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Flyers grounded year in review


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  PRESEASON OUTLOOK A remake was done to the team, Ryan Ellis and Ristolainen were brought in to stabilize the defense, enigmatic Ghost was given away to the Coyotes. Martin Jones long time starter for the Sharks was signed to back up Hart. The player the fans loved to hate, Voracek was shipped out for Cam Atkinson, a little guy with a lot of heart and a great shot.  Last minute Yandle was added to give them three defensive pairs that could move the puck. Kids like Morgan Frost and Ratcliffe were expexted to give the forwards additional spark. Truth? It was considered a near lock that they would contend for a playoff spot, maybe more and would have been a surprise of they missed the postseason.

 

FINAL RECORD 25-46-11 61 points, dead last in the Metro

 

HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR Lost in the blur of one of the Flyers worst seasons in team history was a very solid start. After besting Calgary 2-1 in overtime on a goal by Hayes and a 38 save performance by Carter Hart the Flyers sat at 8-4-2 and these werent smoke and shadow wins, they beat some big boys, Calgary, Edmonton, Washington, Boston and Carolina were among those the Flyers bested early. They looked like contenders.

 

LOW POINT OF THE YEAR then like that it was over. They lost ten in a row, after the eighth loss Vigneault was fired and Yeo was brought in. They lturned it around a bit, after knocking off Ottawa and Seattle in back to back overtime thrillers they were 13-12-5 and then..... Swept out West by the mediocre California trio of teams set the tone for a 13 game losing streak, After winning 2 they lost 8 of their next 9. In all during that God Awful stretch of bad hockey where they seemed to find now and inventive ways to lose every night they went 3-16-5 outscored 81-49. Over the remainder of the bataan Death March of a season over the past five plus months of the season their longest winning streak was two in a row.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT Carter Hart really was not that bad, better than his record because of the awful team in front of him. Truth is you could probably say the same about Jones who had a few decent stretches. Konecny had a solid year leading the teamin scoring. Cam Atkinson didnt exactly set the world on fire but was solid. JVR had 24 goals because somebody had to. Joel Farabee is now established as middle six with upside. Provorov was not bad, Sanheim was actually very good. Kevin Hayes when on the ice was okay. Lindblom had a decent comeback year. Morgan Frost got an extended look, so did York, neither shined but neither embarrassed themselves and they proved they belong. Noah Cates fresh off the Olympics was good. Owen Tippett came over for Giroux and was not horrible. Giroux played his 1000th game in a Flyer sweater before being dealt to Florida. Bobby Brink brought a bit of a spark down the stretch.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG While Hart and Jones werent awful neither could stop a losing streak before it got out of hand. Both gave up an absurd amount of easy goals usually after a couple of highlight reel stops. Keith Yandle simply cannot play anymore, he was minus 47 with one goal. Ryan Ellis played 4 games with 5 points showing so much promise before his season ended. Ristolainen looks like the winner of the Cranus in the Anus award at least two or three times a night making god awful decisions. Wade Allison was supposed to step in got hurt and managed one game at the big league level. Tippett is a nice third liner but basically that is all they got for Riroux was a third line winger. Nate Thompson cannot play anymore. There is a rumor that Derick Brassard played for the Flyers but I am not certain. He mighta just been collecting a check. Couturier looks like a shell of the player of a few yers ago, his offense is slipping and he cannot stay healthy. 14 players were double digit minus players. Mayhew, Macewen, Seeler, Thompson, Connauton, Hodgson, Willman Patrick Brown, both the Cates boys none of these are NHL players. Within a year, maybe two the only way they get into a NHL game is if they buy a ticket. Yet in a typical night the Flyers had three or more of them in the lineup forcing the other players to try to do more than they were capable of. 

 

FREE AGENTS AND DRAFT PICKS They dont have a second either this year or next. Free agency is definitely addition by subtraction, Yandle, Connauton, Nate Thompson will not be back. They may look into resigning Martin Jones as he wasnt that horrible. 

