Then you trade him or let him walk. I am not saying that’s preferable, but sometimes that is the kind of decision that will have to get made, if he isn’t in your plans for the third line
- AllInForFlyers

A trade might happen, but letting Laughton walk over a few hundred thousand dollars would be laughably bad asset management.

Yes, Twitter. Well known for rationality and reason
- bulet13

Which one of Chucky Pantloads moves so far are better than the Rangers trade for Trouba?

As I've said, the big worry for me is Fletch will send Ghost out the door after a down season. I just don't want to lose any of the young Dmen we have. Give Sanheim, Provy Ghost some further time to mature with the vet help brought in.
- Hextall271

that is where the rubber meets the road. I dont want Ghost gone, if he is, Fletcher has to win that deal big time. It must be a highly skilled, proven winger

The twitter replies to Bob Mac reporting the Hayes deal are
- PLindbergh31

HaZe can easily score 30+ goals, with this upgraded high-end flyer team.

Hate the term more then the number, but in the end when your negotiating in a position of weakness in FA you"re going to overpay. Hayes and his agent knew the market for centers was weak and the Flyers were desperate to fill that role, so this deal doesn't surprise me. However, I will say there is something we're not seeing yet. There has to be another shoe to drop and am guessing that its a big one and it involves Ghost+ probably for a top six scoring winger..... something fishy or Fletch is clueless, which is also a possibility. Im gonna wait to judge this entire off season as a whole before I lose my mind

The combination of Hayes, Niskanen, Braun, Gudas retention, and MacDonald buyout ($18.87m) now nearly equals the Marchand / Bergeron / Pastrnak AAV ($19.67m) almost exactly.

How to Drain Your Cap Space starring Chucky "The Pantload" Fletcher.
- PLindbergh31

Lolol This is all awesome... i had a long write up about the disaster the NHL is becoming... never mind this embarassment philly just laid out... the tiers of payment in the NHL r soo out of wack & the scale or goal posts seem to move daily with these insane GM's in why its cool to pay guys more than Crosby like omfg lolol

I truly believe we are tumbling towards a lockout.. the way the GM's have mucked this up how do u pay the rest of ur roster... hell how do u assess there worth... how do they... everyone walks in now & apparently can make a case for 7 million?!?! itd b hilarious if it wasnt so tragic... soo many of these players are not worth the new money they are acquiring & now it seems a large chunk of teams are in cap hell & unable to even compete...

& regarding any Hayes homers are Skinner homers... love who u want i dont care... the problem is these contracts dont fit in the current hard cap the NHL has.. if u wanna overpay a bunch of average guys than u have to adapt a luxury tax like the NBA or inflate the cap like the NFL.. where we are at with these hilarious knock knock joke contracts, there is not enough cap left to go around...

Then you trade him or let him walk. I am not saying that’s preferable, but sometimes that is the kind of decision that will have to get made, if he isn’t in your plans for the third line
- AllInForFlyers

you have to trade him at that point. cant let him walk for nothing. even if you accept the arbitration ruling, move after the fact. Yes he will get a big bump and i always predicted clsoe to 3

As I've said, the big worry for me is Fletch will send Ghost out the door after a down season. I just don't want to lose any of the young Dmen we have. Give Sanheim, Provy Ghost some further time to mature with the vet help brought in.
- Hextall271

I could absolutely be wrong, but I just don’t see how you move Ghost’s production and that cap hit, with how this roster is looking

I honestly don’t see how you do that — even in a down year, that value exceeds what you would get in return, in my opinion

Jake Gardiner is gonna make a poop-ton of money. Who is gonna replace what Ghost does well at that price?

Which one of Chucky Pantloads moves so far are better than the Rangers trade for Trouba?
- PLindbergh31

is it fair to say all the other GM's failed as well when it comes to acquiring Trouba?

You are assuming an awful lot. Takes 2 parties, well 3 if you include the player, to make a deal like trouba happen

Hate the term more then the number, but in the end when your negotiating in a position of weakness in FA you"re going to overpay. Hayes and his agent knew the market for centers was weak and the Flyers were desperate to fill that role, so this deal doesn't surprise me. However, I will say there is something we're not seeing yet. There has to be another shoe to drop and am guessing that its a big one and it involves Ghost+ probably for a top six scoring winger..... something fishy or Fletch is clueless, which is also a possibility. Im gonna wait to judge this entire off season as a whole before I lose my mind
- nonpoint22

Top 6 wing is the last thing the Flyers need to add.

Giroux $8m
Voracek 8m
JVR $7m
Konecny~$5m

This is only the beginning of Fletchers shopping spree. Welcome aboard, and fasten your seatbelts
- Landsbergfan

I couldn't agree with this more. buckle up 1111

A trade might happen, but letting Laughton walk over a few hundred thousand dollars would be laughably bad asset management.
- Feanor

Man, that wouldn’t even be the worst case of asset management I have seen this calendar year

You do what you can to stock up your Allison's, Ratcliffe's, Ginning's etc. because when Braun and Niskanen expire (and hopefully Myers and Sanheim keep pushing up the lineup) you have a cheap young player to fill in to your 5 and 6 spot. This allows you to re-sign good players and KEEP winning as was my point.

Logically your response lends itself to the argument that 1 year of Justin Braun is worth a 2nd and 3rd round pick which is not a good argument to make.
- Lip_Out

The guys I listed I feel have the best shot at seeing the NHL out of all the prospects...most of them will never wear a Flyer sweater.

