New Arrivals
R.J. Umberger (CBJ)
Michael Del Zotto (NSH)
Darroll Powe (NYR)
Nick Schultz (CBJ)
Blair Jones (CGY)
Ryan White (MON)
Andrew Gordon (WPG)
Zack Stortini (ANA)
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (Sweden)

Gone From Last Season
Scott Hartnell (CBJ)
Bruno Gervais (COL)
Steve Downie (PIT)
Kris Newbury (WSH)
Ben Holmstrom (CAR)
Adam Hall (Switzerland)
Hal Gill (unsigned)
Yann Denis (unsigned)

Minor League Changes
The Phantoms are in Lehigh Valley
The Reading Royals will be the Flyers/Phantoms ECHL affiliate

bring back akeson and maybe schenn. bye to the rest.

Trade the Schenn Brothers
Call Edmonton and see if those Three Second Rounders for Coburn is still a go
Get a competent 4th line
Draft another defenseman in the first round (Or trade the pick for a defenseman. It's a reflex that I say Yandle)
Coots isn't going anywhere, he's a premier defensive forward
Hope Laughton and Gus are regulars on next year's team
Not sure if Ghost is immediately going to play but I hope he is good enough to be able to. Same with Hagg.
Thanks Razor, but I'd like a backup goalie that actually has lateral movement

Let Schenn walk. No more long term Homer deals to mediocre players.

momadance wrote:Let Schenn walk. No more long term Homer deals to mediocre players.

He's an RFA. Package him over the summer, either at the draft or with his idiot brother.

I've often found that minutes after a devastating game 5 loss is the best time to make long-term personnel decisions.

mcare89 wrote:I've often found that minutes after a devastating game 5 loss is the best time to make long-term personnel decisions.

It's just something fun to talk about

momadance wrote:Let Schenn walk. No more long term Homer deals to mediocre players.

Not sure I heard his name once this whole series

A big problem with this team is that they have a lot of money invested in a mediocre defensemen unit. Hopefully they can shed some payroll here and have their prospects step up.

Warszawa wrote:A big problem with this team is that they have a lot of money invested in a mediocre defensemen unit. Hopefully they can shed some payroll here and have their prospects step up.

it's not too bad. streit and macdonald are decent at least. kimo is gone and the rest should be movable if the want to go that way.

Any top D-man going to be FA this offseason?

Had this in the other thread, but guess it should go here instead:

Goaltending: Not much to say here, for the first time in forever. They have their guy. Wouldn't mind seeing Emery back, think he's a serviceable enough back-up and he didn't have an amazing season that would net him a starting job elsewhere.

Defense: Bit of a mess here.

It's time to say good-bye to Kimmo, which he may take care of himself with retirement. Don't want to see Homer get into a contract discussion with him at all. Curious to see if he pulls an Alfredsson and tries to latch on with a contender, but after being here so long, I'm not sure he'd think he could find a contender better than the Flyers. Just don't want to see him making $6 mil on this roster next year.

Streit had a slow start, but he's making me think that contract won't be awful. MacDonald is obviously locked in for eternity. Gus is a #7, and I'm fine with him being that guy.

Other than that, not sure where to start. I'm not entirely sure Luke Schenn is in the NHL in 3 years, I think he's that much of a lost cause. I'm prepared to admit defeat with the JVR trade, but I'm not sure Homer is ready to do that. (Hextall? Am I getting too far ahead of myself?)

Grossmann will be back I assume, as will Coburn. I know Coburn had a real shit series, but GMs value a big defenseman who can skate like he can. I'd dangle Coburn out there, but unless I was getting a pick around 22-27 range and a D prospect, I'm not willing to just dump him and give up. Obviously the new CBA allows for some creativity salary wise, so they could do some mixing and matching, but I'm not ready to give up on him for nothing.

Hard to speculate who is on the market for trade, but there are some interesting FAs. Would not be opposed to looking at Pitkanen coming off an injury for a one or two year deal. Obviously the Weber talk will be there again. Gudbranson is an RFA, could look at him. Most of the D guys available all seem to be over the hill, so I’d have to think if you’re upgrading the D next year it’s through trade.

Forwards: A mixed bag here. Obviously moving forward with Hartnell, Vinny, Jake, Simmer, Claude, Coots, Read, Raffl, Akeson. So there’s three lines. Schenn will be the debate here. Could be living in a world where neither Schenn is on the roster next year, which I don’t think would be the worst thing. At the end of the day I imagine he’s coming back, though.

They’re obviously locked into a couple bad contracts here, Vinny looks like he’s going to haunt them for the next few years, here through 2018. Jesus. Hartnell through ’19. Ugh.

Overall, not an awful season, there’s some stuff to build on, but there’s plenty that needs to be fixed. Berube’s a solid enough coach, I think he did a good job, but they’ve gotta get some help for Mason on the back end. The D is pretty bad. The problem is that most of the available guys this summer are over the hill.

Some defensemen to look at (depending on cost and, hopefully, Kimmo not coming back):

Matt Niskanen
Anton Stralman
Tom Gilbert
Mark Fayne

All right handed too

Flyers are suffering from a dearth of talent. If you look at their depth chart, you pretty much have:

1st liners: Giroux, Voracek
2nd liners: Simmonds
3rd liners: Couturier, Read, Hartnell, Lecavalier, Schenn (RFA)
4th liners: Raffl, Hall (UFA), Rinaldo

F prospects: Akeson (3rd line), Laughton (3rd line)

Top pairing defenseman:
2nd pairing defenseman: Streit, MacDonald, Coburn
3rd pairing defenseman: Schenn
#7 defenseman: Gustafsson, Grossmann

D prospects: Ghost, Alt

Dearth of talent, not a great prospect pool, and a pretty salary cap hampered team. Holmgren has been almost as bad as Amaro.

They need to find a goal scorer for the top line, they need to find a top 4 defenseman, and they need to do anything they can to get rid of Grossmann and Lecavalier (both unlikely feasible). I would agree with people above who advocated in favor of moving Schenn in a package for an elite talent, defense or forward (I would see if Edmonton would be interested in a deal involving Schenn for Yakupov).

There's very little in free agency, either up front or on defense. To really upgrade this team, Holmgren is going to have to make some creative deals. More likely, he'll overpay for someone in FA and hamstring the team with another bad contract for whoever inherits the mess that he has created.

have to throw hagg and morin on the prospect list for D.

CalvinBall wrote:have to throw hagg and morin on the prospect list for D.

I was really just listing prospects that had a reasonable chance of making the team next year. I actually think that Morin is the team's best prospect, but he's going to take a while.

Isn't Kimmo better or almost better than every defensive FA out there for the upcoming season if you are looking at 1 year only?

heyeaglefn wrote:Isn't Kimmo better or almost better than every defensive FA out there for the upcoming season if you are looking at 1 year only?

Yes.

mcare89 wrote:I've often found that minutes after a devastating game 5 loss is the best time to make long-term personnel decisions.

Hopefully Homer waited until at least Game 7.

gpicaro wrote:Some defensemen to look at (depending on cost and, hopefully, Kimmo not coming back):

Matt Niskanen
Anton Stralman
Tom Gilbert
Mark Fayne

All right handed too

sign niskanen or stralman and offer sheet the shit out of subban.