Obviously everyone knows that the Flyers major concern this offseason will be defensemen. Not only is Pronger’s health a huge concern, but also Timonen’s age. The Flyers already loss Pronger, in my mind, for the rest of his career and you could see Kimmo slipping a little bit down the stretch and in the playoffs this year. With these two staple defensemen basically done in the orange and black, it is up to Homer to right the ship on this position. He can start by going out and getting another big time d-man and also draft heavy at the position so we have a deep line of prospects there to develop.

When I say get a big name defensemen everyone is going to turn to Weber or Suter, my opinion on this matter is, go Weber or go home. Weber is the type of defensemen Philly needs more than anything. He is 26 years old, big body at 6”4 230, and he is not afraid to use it with crushing hits or blocking shots. He has a ROCKET of a right-handed shot and to top it off he has leadership qualities that you look for to stabilize the back end. Homer needs to do whatever he can to get this guy, even though it could be a stretch, because Philly desperately needs him.

The reason I say “go Weber or go home” and disregard Suter is because if the Flyers can sign Carle, for rumored less than market value because he wants to stay in Philly, then there is no reason to spend a lot more money on Suter when the two are comparable. Yes I said they are comparable. I have read tons of articles on this over the past months and it is true. Carle gets a bad rep from Philly fans because they watch him for 82 games of the season and the duration of the playoffs, but how many times do they watch Suter. I have heard people say Carle was only good before cause Pronger was on the opposite side of him. Well who is on the opposite side of Suter? What is Shea Weber, chop liver? Carle is a fairly reliable defensemen with good ability to get the puck going the other way. Yes I understand he has costly turnovers at times, but what defensemen doesn’t? I know for a fact Suter does because I have watched him. If the Flyers were to bring Suter in at $5-6+ mill cap hit, compared to Carle’s $4-4.5 mill, and see him make the same mistakes as Carle would for that much more, well I have a feeling all would not be well.

I do understand to resign Carle and to go out and get Weber some how, cap would have to be relieved and that is where our offensive depth comes into play. Right now, according to Capgeek.com, we have a little over $3mill in cap space for next season. Homer said earlier he expects the cap to go up to $69 million, plus LTIR relief of Pronger when season comes around, would allow Flyers cap space/relief of $73.9 mill, which would increase the Flyers cap space to $12.7 mill for the 2012-2013 season. I also understand that the CBA expires and this new cap and LTIR rules are not necessarily set in stone. With that $12.7 mill say Flyers sign Weber (RFA) or trade for his rights, and if he makes same $7.5 cap hit, that brings them to $5.2 mill. Then if they chose to resign Carle at that point for $4.5(same as Coburn cap hit) that leaves them with 700k in cap space, and D parings of Weber-Carle, Coburn-Grossmann, Timonen-Mesz.

Another scenario is sign Weber; you are left with the $5.2 mill cap hit. Then do a trade of JVR for L. Schenn, which would actually give the Flyers 650k worth of cap space back, bringing total cap space to $5.85 mill. With this money you can then resign Voracek (no matter what they should resign him), and other depth players via FA. D-parings would look like this Weber – Grossman, Couburn - Mesz, and L.Scheen –Timonen. Also I would like to see, in that JVR- Schenn trade, the Flyers try to pry Toronto’s 1^st round pick away from them. If we can, then we would be able to draft WHL defensemen Ryan Murray, if he is available still, Morgan Rielly, or Mathew Dumba. All three would be a great start to building prospects in the defensive position.

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