Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

Quick Hits: Leier-Bailey Trade, Montreal Prep, Podcasts, Prospects & More

January 18, 2019, 7:10 AM ET [340 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
QUICK HITS & MUSINGS: JANUARY 18, 2019

1) The Flyers held a team meeting at the Skate Zone in Voorhees on Thursday but then elected not to hold a subsequent on-ice practice. The team will practice on Friday at 11 a.m. ET before departing for Montreal to play the Canadiens on Saturday. Thereafter, the team will begin its bye week that runs through the NHL All-Star break. The next game will not be until Monday, Jan. 28, when the Flyers host the Winnipeg Jets at the Wells Fargo Center.

While there is a long break upcoming -- almost too long, to be honest -- it made sense for the Flyers to take an off-ice day. Why? Because the team just played six games in 10 nights with practices on the in-between days. In order to squeeze in the bye week and All-Star break, the NHL schedule-makers assembled a Flyers schedule the bare-minimum (three-day) CBA-mandated break for Christmas Eve through Boxing day, then three games in the five remaining December dates followed by a slate of nine games in the first 16 days of January.

In the intervening days, interim head coach Scott Gordon attempted to gradually implement some of his system tweaks and an all-new structure and personnel shifts on the power play in conjunction with assistant coach Kris Knoblauch.

That's a whole lot of hockey. With back-to-back open nights on the schedule for the first time since the holiday break, it was more beneficial to the team to get some rest rather than to hold an on-ice practice. It was really as simple as that. There were no deep, hidden meanings to the cancellation of the initially scheduled practice. If there had been a major trade made -- the team made a minor trade later in the day -- it would still have been business as usual from a practice standpoint. Friday's practice will likely be a full one rather than an optional.

On a personal note, it feels almost strange to have a morning open here to write a Quick Hits or Musings blog! Dating back to Nov. 26, there has been a relentless slate of major news stories to cover (new GM and assistant GM, new head coach and assistant coach), game days and post-game reports (Flyers, Phantoms, WJC and prospects), Flyers practices and major news stories to cover plus a trip to Nashville last month for the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction. During the upcoming bye week, I'll at least have opportunity over a stretch of days to blog in greater depth about a variety of topics.

2) Yesterday at the Skate Zone, Tim Saunders, Jim Jackson, Chris Therien, Steve Coates and I recorded a new edition of Broadcasters Roundtable for Flyers Radio 24/7. Today, Bundy and I will be doing a Facebook Live from the Skate Zone on the Flyers' official Facebook page. We'll discuss various topics around the team and the league as well as answering some questions submitted by viewers. Over on Flyers Radio 24/7, there is also a new edition of FlyerBuzz that Brian Smith and I recorded prior to Wednesday's 4-3 win over Boston.

3) The Flyers and Buffalo Sabres made a trade on Thursday evening, exchanging young forwards who have previously spent time in the National Hockey League but who cleared waivers late in training camp and have spent the entire 2018-19 campaign at the American League level. The Flyers obtained 23-year-old right winger Justin Bailey from Buffalo and sent 24-year-old left winger Taylor Leier to the Sabres organization.

Bailey, a Buffalo native who was originally a Sabres' second-round pick (52nd overall) in the 2013 NHL Draft, has always been considered a project but an intriguing one. He is gifted athletically -- a 6-foot-4, 214-pound winger who is an above-average skater as well as being heavy on the puck -- but his overall game has never fully come around. He has played 52 games in the NHL (five goals, eight points) over parts of three seasons, but has spent more time in the American Hockey League with the Rochester Americans.

At the AHL level, Bailey has scored 20 or more goals twice and similar full-season paces in other campaigns where he got lengthier NHL stints with the Sabres. This season, following his waivers and clearance, he has had an inconsistent season but had nine goals and 20 points in 37 games for the Amerks prior to the trade.

As with former Phantoms/Flyers defenseman Mark Alt (now with the AHL's Colorado Eagles), Bailey is the son of a former NFL football player. Justin's father, Carlton Bailey, is a retired former NFL linebacker for the Buffalo Bills, New York Giants and Carolina Panthers.

Leier, who is undersized but brings good speed, has been a successful all-situations player at the American Hockey League level but has struggled to stake down a regular NHL starting spot. He has recently been on offensive hot streak for the Phantoms and will take AHL season totals of 10 goals and 19 points in 34 games to the Sabres organization.

On the ice, Leier is known for his skating ability and two-way work ethic. Off the ice, he is personable, articulate and generally an upbeat and positive-minded individual.

Leier spent the entire 2017-18 season on the Flyers' NHL roster. However, he was a healthy scratch for nearly the entire second half of the season and only dressed in 39 games overall.

Leier impressed during the 2017 preseason, including a two-goal game in the Allentown half of the Flyers' now-annual split squad game. Opening the season, he was a regular in Dave Hakstol's lineup in the early part of the season as part of a fast-skating checking line with Scott Laughton and Raffl. The line generated a lot of puck pressure and scoring chances relative to its role, but Leier and Raffl struggled to finish off any of their opportunities. Leier was also part of the penalty kill early in the season.

Soon, however, Leier fell out of favor with Hakstol. The Flyers penalty kill, which was at a respectable 54-for-67 (80.6 pct, 17th overall) heading into the Nov. 18 game against Calgary, got strafed for three power play goals against in that game and went into a lengthy tailspin. Leier individually struggled and then got pulled off the PK rotation with Hakstol publicly noting he was having issues and "needed a break" from those duties.

