iban3z

I think having Vinny next to Giroux is what Giroux needs. I wouldn't be upset if Giroux had an assist or two per game while his line does all the scoring. That's 82+ per season which I'm ok with. What he really needs is some leadership development. The Flyers made the same mistake with Richards. They made them captains way too early.

Gill has actually looked good in his 1 game. I'd keep playing him first. Mez, I like Mez and before I thought about getting rid of him, I'd move turnover Coburn who has 7 turnovers that led to goals this season thus far and he makes 1mil more than Mez. Mez is also more Defensive minded than Coburn. Like I said, I'd move Coburn FIRST. First is the key word here.

Last Friday some people headed out to the mall, the movies or simply stayed home to enjoy a relaxing night. Others headed down to the Wells Fargo Center to catch what they hoped would be a good hockey game. A win is always a plus but a good close hockey game is always entertaining. Keeping in mind that Ovechkin was out with an injury and that the Flyers were 3-8, there was very little to cheer about. Never-the-less, the sellout crowd piled in and got ready to see a hockey game. The first 20 min was a close hockey game, but the Flyers seemed lifeless and were hanging on. Despite the 1-0 deficit, the arena was filled with boos. Flash forward to the second period, you would have thought that the Flyers didn’t show up and they placed a trash can in front of the net and hoped for the Caps so spend the next 20 min shooting at a trash can. Instead, the Flyers did show up but didn’t play and Mason was hung out to dry. In comes Ray Emery in relief. Ray Emery hadn’t seen action since Oct 12. Sources say he’d been frustrated that he’s been the “assumed” backup when he believed that two starts weren’t enough for him to prove himself, especially with that defense in front of him but said he would be ready when called upon. He just came from a Stanley Cup winning team and he had his role in their winning season going 17-1 with 3 shutouts. He hadn’t been able to help the sinking ship that he’s on and all he’s been able to do is watch. The third period comes and it’s pretty much over. It was 6-0 at the start, all you could hope was for a couple of goals and no injuries. After the Caps scored their seventh goal, enough was enough for the Flyers. Rage built in. A wake up call was needed. 17 seconds later Wayne Simmonds dropped the gloves after delivering a hard check. As that fight went down, Brayden Schenn and Vinny Lecavalier began to find dancing partners as well. Frustrated, pissed and feeling left out, Ray Emery a known goalie fighter, raced to the other end and challenged Capitals goalie Holtby. Having watched the game live I can tell you how excited I was as a fan to see a goalie fight. I was also excited just to see some life in the Flyers. And finally, I was very excited to see a player get his butt kicked. What I have just described to you is how I felt in the “moment” with what had transpired. After several instant replay reviews and multiple lashings toward Emery for his fight, I decided to wonder if I may have got caught up in the moment and thought maybe what I saw wasn’t something to be excited about. I took this into affect first. The line Brawl I thought wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The Flyers have had no life in any of their games. Four fights at once in a 7-0 womping is something I thought they needed. Now Ray Emery: As I said before, Emery hadn’t seen action since Oct 12. His team is 3-9 and currently getting flat out embarrassed. The fans are booing and chanting to fire the GM. His Captain and veterans aren’t stepping up. Emery had enough. Emery skated down with one thing in mind: “I’m fighting no matter what.” I watched the video several times. Emery skated up to Holtby and began tugging on him. Holtby didn’t seem interested and the ref was right between them. What you see next is Holtby dropping his blocker and he starts swinging, which in my eyes means “I accept.” Even if he doesn’t want to fight, he still dropped his equipment. The ref then stepped back. Ray Emery, a huge boxing fan, did what everyone expected. He beat up Holtby. What everyone didn’t expect was for it to look like a slaughter. Emery didn’t let up and the ref never stepped in. I personally didn’t see anything wrong with the fight other than that once