BobbyClarkeFan16

They sank. This off-season should signal that there's going to be no more band-aid solutions. This should be nothing more than a full teardown and rebuild. Briere might have talked last year about how they weren't going to strip things down, but remain competitive and rebuild at the same time. That's no longer an option. Let the blood letting begin this offseason. As what Tortorella said, don't get attached to anyone. Other than maybe Foerster, Brink, Tippett, York, Sanheim, Drysdale, Ersson and Fedotov, everyone else should be getting shopped.

Absolutely. I'm looking back on the drain and I'm wondering if maybe they should have acquired a veteran over the summer and let Ersson play a full schedule in Lehigh Valley. He's never played more than 40 games in his career and between last year and this year, he's played in 100+ games. I also think with this year, he wasn't expecting to play more than 35 games. It's too bad that things have come off the rails like they have, but at the same time, I'm glad they did. The management of this team simply can't provide band aid solutions anymore. They really need to tear it down and build it back better.

Filling Tortorella's veteran quota. After scratching Johnson and Staal, he couldn't scratch his beloved Cam.

They've fallen completely off the tracks. They're gassed and out of steam. As for the goalies, Kim Dillabaugh is such a ****** goaltending coach that I'd kill to have Jeff Reese back to work with the guys. And I'm not worried about Ersson turning into Sandstrom. Ersson is burnt out. Fedotov is getting acclimated to his new surroundings. There's major changes coming again this off-season.

Foerster is going to stay on the left side, I think. He's gonna score a lot of goals from his off wing. Tippett just signed that long term deal, so he's going nowhere. Then it comes down to Konecny and Brink. Brink fits closer to the time line that they're looking for. So yeah, I think Konecny will be the guy they move. It also makes sense from an asset standpoint. He'll return the most in any trade, at the very least the Flyers could get a roster player, a first and a good prospect.

I'm hoping the same. I mean if they aren't going to make the playoffs, let's at least try to draft some more high end talent.

The Flyers would currently pick 13th this draft. If they lose out the season, they could fall even further. But if they stay where they are, yeah, they're in a position to grab one of those three.

Iginla can play all three forward positions, but he's most effective at center. I'm really hoping that the Flyers can end up with either Catton or Helenius though. I want the pure offensive dynamo. I'm tired of good reliable two way players. Give Michkov a high end offensive guy to work with as well.

Well, Graf is in San Jose. I'm wondering if they go hard after Brodzinski and Rizzo. That would be some good talent to add down in Lehigh Valley. As for the draft, the Flyers are in a position now to possibly land one of Helenius, Iginla or Catton. I still think they should package the Florida pick and a player to see about landing Dylan Cozens from Buffalo (gut feeling says that Kevyn Adams will listen to offers on him).

A couple of things. First, I think the system Tortorella uses is a very physically intense system and it wears down players. Their effectiveness becomes less and less because of injuries and exhaustion. You can't play 100 miles per hour like that and not think that it's not going to cause problems. Look at the good teams around the league and you see that they don't play that type of hardness all the time. I agree that you should keep the pedal to the metal so to speak, but at the same time, you have to know when to let up on occasion. Second, I think after awhile, the same message gets old. You have to know when to freshen it up and I think Tortorella is a "my way or the highway" guy and he won't break from that. He talks about being able to read the room. If you see that your guys are tuning out, you need to change the message. That doesn't make him ineffective or his coaching ineffective, but it definitely leads to locker room revolts. When you look at Tortorella's overall body of work, he's a coach that gets results. That can't be denied. He did a great job in Tampa Bay, New York and Columbus. Vancouver was a one off, but overall, he did a great job and when you consider that he's lasted an average of six seasons everywhere he's been, it's clear that he's a good coach. I look at him here and it's clear that he's chilled out a bit. However, some of his old tendencies continue to follow him. For instance, not being able to understand offensive hockey? Come on, that's the direction the league has moved in and you can't figure it out? Garbage. Same with his defense of Rocky Thompson and the Flyers power play. If you're going to call out players, you HAVE to call out your coach who has coached bottom of the league powers in San Jose and Philadelphia. That's not a coincidence. I'm not saying that Thompson is a bad coach because he's won championships at the Major Junior and AHL level. He can coach. He just can't run a power play. Honestly, I'd be using Rocky down in Lehigh Valley because he can develop talent. Once again, this is my own $0.02 on things. Others might disagree, but if we're strictly looking at numbers, the numbers speak for themselves.

I am optimistic and I'll explain. Tortorella's teams usually take a huge jump in years two and three. So this year, big jump compared to last year. We can all agree on that. They came close this year to making the playoffs. They were supposed to be awful. I'm my eyes, that's a win. We saw guys take a huge jump forward in their development, we saw guys hit what they were supposed to be when they were drafted and we got glimpses of what the future will bring. This is also a work in progress. The defense is still a mess. York was fantastic most of the year, but he's run out of gas towards the end of the year. Sanheim stepped up to price everyone wrong. Drysdale looks like he's going to be a speed demon with offensive chips. Yes, he's been bitten by the injury bug, but these injuries this year didn't require surgery or anything like that. A full off-season of good physical training and he's a different player come training camp. Zamula was very good in his bottom pairing role. He can give 16 to 17 minutes a night and can fill in for others and not look overwhelmed. However, there's still dead weight on the blue line. Ristolainen has to go. He really offers nothing. He's not even offensively talented anymore. It's like everything has been drained from him. Staal and Johnson are gone after this year. The only real anchor is Seeler, but for less than $3 million bucks, he can be bounced to the third pairing when his usefulness runs out. So, they need at least two defensemen. Is Andrae one of those guys? Goaltending is going to be a tough one to fix. Is Ersson the answer or is he a flash in the pan? Was he gassed from a heavy workload or can he simply not handle that can workload? I'm interested to see how he responds this off-season in terms of training. As for Fedotov, the man has been in town for nearly two weeks. I'm sure he's experiencing culture shock and upheaval. I'll reserve judgement on him until next year. But yes, they could use a good third veteran to come in to push and challenge them. As for the forwards, there's room for improvement there. I'd say that at least four forwards are gone. Atkinson will be gone. I'm also going to go out on a limb and say that they'll use of the biggest name forwards as bait. It won't surprise me if at the very least, they shop Frost and Farabee. They've got Tuomaala in Lehigh Valley, but he might need another season and Michkov won't be here for another two seasons. So, there's still work and questions. But I'm satisfied with how this year went. And yes, I feel confident they are even better next year, win record wise and player development and acquisition.

