Raffl re-signed; 2 years, $1.6M per season

[OccamsRazor]

26 minutes ago, AlaskaFlyerFan said:

 

REPORTED!!  Only because you asked for it...

 

[Podein25]

1 hour ago, AlaskaFlyerFan said:

 

Come down to Texas.  I could use a new lawn boy!   

 

Can I bring my sheep? They will do baaang up job on the grass.

[Howie58]

On 3/27/2019 at 3:02 PM, elmatus said:

 

We definitely agree there. My question is trying to get at what those factors might be, and I have a feeling there exists some very important ones that we very often overlook, because they're extremely difficult to define.

 

I think it's entirely possible some players bring certain elements to a team that are not easily understandable when just looking at skill and luck, and it would behoove us to try and figure out what those things are. I think it's entirely possible whatever those intangibles are, they may in fact be extremely important to sustained success. This would go a long way towards explaining how just a handful of teams seem to contend every year for long periods of time.

 

 

You can't seriously be suggesting this team is a contending team but for luck? Have we been watching the same Flyers over the last number of years? This team has never been anywhere near a contender, @brelic. No where near the level of other contending teams since 2010. That's now nine years of being a bubble team at best, while several other teams have consistently made deep runs multiple times in that same span.

 

How am I supposed to look at it?

 

Is it just the players we've had over that time? No. It's also the coach. It's also probably the GM. But yes, the players are the biggest factor.

 

Will Provo, Patrick, Sanheim, and Myers usher in a new era for the team? I don't know. I obviously would love it if so, but no one can reliably predict how they'll develop. If there is some kind of x-factor certain players have that others don't, I have no way of telling whether any of those guys have that, but I hope so!

 

What is rather easier to discuss is how our core group over the last number of years have not been anywhere near effective enough to make this club competitive... I really don't think that's any kind of a stretch. In fact, I think it's pretty blatantly obvious.

 

Now granted, I can give the team a pass for a few of those early years, but we've entered territory now where, if this core has what it takes to contend, we really ought to be seeing better results -- and we're not.

 

Can adding new players make the team competitive? Yeah of course... that's my point. I'm not entirely sure our current core is capable of it. There seems to be something important missing, and I'd like to have a sense for what that is.

I've said it elsewhere...will be a broken record.  I think DNA is the problem.  Pryor was the most important dismissal this year. They build for yesterday's NHL, not today's.  We are slow. We don't have the skill. We can't attack in swarm fashion like Vegas.  We have not breakthrough player.  Our top scorer has has 60 assists and only 20 goals.   Provo, Ghost, and many others may not be as good as we think.  

[OccamsRazor]

11 minutes ago, Howie58 said:

I've said it elsewhere...will be a broken record.  I think DNA is the problem.  Pryor was the most important dismissal this year. They build for yesterday's NHL, not today's.  We are slow. We don't have the skill. We can't attack in swarm fashion like Vegas.  We have not breakthrough player.  Our top scorer has has 60 assists and only 20 goals.   Provo, Ghost, and many others may not be as good as we think.  

 

Hard to say i think the coaching change and them turning it around has all caught up with them from an exhaustion standpoint too.

 

If there was more of the season to play for example at least since the coaching change they may rebound...a slump was bound to happen after being on fire for a month and a half.

 

They across the board i think suffer for a huge lack of confidence and just thinking to much when the puck is on their sticks and always trying to be perfect and it bites them in the ass.

 

Great goaltending has carried them along way through this surge but sometimes that isn't enough to overcome the issues they have.

 

And the struggles on the powerplay are real and have to be fixed this offseason.

 

Too little too late seems to be their motto.

[ruxpin]

5 hours ago, Howie58 said:

I've said it elsewhere...will be a broken record.  I think DNA is the problem.  Pryor was the most important dismissal this year. They build for yesterday's NHL, not today's.  We are slow. We don't have the skill. We can't attack in swarm fashion like Vegas.  We have not breakthrough player.  Our top scorer has has 60 assists and only 20 goals.   Provo, Ghost, and many others may not be as good as we think.  

I really strongly disagree with this. 

 

And I think losing Pryor was a mistake. 

[Howie58]

2 hours ago, ruxpin said:

 

 

 

2 hours ago, ruxpin said:

I really strongly disagree with this. 

 

And I think losing Pryor was a mistake. 

Rux:

 

I hope you're right and I'm wrong.

[AJgoal]

19 hours ago, ruxpin said:

I really strongly disagree with this. 

 

And I think losing Pryor was a mistake. 

