with the compliance buyouts you need to give bob another year imagine if we kept him 1 more year then bought out bryz
- 2Real

First when they traded Bob they didnt know there were going to be compliance buyouts and second they didn't so stop thinking about if they did.. They made the move so just go with it

Oops, my bad on forgetting Voracek....
- dingo8urbaby

eh, i got your point and kind of assumed he'd be included even if you didn't mention him

and btw, hopefully in about another year we're talking about how that list absolutely must include scott laughton as well

Whatever happened with Starkbaum?
- wilsonecho91

what about mandelbaum?

what about mandelbaum?
- FlyerMike18

Izzy?

Well.. folks that only follow one team tend to not take into account the other teams in the league. I wonder how many jaded fans are in St. Louis bemoaning their team all the time? Or is Philly's fanbase just particularly pessimistic?
- Flyskippy

from the hawks blogger:

No net front presence on their power play. Horrible entries. Inexcusably bad. Assistant coach Jamie Kompon is in danger of getting fired from two teams in two consecutive years. Although the Hawks' weakness in the faceoff dot and lacking a true power play quarterback falls on the shoulders of the "great" Stan Bowman, or the Hawk front office, such as it is, who have failed to address these issues for three years running.

Izzy?
- 2731color

next flyers head coach

Whatever happened with Starkbaum?
- wilsonecho91

NHL teams, including the Flyers, kicked tires. But it appears he didn't get any actual offers.

with the compliance buyouts you need to give bob another year imagine if we kept him 1 more year then bought out bryz
- 2Real

Be my guest.


Maybe you can put some money on the Cubbies for me as well.

So Penguins have 6 players signed for 2014 and already at 38 mil in cap? Cant see how they can afford to keep Letang at a high price. Hopefully he gets traded will be nice not to see that db on a regular basis.

eh, i got your point and kind of assumed he'd be included even if you didn't mention him

and btw, hopefully in about another year we're talking about how that list absolutely must include scott laughton as well
- FlyerMike18

I could very well be judging harshly of Matt Read, Scott Laughton and Nick Cousins way too soon but I do feel at some point some youth movement will be made to fill in holes. My keepers are easily the players mentioned (Giroux, Voracek, Simmonds, L.Schenn, Mason, B.Schenn and Couturier).

So Penguins have 6 players signed for 2014 and already at 38 mil in cap? Cant see how they can afford to keep Letang at a high price. Hopefully he gets traded will be nice not to see that db on a regular basis.
- flyerfan28

Shero just won GM of the year. In my opinion the Pens are quickly becoming overrated simply by being blanked by the Bruins and not making another serious Cup run since winning their last Cup 4 years ago in 2009. In my opinion the Hawks have a chance to become the dynasty the Red Wings might already be simply because they have refused to focus on one player (Crosby) to lead them to the promise land and being a simply balanced team. I'm going for the Bruins this Final but both teams are as balanced as they come...

So Penguins have 6 players signed for 2014 and already at 38 mil in cap? Cant see how they can afford to keep Letang at a high price. Hopefully he gets traded will be nice not to see that db on a regular basis.
- flyerfan28

Until Homer works out a three team deal unbeknownest to the Pens and we land him.

Shero just won GM of the year. In my opinion the Pens are quickly becoming overrated simply by being blanked by the Bruins and not making another serious Cup run since winning their last Cup 4 years ago in 2009. In my opinion the Hawks have a chance to become the dynasty the Red Wings might already be simply because they have refused to focus on one player (Crosby) to lead them to the promise land and being a simply balanced team. I'm going for the Bruins this Final but both teams are as balanced as they come...
- dingo8urbaby

GM of the year award is a joke. Poile got it and he soon after lost Suter for nothing and his franchise now lives and dies with the play of Weber.

Fucale had a save percentage below 90 percent until the final five weeks of the regular season. I like him but not enough to use the 11th overall pick of a deep draft on him. If the Flyers traded down in the first round to the mid-20s, then maybe.
- bmeltzer

Valid about his save percentage but if you look at his save percentage while mackinnon, drouin, and frk were at world juniors he picked up his game and went 11-0 in that span. I think he is the real deal and a can't miss. I see everyone's point on the need on defence but fucale is a cant miss player. He makes the big saves at critical points of games. I see Brodeur like flashes in him. Does not get overly excited when giving up a few goals. He has won a gold at the u18 as the starting goalie as a17 year old and now a memorial cup. The kid has 77 wins in the qmjhl in just 2 season. He is a winner and finds ways to win. His save percentage was never flashy but check out this guys stats at the same age.
http://www.hockeydb.com/i...tats/pdisplay.php?pid=587

Bill, long time reader first time poster, always love your stuff though. Question; to anyone really. I was about 12 when Chechmanek played for the Flyers and living in Canada and also being so young I knew nothing about the off Ice stuff. I just knew Flyers = good. Devils, Leafs, Penguins, etc = bad. What actually went down with Chechmanek that lead the team to turning on him?

