Time for Nick's thoughts on the off-season dealings of the Flyers.
Flyers trade AHL Forward, third round pick, and conditional pick for the rights to Ilya Bryzgalov:
What the fuck Flyers? Didn't you learn anything from the Hamhuis deal? Why in the fuck are you trading a third round pick on the possibility of signing a goalie? In any case Ilya had been a strong goalie in Phoenix and it might be worth what we're giving up if we get him. My main issue is his lack of playoff success, which is where our previous cheaper goalies always faltered anyway.
Flyers trade Jeff Carter for Jakub Voracek, a first round pick (#8), and a third round pick:
Awesome trade. We knew that cap space had to be made to sign Ilya and this got it done, and in the process we got some much needed draft picks, including a nice 8th overall pick. I've always felt Carter was a bit overrated in that he is a one dimensional player. You get him the puck in the right spot and he'll give you a good shot. He's not an overly amazing skater, he's not great on defense, he doesn't make big plays happen and he's not at all physical. Jakub has some potential and being RFA we should get him signed at a good price. The next bit of news I expect to hear is the signing of Ilya.
Flyers trade captain Mike Richards for Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds and a 2nd round draft pick:
What. the. fuck? I will start by saying Richards is my favorite Flyer, and I think the deserving captain of the team over the past few years. I don't think we should have traded him, and if we were going to we should have got more for him. In comparison to Carter you have a guy who got just as many points last season, but has been considered one of the best two way forwards in the league and who plays with a fantastic physical edge. Schenn is a nice pickup, but we should have got a first round pick with him, not a second. I understand it was possible another move had to be made to get people other than Ilya signed, but it should have been Hartnell or Versteeg saying bye-bye.
Flyers sign Ilya Bryzgalov for 9 years, 51 million dollars (5.6/year):
Not a huge fan of the deal. I had envisioned that after 3-4 years the Flyers would finally have a solid goaltender trained from within the organization to step up as a lead goalie, notably Sergei Brobrofski. Ilya could easily be worth his contract, but on the other hand this could be a tremendous flop for the Flyers. Only next season will really show what he can do. As I'll get to later he won't have too much help...
In the aftermath:
My biggest issue with all the trades is they didn't get us what we needed more than even a goalie, which was a good young defender or two. I would have gladly even given up Kimmo or Pronger in the process, but what we needed to do was to reduce the age on our defense. Between the two I just named we have over 12 million in cap hit and they are both getting old fast. Not saying they are going to crap out this year, but they are certainly slowing down. So we end up trading away two top forwards for forward prospects, bringing down the age of an already very young offense while the top of our defensive core continues to age.
What's left before July?:
SIGN VILLE FUCKING LEINO. I swear to god, after parting with Carter and Richards, if the Flyers don't sign Leino I'm going to start flipping shit. The man has been a great winger with the team and deserves a good contract, and now the $ are there for it.
Topic: The Official 2011-2012 NHL Thread (Read 145082 times)
