Streit Talk
The news of Mark Streit's impending four-year, $21 million deal with the Flyers did not come as a surprise after the team acquired his rights last week from the Islanders in exchange for a 2014 fourth-round Draft choice and minor league forward Shane Harper.
Streit got his unrestricted free agent market value in terms of the $5.25 million cap hit. Like it or not, that's just where the open-market price point is right now for an offensively skilled defenseman who can play 20-plus minutes per game.
The four-year contract term for a player on an over-35 deal represents a significant risk for the Flyers and is the most questionable element of the reported agreement. However, the other side of the coin is that the Flyers didn't have expend significant trade assets -- no NHL roster players, no high end draft picks or prospects -- to acquire a defenseman who has proven he can reliably can be counted on to produce 45-plus points in a full season.
A trade for a younger, already contracted defenseman such as Keith Yandle would have come at a very high trading cost, and would have represented a different type of major risk. So pick your poison: A long-term over-35 contract or a depth-resource gutting trade. The Flyers chose the former. The more I think about it, the more I prefer the course they took to the other alternative.
The addition of Streit will create an enviable dilemma for Peter Laviolette in setting his power play units for next season. Streit is absolutely a first-unit worthy player but the Flyers have had considerable success with Kimmo Timonen (who ranked third in power play points among NHL defensemen this past season) atop their power play umbrella, Jakub Voracek as their second "point" man roving both up high in the zone near the right point and down as low as the bottom of the right circle and Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds and Scott Hartnell as the forwards.
Should Laviolete and power play coach Joey Mullen tinker with something that has already been successful enough to create a top-five power play in the NHL? Or should they move around their personnel in order to accommodate Streit's huge shot? Over the course of next season, we'll probably see the Flyers throw a variety of different looks at the opposition on the 5-on-4.
When Flyers could swap out Timonen for Streit, who has a heavier shot. I don't think Voracek is going to be moved anywhere, but Streit generally is most effective when he plays on the same side of the ice as Voracek, rather than Timonen's side. So that's something to consider with the alignment.
Alternatively, the Flyers could adapt more a traditional left point/ right point power play alignment with Timonen and Streit at the points, Voracek on the right half boards, Giroux as the center and remove either Hartnell or Simmonds from the top unit.
A final alternative would be to leave the established first power play unit alone. Streit could be used -- at least at the start of the season -- as the trigger man on an upgraded second unit that might actually be worthy of using for more than 20 seconds or so. Having a top-quality quarterback the second unit at 5-on-4 against other teams' secondary penalty killers could go a long way toward helping give the Flyers two effective units instead of just one that's an actual threat and a second that rarely generates scoring chances over an abbreviated shift.
Adding Streit does nothing to help the Flyers improve their suspect team defense in terms of coverages. But he will help the team to be better on breakouts. Pairings of Timonen with Luke Schenn, Braydon Coburn with Streit and (a healthy) Nicklas Grossmann with Erik Gustafsson would balance off some of the issues the Flyers had last year with puck movement while still having elements of physicality and puck movement.
It's hardly a blueline roster that will strike fear in the hearts of opponents, but it's an improved and more well-blended starting six over last year's squad. players able to play their natural roles. Streit won't have to kill penalties very often, for example, nor will the Flyers need for Coburn to try to be more of a puck mover.
As I wrote in a previous blog, I think that Andrej Meszaros has played his last game as a Flyer. I thought that even before the Streit acquisition, but especially now. Given Meszaros' health question marks and UFA status after next season, the Flyers won't be able to get much of a trade return for him, unfortunately.
If it won't be Meszaros who gets traded, it will be Coburn. But Coburn is the one who generally draws the tougher defensive matchups and, late season shoulder separation aside, has the better health record. He is also signed for longer and has a partial no-trade clause unlike Meszaros.
I'm willing to primarily chalk up Coburn's down season in 2013 to three contextual factors:
1) He didn't play at all during the lockout, and he's often been something of a slow starter even in his best seasons. Coburn never got untracked, and then he got hurt.
2) With the departure of Matt Carle, Coburn was asked to take on more of a puck-moving role than he had been accustomed to playing in most of his previous seasons.
3) Coburn spent a significant chunk of the season away from the partners with whom he's generally played his best hockey in recent years-- Grossmann and previous longtime defense partner Timonen -- and instead played with Bruno Gervais. Coburn had the lowest percentage of offensive zone starts (40.5 percent) of any regular Flyers starting defensemen and having Gervais rather Grossmann take those shifts with him resulted in a lot of shifts that ended up with the next faceoff at center ice.
At any rate, there are still a lot of question marks on the Philadelphia blueline. However, a "normal" season from Coburn and Streit, Gustafsson continuing to play at a comparable level to the final 10 games of last NHL season and the 2013 World Championships and a healthy Grossmann would provide a lot more stability than last year's arrangement of one reliable pairing (Timonen and Schenn), solid defensive play from Grossmann when healthy and three struggling players in various combinations.
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Coming tomorrow: Should the Flyers be concerned about their ability to re-sign the players who can become free agents in 2014?
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