ruxpin

Yandle is "eh" but a temp hire. Risto is a terrible move. I'm curious though what the issue is with Atkinson. Would you explain? Or did you already and I missed it. The term doesn't thrill me, but I'm really excited about the player in the near term. What are your thoughts?

True story

Right, he got to LA and people knew who he was. No argument. Hockey fans and "real" sports fans knew (depending upon one's definition of "real" sports fans. Is that fans of sports with standings not put together by a winning-percentage deficient inebriated twit?) But the fact remains that a large swath of the US could have picked Michael Jordan out of a crowd. Magic Johnson. Pete Rose, etc. etc. etc. I bet in the middle of Iowa or Kansas or wherever, Gretzky could have chowed down on a hot dog in the middle of a Circle K and no one would have thought he was anyone but Un

Great question. If financials were equal, go with Ghost (similar skillset and younger). But it comes down to salary/cap and term. And if/when it comes to it, it's a little easier having $900k in the press box rather than $4.xxM. So, I guess, for this situation the Flyers are better off with Yandle.

I completely get the bringing someone in to pace York and give him a year to develop York in the AHL. The sad part is that going into two weeks ago, York was my sole reason to watch this team. Maybe I'll go to some Lehigh games.

Yeah, it's not exactly giving up Ghost to get Ghost. I mean it's less than 25% of Ghost's pay/cap and less term. Just a stopgap. I get the Tweet in regard to skillset, but there's some difference there, too. I'm okay with it if it allows York to mature further and hone his craft, though I think he's ready. Someone here mentioned Sanheim going out instead. At this point, I would not be shocked and would think that could fetch for fletch.

How about Limp Risto? Or is that not politically correct?

he can't be a by-product of the Flyers; he hasn't played a game yet. Let's circle back in February and decide what he looks like on our AHL team.

yeah, I only did rarely. Extremely rarely. And usually at camp or something when it was one of those little one-serving boxes. But the telling thing about the Sugar Crisps box is that was 1) once he was in the States and 2) he had to accomplish something huge. Not taking anything away from Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Michael Jordan or the others I mentioned. They all did something special, too. But they were on whether they'd just had a record-breaking something or if they'd opened a can of Campbell's soup for lunch. They were just names and faces constantly in front o

I think this is smart thinking. Good call!

It really is, though. Sure, Gretzky was big to you and me and to the one in 100,000 people that happen to be NHL fans (especially back then). I mean, when he was in Edmonton there was what, 24 teams? If that? And NYC metro had 3 of them, so you figure maybe 20 markets and 6 were in Canada. But I don't remember Gretzky on boxes of Wheaties (I wouldn't be the best to know, so this is not a good example). I don't remember Nike/Reebok endorsements or the like. I remember people like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley and Magic Johnson and Ken Griffey or Barry Bonds or simila

Pretty good post altogether. Just Ryan O'Reilly is not a good comparable to the Risto situation, IMO. O'Reilly was actually good in Buffalo and produced. He just understandably wanted out. Risto was not good. Oddly, Buffalo arguably got a better package for Risto than for O'Reilly.

The NHL does need to do a better job of marketing itself, though. You don't see commercials with the league stars on them. I mean, on local TV you do, and they sound/look like hostage victims reading a demand note (think Mike Richards with WG BMW). Or as human as, "Greetings, Professor Falken. Would you like to play a game?" For whatever reason, the NHL does not market nationwide. It remains a niche sport in the US.

I live in Billybobville, PA and I can't name a NASCAR driver, either. And no, I don't want a list of them or a highlight. If I want to watch hillbillies drive around a circle, I'll go down in front of Wegmans (supermarket) and watch the imbecile locals try to figure out the traffic "turnabout."

I had Ullmark in fantasy so I watched a bunch of games. If advanced stats is "parroting," then whatever (I get it, actually), but he was maddeningly bad. I really do hope the change improves him, but I really have nothing legitimate to base that hope on. Really just that I want the flyers to do well, so I HOPE a mountain of evidence and an entire career of crap, stupid play doesn't mean anything.