Its not a matter of not liking Risto, its doing what is best for this team's future. Right now this team is in no position to be signing a defenseman like Risto at $5.5-6M per. They need to gain as many assets as they can and retool with younger, faster and more skilled players.
- jd250

They weren't in a position to do it this past off season either but team management and the GM are dunces.

Its not a matter of not liking Risto, its doing what is best for this team's future. Right now this team is in no position to be signing a defenseman like Risto at $5.5-6M per. They need to gain as many assets as they can and retool with younger, faster and more skilled players.
- jd250

5.5-6 mill for one of the best Dmen in the league is a no brainer

It is completely false that he doesn't create scoring chances. Here is the deal. I really don't care if you ever get it but I do care that the Flyers get it. The only thing that matters moving forward for this team right now, is developing the young players. Put Frost in the best position for him to succeed and be supported. He needs to play with top offensive players. Keith Jones knows it, Bill Meltzer knows and myself and others know it. You apparently don't. The Flyers need to get Allison up here, move Frost up and bring up any other young player that they think might have an NHL future and might be ready for it. Waive Brown, McEwen and Mayhew and get their heads out of their asses.
- MJL

Mayhew and Brown are inconsequential, waive them, put them on the Phantoms, whatever. However I think MacEwen deserves to stay on this team.

I still think he’s been ok here, but I had hoped this team would be a playoff team. It is clear that it’s a disaster of epic proportions. There is no need to sign a player like Risto right now with the direction things are going.
- ClaudeFather

Here is the situation with Ristolainen and it's nothing new. If you put him on a very good team with a solid partner and play him in a reduced role, he would be okay. That's not enough for the Flyers. You don't give up what they gave up for a player who in the last year of his deal with UFA leverage to just play okay. He doesn't and he's not capable of elevating the team in any way. He is exactly what myself and many others knew he was. Unfortunately, the GM was infatuated.

Did you also happen to here Jonsey state that Frost is a top 6 player and needs to play with top 6 players?

The stat line for when Frost was on the ice last night

CF% 66.67% Scoring chances 6-2 in favor of the Flyers. xGF% 61.91

Frost didn't stand out but he made a few plays and he certainly wasn't awful
- MJL

How did he stand out in the shootout a couple night ago?
Oh yeah nothing with nobody near him, don't even think he got it on net.
Just how many more games will it take for him to get over that he missed a year and is rusty?

As others have said it wasn't just 3 years plus Fletcher stripped every asset the Flyers had to go all in this year. Traded draft picks, traded all cap space (they have what, $400,000 cap space), and have no high end prospects that aren't already in the NHL.

I can't believe there were still those this past offseason who loved Fletcher's moves. The Flyers pre-salary cap method of throwing money at every problem doesn't work and they brought about the things they feared most, irrelevance and apathy.

Hayes - his contract had Scott Hartnell's last contract with the Flyers written all over it before the ink was dry. 4 years to long.
Risto is a sunk cost, good luck getting back what the Flyers paid.
Ellis - The Preds really lucked out that the Flyers came along. I would wager that the Flyers have the record over the last 20 years in LTIR games due to having their over 30 #1 defenseman who they traded for going on LTIR and never playing again. Darien Hatcher, Chris Pronger, Ryan Ellis.

The Flyers can't guy their way out of this, they have one of the worst cap situations in the league (because they tried to buy their way out of this).
Draft - The flyers are missing their next 2 2nd rounders already and last year's first was wasted on Risto pending the return at the deadline for him.

Hextall's execution may have been lacking but he had the right idea. His biggest problem was not going far enough, most likely because comcast wouldn't allow it. The Flyers are one of the worst if not the worst teams in the league now and are spending the most resources in the league to be this bad. Let's be bad with a purpose.

No more bandaids. Whatever you need to pay the best talent scouts, pay it, that's where the money needs to be spent. If you can't hit on some draft picks nothing else matters. I think the Flyers only have 13 players that are under NHL contract for next year and all but one make over $3 mill a year. That is without resigning Giroux. The Flyers have one of the worst ROI per cap $ spent.
- Flyers_01

A-fricken-men.

