GratefulFlyers

Pardon me for not watching the video I just prefer hearing it from someone here. So how is it “the cost to get….?” You mean the Flyers promised him a Big Payday if he could get to Philly before the season ended? Is that the idea? I read somebody online today saying the AAV was the “cost of doing business“ but gave no details. Maybe I should understand but I don’t…little help?

To answer the thread's title question I'd say trading Konecny means a more thorough rebuild is underway. I never thought they'd consider trading him. He's the heartbeat and the energizer for the Flyers. But after the way the season ended maybe Jones/Briere are re-thinking their strategy. Trading TK is the Flyers admitting "building a Cup contender will take longer than we thought." And then I watched Briere's exit presser.... never mind. They're not re-thinking anything...Laughton is a Flyers Lifer, TK too. I doubt Briere makes any hockey trades this summer. Maybe a buyout or a mercy trade for Atkinson...maybe Ristolainen gets dumped somehow somewhere...but no hockey trades. Briere sounds perfectly content to let things roll the way they are now going into next season.

I had to find something, anything to make that ridiculous number less painful. The combined cap hit is all I could come up with... sue me.. I think what happened is Danny offered 3.25 million rubles so it's actually only $35K a year. How he got around the league minimum is the real story here...

It makes zero sense if Briere thought they were PO-bound next year. As it is - and I agree it's too much for Fedotov - it's not a crippling contract when you realize the overall cap hit for goaltending is not even $6mil. Why Briere thought $3.25 was appropriate is beyond me though... I happen to think Ersson is much better than his numbers but Fedotov? He may be too but so far we have nothing to suggest he is.

Me too - all of us I'm sure - but I wonder about "all that talent." I'm too lazy to look ... did he like blow everybody away in Juniors or what? He can skate and he's a RHD, both of which are a Big Deal. But frankly I wasn't exactly impressed by his hockey IQ either even-strength or on the PP. Granted it's a tiny sample, and granted the Flyers' PP is such a mess no one looks good on it. But I was hoping for more than "he's got wheels." I'm not looking for reasons to knock the guy and I love that he's what, 21 years old? As long as Drysdale is the coachable type Shaw should be able to help him tremendously.

Assuming Fedotov's salary is $3.25mil he's now earning more than Ersson. Well I didn't see that coming. What he did in the KHL doesn't interest me bc I don't think it's a reliable indicator on how he'll fare in the NHL. Shooters maybe but goalies not so much. So the goaltending cap hit is under $6mil. Can't really complain about that. They're a rebuilding team and maybe one (or both) proves he's worth keeping for the longer term...

And Ron u also keep saying Drysdale is clearly toast but that’s just not true…it may turn out to be true but we just don’t know yet.

Holy cow really? $3.25mil AAV mama mia well luckily the rest of the team is set so the Flyers can spare the cap room….yeahright. O Danny Boy… the pipes the pipes….apparently he heard the call but $3.25mil?

I hear ya ….and I would’ve done the same IF it was that simple. Unfortunately (or maybe not unfortunately) there’s only 1 injury AFAIK where there’s a clear cut protocol to get back on the ice, a head injury. For the rest, once the med staff does everything it thinks appropriate, players return based mostly on “how do you feel?” And 9 times out of 10 the guy swears he’s ready to go.

It's understandable why Flyers' fans are suspicious about injuries. Thankfully the medical staff was overhauled awhile ago. Clarke and the SVPs are still there (somewhere) but I doubt they're involved. Because we don't know the extent of Drysdale's core injury projecting a year recovery is unwarranted. Neither his situation nor Ristolainen's strikes me as incompetence on anyone's part. This stuff is completely normal around the league. A guy gets hurt and everyone including the player himself believes he'll recover in time to play...then he doesn't. That shithappens all over the NHL every year. But I'm not minimizing the news. It royally sucks Drysdale needs "core muscles" surgery. For a guy who's best attribute - frankly his only attribute I've seen - is his skating so this injury may be particularly bad for him. But maybe it won't be ... ...so here's a realistic, alternative outcome for Drysdale: he recovers and never gets hurt again. He won't be the first player who appears "injury prone" for awhile, then goes on to a solid, injury-free career. Hopefully once he's back his game is more than just good wheels.

