Dumpster Hockey

This team needs a good old fashion @ss kicking and Torts is the coach to do it. He is going to weed out the players that are not going to cut the mustard playing for him and force them out of the organization and in many ways that is what this team needs. There is one player however that might not mesh with Torts that I hope is not affected by him and that is Carter Hart. I hope Torts leaves the goalies to the Goalie Coach and don't become too hard on Carter Hart because that could really ruin him.

I think we all know Trotz is not coming to this mess. DeBoer wouldn't be awful, but the coach I would want is Torts because he will kick some @ss. That is severely what this team needs right now.

It is possible, but I think we can agree that JVR is no more than a 30 to maybe 40 point per year guy and that could be even slipping as he gets even older. 3.5 million could still be pushing it because teams know his best days are gone. The thing is the other teams are in the drivers seat with him and the Flyers are the team that are under the bus. The Flyers are that way with a few players. Risto to name one. Hayes to name another.

What we have to look at first is the front office is incompetent to put together an overhaul rebuild of the measure the Flyers need. They also are starpped with a Salary Cap to work with of 5.1 million. The players they would have to deal like JVR or Risto have such ridiculous salaries no competent team would even sniff a deal with the Flyers for them. So the Flyers are pretty much stuck with these players or are going to have to buy out some of them.

The thing is we as fans can sit here and talk like this team is like a Fantasy team and they are going to make tons of moves and next season the team will look totally different then this past season. That however is not going to happen. The team will still have Ristolainen in the 2nd pairing on the defence pairing with Sanheim and most likely unless Ryan Ellis makes an appearance Cam York will prematurally be on the top pairing with Ivan Provorov. That leaves the 3rd pairing for a mix and match mess. The offense will still have Kevin Hayes and he will not be the top Center as that will be Sean Couturier. Whether Hayes is the 2nd Center or the 3rd Center which I think he is more fit to be or move him to a wing he will still be on the team. Frost will probably be the 2nd Center on the team whether we like it or not unless they sign a free agent. Scott Laughton I think will be gone and Nate Thompson will fit in there somewhere, probably on the 4th line. As for the wingers it all depends what they do with Konecny. If they can't trade him he is back but I hope not as a top line wing. I will take him as a 2nd line wing though. Farabee, Cates, Atkinson, Brink, Tippett, and Lindblom will be in the mix as well. Oskar Lindblom needs to be put in the top half lines. Most likely the 2nd line. He was not utilized correctly this past season and I understand why they kept him on the bottom pairings to lower his minutes to ease him back, but he has too much skill for that. There is a way to minimize minutes, but to still maximize a player's skill as well. They need to do that with Lindblom. Carter Hart will be the #1 goalie and Martin Jones will not be back. Who they get to be the back up is up in the air with the cramped cap space. The thing is this front office isn't going to do a mass overhaul because they are strapped and they are also clueless.

Why does this team do this and focus on these top free agents who have career years and overpay them and what they end up getting in the end is never what they did the previous year. They also only have 5.1 million in slary cap money which leaves them pretty strapped which means they have to find another team who is pretty damn delusional to take on JVR and his crazy salary or buy him out which is more the case. The more possible scenario is trying to trade Konecny to free up some cap space, but still the amount someone like Johnny Hockey is going to ask is too much. If he wants to come back home and play then he needs to lower his price to do so and we all know that is not going to happen. Also Calgary said they are going to push hard to keep him. Why don't the Flyers focus on some smaller free agents that can help. Players like Vincent Trocheck, Ryan Strome, Rickard Rakell, Andreas Athanasiou, Frank Vatrano, Nick Paul, Tyler Motte, Vincent Hinostroza, and Ryan Donato just to name a few. Now I know some of these players will be re-signed by their current teams, but the Flyers should put some effort into making offers. These players could help the team at the Center position. It always doesn't have to be the top players for the top money that the team has to focus on.