Meanwhile Zack "Huge Impact" MacEwen is CF% 29.41%, -5 in scoring chances, xGF% 35.93

(And he has more icetime than Frost)
- Tomahawk

It is completely false that he doesn't create scoring chances. Here is the deal. I really don't care if you ever get it but I do care that the Flyers get it. The only thing that matters moving forward for this team right now, is developing the young players. Put Frost in the best position for him to succeed and be supported. He needs to play with top offensive players. Keith Jones knows it, Bill Meltzer knows and myself and others know it. You apparently don't. The Flyers need to get Allison up here, move Frost up and bring up any other young player that they think might have an NHL future and might be ready for it. Waive Brown, McEwen and Mayhew and get their heads out of their asses.
- MJL

What do you think is Frosts ceiling ?

Mayhew and Brown are inconsequential, waive them, put them on the Phantoms, whatever. However I think MacEwen deserves to stay on this team.
- jd250

Waive him and bring up a replacement. They need the roster space to do that.

As others have said it wasn't just 3 years plus Fletcher stripped every asset the Flyers had to go all in this year. Traded draft picks, traded all cap space (they have what, $400,000 cap space), and have no high end prospects that aren't already in the NHL.

I can't believe there were still those this past offseason who loved Fletcher's moves. The Flyers pre-salary cap method of throwing money at every problem doesn't work and they brought about the things they feared most, irrelevance and apathy.

Hayes - his contract had Scott Hartnell's last contract with the Flyers written all over it before the ink was dry. 4 years to long.
Risto is a sunk cost, good luck getting back what the Flyers paid.
Ellis - The Preds really lucked out that the Flyers came along. I would wager that the Flyers have the record over the last 20 years in LTIR games due to having their over 30 #1 defenseman who they traded for going on LTIR and never playing again. Darien Hatcher, Chris Pronger, Ryan Ellis.

The Flyers can't guy their way out of this, they have one of the worst cap situations in the league (because they tried to buy their way out of this).
Draft - The flyers are missing their next 2 2nd rounders already and last year's first was wasted on Risto pending the return at the deadline for him.

Hextall's execution may have been lacking but he had the right idea. His biggest problem was not going far enough, most likely because comcast wouldn't allow it. The Flyers are one of the worst if not the worst teams in the league now and are spending the most resources in the league to be this bad. Let's be bad with a purpose.

No more bandaids. Whatever you need to pay the best talent scouts, pay it, that's where the money needs to be spent. If you can't hit on some draft picks nothing else matters. I think the Flyers only have 13 players that are under NHL contract for next year and all but one make over $3 mill a year. That is without resigning Giroux. The Flyers have one of the worst ROI per cap $ spent.
- Flyers_01

This all seems right to me. The Flyers have a long term problem with inconsistent play from night to night and year to year. Now it has devolved to consistently bad play. The only consistent thing this organization has done is to focus on "Flyers Hockey" back in time and to keep a coterie of former players around to be enforcers of that focus and mindset. Unless and until someone blows this up and stops evaluating talent on whether it fits within "Flyers Hockey (btw, Hexy not including Clarke and his crew in his decisions was the closest we came to that), this is what the team will be. We need new blood at the top to come in and figure out what to keep and what to move. Given our track record, that seems unlikely.

Bottom line is the entire roster is/has been for too many years poorly constructed. There simply isn’t enough talent to compete. Burn it down to the ground and start over. I wish the current ownership would walk away, I wish the GM would be replaced, and wish we had a legit head coach with the balls to make players accountable. Pipe dream, I know.
- BroadSTmayhem

Christmas came and went about a month ago, we all need to write a new letter to Santa for next years version of suck

What do you think is Frosts ceiling ?
- bradster

With 2 10-game losing streaks in the same season under different coaches, how can what this kid is doing or not doing be such a focus?

With 2 10-game losing streaks in the same season under different coaches, how can what this kid is doing or not doing be such a focus?
- iamscore2day

Flyers fans are (frank)ing stupid.

