Sometimes the best trades are the ones a team doesn't make. If
reports from Edmonton are true, the Flyers and Oilers had a trade agreement last season in which Scott Hartnell had already agreed to waive his no-trade clause and go to Edmonton in exchange for defenseman Sheldon Souray. Allegedly, Steve Tambellini nixed the deal at the last moment.
If it's true and the trade in question really had taken place, I doubt the Flyers would have made it to the Stanley Cup Final, much less come as close as they did to winning the Cup. Hartnell had a tremendous postseason after a miserable regular season. I don't think Souray's power play offense from the point would have made as much of a difference, even if his defensive liabilities could have been minimized.
As for why Hartnell would have waived his no-trade to go to Edmonton -- again without knowing for certain that he did, -- I'd suspect it's because his family is in Lloydminster and he has a lot of friends in Edmonton. Hartnell had a lot of off-ice issues to sort out last season, and I suppose the idea of having a support system close by may have seemed appealing, regardless of the fact that the Oilers are in rebuilding mode as a team.
But, frankly, I still have some doubts about accepting the report at face value. The Oilers have been anxious to find a taker for Souray, and Hartnell (even in a down year with a substantial cap hit of his own) would have been a good return.
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Choosing the Flyers' right wing of the last decade is pretty straightforward. There are only really two viable candidates for top honors and a limited number of players worth honorable mentions. Most of the club's strength up front has been in the middle, and there have been relatively few standouts on the wings over the 1999-2000 to 2009-10 period.
FIRST TEAM:
Mark Recchi
Recchi was a more well-rounded player during his second stint with the Flyers (1998-99 to 2003-04) than he was during his first run with the club, when he set the team's single-season point record in 1992-93. The first time around, he was purely an offensive player. When he returned, he showed improved two-way prowess. Nevertheless, the main reason why Recchi gets the top spot was his regular season offense. He led the Flyers in scoring three times during the time period.
He was also versatile. At different times, he played all three forward positions during his second Flyers stint, although he was primarily a right winger. Recchi often quarterbacked the powerplay from the point and also played at times along the half-boards. He also had strong playoff runs in 2000 and 2003.
With any player, you sometimes have to take the bad with the good. Recchi's reputation for diving was, unfortunately, well deserved and sometimes detracted from his other accomplishments in orange and black. In addition, he was one of alleged ring leaders in the player mutiny against Bill Barber. Beyond that situation, some considered him a player who was prone to finger-pointing rather than taking full accountability when things didn't go well.
Taken on the balance, however, it's hard to deny Recchi's many contributions to the club. Although Mike Knuble was also deserving of consideration for first-team honors, in the end Recchi was a pretty easy choice.
SECOND TEAM:
Mike Knuble
Knuble is one of my personal favorites of the last decade. The late-blooming power forward, who did not win a regular job in the NHL until he was 26, has gone on to work his way into being a bankable 20-plus goal scorer (eight straight seasons, including a pair of 30-plus goal seasons) and a tremendous complementary player to superstar linemates on Boston, Philadelphia and now in Washington. His style fit in perfectly with Peter Forsberg and Simon Gagne and his success continued beyond Forsberg's recurrent injury problems and subsequent departure.
Apart from his impeccable work ethic and commitment to preparation, Knuble is one of the brainiest hockey players you will ever meet. The University of Michigan graduate is one of the most articulate quotes in the league. Rather than spouting off cliches, after a game, he provides actual analysis. When things weren't rosy, he was honest without throwing others under the bus.
At 38, he still seems to have a few productive years left as a player and I do think the Flyers missed his presence last season (although I understood why he was allowed to walk as a free agent). When he eventually hangs up the skates, he would make for either an excellent coach or a stellar TV analyst, depending on his interest.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Tony Amonte, Rick Tocchet, Sami Kapanen.
Tony Amonte gave the Flyers a shot in the arm immediately after coming over as a salary dump from Phoenix near the 2002-03 trading deadline. He racked up 7 goals and 15 points down the stretch drive but had a disappointing playoff run, scoring just once and producing 6 points in 13 playoff games. He was all but invisible in the club's lost to Ottawa. The following season, the decline of the three-time 40 goal scorer (and five-time 30-goal scorer) was evident. Nevertheless, he still managed a 20 goal season for the Flyers before another quiet playoff run. The Flyers bought him out after the lockout.
Rick Tocchet was one of the Flyers' few bright spots during the lean years of the late 1980s and early 1990s after being a young role player on the club's 1985 and 1987 Cup finalist squads. But his first stint in Philly ended on a rather sour note, with some ill feelings on both sides. His career was winding down by the time he finally returned late in the 1999-2000 season, but he had a satisfying closure to his active career as a Flyers elder stateman in his two-plus season second stint in orange and black.
Tocchet was a warrior for the club in the 2000 postseason. Thereafter, he was a part-time player due to injury problems. He still managed 14 goals in 60 games (amidst ever-declining scoring league-wide) in 2000-01. He finished his career with just 14 games played the following season.
Sami Kapanen was the type of player whose value couldn't be measured in stats. The former NHL all-star did not produce as much offense as hoped during his four-plus seasons in Philly but his speed, hustle and grit made him an effective forechecker and underrated two-way player as well as a fan favorite.
The quintessential Kapanen moment was of him absorbing a huge hit and crawling back to the bench on the shift that ultimately resulted in Jeremy Roenick scoring the series winning goal in overtime of Game 6 of the 2003 Eastern Conference semifinals against Toronto. The next year, when the blueline was riddled with injuries, he volunteered to move back to defense and played remarkably well.
Kapanen, who is the majority owner of SM-Liiga team KalPa Kuopio (Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell are minority owners), retired from the NHL after the 2007-08 playoffs, despite the fact that he still had a year left on his contract. He returned to Kuopio to play for his Finnish team, helping the club turn around years of losing and, for the first time in many years, earning a profit.
COMING NEXT: Goaltender
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Over at
Broad St. Hockey, Teemu "Euroflyers" Hytönen translated an interesting Finnish interview with Kimmo Timonen. It's a must read.
In the interview, Timonen admitted that he was still mentally drained from the marathon season of 2009-10 and that he felt worn down over the season. Hopefully, the Flyers' offseason additions on the blueline will help take some of the burden off Timonen and Chris Pronger, keeping them fresher for the playoffs.
Contrary to rumors that Timonen plans to follow in close friend Kapanen's footsteps and retire to go back to play for KalPa before the completion of his NHL contract, the defenseman said that his playing days in the Finnish league are done and his goal is to reach the coveted 1,000 game mark in the NHL, which would require him to play out his contract with the Flyers.
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