the fight was decide,d which was after Ray Emery’s fourth punch , he just kept going and going. If he had stopped once Holtby was on his knees and pleading for his life, maybe it wouldn’t have looked so bad. But Emery was a man possessed and he kept pounding away. The whole point was to send a message and it wasn’t to the Capitals. It was to each other. The message was, “We need to wake up! We need to step up! We need to get our heads out of our *****. This is unacceptable!” Now did Ray Emery lose sight of this message during his fight? Most likely, I say. Was it classless? Not entirely. Was it wrong? No. How many times have we seen this? This happens a few times a season and we love it… however we usually see goalies meet one another in the middle. His message seemed to somewhat carry over and he started the following night and posted his first shutout of the season. Granted he faced only 14 shots, but never-the-less a win is a win and a shutout is a shutout. There has been major media backlash towards Emery. The Philadelphia beat writers as CSN and Philly.com won’t let up on Emery. You’d of thought he was Marty McSorley. The close minded writers obviously don’t like fighting and love negativity so they’ve been bashing Emery since Friday and it is continuing. Enough already! He didn’t do anything wrong in the NHL’s eyes. This is coming from the well hated Commissioner. “He didn’t break any rules, therefore a suspension isn’t warranted.” Tim Panacccio from CSNPhilly.com believes Emery should have been fined, suspended and fighting needs to be removed. Are you kidding me? I’ve seen far worse and nothing even happen. Problem with Tim is, he hates fighting and never liked Emery, even in his first stint with the Flyers. Tim uses his bully pulpit to try and bully his way through the article and make it seem that everyone else is wrong. To me, that’s no different than what Emery did. Fans are also split down the middle. “He was classes, it was a massacre” or “He did the right thing, it was ok.” My view is this; he wanted to step up and do something. He wanted to light a fire under his team. He did that without breaking any rules that would warrant any additional discipline other than the penalty minutes he received. Should he have let up? Yes. Even though Holtby didn’t really want to fight and I say didn’t really because he did drop his equipment and if he really didn’t want to fight, he would have either skated away or turtle. He actually skated toward Emery. I’m saying Emery was 100% right but in the sense of his message yes he’s right. If Holtby cowered with his equipment on and Emery began punching with the ref in between then that is a whole different story. This is not what happened, yet people are making it out so be just that and worse. Captain Claude hasn’t done anything to step up and help right this team. Neither has Kimmo, Hartnell, Streit, Talbot (who was traded) nor anyone else for that matter. The guy who hasn’t played in 3 weeks decided “Ok, I’ve had enough of this. I’ll send everyone a message.” Then after that he sent another one by posting a shutout in the very next game. This team needed a wakeup call and the fans needed something to cheer about. I have nothing against what Emery did. It wasn’t bush league because Holtby did attempt to defend himself. He just didn’t do a good job and is not a fighter by any means. Nobody had an issue when Ron Hextall did it. He slashed players skating away from him. He chased down Chris Chellios. He constantly left his crease to brawl. Why is Emery any different, especially is he didn’t break any rules? Now I’m not advocating that he and the Flyers should do this on a regular basis. This is an isolated incident and it should be left as such. I hope the writers at CSNphilly and Philly.com would open their eyes more and realize that they cover hockey and should stick to hockey. Enough of this bashing the players crap. I mean they don’t bash the players for their lackluster play, they bash for other things. This is just my view on this incident and everyone can have a different view. My reasons for my view are explained. I’m not going to act like “The professional writers” (if you want to call them that) and keep my view as if’s the only and correct way. I just want the bashing and backlash to stop. Tonight is another game. Let’s go Flyers! Follow me on Twitter @http://www.twitter.com/iban3zhead

