Lindbergh31

The Flyers situation looks similar to the Blackhawks when old man was still living. The fans stayed away and once he died the culture in that organization changed, they sucked and were able to draft Toews, Seabrook and luck out drafting Kane. But until Snider moves on to the big ice rink in the sky, nothing is going to change in Flyers land.

@ruxpin Has it become as simple as the players tuning out what Lavi is preaching. Most fans realize this team isn't that good but Lavi's systems isn't working with these players. Why the hell isn't Gus in getting experience, Timonen isn't going to keep playing for the next 5 years so they need to develop Gus. Maybe it's time to get rid of Holmgren and Lavi and let's see what Hexie can do. Eventhough he's a former Flyer, he hasn't been in the organization in the last 7 years so maybe what he learned out in LA he can apply here. Something has to give because it's become painful to watch.

@idahophilly, I guess almost 40 years of the Flyers not winning anything has left a lot of fans pessimistic and I for one fall into that category. It's hard to get excited for a season when you look at the Flyers management and it seems they don't know what direction to take the team in (go with young players or try their luck with older players). As much as I don't feel the Gill signing is a bad thing for depth on D, I would have loved to see Gus and Lauridsen get a chance to learn the ropes on the big club because the Flyers can't keep depending on Timonen to keep coming back. Over the years I don't get excited for regular season but if they do make the playoffs then I'll get excited. I really hope Mason regains his rookie form otherwise it's going to be a long season with lots of disappointments.

Well when the Flyers traded Richards to LA and Schenn was part of the deal, people were saying Schenn is in the Mike Richards mold. This year is his time to step up and produce so maybe Homer and the Flyers are waiting to see that before committing.

Maybe Homer learned from the JVR signing, wait and see what Schenn does before giving him a lont-term deal that will end up handcuffing the Flyers cap wise.

Maybe it was Hextall that worked on the Read signing not Homer Either way it's a good signing.

I hope Mason rebounds to have a good year as for Emery even at his worse I'd still take him over Bryzgalov any day. As for the defense, I was hoping that they'd pair Gus with Grossmann, Streit with Schenn and Timo with Coburn with the 3 sets of D getting close to the same playing time. Timo is probably gone at the end of this year or if he comes back it will be in a reduce role. Somehow Lavi has to get Gus with more playing time this year to see if he can handle the load and basically become the replacement for TImo.

If they sign Gill then Holmgren keeps the legacy of Hatcher and Hathje going for having slow moving defensemen on the Flyers

The one thing I haven't been able to find or see in articles is what Gagne was looking for in a contract. If the Flyers were looking to sign him between $1 million and $1.5 million but Gagne was looking for over $2 million then Gagne should have figured it out for himself. As for Cleary, I find it hard to believe that the Flyers offered him a 3 year deal yet he took a one year deal to stay in Detroit. Always liked Gagne as a player but he's been in the business long enough to know you don't put your eggs in one basket and it doesn't look like other teams were interested in him probably because of his past injuries.

That's if Gagne still wants to sign with the Flyers and for how much.

5) Homer is pulling a Bob Clarke and is going to step down if the Flyers get off to a bad start and Hextall will be named the new GM

Isn't Streit suppose to be the replacement for Timonen? If he wants to resign for one year at $3 million then maybe otherwise let him go.

It also doesn't hurt that Emery has played in Philly before so he understands the fanbase and Mason got a little taste of it last season. It should be interesting to see which goalie takes the bull by the horns and runs with the number one position.

Maybe if Hockey Canada was paying his salary instead of the Philadelphia Flyers then they can bitch about him not showing up for these team building exercises, it's not like he'd be able to participate in the ball hockey exercise yesterday. If I'm not mistaken Joe Thornton wasn't there either.

Hopefully that's the case, maybe if he's still on IR that he starts the season on there which would give the young defensemen a chance at playing.

I think they'll start Hartnell on the line with Giroux and Vorachek, second line will be Vinny with Simmonds and Schenn. 3rd line will be Couts with Read and Gagne (if he resigns) and Hall centering Talbot and some one else.

Welcome Quint, the more Flyers fans the better.

FC, eventhough I agree with you regarding more of the old boys club, Hextall is different when it comes to Philly management. The biggest thing is he was trained under Clarke or Holmgren so he has a different perspective on managing. Another plus is he is a former Flyer who understands how Ed Snider thinks and how the fanbase is. I think he'd do well as a replacement for Holmgren down the road. Hopefully the Flyers will allow him to rebuild the farm system for the Phantoms.

Long time overdue, some of his ideas when it came to coaching were ahead of his time. Glad to see him in the hall.

Thanks for the laugh but I was concerned that Holmgren resigned him to a 5 year deal with a NMC.

Well you can look at it another way, both goalies want to be number one so hopefully they bring their best every game instead of having a goalie signed for 7 more years who is more concerned about outer space than playing goal. Competition isn't a bad thing especially for one goalie (Mason) who is trying to redeem himself and get back to being a number one goalie.

Well it looks like Holmgren is giving Mason a second chance to prove himself and to show he is a good number one goalie. And if he proves that this year then he'll get rewarded financially. Glad to see Emery back, he's a veteran who has experience not to mention a cup ring. Finally, Holmgren did something right, too bad he didn't do this with Bobrovsky two years ago instead of signing Bryzgalov.

I agree once again Holmgren paints himself into a corner - cap wise and the Flyers will end up trading one of their young players. If he is going to trade Couturier I hope to hell that he gets a young player - hopefully a defenseman back. It's starting to look like the Flyers will never win a cup until Snider passes away like what happened in Chicago when Bill Wirtz kicked the bucket and then the Blackhawks came back to being an elite team.

I read somewhere that Vinny would rather stay in the States instead of playing in Montreal or Toronto because he doesn't want to be in the limelight like he would in those cities with their rabid fanbases.