Same here, though he kept repeating "we're not quite there" to answer trade/upgrade questions. I couldn't help thinking...what, not quite there? Was that just PR-speak? The Flyers may not be "2 years away from being 2 years away" anymore but the GM has to know they're nowhere near ready to trade picks/prospects for immediate help. and then there's goaltending. O Danny boy ... the pipes the pipes are calling ... I like Ersson. I'm glad he's their #1 next year. I'm a little surprised Briere isn't bringing in some experienced help. Maybe Ersson/Fedotov is Briere's way of tanking? Ditto the "upgrades will come from our younger players." Maybe next year they'll finish with a lottery pick.

I'll be surprised. My main takeaway from Briere's exit presser was not to expect many changes over the summer. At one point he answered the talent upgrade question by saying he expects the younger players will continue to develop and improve. Some follow-up questions would've been nice but unfortunately that didn't happen and we got no specifics. He ruled out swapping assets for veterans (he added the "if it makes sense" disclaimer about any potential trades). He doesn't think anyone in Lehigh will make the Flyers out of camp. Ersson and Fedotov are the goalies. Rocky Thompson is the PP coach. The rebuild timeline hasn't changed despite the team overachieving this year. Drysdale needs "core muscles" surgery. Most of his answers were black/white, like the goalies and the PP. But other stuff was open to interpretation. Maybe you heard things differently?

Remember when Voracek said basically the same thing - "nobody goes 100% all the time" - my how the haters enjoyed that one...! re: Couturier's 20mins/game early in the season. Tortorella said if he hadn't played Couturier so much he would've complained about his ice time. Well okay maybe that's true but so what. That's a laughable excuse. Why not just say "I thought he could handle it and I was wrong." I liked 80% of what Tortorella did with the team this year but the 20% was bad. I don't mind he values his grinders so highly; good ones help NHL teams every night. The Flyers' grinders were effective forecheckers, also very good defensively. But key moments like OT (JT blamed himself for not practicing it enough; not a word about his player choices) you can't trot out 3rd and 4th liners and expect to win. And in the ultimate "key moment" this season - G82 - Frost and Farabee (I think both) sit the entire 3rd and it's Cates, Poehling and Hathaway. I'm not knocking that line they were effective all year at what they do. They're just not likely to get you a season-saving goal. Briere's presser...the Drysdale news is not encouraging. Hopefully "core surgery" isn't as bad as it sounds because it sounds pretty bad for a guy who's "strength" is his skating.

The season was fun to watch but the appraisal I'm really interested in is where Jones/Briere say it fits in their rebuild timeline. Are the Flyers closer now to becoming a Cup contender or did this season convince them to trade TK and begin a more thorough rebuild? They're never going "tank" we know that, either legitimately or the way the Pens did it (twice); that's just not in their DNA. But the "accelerated rebuild" didn't get them very far this year. Tortorella got everything possible out of them, which made for exciting Flyers' games. I'm not sure it advanced the team much toward the goal of becoming a Cup contender. Remembering where the Flyers were before Jones/Briere/Tortorella took over I congratulate them all for turning it around. Exceeding expectations this year was the icing on the cake. But now it's turned around and a repeat of this year, with Tortorella driving a roster of decent players to "overachieve" is probably not good enough. To end on a positive note: something we haven't seen from a Flyers' roster in ages...a few guys actually developed their games on the fly and did so convincingly. Not just Shaw's guys. Foerster's got a complete game already; if he improves his skating he'll be a monster. Some good came out of this season I only wish it hadn't left me wondering more instead of less about the overall direction of the team.

"reading tea leaves" is picking apart shifts or maybe speculating about the "soul of the team" or some such twaddle. I'm sure avoided it in this thread. And I understand now why we're not connecting: we're looking from different altitudes. You look from 40K feet and conclude, and that's unquestionably true. Apparently that explains it for you. Fair enough. I can't disagree with that or anything else in your post. It's just that (to me) after what happened in Montreal (and the preceding weeks) the Flyers' performance at MSG was so out of the blue there's no shrugging it off with "eh, no great shakes sometimes ACBA." I'm not looking for some deep meaning but there's more to it than "shithappens." The timing of the performance and the performance itself are both in their own WTF? category. As an ending to Flyers' losing streaks that one was the most unexpected and by far the most confounding (hence: "whack jobs"). To put it in perspective we don't need tea leaves but we do - I do - need more than ACBA.

Me too. That's all just a good fight - an intelligent fight. If Ersson is good again maybe they relax and play their game. Who knows...?