A couple of years ago I wrote an article on the NHL’s concussion issue. As the NHL seems to become more of a “do what we say league,” their latest installment of rules has me scratching my head. Last week Darren Dreger of TSN reported that the linesmen have been instructed to stop a fight if the players remove their helmets beforehand. Earlier in the season the NHL implemented a rule to issue a 2 min minor penalty to players who decided to remove their helmets before a fight. When it became clear that this didn’t matter to any of the players the League informed the Linesman to just stop the fight from happening if the players removed their helmets. What I don’t understand is there is already a rule for players with visors who engage in fighting. They can be penalized if they DON’T remove their helmet. Here’s the Rule from the NHL’s website: 46.6 Face Protection - If a player penalized as an instigator of an altercation is wearing a face shield (including a goalkeeper), he shall be assessed an additional unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Should the player (including a goalkeeper) who instigates the fight be wearing a face shield, but removes it before instigating the altercation, the additional unsportsmanlike conduct penalty shall not apply. Am I the only one who’s confused here? The NHL is contradicting itself. If you don’t remove your visor prior to fighting, you will be assessed a 2min penalty. However if you remove your helmet (visor or not) you will be assessed a 2 min penalty and they will stop the fight. This makes it confusing for not only the fans but the players as well. Fighting is part of the game. It’s a way for them to police themselves. With all of these extra rules to figure out, it’s going to end up costing them after the fight with penalties. Prior to a fight, players don’t stand there and think about what they can or cannot do. They just fight. Removing fighting from the NHL has been something that’s been brought up more and more due to serious head injuries that have occurred recently. However, these serious head injuries have happened in College or Juniors. For example: “Dylan Chanter, an 18-year-old defenseman with the Dubuque Fighting Saints, fell backward and hit his bare head on the ice while fighting with Corey Petrash of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Chanter, whose helmet had been knocked off, started convulsing. His convulsions lasted two minutes as trainers attended to him.” (Source NY TIMES) “Michael Sanderson of The Whitby Dunlops, a senior-league club team in Ontario, died on Jan. 2, 20 days after banging his head on the ice during a hockey fight.” (Source NY Daily News) Many of these serious incidents are occurring in amateur or college leagues. I agree that fighting should be reserved for the big leagues. (AHL/NHL) College is a place for Hockey players to learn how to play adult hockey and develop. They don’t need to fight. But the AHL and NHL is a whole different ball game. Fighting is something that made the NHL what it is today. When the NHL expanded in 1967, fighting is what drew in big crowds in the new markets in America. Hockey is already an established sport in Canada so those in the US went to Hockey because it’s different. That’s what makes Hockey so great. It’s different. There is full contact constantly, fighting, dazzling plays and the game pace is better than any of the 3 other major sports. Baseball is slow with very little to no contact, Basketball has no contact and football’s contact and plays last for anywhere from 3-15 seconds. In Hockey, if the play stops, the clock stops. If you want to upend a player with the puck you can hit him pretty hard and the play continues. In football, if you hit someone with the ball, the play is usually over but the clock keeps on ticking. Basketball if you as much as slightly push a player it’s a foul. And above all if your emotions are running high, you can’t fight in baseball, football or basketball without getting thrown out of the game, fined and suspended. In Hockey, you fight and you sit in a box for 5 min to cool off. After that you’re back to playing and could fight again if need be. Why would the NHL even think to remove this aspect from the game especially if it’s been there since the year 1922. “In 1922, the NHL introduced Rule 56 that formally regulated fighting or "fisticuffs" as it was called in the official NHL rulebook. Rather than ejecting players from the game, players would be given a five-minute major penalty. This is why hockey is so unique. Fighting has not only been getting a bad rap from players falling and hitting their heads during a fight, but long term effects of “blows to the head” have been a past accusation. Former NHL Enforcer Derek Boogaard’s sudden death five months after a season-ending concussion raised questions. His family donated his brain to the Boston University project and they found he had signs of brain trauma resulting from blows to the head. But is fighting really to blame here? What about the “enforcer” role? Back in the 70s 80s and even the 90s teams had at least one enforcer to help protect a few star players but most of the players in that era had talent and the grit to protect themselves. Now-a-days, hockey has a plethora of talented finesse players and most teams have that one guy who can “only fight.” I think all hockey players should police and not just have one designated “tough guy” with no actual skill. I think removing the enforcer is the way to go about this. Staged fighting is the issue here. More injuries happen when something is staged because the end result of it is to just win. Therefore players are going to go to the extreme to win because enforcers have something to prove. That is “who is tougher?” They go out on the ice looking for a fight because it’s their “Role”. Spontaneous fighting which is what I refer to as “old time hockey” is players whose emotions are high or they’re policing themselves. They drop the gloves to say “hey we’re not going to take that.” Regardless of who wins, dropping the gloves and fighting is how their statement is made. I think lesser injuries would occur here. Former NHL Enforcer Riley Cote actually took boxing lessons. He had one career NHL goal. Why would a hockey player need to take boxing lessons? It’s simple, his job was to go out, find a fight and win. Scoring goals, killing penalties, or making passes wasn’t in his vocabulary. When Cote stopped winning fights and doing his role, he became a healthy scratch and that forced him to retire at the age of 28. The Enforcer days are over. The sooner teams realize this you’ll see a decrease in head injuries from fighting. Finesse players will have to stand up for themselves. Power forwards will have to step in as well defensemen. Staged fighting is what needs to be removed, not fighting all together. With the NHL hammering down the rules with helmet removal, number of fights at a time, number of fights per player and the jersey strap it’s just going to make matters worse. Professional Hockey should be for players who can actually play and not hold a reservation for a boxer with skates. But like one NHL Source said “It will take a death before the NHL considers the removal of fighting.” However it will take a commissioner with power-trip a matter of seconds to make things his way. Follow me on Twitter @ Iban3zhead My article on the NHL’s Concussion issue can be read here: http://www.hockeyforums.net/index.php/blog/20/entry-38-the-nhls-concussion-issue/