(frank) this is going to be a long off-season.

I feel a lot of posts around here are nothing less then silly." Oh, we never should have traded away the Venzina Nominated Bobrovsky".

I'm sure there were many Bob fans here before he was traded away but NOBODY knew he was gonna become a Venzina nominee anymore then whether or not we were going to have a full season, half season or no season at all this year.

Personally I think most fans have more of a reason for Mike Richards and Jeff Carter getting traded. Not because we should have known they were gonna win a Cup but because we drafted them and groomed them over the course of 6 seasons. They were undoubtedly NHL talents that we gave up on. This mistake cannot happen again for no reason. Not even Shea Weber. We have to move forward with Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Luke Schenn, Steve Mason, Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier. We have to allow this core to grow together before deciding to make another blunder like trading away our center pieces and handing another team another cup.
- dingo8urbaby

You really think the Flyers would be better off with Carter and Richards?

CAPGEEK.COM USER GENERATED ROSTER
My Custom Lineup
FORWARDS
Scott Hartnell ($4.750m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / Jeff Carter ($5.273m)
????????? / Mike Richards ($5.750m) / Matt Read ($0.900m) /
Tye McGinn ($0.775m) / Maxime Talbot ($1.750m) / ?????????
Jay Rosehill ($0.675m) / Scott Laughton ($1.107m) / Zac Rinaldo ($0.750m)
DEFENSEMEN
Kimmo Timonen ($6.000m) / Luke Schenn ($3.600m)
Braydon Coburn ($4.500m) / Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m)
Bruno Gervais ($0.825m) / Nicklas Grossmann ($3.500m)
Chris Pronger ($4.941m) / Marc-Andre Bourdon ($0.613m)
Erik Gustafsson ($0.900m) /
GOALTENDERS
Ilya Bryzgalov ($5.667m)
Steve Mason ($1.500m)
OTHER
Buyout: Oskars Bartulis ($0.100m)
Buyout: Danny Briere ($0.000m)
------
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $61,624,989; BONUSES: $0
CAP SPACE (21-man roster): $2,675,011

That is very little capspace to fill at minimum one top 6 winger and one 3rd line winger. Sure, Bryz buyout will help with that, but his replacement won't be free either. Also, signing Streit is probably impossible, as is any defensive upgrade. (Note: even though one of the picks from the Richards trade was used to acquire Grossmann, I left him since it is possible that Homer would have used other picks to get him) There also aren't many assets they can spare to trade for upgrades in this picture. I guess you could argue that the flyers might have done better the past two seasons, but now and for the future, they are better off with what they got in return.

You really think the Flyers would be better off with Carter and Richards?

CAPGEEK.COM USER GENERATED ROSTER
My Custom Lineup
FORWARDS
Scott Hartnell ($4.750m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / Jeff Carter ($5.273m)
????????? / Mike Richards ($5.750m) / Matt Read ($0.900m) /
Tye McGinn ($0.775m) / Maxime Talbot ($1.750m) / ?????????
Jay Rosehill ($0.675m) / Scott Laughton ($1.107m) / Zac Rinaldo ($0.750m)
DEFENSEMEN
Kimmo Timonen ($6.000m) / Luke Schenn ($3.600m)
Braydon Coburn ($4.500m) / Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m)
Bruno Gervais ($0.825m) / Nicklas Grossmann ($3.500m)
Chris Pronger ($4.941m) / Marc-Andre Bourdon ($0.613m)
Erik Gustafsson ($0.900m) /
GOALTENDERS
Ilya Bryzgalov ($5.667m)
Steve Mason ($1.500m)
OTHER
Buyout: Oskars Bartulis ($0.100m)
Buyout: Danny Briere ($0.000m)
------
CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $61,624,989; BONUSES: $0
CAP SPACE (21-man roster): $2,675,011

That is very little capspace to fill at minimum one top 6 winger and one 3rd line winger. Sure, Bryz buyout will help with that, but his replacement won't be free either. Also, signing Streit is probably impossible, as is any defensive upgrade. (Note: even though one of the picks from the Richards trade was used to acquire Grossmann, I left him since it is possible that Homer would have used other picks to get him) There also aren't many assets they can spare to trade for upgrades in this picture. I guess you could argue that the flyers might have done better the past two seasons, but now and for the future, they are better off with what they got in return.
- Adam1

Huh?

