JR Ewing

40 minutes ago, BobbyClarkeFan16 said:

Number one centers are really hard to come by. I've read about Petterson in Vancouver, but you can bet that Vancouver will match any offer sheet and if Petterson does want out, it's going to cost a fortune to land him. The Flyers aren't at a place where they can afford to do this.

Here are the 10 most statistically similar players to Elias Pettersson:

tldr - Vancouver would match any offer.

2 hours ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

Or what if you wait till the draft offseason and instead trade Tippett??

 

Trading Tippett right after signing him would be telling every player in hockey not to trust Flyers management. Tippett's not being traded nor should he be.

The Sabres are a Bettman-500, but not a true .500 team. They've won 27 games and lost 32...

1 minute ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Would you say that makes him a...ahem... 'high energy player'?  

I'll go with stick-optional.

28 minutes ago, Brewin Flames said:

 

 

I just hope he developes into a respectable player and not just a goon.

 

2 Fights in 4 games so far.

So far, he's played 3:45 and has 27 PIM.     lol

13 hours ago, GratefulFlyers said:

Fair enough. Flyers’ management avoided some potentially crippling mistakes last summer when rumors were flying about Austin Matthews and Johnny Gaudreau. And AFAIK they weren’t anywhere near the Monahan or Lindholm deals.  Still I can’t deny there were more experienced and likely better choices for Prez and GM. All I can say as a lifelong Flyers’ fan is Jones/Briere “feels” right. That and a couple bucks will buy you a ride on the IRT (!) but it’s all I got for now. Should be some “interesting” discussions after the TD…

As ever, the best moves tend to be the ones that don't get made.

Auston Matthews - there was no chance in hell of getting him. I'm pretty sure it was either Toronto or he goes home to Arizona, and that's completely fine for the Flyers. He's a great goal scorer but a bad fit for where Philly is in their rebuild, which is the beginning stages. By the time the group around him would be ready to compete, he'll be moving into the decline phase of his career.

Johnny Gaudreau - same as Matthews with respect to age, but worse: he's now entering his decline phase. He's the epitome what the Flyers don't need in their lineup. He's tiny and doesn't defend worth a lick... Did the Flyers a favour, signing with Columbus.

2 hours ago, GratefulFlyers said:

they were at the TINA point imho. Fletcher had not only failed to improve the team he made it so the next GM would spend most of his time cleaning up the mess, i.e. the bad contracts to bad players and worse the effect those players had on the team. But Fletcher was only symptomatic of the underlying problem that started decades ago. Hextall’s 4+ years were an all too brief respite and after they fired him it was right back to the failed “just make the POs” crap. The Flyers needed to rebuild but apparently the managers at the time were dead set against it.
 

re: rookie management of course you’re right it was risky. But apparently Jones had been approached before to take the position - he didn’t say when - so for the Flyers’ brass hiring him wasn’t out of the blue (even if it was to the rest of us). As for Briere best I can tell he was being groomed all along to eventually be GM. And so far so good. 
 

Oh, I'm not criticizing them for deciding on a rebuild; it's the rookie GM and POHO part with which I take issue.

The Oilers and Sabres each spent a decade wandering in the wilderness, bringing in one rookie after another and test-fitting men into hockey ops roles when they had nothing on their resumes which indicated that career path. Losing teams have a bad habit of drafting rookies and plugging them into key roles when they're not ready to do it, with predictable results, and doing with management isn't a move you generally see from the best front offices.

That's not me saying that it won't work out, but that I don't think it was the absolute smartest bet that the Flyers could have made.

---edit---

I like Keith Jones, by the way, and hope he does well. My guess is that when he cuts himself shaving, he bleeds orange and black.

On 2/23/2024 at 12:08 PM, mojo1917 said:

I think we haven't seen competent management since Homer's bike accident and none of us remember what it looks like. I think knowing what it will take to resign a guy in case another guy can be traded is good preparation.

This is a real thing... After years of managerial incompetence, a sort of PTSD can be bred in the fans, who have come to expect the worst. In this case, any move the club makes is seen as bad, and a certain amount of that is fair. I think the team took unnecessary risk in deciding to rebuild and then hiring rookies for both GM and President of Hockey Ops, particularly in the case of Keith Jones, who's spent the last 20+ years working as a broadcaster.

What's done is done, though, and I think it's only fair to wait until clear mistakes are made or moves which are really off the beaten path occur, and I haven't seen that yet.

2 minutes ago, wildstars95 said:

if you listen carefully ...you can hear mice fart in the nose bleeds

It's not exactly scintillating hockey so far.