I don't agree with this. You either fall and hit your head from fighting or you take a puck to the face and shatter your bones. It's hockey. If they don't want injuries, make them wear cages, remove hitting and make them play with a plastic puck. If they want to do it at the Amateur level and juniors then okay. But in the AHL, NHL...it's stupid if you ask me.

I'll try anything at this point.

I agree. I thought that back when the Flyers had Luca Sbisa. If he were able to grow and show off on the Phantoms, I think he's not part of that Chris Pronger trade.

Just like with Anthony Stolarz, I've started a Scott Laughton Topic for those who'd like to follow him, discuss and so forth. Here is his Bio: (Wiki) Scott Laughton (born May 30, 1994) is a Canadian ice hockey centre who currently plays for the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). He was drafted in the first round, 20th overall, at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft by thePhiladelphia Flyers.[1] Laughton signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Flyers on August 8, 2012.Following the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Laughton made the Flyers out of the team's abbreviated training camp and made his NHL debut on January 19, 2013 at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Following the Flyers 2013–14 preseason training camp, Laughton was loaned back to theOshawa Generals of the OHL after failing to stick with the NHL club to start the season So far Laughton is having a great start to his OHL Season: In 8 games he has 10G, 7A for 17 Pts and is a +6. Career: GP G A Pts PIM Team: 2009–10 Toronto Marlboros Minor Midget AAA 76 55 40 95 109 Team : 2009–10 St. Michael's Buzzers CCHL 2 0 0 0 4 2010–11 Oshawa Generals OHL 63 12 11 23 58 2011–12 Oshawa Generals OHL 64 21 32 53 101 2012–13 Oshawa Generals OHL 49 23 33 56 72 2012–13 Philadelphia Flyers NHL 5 0 0 0 0 2012–13 Adirondack Phantoms AHL 6 1 2 3 0 OHL totals 176 56 76 132 231

