flyers would have to expend two highly valuable assets in the speedy and offensively gifted Gostisbehere plus their 2016 first-round pick. In combination, that is simply too high of a price to pay even if it would then free up Hextall to deal Streit and/or Del Zotto for other assets.
There is a good reason why the off-season is often dubbed "Silly Season." There is rampant speculation about trades that have little to no chance of happening. While it is entirely possible that the Blues are listening to see how much other clubs value Shattenkirk at the peak of his trade value -- his price tag will decrease somewhat in the final season of his contract from what it is with one year left until UFA eligibility -- it is not a good time for other teams to pull the trigger when the Blues hold all the leverage.
It would be a big surprise if Shattenkirk is wearing any other jersey but a St. Louis one next season, much less an orange-and-black sweater.
1981: The Flyers sign Maine Mariners coach Bob McCammon to a contract extension.
2001: The Flyers sign veteran unrestricted free agent defenseman Eric Weinrich to a three-year contract.
2006: The Flyers sign goaltender Antero Niittymäki to a one-year contract extension. The team also signs free agents Denis Tolpeko and Mark Cullen on this date.
2012: The Flyers sign unrestricted free agent defenseman Bruno Gervais to a two-year contract. On the same day, they bring back Ruslan Fedotenko (who broke into the NHL with the team in the early 2000s) after signing the unrestricted free agent to a one-year contract.
2013: The Flyers sign Claude Giroux to an eight year, $66.2 million contract extension, sign unrestricted free agent goaltender Ray Emery to a one-year contract to begin a second stint in the organization, re-sign restricted free agent defenseman Erik Gustafsson to a one-year, $1 million contract and sign unrestricted free agent goaltender Yann Danis to be their emergency callup goaltender and to play for the AHL's Adirondack Phantoms.
Flyers Alumni birthdays
One of the top power forwards in franchise history, Flyers Hall of Fame inductee John LeClair was born on July 5, 1969 in St. Albans, Vermont. The Legion of Doom left winger was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Flyers Hall of Fame in Nov. 2014.
Four other Flyers Alumni share the same birthday: Chris Gratton (1975), Ryan Potulny (1984), Michal Sykora (1973) and Brad Tiley (1971).
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