The Ended Flyers Thread

[bigegypt0417]

with that pick the flyers now have 12 picks in this upcoming draft...

[kmc1019]

If the newly acquired player counts against the cap at all next year, this is a terrible trade and seemingly counterproductive to Hextall's philosophy of freeing up cap space while developing young players. On the surface, awful trade.

[Austinfan]

This was a very good trade.
The 7th rd pick was conditional on a trade, Streit was flipped to Pittsburgh for a 4th in 2018, so they get a 4th and 7th this year, and have 12 picks in a deep draft.

Valtteri Filppula is a solid 3C, who can give you 30 even strength points, and is solid defensively. He'll be overpaid next year, but it means they don't have to pay $10M for 3 years for a 3C in free agency.

The salaries match this year, and he costs $5M next year when MDZ, Schultz and Mason go off the books. Basically, it's a one year free agent deal to buy time for young centers like Vorobyov and Rubtsov to mature. The only free agent that Hextall has to sign is Ghost, and he's a RFA, so they'll probably do a bridge deal.

[bkeich]

I don't see your logic. We get what you call an overpaid player in a year when we are still rebuilding and get stuck with his salary cap hit when we were not going to have to pay Streit.

So we gets bad 1 year deal for a 4th and possibly a 7th round pick. Not a good deal from what I see.

You state we only need to sign Ghost. I think you are forgetting that would leave us without a goalie. We need to sign 2 (probably at least 1 that we currently have) or assume Stolarz can fill the backup role.

The loss of $5M of flexibility next year for a mediocre (at best) player is a poor use of that cap space IMHO.

[flyers19rw]

Fillpula takes care of the 3C position which puts Schenn back at LW which is the only spot that he can play effectivetly on this team. Schenn's even strength stats are quite poor. In two years one of the younger Flyers will take the 3C slot when Fillpula's contract expires. Sure, VP costs $5M next season but signing anyone else who is decent would cost at least that amount.

[bkeich]

Slightly incorrect in my post as apparently the Flyers made the goaltender decision and signed Neuvirth

[Austinfan]

Flyers needed a veteran 3C, Cousins really hasn't proven himself, Laughton is back in the AHL, and they're going to lose a forward in the expansion draft.
Their young forwards are all 2-3 years away.
So Filpulla buys a year to evaluate the young talent, especially Rubtsov (who is eligible to play in the AHL next year) and Vorobyov (who is playing in the KHL and looked very good in the WJC).
Free agent centers over 30 who can score 30-40 points will require at least a 3 year, maybe a 5 year contract, the Flyers will have cap room next year, this won't hurt them going forward.

Plus by taking on Filpulla's contract they got a 2017 4th and 7th, TB was only able to get a 2018 4th from Pittsburgh for Streit despite retaining half his salary.

[bkeich]

Does anyone else find it odd that the Flyers seem to have picked Neuvirth as our goalie of the future by signing him to an extension (assuming Stolarz becomes his backup next year) but we are consistently turning to Mason as the guy to get us to the playoffs?

I realize that no one has said that they will not sign Mason, but I suspect that they will not put themselves back into Salary Cap heck by doing so. It seems like Neuvirth is "the man" next year but Mason is the guy we have more confidence now. Odd.

[zambonir]

They could still re-sign Mason too, right? And then expose one or the other in the expansion draft. Otherwise they might lose Stolarz, no?

[bkeich]

Does anyone know if Filpulia's no-trade was carried over to the Flyers?

6 pts in 16 games isnt terrible, but it isnt good either. In 75 games that would a pretty anemic 28 pts. That puts him slightly better than the poor playing Matt Read.

He has just been awful. In tonights game against the lowly Devils he made 2 bad plays that lead to odd man rushes. He was the worst on the team -5 in March, and despite being put on the power play (and even 1 game on the top power play) he did not score a power play point all month. His supposed solid defense was just awful except for the first game, watching the games he turned over the puck more than any other player except probably Vorachek, who actually makes something happen when he has the puck. The only good thing about Filpula's play is that he did win 52% of his faceoffs. He has zero toughness (he and Vandevelde without a penalty minute in March).

All this for $5M next year. At 33 he is just a bad player.

I really hope he can be exposed in the draft. I would hate to lose a solid player to keep him, this was just an awful trade, really the first one by Hextall that stands out as this bad.

[flyers19rw]

They will protect one goalie for the ED. If they signed Mason, they would have to expose two of Mason, Stolarz and Neuvirth. They have basically stated that they are protecting Stolarz. So there's no reason to sign Mason at this time. After the ED, who knows what will happen?

[zambonir]

Let's hope the Sixers have as much draft luck as the Flyers just did.

[bigegypt0417]

Pretty amazing getting all the way up to #2

[kmc1019]

Similar to the year in which the Flyers last picked this high, of course it is considered a weak draft with no surefire stars.

[zambonir]

Yeah. They Flyers have been pretty darn good at drafting at 11 or higher, so it's possible they'd have done just as well 9th or whatever, but I'll still take it.

[Austinfan]

There are two solid centers at the top of this draft, Flyers get whomever NJ doesn't, should make the team in TC.
The rebuild just accelerated, Lindblom, top pick, Morin, Sanheim, Hagg.
Next year, after a season in AHL, Voroybov, Myers.
Two years, Rubtsov, Bunnyman, Kase, Sandstrom/Hart/Madsen.

[schooldoc]

I'd be surprised if the Flyers play three rookie defensemen at the start of next year.

Ghost-Gudas
Provorov-MacDonald
Morin-Sanheim/Hagg
Manning

[Son_of_Spam]

It's also certainly debatable whether Patrick or Hischier are NHL ready for next season. Given Hextall's propensity to let prospects get their legs in the minors, I wouldn't be surprised if Val Filppula holds the spot for them until 2018-2019.

[bkeich]

So, I havent seen either play, so strictly going on writeups I am really hoping for Patrick. He is the bigger, stronger and seems to have a longer period of success than Hischier. Hischier is more shifty*, more speed, called quick but not really fast. Certainly the NHL has changed and speed players are more valuable now than ever, but I still think the guy that can deliver and withstand checks is a better overall player (at least that are not named Gretzky).

Both guys were hurt last year for part of the season, Patrick seems to have recovered a little cleaner, but really that is almost irrelevant.

It is of course up to NJ who we get. The best news is there doesnt seem to be any real debate of whether another player can sneak into the top 2, it seems like they are absolutely locks for the 2 spots.

Obviously either is a great pickup, I think both have a chance to be in the NHL next season, but the Flyers may have to make a trade to clear a spot since they are filled up with contracts, some of which are a little unfortunate (although less so than past years).

Patrick will be easier to type for the next 10-15 years :

• There was a bad typo here that I luckily fixed

[xogfog]

Here is my way too early Flyers 2017-2018 roster prediction:

Forwards:

Giroux
Simmonds
Voracek
Schenn
Konecny
Couturier
Patrick or Hischier
Filippula
Bellemare
Weal
Raffl
Lindblom

Defense:

Provorov
Gostibehere
Gudas
Morin
Sandheim
Manning

Goalies:

TBD
Stolarz

As far as the forwards, I suspect that Lindblom and Patrick/Hischier may not start the season with the Flyers, especially with one or two rookie defensemen, but I'd really like to see them playing insted of Read, Weise, etc...

As for the goalies, we'll see how the expansion draft goes. It is possible that the main goalie for next year is not in the system as of now, they might sign a stop gap free agent The following season, I'd expect Hart to be the goalie for a long time going forward..