Neither team allowing a lot of clean zone entries so far.

Hell of a shot by Ek. May be offside.

Adam Ruzicka is so stupid, he thinks an innuendo is an Italian suppository.

35 minutes ago, jammer2 said:

 Dale has been through this process so many times its crazy! He knows EXACTLY when the light switches on for a prospect...in some cases, I'm sure within a few periods. If Barkey played for anyone else, hes drafted a few rounds later. Its his skill, but Hunter opens the door of opportunity.

 

  A BIG thing to leap over kids and take minutes away from established Knights players during the playoffs. 

He's built an incredible program there, to the extent that a number of years ago, I added a whole rule about it. A screenshot from my text file:

39 minutes ago, flyercanuck said:

 Quinton Byfield didn't exactly light the world on fire out of the gate as a 2nd overall pick, but he's coming around and looking like a pretty good player. Scored a beaut last night...

 

Yeah, that's a great goal.

He's had a rough go early in his career. He broke his ankle and missed almost all of 2021, so there's a development year down the tubes. The next year, he got sick and was down to under 200 lbs, which is practically skeletal on a guy with his frame. Injuries can and will derail a young player's career, but he's really coming around.

17 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Not sure what kind of return a 39 yr old pending UFA would command overall, BUT, the Laffs ARE hurtin for a steady goalie

The Leaf have been hurting for a steady goalie since Curtis Joseph left.

39 minutes ago, Tomdog said:

I don’t watch the flyers enough to grade their talent, but one thought on blaming the talent that sticks out to me is how do you explain the pens PP woes?

Their core is so old that if you lit all the candles on their birthday cakes, it would look like a prairie fire.

11 hours ago, jammer2 said:

Very true. Just hard to put up amazing stats when you are not on the top line or top pp. With those big dogs removed, Barkey is 3rd in OHL scoring, leads the OHL in short handed goals with 7 (was not on the primary pk last year). 

 

 Kids upside is first line C...but a more likely role is 2C or 3C. You can't put a price on wicked non stop effort...or where Torts will slot that non stop effort in the line up. 

I hope it works out for him; I really do. Kid has a great motor and reminds me of Kailer Yamamoto in positive and negative ways. Again; I have my little rules of thumb with hockey, and I know that means nothing, but he ticks some that tend to make me a cautious investor:

-Beware of players who really only start putting up a lot of offense in draft +1, because the best ones produce in their draft year. You'll get excited but they usually end up breaking your heart.

-Small guys who don't have an elite skill or two (most importantly speed) usually have a tough time in the NHL. Almost to a T, they're very smart and crafty, but the NHL is full of big and dumb guys who can neutralize them.

-Never get involved in a land war in Asia.

7 minutes ago, jammer2 said:

This is pretty misleading. Points Moose Jaw team was horrible. A lot easier to be a great player on a God awful team (21-44-3), getting all the top line, pp minutes etc. 

  Barkey's Jr team, the London Knights were indeed a powerhouse, with strong Memorial Cup aspirations. Hard to put up huge stats when you have strong proven vets in front of you blocking the way. London's record was opposite of Moose Jaw's (44-22-2). 

 

I mean, we've both seen that argument go both ways whenever it's convenient. Players on strong teams get their sled pulled by the big dogs, too.

59 minutes ago, GratefulFlyers said:

I seriously doubt Tortorella believes AB is more valuable to a team than CD. McD is no cherry-picker and Tortorella knows that, despite whatever he said (in whatever context).

 

Nevertheless I'd love to read the comment - can't seem to find it.

 

The rest of the clip isn't in there, but he went on to say that McDavid needs to be more like Sasha Barkov, essentially saying that McDavid wasn't concerned with his defensive play, which was far from the truth. McDavid's current season as shown by his net rating, courtesy of The Athletic:

The next closest is Auston Matthews at 27, MacKinnon at 26, and the rest of the group is bunched up like that, except for McDavid who is far ahead of the field, as usual.

Even grumpy old hockey men are starting to suggest that McDavid might be the best player ever; that's the sort of offense he's been creating... If a guy like that is even just average defensively, critics need to find something else to complain about. He's getting as much production as Kucherov, but Kuch is doing it by being abysmal defensively (20th percentile).

tldr - I like plenty about him, especially the way he's helping to reshape the culture in Philly, but Torts couldn't be more wrong about this.

---edit---

A range to give context for what a Net Rating of 31 means:

25: Hart calibre-season

20: Typically puts the player among the top 5 in the league.

17: Typically puts the player among the top 10 in the league.

