AJgoal

I vote Rubtsov, Frost, and Farabee all make it. Giroux - Couturier - Konecny JVR - Hayes - Lindblom Frost - Patrick - Voracek Farabee - Rubtsov - Laughton Raffl/Pitlick Assuming an average of 50 ES minutes per game, give line 1 14 minutes, lines 2&3 12.5, and line 4 11. Adjust based on how the lines are playing and situation.

This is tough for the Flyers to do, unless you're willing to go the whole season without him. If he signs late, his cap hit this year goes up. They're already looking to be tight against the cap, so you'd be taking a real gamble. For example, if Nylander had signed before last season started, he'd have cost 7.5 million against each year's cap. Signing two months in, his cap hit was 10.2 million against last year, with out years going down to 6.9. Now, term and salary would certainly play a part, but you start limiting options for the Flyers the longer it went into the season.

And Hakstol played him on the third line quite a bit.

I guess it could have changed, but Farris was definitely his agent when the Mathews extension was finalized.

The post you quoted was talking about Marner. Marner's agent isn't his dad, though. Marner's agent is Darren Ferris. Paul Marner is just apparently the NHL version of Lamar Ball.

Ghost had the real down year following the injury that helped lower his value. Quite similar to Provorov in that respect.

Sorry, I meant to grab this tweet, but the phone was uncooperative. ETA: There's a bit of a contradiction here, since NBC Sports Plus is online, not TV. So if you have NBC sports plus access and can vpn into philly, you might be able to watch.

For those asking:

OK, yeah. It's been the recent trend. Happened out in Cali too, I think. Too much year over year variability. the amount permitted is greater on a backloaded contract, but 7 from year 2 to 3 is too much. Without digging into the CBA, I think the most you can do on a backload is double the previous year.

Provorov should be similar. They were the same draft class, 4 more years would walk Provorov to UFA (I think, 7 years in the NHL). I don't know that arbitration eligibility would really factor in here.

Given how they stand with regards to the cap, the pressure will fall more on the Flyers to get both signings done as the season approaches. Besides the optics, the cap hits for Provorov/Konecny will increase once the season starts (though they will decrease in future years). An extreme example is William Nylander's contract https://www.capfriendly.com/players/william-nylander, as he waited until the December 1 deadline to sign. If one or both don't sign by season start, the longer it goes, the harder they get to fit.

All three are generally considered to be similar. If McAvoy signs first, and a lot of the conventional wisdom seems to say he is most likely to, he's the benchmark. If Werenski or Provorov signs first, they'll be the benchmark. Ek's useless, but he's not really saying anything that hasn't been said by a number of other folks over the course of the summer.

The ability to offer sheet a player doesn't really factor into the comparables for contracts. Yes, McAvoy really can't move, but age, points, usage, etc will really be the factors that the agents will point to. Especially since neither Werenski nor Provorov has signed an offer sheet at this point and few teams can really afford to offer sheet either, it's unlikely they will receive one. So that leverage doesn't really exist now.

Andreas Nodl will have more NHL points than NAK this season. Hey, it worked for Jagr.

Really, are there any?

One 6 game series compared to the majority of three years is not a great way to judge a player. Gudas has consistently been one of the top defensemen in the NHL with regards to minimizing the number of quality scoring chances an opponent gets. He rebounded last year after a disaster of a half season before when he was paired with Manning to again rank amongst the top defenders in the league. He struggles with breakout passing, which is absolutely important. But his defense is just fine.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

I have the Flyers at 2/3 in the division. While I hate the contract, Hayes is a good player and gives the Flyers at the very least two strong lines, if not 3 with Patrick getting favorable matchups. The offense should be fine, and could be downright scary if the third line puts it together (I think the 4th will be one of the strongest in the league). Defense will improve if for no other reason than MacDonald is gone, and there is no room for Hagg in the top 6. Braun is whatever and Niskanen is an overall downgrade from Gudas, but the group as a whole will be better balanced. Washington is the class of the division until they prove they aren't anymore. After that, the Penguins still have Crosby/Malkin, but they're getting older and their supporting cast, especially on defense, has been made worse over the years. Carolina could be quite good again if the goaltending holds up. Islanders are due to fall off, they rode a seriously impressive season of goaltending last year and got unsustainable production from several depth players, even with Trotz, they should not be expected to be anywhere near as good this year. New Jersey and the Rangers got better, but after the top end adds they're still weak in overall talent. Columbus hemorrhaged too much talent this offseason to believe they'll have a successful year.

I don't know about Lacyzinski, but Allison said this summer that the only reason he hasn't signed is that his knee is still wonky. He doesn't want to start out his pro career injured and playing catch up - he'd rather get himself right and be close to 100 percent when he signs. While the injury is itself a cause for concern, he still seems intent on signing with the Flyers.

I can't even sometimes.

@Podein25 isn't a tourist, he's family. The weird one you sit at the kid's table at Christmas, but still Family.

And Pats/Genos are for tourists. There are tons of better places. I personally love Donkey's in Camden. Or John's Roast Pork for... Roast pork.

I do wonder how much of the "Hextall was a bad man" news was real, and how much of it was justification for firing him when/how they did. It's not that I doubt that he ran a tight ship - it's clear he did from the lack of any news of substance breaking prior to it happening. He apparently told the president to stay in his lane with regards to hockey ops shortly before he was fired, which absolutely may have hastened his way out the door. It certainly appears that he limited the access that the alumni had, which was a departure from the way the club was run, and something that Snider probably would not have been a fan of. But there was never a hint anywhere of a toxic working environment, and for a team this heavily covered, it seems unlikely that something wouldn't creep out over the years. The truth is most likely somewhere in the middle. Hextall was generally able to find value in trade, hit well on his picks, and get players signed to good contracts. His failings were in the area of professional scouting and allegiance to his coach. Given Hextall's process in Philly, he may have informed Leopold that the Wild needed a process like the Flyers followed in order to get the team in shape to compete long term. If Leopold was willing to tear it down or at least semi-rebuild, I think Hextall would be a fit. However, it doesn't seem (from the outside) that that's how ownership sees the team.