 

TOP PROSPECTS Cam York is gonna stick probably on the middle paring as a puck mover. Some are high on Brink who is a little waterbug who can score but I think he is too small to play third line and not quite skilled enough to play top line so if everything breaks right he is a second line winger but I am not convinced he will hold up in that role. Ronnie Attard would need a good camp to make the blueline out of camp but will likely be on the Philly/Lehigh shuttle all year. Wade Allison is running out of chances, he will be given a long look in camp. Tyson Foerster is a throwback power forward who needs to stay healthy. Noah Cates might make it as the 4C which is about his top shelf. So at best a mixed bag. 

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR The Flyers power play in 20-21 produces at a 15.6 rate, last year it cratered to an insanely low 8.0 percent. In fact on the year the Flyers had an embarrassing 30 power play goals and gave up 11 shorties!! In other words, if you subtract the 11 shorties they netted only 19 power play goals for the entire year. Ugh

 

OFFSEASON OUTLOOK first order of business is finding a coach who is willing to take over the team. They must decide if they think a healthy Hayes/Couts/Ellis will help. Truth is if Ellis is healthy, the top four of Provoorov, Sanheim, Ellis, Cam York is actually pretty good, if you can hid Risto on the third pairing with Attard or Braun the defense could be good. In order to be respectable, not good but respectable they must get a ton out of the young frowards and still probably add two top six scorers.

Edited by yave1964
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14 minutes ago, FireDillabaugh said:

How dare you!!  Lol.  ;)

 

But, seriously.  He was that horrible.  And there's no reason to bring him back.  One of the worst blocker hands in the league.

 

The ELC given to Fedotov means that one of the young goaltenders will be the backup.  A competent front office has absolutely no consideration in any of the UFA goaltenders.  No more 30+ projects.  Even this incompetent front office should realize that fact.

I must have had good luck streaming Jones in Fantasy the few times he played well then, lol

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3 hours ago, yave1964 said:

  PRESEASON OUTLOOK A remake was done to the team, Ryan Ellis and Ristolainen were brought in to stabilize the defense, enigmatic Ghost was given away to the Coyotes. Martin Jones long time starter for the Sharks was signed to back up Hart. The player the fans loved to hate, Voracek was shipped out for Cam Atkinson, a little guy with a lot of heart and a great shot.  Last minute Yandle was added to give them three defensive pairs that could move the puck. Kids like Morgan Frost and Ratcliffe were expexted to give the forwards additional spark. Truth? It was considered a near lock that they would contend for a playoff spot, maybe more and would have been a surprise of they missed the postseason.

 

FINAL RECORD 25-46-11 61 points, dead last in the Metro

 

HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR Lost in the blur of one of the Flyers worst seasons in team history was a very solid start. After besting Calgary 2-1 in overtime on a goal by Hayes and a 38 save performance by Carter Hart the Flyers sat at 8-4-2 and these werent smoke and shadow wins, they beat some big boys, Calgary, Edmonton, Washington, Boston and Carolina were among those the Flyers bested early. They looked like contenders.

 