I see. So it's basically a crap shoot. I accept that if we're talking about where the Flyers are now. But earlier in the season they played consistently good, fast hockey - goaltending was solid - and it wasn't a crap shoot at all. Certainly ACBA is "the bottom line" it's just not very helpful.

Hardly that. You said ACBAOAGN explains the result. I said it doesn't. "Anyone can beat anyone..." is obviously true but it sheds no light on what happened. It's like saying, "there were a lot of Flyers' fans at MSG last night." That's undoubtedly true (there always are) but it's irrelevant or incidental to the outcome. I offered a partial explanation for the result, namely how well Ersson played. But why he and the Flyers suddenly played so well, that's what I find interesting don't you? The parity among NHL teams can't help us with that. The team is so unpredictable now I called them "whack jobs" and imho it's a fitting description. Some games this year ACBA probably is the best explanation. In Dallas, in Winnipeg, in Sunrise ... but after going winless in 8, to get some perspective on whipping the legitimate Cup-favorite Rangers 4-1 at MSG (who were trying to secure the #1 seed) I need more than "anyone can beat anyone."

This is true but imho it only applies to last night's game in the most general sense. Parity has grown steadily since the salary cap but what we saw last night had little to do with parity. The game wasn't a one-off; it was potentially (and expected to be) the Flyers' 9th consecutive loss. Instead they go into MSG and play the kind of hockey that had them sitting 3rd in the Metro for months. The biggest on-ice factor that allowed the Flyers to beat the Rangers last night was Ersson playing so well. When the Flyers get the early big save(s) they can play their game. When they don't they (naturally) go into a shell and since their talent is not very deep on either side of the puck the game is basically over for them. We've seen losing streaks before but the Flyers most recent one has been remarkable. For it to end against the best team in the NHL (%-wise) with a complete 180... in attitude, confidence, execution, in every aspect of the game ... that wasn't about "anyone can beat anyone" that was ... frankly I don't know what that was...and I have no idea if we'll see it again tomorrow.

what a whackjob team.... I'd love to believe in the Flyers, in Jones/Briere and Tortorella but how can I? What kind of team spends weeks sabotaging their PO hopes then goes into MSG and beats maybe the best team in the NHL? Beats them convincingly too. This team makes no sense to me. It's like a switch was flipped back to "ON" and last night they started playing professional hockey again. whackjobs...

With vs without Hart the numbers are pretty staggering… I don’t know if anyone should’ve foreseen this level of suckage. A handful games the Flyers gave some good teams a real battle but the W/L record, Ersson’s game etc. all went South in a hurry after Hart left. Tonight at MSG, Ersson starting again… 12-2 sounds about right. Either that or the Rangers rest some guys, the Flyers play halfway decent and lose 5-2 instead. But honestly who the hell knows what to expect!

btw that .875 is a gigantic reason for the collapse - and it is on the goalies. Hart's departure marks the turning point where Ersson was 17-3 I think with a .930 and afterwards he's 9-13. I'm guessing at his W/L record but it should be close. The Flyers had a huge strength with Hart/Ersson. The Flyers' game - the transition game, where they did 90% of their damage to the opposition - keyed off good goaltending. When that became a liability it all snowballed downhill. The quick outs disappeared, led to fewer goals off the rush, plus now the opposition gets to play half the rink instead of starting behind their own net. Bad goaltending - Hart leaving - doesn't explain it but it's a huge part of what we're seeing...except for the Montreal game. God only knows what explains that.

For weeks now Ersson has not been very good but we all know Save% and GAA are team numbers. I'm not exonerating him or Fedotov, not at all. I still think (hope) Ersson can be a reliable NHL starter but he's obviously not one now. "clown-show histrionics" - you're referring to benching Couturier? So soon after naming him captain was absurd, made Tortorella look stupid I agree. OTOH did anyone think Couturier was earning even 4th line minutes? I can't get too worked up about it. I'm sure his feelings were hurt but "alienated" good god I hope not.

This is an interesting thread but it presupposes the Flyers are a regular NHL team with regular problems. I'm not sure they are; their problems seem deeper to me than who's on the roster and who's the HC. Maybe I'm overreacting to the blowouts, maybe I'm finally catching on that the Senior Advisors' stink is still all over this club. All I know is a team that rolls over like that has serious issues. They're playing even worse than they did in Giroux's final season. I thought for sure that was rock bottom but it wasn't. So it's hard for me to imagine regular, normal changes doing much good. I wish I knew what would.

LOL! Flyers' fans don't mess around you can't cut it in the first 20 minutes Get Lost!