It's simply impossible to know what the Flyers have or couldn't have done had they kept Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. One of the trade offs to trading them away was making space to sign Bryzgalov to begin with. It's a waste of time to even imagine...

Huh?

It's simply impossible to know what the Flyers have or couldn't have done had they kept Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. One of the trade offs to trading them away was making space to sign Bryzgalov to begin with. It's a waste of time to even imagine...
- dingo8urbaby

If it is a waste of time to consider what the team would like like had the trades never happened, then it is impossible to consider whether the trade was a "blunder." While it does require speculation, it also evaluates more than the idea that they are better than what was received in return simply because the team that they play for now has won a cup or that they are "undoubtedly NHL talents" (as are the players the flyers got from the trade - who cares what team "drafted them and groomed them" so long as they play for the Flyers now).

Kind of reminds me of when the Phillies traded away Ryne Sandberg in a deal to get Juan DeJesus. That moved kicked off over 20 years of crappy baseball with 93 as the only exception during that time.
- BiggE

Awesome post! Ryno was my favorite player growing up. Cubs and red sox fan.

Correct! The mistake wasn't trading Bob, the mistake was not staying patient and signing a complimentary vet goalie to push Bob, rather than forking over huge $$ for Bryz. Once Bryz was signed, Bob had to go as the Flyers had no way of knowing at that time that just one year later they would have the option of buying out Bryz.
- BiggE

Which is funny because everyone on this planet can see you need a quick agile goalie that can move in the crease in today's game. Bob is one of the quickest but no let's go get a big stiff( bryz) god this team is infuriating at times. It's just night and day watching even mason compared to bryz.

crazy that the flyers have had goalie issues for so many years trade away a vezina winning goalie
- 2Real

the way the flyers are hated around the league Bob would have never won a vezina in Philly. Barber should have won the calder back in the day?

with the compliance buyouts you need to give bob another year imagine if we kept him 1 more year then bought out bryz
- 2Real

Everyone knows I'm a bryz hater( because he's a stiff) but to be fair no one knew for sure they would be able to have compliance buyouts when bob was moved.

If it is a waste of time to consider what the team would like like had the trades never happened, then it is impossible to consider whether the trade was a "blunder." While it does require speculation, it also evaluates more than the idea that they are better than what was received in return simply because the team that they play for now has won a cup or that they are "undoubtedly NHL talents" (as are the players the flyers got from the trade - who cares what team "drafted them and groomed them" so long as they play for the Flyers now).
- Adam1

I'm failing to see where your coming from. I've already made my point crystal clear.

My apologizes but when you posted a cap example that showcased Richards, Carter and Bryzgalov on one cap, you lost me. Apart of the reason why we traded them away was to afford Bryzgalov. After that, there is no telling who would be on the team today because so many players have been brought in and moved on since. It's a waste of time to speculate. We may only have Steve Mason due to the unpredictability of Bryzgalov. Two years ago he was our goalie of the future, so there would be no reason for his trade today if Bryz wasn't turning out to be a flop both on and off the ice...and yet you added Mason to your cap numbers as well.

The point I'm making is, identify your core and run with it. From here on out, we're unlikely to make such splashes as we did with Richards and Carter.

Not to mention we were able to trade our team's Captain because we had a proven leader and winner in Chris Pronger. We don't anymore.

Everyone knows I'm a bryz hater( because he's a stiff) but to be fair no one knew for sure they would be able to have compliance buyouts when bob was moved.
- SMS4016

Its an unfortunate situation. He was supposed to be the solution.

With Mason though, the puck-handling ability I just love. It really helps a team to have a guy like that back there. I forget against who, but he basically cleared the puck on the PK himself, and it put a big smile on my face.

He has been pretty brutal the last few years, but isnt injury prone, and still young enough to figure things out. If guided through the hell that Philly is when it comes to goalies, I think he can be good. Well not so much as think, as hope.

Its what we all hope for really.