STOLARZ UPDATE: 6-1-1GAA: 2.45Save %: .923

The Flyers have six days between games after suffering a loss to the Penguins on Thursday night. Now it being the weekend, the Flyers have had a couple of days to skate hard, bond and work on their weaknesses. One weakness I’m constantly seeing is the horrible play of Defenseman Braydon Coburn and the rest of the defense. Tuesday’s Game against the Vancouver Canucks, a game where the Flyers let the lead slip away, was a game that saw a severe break down in the Defense. Braydon Coburn, who’s been notorious for not covering his zone or covering his man, fell victim of that again on the second Canucks goal. To Coburn’s credit, (and I don’t really give him any) the entire Flyers line completely fell apart on this play. It’s not quite clear if the Flyers are playing zone coverage or man-to-man. In this picture above, The Flyers have Nick Grossman covering the side of the net. Claude Giroux has dropped deep in the zone to cover the same man. Coburn instead, covers his zone to where no players are located. Instead a wide open player in front of the net is over behind Grossman and receives a pass from the man behind the net. (Sedin) The wide open player scored the tying goal. Now even if Coburn is covering his zone, he should know, he has to skate over to cover an open man and cover him. In this still shot it appear he’s thinking about it, but just doesn’t do it. (If you saw the video, he’s coasting.) You also have all three Flyer forwards deep into the circles. Who are they covering? There’s an open man in the middle and there’re two open defenseman up on top. This falls on coaching. The coaches are either having them play the wrong coverage, or they’re not working with them in the practices. Everybody needs work. It’s up to the Coach to identify the issue and work on it. Judging by the last 4 years of Braydon Coburn, someone has been letting that slip away or the guy just doesn’t get it and he never will. Thursday night, I saw multiple breakdowns in the defensive zone. Most of them occurred in the 2nd period and led to a goal. Here is a picture of the 2nd Penguins’ goal. Prior to this still shot, the Flyers failed on three occasions to clear the zone. Every clearing attempt became a turnover. The final turn over led to this. If you look, you can see the wide open man taking the rebound and the position of the Flyer who should be covering him. His back is turned and he’s not covering anyone, as there are no Penguins in front of him. What makes matters worse is that’s not even a defenseman. That is Brayden Schenn. Things didn’t get better. The Flyers who played a pretty dominate period in the third, saw their hopes of tying and perhaps coming back slip away at the fault of Braydon Coburn, again. Here we can see Coburn being double covered by Crosby and Kuniz. Coburn has two outlets. Wayne Simmonds is off to the top corner and Luke Schenn is behind Coburn. Instead Coburn throws the puck in front on his own net. Yes Giroux is there and the Still Shot doesn’t show it, but that pass was went through his legs. (It looks like Giroux is playing the puck, but that is not what is happening.) It was also a blind pass from Coburn and Giroux was not anticipating that play as it was not the correct play. You never throw the puck in front of your own net when the opposing team is deep in the zone attacking, especially when you have two open guys on the boards. You can tell by Giroux’s body position that he’s expecting the play to transition into a rush. The blind pass is intercepted by a Penguin who fires it towards the net and finds its way in off a deflection from a wide open Crosby. Not only did Coburn throw a blind pass across his own net to a wide open Penguin, he failed to cover the guy who was covering him and it all led to a goal. The Flyers seem to fail the fundamentals of hockey in every aspect. The defensive break downs, the lack of scoring chances, the failure to fore-check on the “Dump and Chase” are simple things the Flyers can’t execute. The question is if the Flyers can’t do any of this, whose fault is this? Is it coaching or is it the players? The Flyers brass thought it was the coaching when the Flyers were 0-3 and made some coaching changes. But here we are now 1-7 (NHL Worst) and the same issues are still plaguing the Flyers. Do the Flyers have the right players? Are they incapable of playing hockey with this system, this team, this organization? The stats are just ugly. How ugly you ask? Well there are two players are in the plus for the +/- column. Those players are Max Talbot and Chris Newbury. (YIKES) With a Zero the Flyers have three players, McGinn, Lecavalier and Meszaros who has been a healthy scratch for 3 games. The rest, (16) are in the minus. Simmonds is the worst for forwards with a -7 and Coburn is a worse for the Defenseman with a -5. Your Points leader is Brayden Schenn with five (2G, 3A) through eight games. 14 Flyers have yet to register a goal, and the goal scoring leader has been a call-up and has only played in three games. Things look that bad right now. However there is the good. How? How could there be any good? That answer is Steve Mason. Mason has been the Flyers best player. His record of 1-5 doesn’t show it, but if you’ve watched the games, he’s been their backbone. He’s kept them in games, has made some 2nd and 3rd incredible saves and looks comfortable in net. He has a GAA 2.37 and Save % of .923. His current Save % is ranked higher than last year’s Stanley Cup Winner Cory Crawford, former Cup winner Antti Niemi, last years’ Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky, Mike Smith, James Reimer, Jimmy Howard, Jonathan Quick, Roberto Luongo, Pekka Rinne, Marty Brodeur and yes the king, Henrik Lundqvist. All of these goaltenders have been brought up in the past and compared to what the Flyers needed and didn’t have in a goaltender. Well they currently have a goalie with a higher Save % than all of the notable names. His GAA is also ranked higher than Luongo, Quick, Rinne, Howard, Bobrosvky, Miller, Smith, and Lundqvist. That should give something for the fans to be happy about. The Flyers are 1-7 and have a goalie outplaying some of the best names in the NHL. I know, it’s only eight games into the season, but what do the fans have to be happy about right now? You have to take the good with the bad and the Flyers are bad, very bad. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iban3zhead

