radoran

1 hour ago, mojo1917 said:

I believe I heard Buffalo was once  interested in Laughton,  a young player who is "stuck" would be an excellent return in a trade scenario.

If Buffalo thinks "a Laughton type" helps them get over a hump maybe a trade could happen.

Not everyone in the league has the jaundiced view of the Flyers players that the fans do. 

"The problem" here is that Laughton is "too valuable" for the Flyers to deal - they've said it. And I, for one, appreciate the player.

To your point, I would love something to shake this whole thing up. That said, I don't want anything to do with Zegras...

Laughton for Krebs strikes me as a deck chairs move. I don't know why the Wild are dealing a 22 year old top 10 pick with a year left on his deal who just got into the league. (I mentioned Rossi a couple years back with (IIRC) the Giroux trade and was roundly chastised for it as the "Wild never moving Rossi" )

To be clear, I'm not opposed to these guys (Zegras possibly exception) as much as I just don't see it necessarily happening.

It's entirely possible - likely, even - that "the answer" to the Flyers isn't available this offseason.

The question then becomes do they try to force it? Again?

1 hour ago, mojo1917 said:

Just two of these guys would increase the skill level enough to where some the young skill the Flyers have on the wing could really improve too.

Make an argument for why the teams they are on don't want them and why, if they don't want them, we do?

1 hour ago, flyercanuck said:

Two years away, from two years away...

You know where I am on things.

However, overall it's not a bad body of work from Briere for year one.

2 hours ago, radoran said:

That's no guarantee of future success...

2 hours ago, RonJeremy said:

Briere has made one good move so far , drafting Michkov.

The Provorov deal was a good one.

He got rid of Hayes.

He got a first for Walker (2 1sts and a 2nd for Provorov). He got a 5th for cap space.

He added a second with Drysdale...

His off-season signings were the foundation for this team achieving what it did (regardless of how we might feel about it).

Overall he's infinitely better than Chuck Fletcher just based on where they are now.

That's no guarantee of future success...

25 minutes ago, BobbyClarkeFan16 said:

I didn't know if they tremendously overvalued him as much as they refused to find good complimentary talent for him. There was Voracek and Couturier, but they really hung G out to dry numerous times. 

They valued him like he was Sidney Crosby. He was "the guy" they built "the trades" around.

He was never that good.

They hung him out to dry making him a captain for the first time in the NHL and making a complimentary playmaking winger into a #1C.

If they had never "won the trades" he might have been setting Jeff Carter up for a decade instead of passing back and forth with Voracek.

That's just scratching the surface of the past decade of ineptitude.

52 minutes ago, flyercanuck said:

 

Guess it depends on your idea of a superstar, but certainly a star. 

 

And yes, players like that can be had further down in the draft. Just not by Flyer GMs. 

Sure they can. But planning on finding those guys is a fool's errand.

Teams may hit on a guy like that once in 10-15 years.

The Flyers got a pretty good player at 22 once... Not that they planned on it or the GM even knew his name, but they did! And then tremendously overvalued him...

There are also fewer and fewer European players being "missed" like Kucherov.

Is 47 goals and 110 points a superstar player?

3 hours ago, FD19372 said:

The problem is the season ticket holders don't turn on the higher up enough, therefore there is no urgency to change philosophy.

The STHs had bailed. The venue was empty. There was no more waiting list.

Briere took over and said "rebuild" and fans were on board BEFORE the possible playoff run. I know. I was one of them.

The "problem" this season is when it went from "rebuild culture and develop players" to "make the playoffs."

Guys who needed surgery should have been shut down and gotten surgery. You're building for Michkov not "anything can happen."

They were overdue for the air going out of the balloon and then it did at the worst possible time.

They overplay their rookie goalie and then throw a KHL goalie out for his first start six days after he arrives. And that blows up.

Then Torts goes all Torts because a team that mightn't have been anywhere near the playoffs misses them anyway.

They name leadership when they have no need to - beyond "playoff push." They face plant as the captain is healthy scratched a few weeks later.

And then the whole "make the playoffs" face plants as well.

This season wasn't about "trying to win every game" and making whatever short term decisions in pursuit of that regardless of long term implications. It was supposed to be about the long term.

Until it wasn't.

Barring a significant change in personnel next season is actually likely to be worse than this one. I know all the reasons it will be better.

I'm just waiting for them to say they're "definitely a playoff team" going into next season.

Anything can happen.

