Why not try Voracek at center consideing his size and playmaking skills

[RonJeremy]

Considering our lack of size at center, why not try Voracek at center? He has size,strength, skating and top playmaking ability. He is more of passer than a shooter and his playmaking might be even better playing in the middle. He will have more room to create plays , and can go up against some other big centers

[doom88]

Because Briere and Giroux are locked in at center. Beyond that, Schenn/Couturier/Talbot all play center naturally.

[RonJeremy]

i understand that, but we are really small at center and it will have to be addressed sooner or later. Maybe if we try Voracek at center in practice and he looks good, we can move Schenn to wing and move out Briere to free up cap space for a much needed dman. And dont go saying he makes too much and no one will take him..the Canadiens gave the Rangers Ryan McDonounah and a couple of other guys for that overpaid stiff Gomez, and they also traded for another high priced stiff, Kaberle. So there are still dopey teams out there that will pay for a big contract, and with Schenn and Couts , improving as time goes on,Briere will be expendable. to get the dmen we need we have to dump a big contract, and Bryz were stuck with that one.

[JackStraw]

Considering our lack of size at center, why not try Voracek at center? He has size,strength, skating and top playmaking ability. He is more of passer than a shooter and his playmaking might be even better playing in the middle. He will have more room to create plays , and can go up against some other big centers

I really don't see lack of size at center being a problem for the Flyers. Giroux isn't big but he plays big and is very good defensively. Couturier and Schenn both have plenty of size and are good defensively. And Voracek's speed works well on the wing.

[RonJeremy]

Do you ever see when Frankenstein Malkin cycles with the puck our opposing centers cant even budge him. If you watched the 3 games against the Rangers, our small centers were rendered all but useless against the Rangers physical defense.Sure G scored in the WC game, but he was shutdown after that and in the other games.I think we would be a much better team if we had a big Primeau type of center to shutdown the oppositions center, win big faceoffs and battle in front of the net for rebounds.

[JackStraw]

Do you ever see when Frankenstein Malkin cycles with the puck our opposing centers cant even budge him. If you watched the 3 games against the Rangers, our small centers were rendered all but useless against the Rangers physical defense.Sure G scored in the WC game, but he was shutdown after that and in the other games.I think we would be a much better team if we had a big Primeau type of center to shutdown the oppositions center, win big faceoffs and battle in front of the net for rebounds.

Do you really want to see Voracek defending Malkin? I don't. Couturier is 6'3", he's the guy that will be filling that role. Other than Malkin there aren't that many physically dominating centers that the Flyers really need to worry about. Let's say Briere goes when his contract expires, that makes Giroux, Couturier, and Schenn your top three centers. That should be good as any team in the league down the middle.

[RonJeremy]

Courts is 6ft 3 and prob 170 lbs, i love his defensive game but he needs to add about 40 lbs. Voracek is 6ft 2, 215lbs... So he has the size and skating ability to go up against anyone. Im not denying the skill of our centers at this point we have tremendous young skilled centers , we just dont have much size/strength there, although im not arguing that all our guys play bigger than their size. But keep in mind how the Bruins manhandled us last year. i still think we need Getzlaf at center and Webber on defense, then we can go up against the Bruins...I know , Im having delusions.....

[doom88]

Do you really want to see Voracek defending Malkin? I don't. Couturier is 6'3", he's the guy that will be filling that role. Other than Malkin there aren't that many physically dominating centers that the Flyers really need to worry about. Let's say Briere goes when his contract expires, that makes Giroux, Couturier, and Schenn your top three centers. That should be good as any team in the league down the middle.

That is eerily similar to Crosby (Giroux), Malkin (Schenn), and Staal (Couturier).

[doom88]

Courts is 6ft 3 and prob 170 lbs, i love his defensive game but he needs to add about 40 lbs. Voracek is 6ft 2, 215lbs... So he has the size and skating ability to go up against anyone. Im not denying the skill of our centers at this point we have tremendous young skilled centers , we just dont have much size/strength there, although im not arguing that all our guys play bigger than their size. But keep in mind how the Bruins manhandled us last year. i still think we need Getzlaf at center and Webber on defense, then we can go up against the Bruins...I know , Im having delusions.....

Relax. Couturier is 19 years old, Schenn 20. Let them fill out their frames. Also, big does not mean physical...Jeff Carter ring a bell?

[JackStraw]

Courts is 6ft 3 and prob 170 lbs, i love his defensive game but he needs to add about 40 lbs. Voracek is 6ft 2, 215lbs... So he has the size and skating ability to go up against anyone. Im not denying the skill of our centers at this point we have tremendous young skilled centers , we just dont have much size/strength there, although im not arguing that all our guys play bigger than their size. But keep in mind how the Bruins manhandled us last year. i still think we need Getzlaf at center and Webber on defense, then we can go up against the Bruins...I know , Im having delusions.....

Well yeah, Getzlaf and Weber is kind of a big leap from moving Jake to center... Couts is actually 190 lbs and looks pretty strong already. He'll fill out over the next few years I'm sure. Schenn is 6'0" and around 200 lbs. I just haven't seen the Flyers getting eaten up by big centers (with the exception of Malkin and he's a freak) so I just don't see the motivation to do something drastic like moving Voracek to center and as a result, probably having to move Briere to wing. We've already seen that that doesn't work too well.

PS: There's also more to a good defensive center than size and strength. I'd put Pavel Datsyuk up against Malkin any day. Or Bobby Clarke in his prime for that matter.

Edited January 11, 2012 by JackStraw

[RonJeremy]

Of course, we certainly dont need another Mr Softy like Carter. Voracek ,Courts and Schenn are all more physical than Carter...JVR on the other hand is too much of a nice guy and needs to play with more of an edge and use his size to his advantage.

[Hexy27]

I know Schenn hasn't played alot of games but so far he is 51.6% on the faceoff and he looks confident taking them. I wouldn't want to remove him from the center position just yet.

[orange_crush]

Considering our lack of size at center, why not try Voracek at center? He has size,strength, skating and top playmaking ability. He is more of passer than a shooter and his playmaking might be even better playing in the middle. He will have more room to create plays , and can go up against some other big centers

I think this is a good suggestion..especially since Jake seems more of a playmaker than a finisher.. with that said we seemed to be fine at center.. but Briere has been effective on the wing in the past..

[activestick]

Considering our lack of size at center, why not try Voracek at center? He has size,strength, skating and top playmaking ability. He is more of passer than a shooter and his playmaking might be even better playing in the middle. He will have more room to create plays , and can go up against some other big centers

Actually, I think I would experiment with Couturier with JVR.

[mojo1917]

@RonJeremy

In the last game versus the Pens , Schenn was out against Malkinstien and played him pretty well, he didn't get muscled out of the way and actually won several of their one on one battles. Plus Hartnell loves hitting that freak so, I'm just not seeing a pressing need to trade a guy so we bigger down the middle....I think we're good there. If we have to give up proven playoff production it needs to be to address the need for that top 3 defenseman . Jmo