The Flyers have had the Pens' number in the past 2 years. I'm still saying Flyers 3-2. Emery in Net.

Oh no.....

Hartnell has way better stats then Weiss Clarkson and Clowe. If you're going to compare those contracts to Hartnell's who have o look at the stats. Hartnell 230 G 255 A Weiss 145 G 249 A Clarkson 93 G 73 A Clowe 104 G 75 A I can agree that his contract is horrible, but he didn't give himself that contract. That's Homer's fault.

Agreed, but let's face it, Giroux is soon to be 8mil man and he's off to a horrible start as well. They all are unfortunately.

"He's in the best shape of his life," general manager Paul Holmgren said after Monday's practice in Voorhees. "His body fat is 7 percent lower than it's ever been, so he did the work in the offseason that we asked him to do." "But he was [ticked] at the end of the year that we didn't make the playoffs; he was [ticked] at his game and he did something about it this summer, so I'm excited for Scott to see what he can do with the shape he's in.

While many of us attempt to get situated for this current year and hope to see a big turnaround, let’s pause for a moment and take a look into the future. Hop in the Delorean and let’s go to Oct 2015. It’s 2015 and the Flyers are now ready to send Scott Laughton, Tye McGinn, Jason Akeson, Sam Morin and Anthony Stolarz out for opening night. The Flyers still have Captain Claude Giroux, Vinny Lecavalier, Jake Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Matt Read and Mark Streit. Keeping in mind that they didn’t get resigned, traded or they’ve been traded, you no longer have Kimmo Timonen, Andrej Meszaros, and perhaps Braydon Coburn. The Flyers have poised themselves to have the players, to carry them for the future. Let’s take a look at the prospects. Scott Laughton Laughton, the Flyers 1st round draft choice (20th overall) may have his first season under his belt by that point (2015). Laughton currently has five goals and seven assists through 12 games with the Oshawa Generals. In his previous seasons he finished with 23 goals, 33 assists for 56 point in 49 games. Laughton is a type of player that is going to be a fast skater, quick stick handler and will have the defense guessing. He may remind some of a young Danny Briere with a good sense on how to play two-way hockey. Hopefully if won’t be long until Laughton has Flyers fans amazed as a 2nd line center coming off the bench to relieve Claude Giroux. Anthony Stolarz Stolarz has been nothing short of sensational in his outings in Juniors. In seven games through the 2013/14 season (thus far), Stolarz is 6-0-1 with a 2.14 GAA and .934 Save %. He also has one Shutout. In his previous season with the London Knights, Stolarz went 13-3-1 and he continues to develop and get better. He could finally be the “Home Grown Goalie” the Flyers have been waiting for, since they’ve dropped the ball on 2013 Vezina Winner Sergei Bobrovsky. He is a butterfly goalie and likes to challenge shooters, which is something the Flyers haven’t seen in a while. If the Flyers can rebuild their defense with a young and solid group, Stolarz will shine and we will forget players like Bryzgalov, Biron, Esche, and Ray Emery. Sam Morin Speaking of the Flyers getting young and solid on the back end, Sam Morin should be nice and seasoned for an NHL debut for 2015. Morin was drafted 11th overall in 2013 by the Flyers. He’s been compared to Chris Pronger, and based on his film he could very well mold into a Pronger-type player. He’s 6’6. His feistiness and willing to hit hard and drop the gloves, already make him a Flyer at heart. He has a good “out of the zone passing”, which is something the Flyers have been missing. Once he develops more he can become a one/two defenseman over time and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him begin in the NHL as third or fourth D-Man. Tye McGinn Tye has already seen some NHL time and was just recently called up to help fill the injuries. In his first game being called up, he scored a goal. McGinn has the potential to be a Matt Read type of player. I’d call him a role player. He’s had a good career in