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Flyers Interested in Luke Schenn


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I'm not sure that JVR is worth much more than Schenn alone. Maybe Johnson, as we've heard floated around.

But do you want to give up JVR, another roster player (probably a defenseman like Gustafsson as mentioned in an article this morning), and a #1 pick for Weber?

And on top of that, have Weber making $7.5M per year for 7+ years? I admit I don't watch Weber very much, if at all, so I can only assume he's as good as people say he is.

You get a world-class talent in return, so that is definitely a win. I just don't think it will happen. Too many teams will be in on the bidding for those two guys, and the price will be very high.

I would gladly trade JVR, Gus, and a 1 for Weber. Even if we cannot work something out in advance, nor resign him, he is a RFA and will bring four 1s back.

Weber is that good, I think. Only a small part of me worries if he is Brian Campbell again.

EDIT: Fixed a typo.

Edited by doom88
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<<But do you want to give up JVR, another roster player (probably a defenseman like Gustafsson as mentioned in an article this morning), and a #1 pick for Weber?>>

Absolutely.

So would I, actually. If that's what it costs, then it would be worth it. We'll see what happens, but after watching the game last night, I was impressed with both Weber and the Predators as a team. Why would Nashville *trade* their all-star captain away? Teams don't do that unless there's something fundamentally wrong (see Richards, Mike).

Preds have $14M in current cap space with a 22 man roster. For next year, assuming the cap stays the same, they have $31.5M in cap space with 13 players signed.

Assuming they re-sign Weber at $7.5M long term, and get Suter signed at $5.5M long-term, that leaves them with $18.5M to sign the remaining 7 players.

The tricky part is if they only want to spend to their current level, i.e. about $14M below cap, which would leave them with about $4.5M after signing Weber and Suter. Clearly not enough to sign the other 7 players.

Bottom line, they have absolutely no problem keeping their team intact if ownership allows them to spend.

Interesting bit this morning...

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/14/scott-hartnell-entices-weber-and-suter-to-become-flyers/

Give some credit to

Scott Hartnell

, he’s dreaming big.

Hartnell knows the Flyers have some needs on the blue line and their opponent tonight, the Nashville Predators, might have at least one guy available to grab in the near future. The

Preds have both Ryan Suter and Shea Weber to get signed to long-term contracts and most assumptions say they won’t be able to get both of them locked up.

Hartnell shares with Josh Cooper of The Tennessean that he’d be more than happy to see

both of them in Flyers orange and black next season.

“Sometimes they say the grass is greener on the other side when you try and go and try to make a buck or two. Sometimes it doesn’t work out. But on the other hand, there’s a lot of teams out there that spend right to the cap that have great teams every year, like the Flyers,” Hartnell says.

“We’re right up at the top of the conference every year. We want to make runs every year and win the Stanley Cup. Not saying Nashville is not one of those teams.”

Hartnell admits that every team in the league would love to have either Weber or Suter or both and that times are different now financially in Nashville than how they were when he and teammate

Kimmo Timonen were there.

Still, the Flyers have a need for a big presence with

Chris Pronger out and if Suter is to be traded before becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer or they can’t get a deal done with soon-to-be RFA Weber, they’ll be in the mix.

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@brelic

Part of it is money, the other part is that those 2 guys want to see a commitment to winning. Nashville needs to somehow bring in offensive players for them to resign. I don't see how that can be done without trading 1 of them for that.

I think it can easily be done without trading anyone... the question is whether they pony up the cash and spend to the cap for quality forwards, which is what Hartnell alludes to.

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@brelic

It can be done but they have alot of rfa and ufa to resign. I honestly think their gm says that they will spend to cap to get these 2 to resign but it's just a smoke screen to keep the Preds fan base happy. I think they will trade 1 of those guys at the trade deadline if not sooner.

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Two things I want to add:

1. I was reading an article this morning (which I've now lost... doh!) that said the teams that will push hard for Weber/Suter are Detroit, Chicago, Boston, Minny, and Philly.

If Boston ends up with Weber, that will be nasty nasty nasty for years to come.

2. Found an interesting little article on Luke Schenn that might bring some perspective from the Leafs point of view.

http://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/2012/1/14/2707068/the-maturation-of-luke-schenn

Drafted fifth overall in 2008

Luke Schenn was Toronto's first big name first round draft pick in a long time. His arrival was a ray of hope for Leafs fans wondering when their playoff drought would end (spoiler: not for a while). Schenn stepped into the lineup immediately as a 19 year old as part of a defensive group that incluced Pavel Kubina, Ian White, Jeff Finger, Tomas Kaberle, Anton Stralman, Jonas Frogren and Mike Van Ryn.

That season the future of the

Leafs was only Schenn, Justin Pogge and Jiri Tlusty.

star-divide.v5e9d7f1.jpg

Schenn's arrival made him an instant fan favorite. He promised to be a bruising stay at home defenseman. People have written at length about how fans of the

Leafs want a tough lunchpail player like Wendel Clark over a flashy guy like Pavel Bure and Toronto was ready for "The Human Eraser".

Now in his fourth season Luke Schenn is the local whipping boy. "He's had four full seasons to learn the game" people say. "He hasn't developed" others say. This article isn't about defending Luke Schenn from all of his criticism, I think there's valid points that his footspeed may not be up to par which can cause his positioning problems.

I'd just like to urge a little bit of caution. We're all well aware that defensive contributions aren't generally made by young players. Young forwards can score a lot but generally are high event players: the puck ends up in the back of their net a lot.

Want some examples? Think about Steve Yzerman who figured out playing defense to become one of the best players in the game. <a class="sbn-auto-link" href='"http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/players/54520/chris-pronger"' style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 56, 118); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; ">Chris Pronger joined the Hartford Whalers under Brian Burke as a 19 year old. His seasons in Hartford were disappointing, his footspeed wasn't there, he was traded to St. Louis when he turned 21.

Defense can take time to develop. Pull comps if you don't believe me. It's hard to evaluate shutdown D on counting stats but

using ice time as a proxy we see some good comps are Eric Brewer, Bryan McCabe,Robyn Regehr and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

Then there's the offense. If Luke Schenn isn't an offensive contributor (no power play time) it's worth pointing out that as a 22 year old

Duncan Keith scored 22 points. This season as a 22 year old Luke Schenn is on pace for 25. Zdeno Chara at 22? 11 points.

Keep your pants on, I'm not saying Luke Schenn turns into a premier offensive defenseman, but what I am saying is that regardless of NHL service he's a 22 year old kid and you don't see many 22 year olds who are good at playing defense.

Give Schenn time. This is that patience thing.

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Last year, Schenn was being praised for the way his game was coming around. He's taken a step back this year, which is on par for most young blueliners. I wouldn't trade JVR straight up for him, but I think he's going to be a pretty good stay at home defender. And his physical game, which doesn't register much stat-wise, becomes very valuable in postseason.

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