Is this team subtly “tanking” ?
- Angus4444

It doesn't matter if the team is tanking or not. The NHL has changed the drafting percentages to make it harder for mickey mouse markets to actively attempt to tank to gain 1st overall picks and generational players. Too bad both the Oil and the Pens have done it on several occasions to perfection.

The year the Flyers were truly the dead last team in the league they go ahead and lose the draft lottery, picking 2nd (JvR instead of Patty Kane, one could basically say at least 1 Stanley Cup vs. that lost finals in 2010).

But it's clearly in the Flyers best interest to lose as many games as possibly and push up their %'s to get the highest draft picks they can. Not only do they not have any superstars, they barely have players capable of skating with the rest of the league.

How did he stand out in the shootout a couple night ago?
Oh yeah nothing with nobody near him, don't even think he got it on net.
Just how many more games will it take for him to get over that he missed a year and is rusty?
- konalover711

Do you really think this kid is the problem? What a joke. Let's swap him out for another team's reject like Cliff likes and see if that leads to a different outcome against Buffalo. Wake up and smell the coffee, dude.

Flyers fans are (frank)ing stupid.
- Tomahawk

Yea, or the purest example of Stockholm syndrome the world has ever seen.

With 2 10-game losing streaks in the same season under different coaches, how can what this kid is doing or not doing be such a focus?
- iamscore2day

Whats that got to do with me asking what his ceiling is? If we are talking about purging everyone. We need to know what his ceiling is to see what we can expect of him going forward. Or are we at the point we just hope he can stay and contribute in the NHL.

Here is the situation with Ristolainen and it's nothing new. If you put him on a very good team with a solid partner and play him in a reduced role, he would be okay. That's not enough for the Flyers. You don't give up what they gave up for a player who in the last year of his deal with UFA leverage to just play okay. He doesn't and he's not capable of elevating the team in any way. He is exactly what myself and many others knew he was. Unfortunately, the GM was infatuated.
- MJL

I had hoped this would be a good team haha. I also was up front in the beginning saying he wouldn’t get a raise due to a reduced PP role. Crazy as it is, it absolutely baffles me that he isn’t being tried on the PP, it’s been awful all year and this guy has a big shot and has shown he can produce on the man advantage

Don’t worry, when Ellis is back this will all be sorted out haha
- ClaudeFather

Sure the 2 games he plays before his impending surgery which by all accounts should have happened 3 months ago.
Medical staff has to go too!!!

I had hoped this would be a good team haha. I also was up front in the beginning saying he wouldn’t get a raise due to a reduced PP role. Crazy as it is, it absolutely baffles me that he isn’t being tried on the PP, it’s been awful all year and this guy has a big shot and has shown he can produce on the man advantage
- ClaudeFather

IIRC they did try him on the PP. He has a big shot, but it doesn't get through. He's also not great on the breakout and entries, which is the current Achilles heel of both units.

They could try having him stand net-front on the PP in lieu of MacEwen, tho. BUF used to use him that way, semi-successfully.

Sure the 2 games he plays before his impending surgery which by all accounts should have happened 3 months ago.
Medical staff has to go too!!!
- konalover711

100%

IIRC they did try him on the PP. He has a big shot, but it doesn't get through. He's also not great on the breakout and entries, which is the current Achilles heel of both units.

They could try having him stand net-front on the PP in lieu of MacEwen, tho. BUF used to use him that way, semi-successfully.
- Tomahawk

I don’t recall any sort of extended look for Risto, doesn’t help that the unit has been horrid all year. The macewen promotion to the PP unit really sums up this coaching staff

With 2 10-game losing streaks in the same season under different coaches, how can what this kid is doing or not doing be such a focus?
- iamscore2day

He is supposed to be a "Core" piece going forward. So yes focus needs to be on him right now.

I had hoped this would be a good team haha. I also was up front in the beginning saying he wouldn’t get a raise due to a reduced PP role. Crazy as it is, it absolutely baffles me that he isn’t being tried on the PP, it’s been awful all year and this guy has a big shot and has shown he can produce on the man advantage
- ClaudeFather

It is called incompetence by the GM and AV junior. That would also increase his value.