LOW POINT OF THE YEAR then like that it was over. They lost ten in a row, after the eighth loss Vigneault was fired and Yeo was brought in. They lturned it around a bit, after knocking off Ottawa and Seattle in back to back overtime thrillers they were 13-12-5 and then..... Swept out West by the mediocre California trio of teams set the tone for a 13 game losing streak, After winning 2 they lost 8 of their next 9. In all during that God Awful stretch of bad hockey where they seemed to find now and inventive ways to lose every night they went 3-16-5 outscored 81-49. Over the remainder of the bataan Death March of a season over the past five plus months of the season their longest winning streak was two in a row.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT Carter Hart really was not that bad, better than his record because of the awful team in front of him. Truth is you could probably say the same about Jones who had a few decent stretches. Konecny had a solid year leading the teamin scoring. Cam Atkinson didnt exactly set the world on fire but was solid. JVR had 24 goals because somebody had to. Joel Farabee is now established as middle six with upside. Provorov was not bad, Sanheim was actually very good. Kevin Hayes when on the ice was okay. Lindblom had a decent comeback year. Morgan Frost got an extended look, so did York, neither shined but neither embarrassed themselves and they proved they belong. Noah Cates fresh off the Olympics was good. Owen Tippett came over for Giroux and was not horrible. Giroux played his 1000th game in a Flyer sweater before being dealt to Florida. Bobby Brink brought a bit of a spark down the stretch.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG While Hart and Jones werent awful neither could stop a losing streak before it got out of hand. Both gave up an absurd amount of easy goals usually after a couple of highlight reel stops. Keith Yandle simply cannot play anymore, he was minus 47 with one goal. Ryan Ellis played 4 games with 5 points showing so much promise before his season ended. Ristolainen looks like the winner of the Cranus in the Anus award at least two or three times a night making god awful decisions. Wade Allison was supposed to step in got hurt and managed one game at the big league level. Tippett is a nice third liner but basically that is all they got for Riroux was a third line winger. Nate Thompson cannot play anymore. There is a rumor that Derick Brassard played for the Flyers but I am not certain. He mighta just been collecting a check. Couturier looks like a shell of the player of a few yers ago, his offense is slipping and he cannot stay healthy. 14 players were double digit minus players. Mayhew, Macewen, Seeler, Thompson, Connauton, Hodgson, Willman Patrick Brown, both the Cates boys none of these are NHL players. Within a year, maybe two the only way they get into a NHL game is if they buy a ticket. Yet in a typical night the Flyers had three or more of them in the lineup forcing the other players to try to do more than they were capable of. 

 

FREE AGENTS AND DRAFT PICKS They dont have a second either this year or next. Free agency is definitely addition by subtraction, Yandle, Connauton, Nate Thompson will not be back. They may look into resigning Martin Jones as he wasnt that horrible. 

 

TOP PROSPECTS Cam York is gonna stick probably on the middle paring as a puck mover. Some are high on Brink who is a little waterbug who can score but I think he is too small to play third line and not quite skilled enough to play top line so if everything breaks right he is a second line winger but I am not convinced he will hold up in that role. Ronnie Attard would need a good camp to make the blueline out of camp but will likely be on the Philly/Lehigh shuttle all year. Wade Allison is running out of chances, he will be given a long look in camp. Tyson Foerster is a throwback power forward who needs to stay healthy. Noah Cates might make it as the 4C which is about his top shelf. So at best a mixed bag. 

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR The Flyers power play in 20-21 produces at a 15.6 rate, last year it cratered to an insanely low 8.0 percent. In fact on the year the Flyers had an embarrassing 30 power play goals and gave up 11 shorties!! In other words, if you subtract the 11 shorties they netted only 19 power play goals for the entire year. Ugh

 

OFFSEASON OUTLOOK first order of business is finding a coach who is willing to take over the team. They must decide if they think a healthy Hayes/Couts/Ellis will help. Truth is if Ellis is healthy, the top four of Provoorov, Sanheim, Ellis, Cam York is actually pretty good, if you can hid Risto on the third pairing with Attard or Braun the defense could be good. In order to be respectable, not good but respectable they must get a ton out of the young frowards and still probably add two top six scorers.

 

Y'know...I used to like you.

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5 minutes ago, flyercanuck said:

 

Y'know...I used to like you.

I put this one off for a bit because wow, what an awful year. I mean, the Wings have been in a six year stretch of ineptness, but nobody expected anything other than a bit of an improvement this year which happened. There is not much worse than when you expect your boys to be good and then they are not only bad but on most nights unwatchable, as a Bengal fan for fifty years and as someone who cut my teeth as a Hockey fan when the Wings were the dead things in the late seventies and early eighties I am something of an expert when it comes to unwatchable, lol. 

