The Ended Flyers Thread

[xogfog]

Flyers don't moveup in the draft lottery, will pick 13th. It's supposed to be a pretty deep draft, so they should still get legit talent at that spot.

[xogfog]

Lindblom wins the Masterson trophy

Less than a year after beating cancer, Lindblom is a Masterton Trophy winner

[zambonir]

Somewhat related to our discussion about Francona and Kapler succeeding at their next jobs: the Kraken have hired Hakstol as their first head coach.

[xogfog]

Well, that is interesting on another front, Hakstol is intimately familiar with most of the Flyers roster, so he probably will have a lot of input for the Kraken when it comes to which Flyer they'll take in the expansion draft.

[zambonir]

That could really help out the Flyers, if he's especially fond of one of the players they would like to lose (i.e. Ghost or JVR). But that was already almost three years ago, a lot of guys he didn't coach or barely coached, some of whom are even expansion draft-eligible.

[xogfog]

With the expansion draft and free agency starting later this month, this would be my GM take on what the Flyers should do.

As far as the Expansion Draft on Jul.21 the Flyers can protect 7 forwards, 3 defensemen and 1 goalie. Several of the young players like Farabee, Frost, York, etc... are not eligible to be drafted while Giroux and Hayes have no movement clauses and also can't be taken. Only 1 Flyer will be taken as the Kraken can only pick one player from every team (Except Vegas). I would protect the following:

Forwards - Giroux, Hayes, Konecny, Couturier, Lindblom, Laughton, Patrick
Defense - Provorov, Myers, Sanheim
Goalie - Hart

That would notably leave Voracek, JVR, Ghost, and Sandstrom available to be drafted

Depending on who is taken, I would then consider buying out either Voracek or JVR if they are still on the roster.

Free Agency begins on Jul 28 The Flyers have a glaring need for a top defenseman, so I would go hard after Doug Hamilton who would pair nicely with Provorov. I would sign Jonathan Bernier to be the back up goalie, and sign Nick Bonino as a depth center.

I don't think a trade for Jack Eichel is likely, unless they would be willing to take a salary back. For example, to make sure salary would work, something like a package of Konecny, Ghost, Zamukla and picks might not get it done. Unlike the NBA salary does not have to match to make trades, I'm just not sure the Flyers have the ammo, unless they move someone like York and Frost.

[Squire]

Flyers have traded
C Nolan Patrick
D Phillipe Myers

to Nashville for

D Ryan Ellis

[zambonir]

Whoa...

[zambonir]

Patrick actually going to Vegas, Nashville gets Cody Glass from them.

Solid deal, hopefully Ellis has a lot left but those were two players the Flyers were also ready to trade (or in NP's case, wanted out maybe).

[Squire]

Apparently, this also allows us to protect Van Riemsdyk for the expansion draft

[Dirk41]

What a great deal.

[phillychuck]

I'm sorry to trade Myers, who I think has shown flashes of having a very high potential. Patrick's saga is very depressing, watching him succumb to concussions/headaches and lose his edge when franchise-altering players were chosen around him. That being said, Ryan Ellis is a talented top-pair defenseman. Why would Nashville be willing to trade him for so little? Do they know something we don't?

[zambonir]

But do we want to? I mean, maybe they are still working on a deal with Seattle to get them to take Voracek or Ghost, especially given who the coach is, but if they can't, losing JVR's salary wouldn't be so bad. And they may just take Aube-Kubel or Hagg.

Guess we'll know a bit more in shortly.

[xogfog]

So they did not protect JVR, choosing to protect Aube-Kubel instead. Here is the full protected/unprotected list.

Protected:
Nicolas Aube-Kubel (F), Sean Couturier (F), Claude Giroux (F), Kevin Hayes (F), Travis Konecny (F), Scott Laughton (F), Oskar Lindblom (F), Ryan Ellis (D), Ivan Provorov (D), Travis Sanheim (D), Carter Hart (G)

Unprotected:
Andy Andreoff (F), Connor Bunnaman (F), David Kase (F), Pascal Laberge (F), Samuel Morin (F), German Rubtsov (F), Carsen Twarynski (F), James van Riemsdyk (F), Jakub Voracek (F), Mikhail Vorobyev (F), Chris Bigras (D), Justin Braun (D), Shayne Gostisbehere (D), Robert Hagg (D), Derrick Pouliot (D), Nate Prosser (D), Tyler Wotherspoon (D), Brian Elliott (G), Alex Lyon (G), Felix Sandstrom (G)

[zambonir]

Maybe because it's because I'm also a Stars fan, but I have this weird feeling that the Flyers will do a deal with Seattle where they agree to take JVR or Voracek or even Ghost and the Flyers also end up with Ben Bishop. Of course that is moot if they just want to take Hagg or Braun.

[VoteForKalas]

The Flyers need salary cap relief which is why they did not protect JVR and are hoping either he or Voracek get drafted by Seattle or a side deal can be worked out.

Kubel is a young player who has shown some signs and he is cheap. Every roster needs to have young, cheap talent balancing out the older, expensive star players. And if you have that young, cheap talent become stars like Hart or Farabee, all the better.

I like the Ellis trade overall, but, as is normally the case, the last few years of the deal will probably be hard to watch. I wish Myers all the best; really liked him as a player. Flyers nabbed him for very little so it is good value to get Ellis for him. Sure, Patrick was added in too, but I think the prospects for Patrick are much less certain at this point.

We still need the cap space to add firepower up front and give Frost a shot to stick. I'm also surprised there were no coaching changes - the PP and PK stunk this past season and I saw zero creativity on the coach's parts to turn it around.

[zambonir]

I was not at all surprised they exposed JVR, they might have done it anyway. Had it gone another way they still could have made a side-deal with Seattle to take him instead of Patrick, or to get the Kraken to take Patrick. The only problem now is the don't necessarily want to lose Braun, but Seattle may have better options there for the D-man group.

Lots of Tarasenko talk now too. Don't know how serious this is:

There are rumors that if Seattle plucks Tarasenko from St. Louis in the expansion draft, it will send him to the Flyers for right winger Jake Voracek and a high draft pick.

The Flyers, who will lose a player in the expansion draft, could land winger...

[xogfog]

Well, it doesn't look like the Kraken are going to help out the Flyers cap situation, the Athletic is reporting they will take Carsen Twarynski. Fletcher is going to need to make some trades.

[Squire]

Flyers are trading D Shayne Gostisbehere to the Arizona Coyotes for a 2022 2nd Round Pick and a 2022 7th Round Pick

[zambonir]

That seems like a very good return for a cap-motivated trade of a guy who cleared waivers and went untaken by the Kraken.

Question is will they leave it at that or still try to clear out a forward?

Getting that pick might make it more tolerable to trade away the first-rounder too.