 

Agreed on both counts. Farabee can fly. So can Frost. Pryor and Hextall were responsible for Konecny, Myers, Sanheim... They definitely didn't draft for size over speed. I do think that maybe they went overboard on guys with strong "two-way" games and they lack a high volume shooter or two in the system, but overall they certainly favored speed in their early picks, and took chances on undrafted skill guys like Myers and Zamula.

 

I still have a sinking feeling that the organization is going to go away from that in the coming years. According to Isaac, they're more excited about Adam Ginning than Linus Hogberg and David Bernhardt, two defensemen that fall more on the skill side of things. I've liked what I've seen of Hogberg and Bernhardt at development camp. Ginning was unimpressive to me last year.

[AJgoal]

Add to that: Flyers lose Hogberg's and Bernhardt's rights after this upcoming season. They have 18 contracts available. Why pass on signing them? There's absolutely no downside.

[ruxpin]

50 minutes ago, AJgoal said:

Add to that: Flyers lose Hogberg's and Bernhardt's rights after this upcoming season. They have 18 contracts available. Why pass on signing them? There's absolutely no downside.

IMO, it would be idiocy not to

[OccamsRazor]

1 hour ago, AJgoal said:

Add to that: Flyers lose Hogberg's and Bernhardt's rights after this upcoming season. They have 18 contracts available. Why pass on signing them? There's absolutely no downside.

 

Seems like they could even sign them and let them play in the SHL like Sandstrom did.

 

Maybe i guess they don't have much room on the Phantoms next year.

 

Brennan

Willcox

Schlemko

Mcdud i guess gets buried????

Wyatte Wylie i guess will soon sign an ELC once their playoffs are over.

Rumor has it they are going to try and bring Ginning over.

Samuelsson do they resign him?

Do they sign Rob Michel to an ELC?

 

That is 8 right there.

 

Is Wyatt Kalynuk going to sign??

 

Leaving room for a trade this offseason who knows.

 

I have no idea what Chuck is up to.

[AJgoal]

Fahr said Ginning needs another year "over there," so it doesn't seem like they're looking to sign him just yet. And who cares how many kids you have? If they're on ELCs they can go to Reading. They have no problem paying Lehtera to not play, they can do the same with MacDonald and Schlemko. Keep the 7-8 best dmen you have in Allentown, it's really not complicated. Throwing away prospects for nothing is not how you keep a pipeline strong.

 

Appleyard watches a lot more of these guys than I do, says there's a really strong case that Hogberg is the best Dman in the SHL 21 or younger. Sign him, bring him over. If he flames out in the A, let him go back, you haven't lost anything. Makes no sense. It's not as if there's a pressing need to cut down the number of contracts out there.

 

I have never had faith in this new direction, they're not really doing anything to give me reason to change my mind.

 

ETA: Kalynuk going back to college next year.

[OccamsRazor]

11 hours ago, AJgoal said:

Appleyard watches a lot more of these guys than I do, says there's a really strong case that Hogberg is the best Dman in the SHL 21 or younger. Sign him, bring him over. If he flames out in the A, let him go back, you haven't lost anything. Makes no sense. It's not as if there's a pressing need to cut down the number of contracts out there.

 

I agree there is nothing to lose here.

 

Which is strange after hearing the Wild fans claim that Fletcher loves his Scandinavian players and here he has two who need deals and brought over for some seasoning.

 

Only thing I can make of it is have the Flyers scouts/brass soured on those two?

[AJgoal]

31 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

I agree there is nothing to lose here.

 

Which is strange after hearing the Wild fans claim that Fletcher loves his Scandinavian players and here he has two who need deals and brought over for some seasoning.

 

Only thing I can make of it is have the Flyers scouts/brass soured on those two?

 

But why? Hogberg especially has looked pretty good to me when I've seen him, and reports are he is actively good in the SHL. How do you sour on a prospect that is getting better?

[OccamsRazor]

16 minutes ago, AJgoal said:

 

But why? Hogberg especially has looked pretty good to me when I've seen him, and reports are he is actively good in the SHL. How do you sour on a prospect that is getting better?

 

That I can't answer.

 

Just like I can't figure out why they prefer to bring Varone, Knight and Bailey up instead of giving NAK a shot.

 

Sure Varone and Knight can play center I guess I can understand stand a little.

 

But Bailey he just got here and none have been impressive from what I have seen a dime a dozen AHL fodder.

 

NAK is up for  new deal and his entry level is up and I think he will require waivers next year and I think he could help on no less than the 4th line next year.

 

So I have to say to I have no clue WTF they are thinking.

[ruxpin]

15 hours ago, AJgoal said:

Flyers lose Hogberg's and Bernhardt's rights after this upcoming season

 

If I'm reading your post correctly, this means at the end of 2019-20, correct?

