Now that we’ve all had time to sit back and see how things settled in for the Flyers following the blowup of their center position last week, it’s time to see where they stand.
From the outset, most people thought the Flyers would move either Jeff Carter or Matt Carle to create salary cap space to sign goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.
You knew the Flyers would move $5 million, regardless of whether the cap was going up. They like to have space available to make other moves.
Yet no one felt they would move Carter AND Mike Richards. I talked to GMs, coaches, scouts, personnel guys at the draft, even after the draft, and not a single one of them said they could envisioned any scenario where the Flyers would trade both players.
And trade them 30 minutes apart, too.
Some of these guys know Flyers’ GM Paul Holmgren pretty well. The consensus was there had to be something going on off the ice to move the captain, as well as Carter.
What did Chris Pronger say twice in his conference call? The Flyers dressing room needed “more life” to it.
Jay Greenberg wrote a column for CSNPhilly.com that laid out where the Flyers now stand at center. If the organization thought it was so “close” to winning the Stanley Cup two weeks ago, there’s no logical way they can insist they’re any closer after these two trades.
The Flyers are smaller and weaker down the middle. That is something that belies their pedigree in the Eastern Conference. No one in Philly believes the Flyers will go into next season without upgrading to a big center.
There is no guarantee that Brayden Schenn is ready. And even if he is, is Schenn good enough to give what you’d get from Carter and Richards to push you closer to the Cup right now, this upcoming season?
Could Schenn and Sean Couturier play right now? Two people who scouted Couturier hard said he could have been an NHL player right now were it not for that lengthy bout of mono. Most see him as a year away.
Again, will the Flyers really chance this going into the season?
With Carter/Richards gone, this means more ice time for Claude Giroux, the emerging player in the organization and Danny Briere, but I don’t see the Flyers risking it all on them.
The talk at the draft had the Flyers going after Brad Richards. Others had them perhaps dangling an RFA offer sheet in front of Steven Stamkos.
Ed Snider got rather vocal with me on the phone, insisting that he didn’t want to see Holmgren dragged through a bidding war for a major free agent. But we all know that if the Flyers see a lane to a free agent, as Eklund pointed, they’ll take it.
And once they do, they’ll spin it their way as to why they changed their mind.
There are some in the Flyers organization who feel Richards would be a “luxury” item right now. If it’s true he wants to play for John Tortorella again – he won the Cup under Torts in Tampa _ then the Ranger win, hands down.
People who know Steve Yzerman a lot better than I do, say he is fully aware that the Stamkos issue will define his legacy as a GM moving forward. If he were to lose Stamkos to an RFA offer sheet, that would really cripple him.
Yzerman won’t be out-bid if it’s simply about money.
Which brings me to what Eklund suggested. What if the rumors are true that Stamkos just doesn’t want to play in Tampa? If that’s the case, then Yzerman has 4 days to make a deal or accept what the CBA allows in free agency by not matching an RFA offer.
As much as the Flyers will look at Richards, I would not discount a possible deal with Washington before July 1 for Brooks Laich.
Caps GM George McPhee met with Holmgren at the draft. I have to be thinking they were talking trade for Laich. If you’re McPhee, that’s a far better option than losing him to unrestricted free agency.
One of the player you’d have to think going back to Washington, if there was a trade, would be Ben Holmstrom. He’s going to be a very good player someday.
So, the bottom line here is, the Flyers figure to make a move regardless of what Ed Snider says right now. Things change. That’s hockey.
One more thing. This team still needs a “glue guy” between the young and the old. That was Ian Laperriere’s job and he did it well before an eye injury ruined his career.
My suggestion there is Pascal Dupuis, a guy who handled that role well for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009 when they won the Stanley Cup.
One more thing. Carolina is supposed to find out today whether Erik Cole will re-sign. Some suggest Cole wants to be reunited with Peter Laviolette. Alas, he’s not a center.
Should be an interesting free agency period for the Flyers.
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I will be out of town June 30-July 4 attending a family wedding involving the Panaccio and Tolino families. This will be the first, free agency period I will miss since 1996.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
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