Vanflyer

Maybe Homer was on a bender (summer long!). That and not getting rid of Lavy in the summer were two absurd move / non-moves and certainly a large part why he is not gm today.

Fleury is the first d guy after Eckblad on the draft board. Maybe there are others after the first 10 picks that folks have a bias for over him, but then you are probably right back down to where the flyers are picking if not past that point. Fleury is 6'3 207, is an excellent skater and will not turn 18 until July 8th (meaning he still has growth in him). They say he is great at transition and moving the puck.

But see, that were the problem starts to lie. JR Ewing guy (from Edmonton) was making some really compelling arguments about how HOF inductees should be selected. Allot of times when the balloting is done, many of the folks voting only have black and white to go by as the years have rolled by. I agree that Blake should not be compared. I will have to go dig up that guys post. He was referencing a baseball writer who developed a criteria system to determine if a player should be inducted or not.

Just LTIR- and let Harding fight the good battle. To do anything else would be heartless.

Does WHAT more??

Completely incorrect.

I sure am going to blame his parents. They did it in juniors and they did it again for the NHL draft. I hardly consider an 18 y/o a grown man (even though he can go fight a war). Seriously, if you think Eric himself orchestrated those demands, you are kidding yourself. Truthfully, when John Leclaire is your best friend on the team, I hardly can think you have an ego. Many people have a hard time disconnecting themselves from their families- and that frankly was Erics biggest down fall. He should have done it as soon as they told him not to play for the Ramparts in juniors. Its the parents that had the egos that they thought they were bigger than the game. How is a 16 y/o supposed to stand up to his parents whom his whole life have not only facilitated his hockey development, but steered it?

As a back-up or as a starter? The only guy out there I see as a guy that I would want as a starter is Chad Johnson. Then what are you going to do with Harding (who is under contract for two more years) and Backstrom (1 more year)?

Not necessarily, but I have to base it on something. What do YOU base it on?? My point was that Hartnell is the type of player that has his teammates backs, he was neither the only one nor the primary one.

I am not sure I agree with that. Truthfully, I don't think he ever had the right fabric to be captain. Your best player does not need to be your captain (dustin brown says hello). I think Eric Lindros would have been 100% content to be second fiddle (or at least not the Captain). I think of Crosby in the same vein. Let guys like Crosby / Lindros just go play. Get someone else to be the anchor / rudder as far as the leadership goes. I always got the sense that Lindros just wanted to be one of the guys. But his parents, his enormous talent, early captaincy and enormous expectations easily alienated him from that possibility.

Better have your goaltending situation sorted very early on in camp / pre-season.

Dont let hartnells pims totals be construed as "protectatory" pims. MANY of his penalties were of the bone head / too slow / tick tacky variety. At the same time he was very good at agitating the other team into penalties (6th in the league) that if offset allot of his bone head penalties.

2010-2011 Daniel Carcillo: 13 Jodey Shelley: 12 Sean Odonnell: 7 Scott Hartnell: 6 2011-2012 Zac Rinaldo: 15 Wayne Simmonds: 10 Tom Sestito: 7 Jodey Shelley: 6 Scott Hartnell: 4 2012-2013 Wayne Simmonds: 6 Zac Rinaldo: 5 Jay Rosehill: 4 Ty McGinn: 3 Scott Hartnell: 2 2013-2014 Jay Rosehill: 10 Zac Rinaldo: 7 Luke Schenn: 6 Wayne Simmonds: 6 Brayden Schenn: 4 Steve Downie: 2 Scott Hartnell: 2 Your perception of Hartnell being a "protector" is very misguided. Brayden Schenn / Luke Schenn combined for the same number of fights LAST year as Hartnell has had in the past 3 years (10). Truthfully, you don't want you top 6 playing that role anyway- that includes simmonds. Simmonds does it instinctively and mostly in the heat of the battle. But truthfully, he is better served on the ice than in the box serving 5 plus minutes. I wouldn't worry about the loss of Hartnell in that capacity as its not really a valid point.

All your points are valid and by no means did I mean to infer that Gaborik would have been the better fit in Tampa. At the end of the day, if he is overpaid for 800K-1m, yet the bolts can tolerate that overpayment and get the desired result, then I guess its okay. The hard part is that it exacerbates the cost / value ration (which the Flyers do routinely). Now, the next guy that is coming up to sign a new contract that has similar numbers can go and use Calahans as a comparable. The flip side is that Gaborik lowered the scale by the significant home team discount he gave. At the end of the day every team has to fit within a salary cap and how each team decides to slice that up is their business.