No longer part of the PK and unable to contribute much offensively in his brief NHL career, Leier eventually found himself on the outside of the lineup entirely. In the final two games before the Christmas break, he skated only 7:03 and an unusually eventful 6:07 (costly defensive mistake and a disallowed goal on a puck he knocked in with what was ruled on replay to be a high stick) of ice time. After the Christmas break, Leier only dressed in nine games the rest of the season; only four appearances after Feb. 3 (7:08, 9:04, 10:09 and 4:27 of ice time) and none after March 3.

Hakstol was never one to go into public specifics about what an oft-scratched player needs to improve. falls back quickly into coach-speak ("[so-and-so] is a valuable member of our team and he is working hard for his next opportunity") while saying little else beyond the player generically "needing to clean up a few areas."

Without specific details offered, one had to read between the lines.

In Leier's case, the fact that the player was taken off the PK was likely strike one in him staying in the lineup. The fact that his puck-pressure efficacy dropped a bit after a strong start, both forechecking and in back pressure, was likely strike two. Strike three was the fact that he is relatively undersized and despite his speed and pre-NHL background as an all-situations player in the AHL with good overall hockey sense, has not contributed enough offensively despite a decent number of scoring chances (two career goals and seven points in 55 games, including one goal and five points in 39 games this season) to be considered a candidate for a look higher in the lineup.

That left Leier, no longer waiver exempt, in limbo. He came to the rink every day and diligently did all of the extra work expected of both rookies in general and health scratches in particular, but there probably came a point where he realized he had been moved down to the very bottom of the coach's depth chart and there was nothing he could do to work his way back up again after veteran Matt Read (who was not re-signed in the offseason) returned from AHL exile to the Phantoms do a solid job on the defensive and PK side of the role in which rookie Leier had initially unseated him.

Leier was no doubt frustrated but he never let it show. As a rookie NHL role player with much to prove, he wasn't really in position to say much. Leier has never been the complaining type, anyway. He was always been someone with a positive, no-excuses attitude from his first Development Camp in 2012, through his years as a Phantom (even saying injuries were a non-factor in a downturn in his play as he tried valiantly but ineffectively to play through separations in both shoulders the second half of his rookie year) and up through his NHL stints.

Leier had a good camp in Sept. 2018, but the Paul Holmgren era draftee (2012) was clearly no longer in the plans of either head coach Hakstol or general manager Hextall. The Flyers waived Leier and Dale Weise. Both cleared. The Flyers opted to assign Leier to the Phantoms and keep the veteran Weise. Weise's play has improved this season on the whole but was showing signs of slippage, and his ice time decreased again as he moved back down to the fourth line. Weise was recently re-waived but presently still on the Flyers' NHL roster after he cleared.

In the meantime. Weise has dealt with some injuries and a recent illness. His play surged again in the time after Gordon was promoted to the Flyers and Phantoms assistant coach Kerry Huffman became the Lehigh Valley interim head coach. Overall, he dressed in 34 of the team's 39 games to date and posted 10 goals and 19 points with much of the goal production coming over the last few weeks.

It was unclear for awhile whether new Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher considered Leier a candidate for a potential merit-based NHL callup during his recent surge. He had been a favorite of Gordon's during previous AHL stretches, as one of the coach's go-to players on both ends of special teams, in overtimes and late in close games. Huffman used him similarly, especially with the Phantoms forward core riddled with injuries and callups.

The direction is now clear: Leier will head to the Sabres organization and Bailey will come here. Each will get a change of scenery and, hopefully, a a chance to get back to the National Hockey League.

4) Flyers 2017 second-round pick Isaac Ratcliffe continued his recent offensive tear with a two-goal game (the latter an empty netter) for the OHL's Guelph Storm on Thursday night. He has scored at least one goal in eight straight games and has racked up 12 goals in that span. He is up to 32 goals on the season. Guelph hosts the Owen Sound Attack on Friday: the first meeting of the teams since the blockbuster multi-piece trade that sent highly regarded Montreal Canadiens prospect Nick Suzuki to the Storm.

5) Flyers 2017 first-round pick Morgan Frost had a picturesque first-period assist on Thursday night against the North Bay Battalion, but it proved to be Frost's only point of the game in the Soo Greyhounds' 5-1 road victory. Over on the Flyers' official website, we took a look at how Frost and other Flyers prospects who took part in the 2018-19 World Junior Championships have fared since returning from the tournament: Click here.

6) On Thursday at the Skate Zone, the Flyers Alumni hosted a group brought along by Alumni Association friend and sponsor George Fill of David and Fill Financial, Inc. On hand from the Alumni were Brad Marsh, Bob "the Hound" Kelly, Joe Watson and a cameo from Steve Coates.

It was nice to meet George, a diehard Flyers fan and longtime season ticket holder with whom I've corresponded about the current team and Alumni, in person. His sister, an avid photographer, was on hand as well. The Alumni event livened up what was otherwise a quiet day at the Skate Zone.
Join the Discussion: » 340 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Bill Meltzer
» Flyers Gameday: 3/28/24 @ MTL
» Wrap: Flyers Lose 6-5 OT Game to Rangers
» Flyers Gameday: 3/26/24 @ NYR
» Quick Hits: Flyers-FLA Wrap, Flyers Daily, Phantoms, Bigger than Hockey
» Flyers Gameday: 3/24/2024 vs. FLA; Phantoms Update