1 hour ago, flyercanuck said:

“Coaches don’t have a crystal ball to know what a player is going to be later in the year” Torts on Couturier & load management

How about NOT running a guy coming off a long term injury right into the ground? 

They don't have a crystal ball, but they know how players perform.

To pretend that every player can play 110% at every time is a fundamental failing of a coach.

15 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

 

I agree. I'm saying that the smart teams, like Chicago, plan this sort of thing out when they see the right player come along.

To be fair, Buffalo did as well with McDavid and Eichel on the block.

They got the consolation prize, then lost it.

No guarantees.

No evidence that teams can win without bottoming out, either.

Preds take it on home ice in six and lose in the next round.

This will be a good sign for Nashville who will miss the playoffs next year.

1 hour ago, OccamsRazor said:

So another surgery...

 

 

 

...this kid is going to be all scar tissue by 25...

Well, at least there was no chance of his reduced skating ability leading to a potential reinjury of his shoulder.

After all, the important thing is making the playoffs this year.

14 minutes ago, CoachX said:

the only smart move the Flyers have made since 1975 was signing Jon Sim. He's the only player to overturn instant replay

Jon Sim sees the instant replay before the play happens.

12 minutes ago, CoachX said:

Seriously, the Flyers should have never traded for Lindros.....

There's actually a not bad argument to be made there...

15 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

 

I agree with all of that, but for the proviso that you can cast a net wider than the return needing to match something close to the draft position.

Given that we only found out about Gauthier not wanting to be on the Flyers after the deal went down, we don't really have any perspective on how wide a net was cast.

I get the feeling that sending him to the Other Conference also played a role.

Drysdale has some obvious red flags. On the plus side, he appears to want to be here and seems liked in the room.

1 minute ago, flyercanuck said:

No, he was available at the draft instead of Gauthier. 

So, instead of the guy who said before the draft he wanted to come here, they should have drafted the big European defenceman.

And they were also gonna take the defenceman committed to a US College instead of the big Canadian center.

I like 20/20 hindsight teams. The Flyers have Robertson-Aho-Debrincat on their first line.

Gauthier screwed the team over. The Flyers got what they could out of it.

7 minutes ago, flyercanuck said:

 

Other than the one taken one pick after Fletcher drafted Gauthier.

Was he on offer?

19 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

What surprised me was Briere, with a smaller team, gambling with an under-sized defenseman. He's not heavy and doesn't have the wingspan you'd like to see.

There is a "take what you can get" aspect to this trade.

It's not like Briere was shopping Gauthier by choice - he essentially had to move him.

I'd imagine another recent top-10 pick defenceman with size and wingspan wasn't necessarily available.

1 minute ago, flyerrod said:

Didn’t that bring Wayne Simmonds to the Flyers? If so then yes the Flyers did win the trades. I still hated to see Mike Richards go…….

The Crater trade brought Voracek (and the pick that became Couturier).

Wayne Simmonds is among my favorite Flyers ever.

I'd take two Cups instead in a heartbeat.

#winning

Why is this in the Flyers forum?

Because Carter signed four contracts in his career. They were offered by:

Bob Clarke

Paul Holmgren (twice)
Ron Hextall

He won two Cups - for Los Angeles.

The Flyers won the trades.

1 minute ago, flyercanuck said:

 

FIFY

Nah, they're happy being on LTIR in Arizona. Or Utah. Or wherever...

4 minutes ago, Howie58 said:

I am like McClean--I wouldn't do more than five years.

No one forces them to offer eight year deals. No one forced Homer to offer 12- and 10-year deals to Richards and Crater.

It's stupid GMs that make these stupid deals.

5 minutes ago, Howie58 said:

This is a collective bargaining issue worth revisiting.  

The players "gave" to get the length limited to eight years (again, look at the massive long term deals that were handed out before that).

What's their incentive to help the owners pay them less, again?

7 minutes ago, Howie58 said:

By the way, part of his rationale was that top free agents did not want to come to a team with aging, non-competitive, overpaid superstars. 

It's the top free agents that demand the eight year deals. They want to be aging, non-competitive, overpaid superstars...

This is a good sign for the Capitals.

3 hours ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

York was -3 as they lost 6-3.

50 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

 

It's almost as if Buffalo's management isn't amazing at assessing talent.

 

Seven coaches and three GMs.

They really have to stop modelling themselves on the Flyers.

Seriously, though, the Pegulas are great at owning sports franchises.