 On the bright side, a lot of the variables say the Flyers actually underperformed based off the stats which is usually a sign of a bump in production the next year. They cant be that bad again, can they?

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2 minutes ago, FireDillabaugh said:

With Chuck-in-charge?  The certainly can.  This coaching hire process and how they handle this draft will tell a lot about whether there's any competence at all within the front office.  The normal destruction of an organization that Chuck does cannot be allowed to continue.

 

And just an FYI.  They moved Braun to the Rangers at the deadline, thankfully.  Risto should be on the 3rd pairing with Zamula or Hogberg, with Attard on the 2nd pair with either York or Sanheim(whichever doesn't win the top pairing with Provy in camp).  However, this front office won't allow Risto being on the 3rd pairing, causing them to admit to the huge mistake made with him.  Not only considering him at all for a roster spot.  Not only grossly overpaying for him in trade.  But, then to add to it all, giving him the ridiculous extension.  The front office egos won't allow themselves to admit to those mistakes.  So, Risto will continue to be the detriment to this team that he was this season.

Yes my bad I knew that with Braun and it slipped my mind. Trying to keep too many players whereabouts in my head gets harder with age, lol

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9 hours ago, yave1964 said:

I put this one off for a bit because wow, what an awful year. I mean, the Wings have been in a six year stretch of ineptness, but nobody expected anything other than a bit of an improvement this year which happened. There is not much worse than when you expect your boys to be good and then they are not only bad but on most nights unwatchable, as a Bengal fan for fifty years and as someone who cut my teeth as a Hockey fan when the Wings were the dead things in the late seventies and early eighties I am something of an expert when it comes to unwatchable, lol. 

 On the bright side, a lot of the variables say the Flyers actually underperformed based off the stats which is usually a sign of a bump in production the next year. They cant be that bad again, can they?

 

 I hope they can. One, for a shot at Bedard. Two, to get rid of the Keystone Cop management.

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13 hours ago, yave1964 said:

There is not much worse than when you expect your boys to be good and then they are not only bad but on most nights unwatchable

No one should have expected this team to be good.  They were terrible the year before and they made lateral moves at best.

Edited by SCFlyguy
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16 hours ago, yave1964 said:

you expect your boys to be good and then they are not only bad but on most nights unwatchable

 

They were certainly unwatchable before the TD but after that we got to see some prospects from Lehigh and it wasn't all bad. Still mostly bad but not all bad. A long PO run was never going to happen anyway (imho) with Hayes as 2C and Ristolainen playing 20+ minutes. Cup finalists, Conference winners don't have slow, dumbass players playing big minutes in key roles.

 

3 hours ago, SCFlyguy said:

No one should have expected this team to be good. They were terrible the year before and they made lateral moves at best.

 

Yeah it's hard to rave about finishing 25-23-8. Yandle, Thompson, Seeler and Brassard were all "lateral moves" at best. The one trade that was sure to help the Flyers - Ellis for Patrick, Myers - went bust when Ellis got hurt and stayed hurt all year. The other one people liked was Atkinson for Voracek, which turned out okay. No more no less, okay.

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36 minutes ago, GratefulFlyers said:

 

 The other one people liked was Atkinson for Voracek, which turned out okay. No more no less, okay.

 

 It's one trade that didn't completely backfire in Chuckies face...but even it has an extra year on a contract that really isn't helping the team accomplish anything. Hopefully they can get an asset for Atkinson at some point...but then again see Fletchers trade history.

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2 hours ago, flyercanuck said:

 

 It's one trade that didn't completely backfire in Chuckies face...but even it has an extra year on a contract that really isn't helping the team accomplish anything. Hopefully they can get an asset for Atkinson at some point...but then again see Fletchers trade history.