I had to bump this as Andy S. has some sort of inside scoop!!!! Wow, what a call!! ha ha

In the summer, he asked for 7.5m over 8 years (http://snyrangersblog.com/ryan-callahan-contract/). During the season, he asked for 7m over 6 years. Even foolish spender Sather balked at that. bye bye Calahan. Here are the comparables: 1) Alexander Steen (30 y/o)- 5.8M cap hit (3 years): 33g, 29a, 62pts, +17 2) Travis Zajac (29 y/o)- 5.75m cap hit (8 years): 18g, 30a, 48pts, +3 3) Mike Richards (29 y/o)- 5.75m cap hit (12 years): 11g, 30a, 41pts, -6 4) Tyler Sequin (22 y/o)- 5.75m cap hit (6 years): 37g, 47a, 84pts, +16 5) Jeff Skinner (22 y/o)- 5.725m cap hit (6 years): 33g, 21a, 54pts, -14 6) Dustin Brown (29 y/o)- 5.875m cap hit (8 years): 15g. 12a. 28pts, +7 7) Patrick Sharp (32 y/o)- 5.9m cap hit (5 years): 34g, 44a, 78pts, +13 8) Martin St Louis (39 y/o)- 5.625m cap hit (4 years): 30g, 39a. 69pts, +13 Ryan Calahan (29 y/o)- 5.8M cap hit (6 years): 17g, 19a, 39pts, +1 Out of that list, I only see one similar player: Dustin Brown (brown in fact won the Messier award (for leadership both on the ice and off the ice in communities / charities). Brown has broken the 60 point mark once, 50 point mark 4 times and the 40 point mark once. Calahan has broken the 50 point mark once and the 40 point mark twice. I know there are other intangibles, but really, when I look at that list for my bang for the dollar, Callahan is far down my list.

Richie (LW), Vertanen (LW), or Fleury (D) are all guys I would not mind moving up for. Depending which mock draft poll you look at they are between 7th and 11th overall. I think would could make that jump with a prospect out of the Phantoms (atkeson- I know he was undrafted, but I think one could argue he could have been a late 1st to early 2nd rounder- plus is developed and could step into a team like Cannucks, Carolina or Toronto- who hold the 6th, 7th and 8th picks) and our first. I would even go as far to say a Matt Read and then move Akeson into Reads role.

I thought that bear looked familiar!!

Well, not necessarily, also lats are a big part of it. These kids are young, yet I would think that they are doing some sort of strength training. Don't you remember those scrawny kids in gym class during the fitness tests in high school or what not that could do like 50 pull ups but could not make a pop-eye bicep muscle to save their life?? Seriously, it has allot to do about weight and height as well. Taller kids with a bit more weight / bone density have allot harder of a time doing a pull up because frankly they are having to move more mass a greater distance. So, without the muscle strength there, its not easy to do. Regardless, when these kids go pro, they will be in a strength and conditioning program, so I would not sweat it either.

Out of 5 "in the know" (fwiw) lists I looked at 3 did not even have McKeown in the 1st round. The other two had a disparity (1 at 14 and the other at 24th). For Sanheim, I again only found him on 2 out of 5 at 19th and 24th. Lists are lists I guess, but of the two, I think Sanheim would be the guy I would peg. They say his progress this year has been astounding. He is a big kid that can really skate and has a high hockey Iq. They said he can do it all. At 18 y/o, he is 6'3 185 with lots of room to grow. Truthfully, if Hextall is as serious as he says about moving up, I would like to see them move up to get either Nick Ritchie (LW), Jake Virtanen (LW) or Hayden Fleury (D).

Sadly both of whom played for the Flyers at one point! Ouch!

Eric Lindros was extremely involved with CHOP (childrens hospital of philadelphia) and continues to be in raising money for the hospital. Him (and John Leclaire) have held many events to raise money for this charity. Both were extremely generous with their time during their seasons in philadelphia visiting the hospital on many occasions, bringing presents, etc. Two points I would like to make: 1) Sydney Crosby's has only given not a single dime of his salary in charitable contributions. While he gets involved in charities and has established some charities, its more about his time than money. The ONLY money he ever gave out of his own pocket was the $20,000 that he got for winning the gold at SOCHI Olympics. 2) This years King Clancy award (given to the player that best exemplifies community spirit and humanitarianism) was Adnrew Ference. The total amount out of his pocket: $16,389.00. I get you don't like Lindros. No problem. Yet don't be throwing stones at Lindros for not being "generous" during his playing days- as 99.9% are not (out of their pocket- including Cindy). Most get involved by giving with their time in charity foundations and charity events as they can have an equal or greater impact to those charities in visibility and raising funds than just opening up their check book.

We are not. We already have one of him at a half of the cost and a wayyyyyyyyyy shorter term: L. Schenn. In fact, the only thing that Pheneuf does better than Schenn is score more points (schenn would score more too if he was on the PP unit). Schenn has more hits, more blocks, less give ways (31 to phaneufs 60). We might piss and moan about L. Schenn but when compared to Phaneuf, I will take schenn (also add in 23 y/o v. Phaneuf 29 y/o). Shouldn't Phaneuf be in his prime? Yet the 23 year old is better than him.

Factor in also, that aside of the whole "loyalty contract" thing, the Flyers as an organization treat / care for their players very well while they are playing for the Flyers (or they want to because its an investment), but to a man that has played say more than two seasons in Philly, regardless of the nature of the divorce, they always say what a class organization the Flyers are. So, to your point, a player cares first about compensation and could give a rats ass about commitment / loyalty, because the money is already guaranteed. Add into that that they know while playing here, they are going to be treated very well (amenities, travel, training, facilities, housing etc.) and it becomes a no-brainer. The outlier to that would be those players that are longer on the tooth (take a Gaborik for example) that have already journeyed around the league and had several stops AND have a family with kids and say: ok, this is it, out LAST stop and choose a team- not only for the team, but also the community, schools, region, climate (all the quality of life stuff) and want to take root. Then they get traded. But that is the nature of being a pro.

Bummer for us, we had him in our fold, but choose the good 'ol boys network instead.