Juniors with 27 goals, 35 assists for 62 points through 50 games in 09/10 and scored 31 goals and 33 assists the following year. He’s still developing and could be a go-to-guy for the Flyers in the future. Jason Akeson Akeson played his first NHL game during the final game of the 2013 Season against Ottawa. He scored a goal on his very first shift. I was a bit surprised to not see him make the team at the start of the 2013/14 season, but given the roster, it was a stiff competition and Akeson failed to show off his talents. In the 2010-11 Akeson was tied for the lead in points with 108 but lead the league in assists with 84 (Juniors). He’s a fast skater and can put up points. Given the Flyers clutter offensive line-up Akeson was sent down to the Phantoms. He can only develop more there and get ready for when the call comes. Last season he led the Phantoms in points with 14 goals and 41 assists. Once the Flyers make the changes to their offense, he should be there and he’ll accompany a nice young scoring corps. In 2015 I could see a forward line-up combination that may look something like this: Voracek-Giroux-Simmonds Akeson-Laughton-Hartnell Read-Lecavalier-McGinn Cousins-Talbot-Rinaldo Assuming the Flyers part ways with Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn this is what I think the lines could look like. It’s something to be excited about. Young players need time to play and grow to develop chemistry and it may take a year or two for it to flourish greatly but that’s how it needs to work. The Defense could use some tuning but I see Luke Schenn, Nick Grossmann, Erik Gustafsson , and Streit still on the team. My idea of that defense would look like this for Oct 2015. Streit-Schenn Gustafsson-Morin Grossman-*TBD* Coburn is signed through 2015-16 but I think the Flyers trade him before that. I also see the Flyers sticking with Goaltender Steve Mason for a few years and possibly still starting ahead of Stolarz for his rookie season. Mason (Stolarz) I know it is rough right now in Flyer-land at the moment but the future is something to be excited about. This is assuming GM Paul Holmgren doesn’t mess things up before his contract is up. I can see this team being great again and something hopeful with our prospects and some of our current line-up. Maybe just maybe, this could be the beginning of the end of the Flyers Cup drought. Follow me on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/iban3zhead

Actually allow me to clarify. In this particular scenario, he should be untouchable.

@murraycraven Laughton is currently ripping up the OHL and he's has more potential than Coots and Schenn in my opinion. We're going to need a young, fast and nifty skater next year or even the year after. Trading him instead of being patient would be another classic "we must win now" mentality. We have to be patient.

I'd move Coots and Coburn if the price was right. Laughton should be untouchable. Simmonds is a guy you need. Homer better not screw this up.

THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Players take pay cuts and that's totally different. My argument was that a GM isn't going to hear from a player after an offer "No sir, but that's way too much." Players will turn down more money to play on a certain team, or with certain players but that has nothing to do with the money.

Mez> Coburn. Mez makes less money too.

Why do people hate the player and NOT the GM who gave him his contract? I've never met a player that has said, "Wait, that's too much money, I don't need all that."

@tretiakCCCP20 Thanks! I watched an interview with Chicago's GM in 2008 and said to my wife while watching it, "They're going to win a cup within the next four years." He said, everything they were doing during the "Rebuilding Phase" and it made perfect sense! @ronjermy I contemplate how good the Flyers would be with Doug Hamilton, but the Flyers were still counting on Pronger when Coots was drafted. They didn't think ahead.

@goalnut3133 Yeah I saw that. but he did get me a goal. He's listed as day to day so hopefully he wont' be out too long. Once's he's back he'll be a solid pick-up.