Maybe you can trade Atkinson for a second.... Oh wait, you guys do not like second round picks, you treat them like a hot potato and get rid of them as quickly as possible, lol

 

JK Believe me I have lots to grumble about with the Wings namely why on earth we held onto Jeff Blashill for so damn long. It reached a point of absurdity, I was beginning to think that Blash had pictures of Yzerman either in bed with a dead woman or a live man, lol. He had to have something on Stevie to have kept his job so long.

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You know the way you wrote most of that it almost makes it sound like it wasn't that bad, but it was.

 

It did start very optimistically though didn't it? I certainly thought we were going to see a leap forward but just about everything that could go and be wrong did and was. Team now has no character, no leadership, no direction, no identity, and a matching lack of effort to go with that. Add to that over rated and burned out husks of players that maybe once upon a time were okay but expired some time ago and what do we have to build off of? Not even a full prospect cupboard. We are going to stink for quite a while I think. 

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On 5/27/2022 at 12:45 PM, GratefulFlyers said:

The other one people liked was Atkinson for Voracek, which turned out okay. No more no less, okay.

 

On a team that needed scoring trading a passer for a shooter made sense.

 

Yes, the extrayear...

 

Overall I was at least INTERESTED in this past season which is more than I've been for a while.

 

On 5/28/2022 at 2:06 AM, GrittyForever said:

We are going to stink for quite a while I think. 

 

The distressing thing is that this comes after TEN YEARS or mediocrity...

 

Pretty much faded out by the change in calendar years...

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I see absolutely no reason to be honest and sincere in speculating on any future moves for the Flyers as long as chuckles has a say. He has done nothing positive for the future of this team. 

I don't think anyone should say sorry or be over critical to others on this board. Every one of us would do a better job than the current hockey ops.

So here's my start to the retool. Hayes Fletcher and a 2nd, to anybody. For nothing in return. Just take it and go. 

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7 minutes ago, flyer4ever said:

I see absolutely no reason to be honest and sincere in speculating on any future moves for the Flyers as long as chuckles has a say. He has done nothing positive for the future of this team. 

I don't think anyone should say sorry or be over critical to others on this board. Every one of us would do a better job than the current hockey ops.

So here's my start to the retool. Hayes Fletcher and a 2nd, to anybody. For nothing in return. Just take it and go. 

 

 OH NO! You're not doing anything of the sort without throwing in Ristolainen and JVR. And Seeler. And Thompson. 

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On 5/27/2022 at 1:24 PM, flyercanuck said:

 It's one trade that didn't completely backfire in Chuckies face...but even it has an extra year on a contract that really isn't helping the team accomplish anything


The trade got rid of Voracek and for most Flyers’ fans (at least on this board) that was enough. And as @radoran said trading for a shoot-first guy needed to happen even if it meant net team production overall would go down.

 

But that extra year you mentioned is important now. It probably didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. Prior to last year’s mess I’m sure the Flyers figured Atkinson would finish his career in Philly. And maybe if Fletcher’s plan had worked perfectly (evidently what he assumed), i.e. if Ristolainen had grown a brain, Hayes lost his fear of sweating, Ellis never got hurt again etc. then Atkinson’s value wouldn’t be a concern. But it is now; they will certainly try to trade him. 

 

Atkinson turns 33 next week. He’s a career 0.65pts/g player with a ~$6mil cap hit - already a tough asset to move - obviously the fewer years on his contract the better. The remaining term won’t be a dealbreaker of course but it will factor into a potential trade. 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, flyercanuck said:

 

 OH NO! You're not doing anything of the sort without throwing in Ristolainen and JVR. And Seeler. And Thompson. 

That's at the trade deadline. Gotta keep some trash for the lottery pick.

See, it's not that hard.

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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. 

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2 hours ago, Gritty Fanatic said:

Scott Laughton I think will be gone

You have just vaulted to my list of favorite posters (behind myself of course). Post of the decade!

 

All in one day! Great job!

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