fishbulb

Not surprised AT ALL. MTL f'd up by not coming out with a 7.5-8 mil per contract right out of the gate. For some reason they consistently try to play hardball with PK. Dumb, Dumb move imo.

I can't believe MTL let this go to arbitration... what leverage could the possible have??? I predict they're going to pay close to max or at least more than they'd like. Young? check Norris trophy? check Olympic participation? check tons of playoff points? check tons of regular season points? check powerplay QB? check While his 'defensive' game will certainly be why he doesn't get 'max' salary, his focus on that part is improving as well. I don't really see his defensive game as a 'liability' anymore... it just doesn't compare to his offensive game. All signs point to a HUUUUGE payday. 7mil at least. silly decision imo.

While they are desperate for a center, Toronto has really focused on their speed/grit the past 2-3 years.... Not sure if Vinny would match either of those terms :-p

This team's been in trouble since the day they kept Redden and let Chara walk ;-) But honestly... the ownership has kept this team afloat with canadian tire money and coupons. Isn't their internal budget barely over the cap floor? You can't make ANY mistakes with that kind of limitation.

We did kinda get one in return... minus a few years worth of term. I'm just curious if Hexy will be given the luxury of patience....

I'm not 'dissing' umburglar on purpose... and i totally get scott's negatives, but todays move isn't going to make or break next year's team. It's about putting ourselves in place 3-4 years down the road. His positives will be missed. Good old fartsmell.

Making a decision to move Harntell for so little to me means that Hexy is already making moves for 3-4 years from now. Not that all gm's don't keep the big picture in mind, but today's deal can only be explained that way. As his first move it kinda means to me "We'll take the playoffs if we sneak in, but the flyers are now looking to "peak" again in a few years and "clean" house a bit. I guess we'll see at the draft if we accumulate youth or make a trade. I bet on even moving down to get more picks...

For sure! I've really enjoyed Hartnell's time as a fan. As a modern day 'cap' conscious fan, his deal was not going to help us longterm. I wonder who steps up in his absence b/c he's going to be missed. Community wise, Media wise, etc. He probably took a lot of the heat off giroux. I think we'll appreciate this deal 2-3 years from now, but to see him dealt and not get much in return, it stings a bit.

I hear you jammster... I'll watch anything hockey any time if it's on somewhere. OHL, NHL, World Juniors, etc. I don't have to give it 100% of my attention to it but I'll keep an eye on it. While I love the flyers, I guess I'm a bigger fan of "the game". I grew up 8 hrs away from Toronto... but never enjoyed the leafs. I loved the broons/flames but followed lindros as a kid. Now I bleed orange and plan to finally make the pilgrimage to philly sometime next x-mas holidays.

He's also much older and more mature. Getting traded to columbus was probably a wake up call too. (Yes.. even though he apparently pouted crater haters)

@ flyercanuck Wow.. you aren't kidding. That kid is huge. Like most 'power forwards' he's sure to take a few years to develop, but I'm sure G would still be here by then. He certainly is impressive! The impressive thing imo is that most of those goals were scored 'on his own'... not tap ins or beauty feeds from other star players. Sure NHL goalies would stop many of those, but hopefully his shot would improve as he made the jump to the NHL as well. The other cool thing is he isn't scoring with "OHL dangles" that don't work in the NHL (paging B. Schenn)... while impressive to see at times, many of those moves you see in juniors don't transfer to the NHL.

I'll take Honka @18...

I still think we 'won' both of those trades (Richie and crater) JVR for Schenn was a mistake for sure and dealing sharp was just foolish. Hindsight and all that.

Wow... sensitive still eh? The guy asked a question... I answered with facts and you get testy. Where did I mention ANYTHING about someone's cups being worth more than yours?? The 'top-5' system works... if your players perfom... yours didn't. Don't shoot the messenger. If you want people to post homerish pens drivel, don't hold your breath.

It's not a bad model when those 'top-5' players actually earn that money in the playoffs. Richards, Lunqvist, etc. are earning that pay (NOT NASH) Kopi, Carter, Quick, Doughty... earning Kane, Toews, Hossa, etc... earning Anaheim/Bost had mixed results from those 'top 5'ers' Your stars didn't perform. period. Fleury was ok I guess. So no, the model can work. If the parts are put together properly.

Subban has definitely come light years as far as his arrogance/media behaviour.... he had to. No matter how talented you are these days, if you don't tow the company line, there are consequences. Props to PK for rising above his earlier issues.

I've gotta say that the majority of Subban's issues have arisen because he was super brash and cocky, not black. Ditto for Kane. He's flashed his money, fame, and loud mouth in the wrong environment. Winnipeg is a blue collar city and probably didn't take the following photo well. He hasn't performed to his billing either... and has been scratched a few times. Any player, black/white/blue will receive negative attention if it's felt that they aren't pulling their weight. I'm not saying that these guys haven't experienced racial difficulties. I'm just saying that the majority of their issues are personality related, not race.

I don't think Shero has done a 'bad' job either... but not great. He hasn't really had many options considering how strapped they are with malkin/crosby's contracts. He's done fairly well at plugging the holes that have come up and did fleece Dallas pretty severely with the Neal (prick)/Niskanen deal. I just think the fact that they haven't found a true winger for crosby (other than kunitz) is a bit of an issue.... whether that's crosby's or shero's fault, i don't know.

Eklund thinks that Callahan (Tampa) will sign there this summer as a UFA.... wtf!?! I guess he's a buffalo local, but that would be insane imo.

paging phlfly...

He brought in Semin... enough said.

I don't think that anyone around here is under any illusion that the Flyers have any pure/top end talent youngsters. Coots has some very unique skills that will hold him in the league for a long time, and Morin, Haag, and Ghost might one day be serviceable NHL D-men. But yeah, we've got mostly 'functional' or 'role player' type youth coming up. I guess we didn't suck for long enough back in the JVR draft era to stockpile talent.

Isn't that the Thunderbirds?? Or something similar.

Also, while I'd give an arm and a leg to have Duncan Keith on my team, I also wouldn't mind him taking a slapshot directly in the mouth. He's a dirty sonofabitch.