We got spoiled by the success of this club. They weren't supposed to be as good as they were and we're seeing what they should have really been this year. They overachieved. They now potentially have the 13th overall choice and could slide back further if they lose out. What does that mean? Konsta Helenius, Tij Iginla or Berkly Catton is within their grasp. All three are future number one centers, something this organization is lacking. So, not the end of the world. Next season is when they should make a big jump.

This off-season they need to address the center position. I'm all for giving up one of those first round picks if they can land a guy like Dylan Cozens.

I'm giving Ersson the rest of this season off. He's clearly gassed and he's not ready for a full time work load.

Grabbing a guy like Zadorov or Pesce isn't about building around them. They're complimentary pieces to what's already in place. Adding players of that caliber also means you aren't having to rush the Andraes, the Bonks, the Sotherans, etc.... I want those guys to be successful and I want them developed properly. Now, it would also help if there was a coach in Lehigh Valley that knew how to develop players, but that's another argument.

Laughton and Poehling are being used in those roles because they're the coach's pets. Let's be honest about that. Tortorella loves the try hard guys. In fairness, Poehling should be back as the 4th center and Laughton should be used exclusively on the left wing of Poehling on the fourth line. I'm all for an elite checking line. If that line can win critical faceoffs, score between 35 and 40 goals a year and play exclusively on the penalty kill, that would be ideal. In terms of a legit number one center, nobody is trading those and if they do, it's costing you a fortune in terms of picks, players and cap space. The Flyers are going to have to draft a center. The question is, will they have the patience to let them develop? So yeah, I think it's best to get the defense straightened out first because that elusive center is going to be incredibly hard to find, unless the Flyers decide to give Michkov the Giroux treatment and play him at center. Even then, I certainly wouldn't mind a Boisvert/Hage prospect in the pipeline.

Someone will pick them up. Columbus will eat salary in any deal, but they'll get picks back.

I like Zadorov. Was a big fan of him in London. I never understood why no NHL club wouldn't use him in an offensive role because he had the chops as well. Dude had a great outlet pass and a rocket of a shot from the point. If he wants 3 to 3.5 a year, I'd hope the Flyers would be all over it.

The horse would make an awesome tattoo!!!

Hanafin is going to be really expensive. I think we might be looking at the flyers targeting a guy like Brett Pesce instead. The Flyers desperately need to find a way out of the Ristolainen deal though. That's an albatross anchor deal.

Rocky Thompson was a terrible choice to bring in. He was terrible as the pp coach in San Jose (there is zero reason to be the worst power play in the league when you've got guys like Thornton, Couture, Meier, Burns, Karlsson, etc ....) and he's bringing the same garbage here. Playing players out of position on the power play is inexcusable. The best the Flyers can do is fire him or send him to Lehigh Valley to be the head coach there (Thompson was a great junior hockey coach and was a successful AHL coach). But he's gotta be removed because the power play has been horrid from day one he got here.

I'm not worried about Drysdale and the injuries. The injuries have all been flukes. It happens. The good news is that it isn't his head or knees. Yes, it's been his shoulders but the injuries that happened were on completely fluke plays. It could have happened to anyone. As mentioned, a full season here working with Shaw, they'll point out what Drysdale should and shouldn't do. I also think getting him someone on the left side who's a banger and a physical player will be ideal for him. Let him be a roamer with focus on the offensive side and his partner will focus on the defensive side. As for Columbus, it depends on who the next GM is. They're going to be terrible next year as well. I think it makes sense to give up the 2nd this year and keep next year's. I also think that they're probably going to move on from Gaudreau and Laine, so they'll have more picks coming back.

I'm looking at the season as a success, even if there isn't any playoffs. They weren't expected to be this good. Let's remember that. Did they overachieve? Absolutely. But there's legitimate talent here. A full season of Drysdale, another year of Couturier rebounding from back surgery, the huge step that York has taken, Foerster looking like the second coming of Mark Stone, Farabee back on track, Tippett being so close to 30 goals, Sanheim looking all world. That's a good haul for this year. Briere has a full plate this summer. He's got more salary and players to move out (Ristolainen should be his priority to move, Johansen has no value so he's gonna have to eat money), he's got to get more young players worked in (Tuomaala and Andrae), and hopefully more draft selections (would love to see Columbus give up their 2nd round pick this year).

Oh yeah. It was terrible. I'm going to be honest - I fully expect that they'll be found not guilty because of the poor job of the initial police investigation, but when the details come out about what happened, you can bet that they'll never play in the NHL again. They'll be black balled. And maybe it's just me, but Tortorella really seemed angered when the charges were announced. He cut all ties with Hart immediately and stopped referring to him by name. Coaches don't normally do that. That was a huge sign to me.

That doesn't hold water. If my ten year old knows that assaulting women is wrong, then a 20 year old should know. This isn't about a drunken sexual encounter. This is five guys who took turns on this girl and ejaculated and spit on her. Don't tell me they didn't know what they were doing was wrong. They knew.