 5: Average 1st line player.

 0: Average 2nd line player.

-4: Average 3rd line player.

-7: Average 4th liner.

Nathan MacKinnon and Auston Matthews are having Hart-calibre seasons. Their problem is that 97 needs a tougher league to play in.

2 hours ago, flyercanuck said:

 

Yeah. Torts was roasted alive for those comments, and rightly so. Barkov is a hell of a hockey player, but it was just a silly thing to say.

11 hours ago, BobbyClarkeFan16 said:

Here's another thing. Is it possible that the Flyers have their future number one guy in Denver Barkey, or do the senior advisors get antsy because of their size fetish? 

I strongly doubt it.

11 hours ago, BobbyClarkeFan16 said:

There's no way to fix the center issue other than draft and hope you nail one. There's definitely no quick fix though. This one is going to be tough to solve.

So much has to swing right in these things. You have to draft the right guy AND hope he doesn't get derailed by injuries, etc, etc, etc.

10 hours ago, OccamsRazor said:

Brayden Point says hello.

 

Sure he is 1 inch taller but but has the frame to get as big needs about 15 to catch Point but with a year or two in the AHL

Just about the only thing that Denver Barkey has in common with Brayden Point is his size. Point is small but has explosive speed; one of the two or three fastest players in the NHL. I looked up their respective numbers during their respective draft years in junior: Point outscored his next-closest teammate by 35 points. Barkey finshed 3rd in team scoring, 24 points behind the leader.

Small guys without a core skill which is elite are destined to be career minor leaguers or, if they catch on for awhile in the NHL, as depth players on league-minimum contracts. Without separation speed or incredible hands or a cannon shot, they're just too easy to neutralize because they're small guys in a big man's sport.

If Denver Barkey has a career like Derek Ryan, I would call that a success, given what he has in his toolbox.

@Math @ruxpinI don't like the IOC or the Olympic Committees of the various countries, who use money which could be much better spent than making sure a bunch of rich guys get richer. I don't like the sportswashing that goes on with the Games or the way it's currently being used in other sports like Formula 1. Trust me; I get all of that.

All of that aside, I want to see a true best-on-best tournament with the best players in the world, and the NHL's mostly non-involvement has been a bad business decision for a very long time. The World Cup of soccer is also a dubious-at-best scenario with respect to politics, but the various premier leagues around the world see the value in allowing their best players to spend two weeks involved in the highest level of competition, where the NHL always had a "why would we do that?" approach.

You don't want to be the biggest representation of the big headline tournament for a global event? Soccer leagues get it; their star player going off somewhere is going to sell jerseys and create interest in their product.  After 2008 there were a billion Messi Barcelona jerseys in circulation.

That didn't happen by accident.

edit -

I have to admit that it doesn't bother me to think of how horrified Pierre de Coubertin would be by the presence of pro athletes at the Olympics. Men born into great wealth and position get to take rather convenient positions on topics like this, while others have to feed themselves.

17 minutes ago, GratefulFlyers said:

Tage Thompson wow that’s surprising considering the 2 monster seasons the past couple years. But I see his stats from college and the A, not a lot there… I guess the Blues scouts saw something they liked a lot…26th overall ain’t bad! Looking forward to see how he fares in the POs …. one of these years…(sorry Sabres’ fans…it was looking good for a bit…)

Huge guys who can skate always get the benefit of the doubt.

6 minutes ago, GratefulFlyers said:

Anyone come to mind who rose above the odds? I’m guessing there’s some but I can’t think of any. Late-round picks who became incredible NHLers yes but guys who 

 

not so much….in fact none. But I’ve never been very familiar or knowledgeable of the guys in Juniors and college hockey. Anyway just curious….not a challenge (in case it sounded like one lol).

In the NHL right now, there's not a lot that pop into my head. Mark Giordano, who didn't establish himself until his mid-20s. He's a defenseman, though, so that can change things. Tage Thompson. He has incredible size but never really produced much until he exploded for 68 pts in 78 games when he was 24. Even in Thompson's case, though, he was a 1st round pick, so scouts saw promise.

1 hour ago, Martin Hare said:

Take a look at the key points of the agreement between the NHL, the IOC and the IIHF on the participation of NHL players in the 2026 and 2030 Olympics

 

https://ruiksport.com/behind-the-scenes-tug-of-war-in-negotiating-nhl-players-participation-in-the-olympics-what-were-the-key-points-in-the-deal/

The NHL has almost always had a very short-sighted approach when it comes to the Olympics. I'm glad to see the players going back.