 

You're allowed 50 players under contract at any point during the season.  This includes IR and LTIR.    So, if you're not going to lose rights for another year, wait until you have to to sign them.  You have two teams to stock with players, so if you can keep them overseas for one more year and you're anticipating having contracts to the 50 ceiling, you do it.  It doesn't mean you have to lose the players or that you've soured on them; it just means you're playing your numbers.

 

I mean, they could decide to move on from them, too, but I don't see that as necessarily what is going on here.

[ruxpin]

9 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

But Bailey he just got here and none have been impressive from what I have seen a dime a dozen AHL fodder.

 

He hasn't impressed me either.

 

According to CapFriendly, NAK is still on his ELC and Bailey is not.   Is there any difference between the two in terms of contract negotiation, aribration-eligibility, etc?  Would Bailey's non-ELC status make the Flyers want to take more of an immediate look at what they do or don't have there?

 

I'm actually asking because I don't know.    Because outside of contract status, it makes little sense to me to play Bailey over the parking lot attendant.  

[AJgoal]

15 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

 

If I'm reading your post correctly, this means at the end of 2019-20, correct?

 

You're allowed 50 players under contract at any point during the season.  This includes IR and LTIR.    So, if you're not going to lose rights for another year, wait until you have to to sign them.  You have two teams to stock with players, so if you can keep them overseas for one more year and you're anticipating having contracts to the 50 ceiling, you do it.  It doesn't mean you have to lose the players or that you've soured on them; it just means you're playing your numbers.

 

I mean, they could decide to move on from them, too, but I don't see that as necessarily what is going on here.

 

I think of it in terms of a college FA. The closer you get to losing their rights, the more likely they are to be willing to wait out the last few months and then pick their location. The other thing is with the lack of quality on the Phantoms blueline, these are guys you could bring over to your system and get to see them play NA hockey, while also bolstering the Phantoms. I'm probably overreacting, but I really don't see where one more year in the SHL is going to be particularly helpful to Hogberg or Bernhardt. 

[OccamsRazor]

13 hours ago, AJgoal said:

Fahr said Ginning needs another year "over there," so it doesn't seem like they're looking to sign him just yet.

 

See I don't know why you don't bring him over and let him get a head start on the transition to the NA game his contract won't even count it will slide just like Hagg's did and you get a AHL season for free basically.

[OccamsRazor]

55 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

 

He hasn't impressed me either.

 

According to CapFriendly, NAK is still on his ELC and Bailey is not.   Is there any difference between the two in terms of contract negotiation, aribration-eligibility, etc?  Would Bailey's non-ELC status make the Flyers want to take more of an immediate look at what they do or don't have there?

 

I'm actually asking because I don't know.    Because outside of contract status, it makes little sense to me to play Bailey over the parking lot attendant.  

 

Not sure really. Maybe they keep him up to know weather they want to even qualify him with so many kids coming in next year.

 

Maybe they wait and evaluate NAK next camp preseason.

 

And decide to just wall away from Bailey at seasons end.

 

Who knows can call Fletcher yet. I'm trying too.

[ruxpin]

1 hour ago, OccamsRazor said:

 

See I don't know why you don't bring him over and let him get a head start on the transition to the NA game his contract won't even count it will slide just like Hagg's did and you get a AHL season for free basically.

Yeah  if it's a contract thing, I think it's number of contracts rather than starting his "clock." 

 

But I don't know.  I just don't think it's necessary yet and things may change if they're able to jettison contracts like MacDonald rather than just bury them. 

[OccamsRazor]

50 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

Yeah  if it's a contract thing, I think it's number of contracts rather than starting his "clock." 

 

That is my point it wouldn't count towards the 50 it would slide like Hagg's did.

 

Give you a chance to have 4 years basically on an entry level contract and play in the AHL.

[AJgoal]

On 3/31/2019 at 3:15 PM, OccamsRazor said:

 

That is my point it wouldn't count towards the 50 it would slide like Hagg's did.

 

Give you a chance to have 4 years basically on an entry level contract and play in the AHL.

 

Farabee's will slide if he doesn't play in the NHL as well.

[OccamsRazor]

On 3/30/2019 at 8:10 PM, AJgoal said:

Add to that: Flyers lose Hogberg's and Bernhardt's rights after this upcoming season. They have 18 contracts available. Why pass on signing them? There's absolutely no downside.

 

 

So not sure if they are planning on signing them at the end of next year or what.

 

But even if they are under contract with the SHL for next year i thought they could still sign them to entry level contracts like Sandstrom did and played this past season burning the year of his entry level contract over there??

 

It doesn't make sense. Why not sign them and go ahead and lock them up. They must have toer plans.