You seem to be missing the point that there are only 23 roster spots available and 20-21 players dressed for a game. The Flyers cup board is filled and they still have this years draft and next years draft and the following years draft. The whole point of "filling the cup board" is to have assets to use to fill positions of need. I know it's weird to think, but players have a longer expiration than just 1 year...I mean Giroux is at 12 years!!! You don't have to swap out the whole team every year.

Plus you keep assuming Braun is guaranteed only to be here for 1 year to fit the narrative.

Now stop acting like the team's future is depleted because they traded 2 draft picks.

Kinda see the top 9 like this so far...

Giroux-Coots-Voracek
Lindblom-Hayes-TK
JVR-Patrick- TBD?

Darn he is 6 ft 5 and now he is around 240 in weight. And he can skate!!!!! Flyers finally have a skilled physical center again.

Kinda see the top 9 like this so far...

Giroux-Coots-Voracek
Lindblom-Hayes-TK
JVR-Patrick- TBD?
- NC Flyers Fan

raffl-laughton-hartman

So as of today they need to fill out 1 winger and 1 bench forward correct? the 13th fwd should be someone making league min. Hell just resign ghoulbourne for that role

I could absolutely be wrong, but I just don’t see how you move Ghost’s production and that cap hit, with how this roster is looking

I honestly don’t see how you do that — even in a down year, that value exceeds what you would get in return, in my opinion

Jake Gardiner is gonna make a poop-ton of money. Who is gonna replace what Ghost does well at that price?
- AllInForFlyers

Very good points, but I see it as 50/50 whether he stays and I don't like that. THN article tday after the Braun trade suggested its him or Hagg..

The guys I listed I feel have the best shot at seeing the NHL out of all the prospects...most of them will never wear a Flyer sweater.

You seem to be missing the point that there are only 23 roster spots available and 20-21 players dressed for a game. The Flyers cup board is filled and they still have this years draft and next years draft and the following years draft. The whole point of "filling the cup board" is to have assets to use to fill positions of need. I know it's weird to think, but players have a longer expiration than just 1 year...I mean Giroux is at 12 years!!! You don't have to swap out the whole team every year.

Plus you keep assuming Braun is guaranteed only to be here for 1 year to fit the narrative.

Now stop acting like the team's future is depleted because they traded 2 draft picks.
- Glak18

lottery tickets > actual productive legit nhl players

Man, that wouldn’t even be the worst case of asset management I have seen this calendar year
- AllInForFlyers

Like what?

Bottom 6 forwards who can score 30 points with no PP time and be one of your lead Pkers aren't actually cheap to acquire, and you want to let one walk for nothing if he gets $2.3m because you arbitrarily decided $2m was the limit.

Wait a second.... I'm diving into the metrics on Niskanen and Braun.
These guys were basically the worst dmen on their teams last year.
Is Fletcher serious with this garbage? Holy poop I can see why Minnesota never accomplished a damn thing with this guy.

Kinda see the top 9 like this so far...

Giroux-Coots-Voracek
Lindblom-Hayes-TK
JVR-Patrick- TBD?
- NC Flyers Fan

I vote Brandon Pirri for your third line question mark 😁

Lolol This is all awesome... i had a long write up about the disaster the NHL is becoming... never mind this embarassment philly just laid out... the tiers of payment in the NHL r soo out of wack & the scale or goal posts seem to move daily with these insane GM's in why its cool to pay guys more than Crosby like omfg lolol

I truly believe we are tumbling towards a lockout.. the way the GM's have mucked this up how do u pay the rest of ur roster... hell how do u assess there worth... how do they... everyone walks in now & apparently can make a case for 7 million?!?! itd b hilarious if it wasnt so tragic... soo many of these players are not worth the new money they are acquiring & now it seems a large chunk of teams are in cap hell & unable to even compete...

& regarding any Hayes homers are Skinner homers... love who u want i dont care... the problem is these contracts dont fit in the current hard cap the NHL has.. if u wanna overpay a bunch of average guys than u have to adapt a luxury tax like the NBA or inflate the cap like the NFL.. where we are at with these hilarious knock knock joke contracts, there is not enough cap left to go around...
- Lockette

The cap is increasing. Look at the percentage of the cap the contract is when signed. Crosby took a higher percentage of the cap. Just do happens the cap is higher now

And how dare anyone gets paid more than Gretzky!?! He's the best player ever so no contract should be better than his

*Rolls eyes*

Top 6 wing is the last thing the Flyers need to add.

Giroux $8m
Voracek 8m
JVR $7m
Konecny~$5m
- Feanor

I just dont see Ghost coming back at this point and you wouldn't trade him for a center after giving Hayes this deal and its highly unlikely we're getting a D man for him so what does that leave. I'm guessing its a high end goal scoring winger. They need someone who puts butts in the seats because the Flyers business people se the attendence trend and i'm telling you, for better or worse, something coming.

Like what?
- Feanor

Winnipeg literally traded Jacob Trouba for their own draft pick

Kinda see the top 9 like this so far...

Giroux-Coots-Voracek
Lindblom-Hayes-TK
JVR-Patrick- TBD?
- NC Flyers Fan

I actually like the thought of Voracek moving back up to the top line with G and Coots again. 2nd line is interesting, Lindblom and Hayes are solid defensively whereas TK will cheat at times, but you have nice mixture of net front presences and perimeter.

Now the 3rd line depends on the other winger. JvR is better suited on the 3rd line with PP duties like he was used in Toronto. Patrick can continue to grow against reasonable match ups, but it would be nice to add a pure playmaker to that line which hopefully would force Patrick to start shooting more.