MURPHY IN, PADDOCK OUT

The Philadelphia Flyers made a change in their coaching staff yesterday, bringing in former Flyers player Gord Murphy to coach the defense and announcing that John Paddock would not return to the organization next season.

Murphy, 47, has been a defense coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets (2002-03 to 2009-10) and then was hired by the Florida Panthers (2010-11 to the early stages of this past season). With Florida, he was part of a staff that included former Flyers captain Kevin Dineen as head coach and former Flyers assistant and head coach Craig Ramsay.

After helping guide the Panthers to a playoff appearance in 201-12, the coaching trio took a bullet for the Panthers struggles of the last two seasons, getting fired on Nov. 8. Now, Murphy will be part of a coaching staff led by head coach Craig Berube, with whom Murphy was a teammate with the Flyers for three seasons in the late 1980s to early 1990s.

Over the course of his NHL coaching career, Murphy has gained experience working with defense corps in Columbus and Florida that often consisted of many young, struggling defensemen who were trying to go through the learning curve at the NHL level. Murphy's 21-year-old son, Connor, was a rookie with the Phoenix Coyotes this past season.

"I feel my strength is working with those defensemen, being a good teacher," said Murphy. "I have a good balance of experience at the position, both being a former player and now, for the last 11 years, in that role of assistant coach working to mentor and bring along prospects."

Most recently, Murphy was an assistant coach for Team Canada at the Under-18 World Championships in Finland. Once again, he worked with Kevin Dineen.

In the immediate future, Murphy will be working with a veteran-laden corps in Philadelphia. However, in the relatively near future, the Flyers hope to have numerous young defensemen (including the likes of Shayne Gostisbehere, Samuel Morin, Robert Hägg and Mark Alt) rise through the farm system to become NHL regulars.

"For the veteran players, every day I just try to work with them and help them continue to be better and, hopefully, we get the Flyers to where we all want to get to," said Murphy.

“To get them to play to their potential and for them to continue to grow, there’s no reason that old dogs can’t learn new tricks. We’re going to continue to work with those guys as a group and develop them individually."

A ninth round pick (189th overall) by the Flyers in 1985, Murphy went on to have a solid NHL career with Philadelphia and three other organizations. A tall and mobile defenseman with good two-way skills, Murphy had the misfortune of coming along during the nadir of franchise history.

Murphy was a rookie on a declining 1988-89 team that made an unexpected run to the Stanley Cup semifinals. The next season, during the start of a slide that saw the team miss the playoffs five straight years, Murphy won the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the Flyers' best defenseman. Mark Howe was limited by injury to 40 games while Murphy stepped up to chip in 14 goals and 41 points.

Midway through the 1991-92 season, the Flyers traded Murphy to the Boston Bruins in a deal that sent Garry Galley to Philly. Murphy went on to be a reliable (if somewhat injury-prone) player for Boston, Florida and the Atlanta Thrashers before retiring in 2002 after a brief second stint in Boston.

As a player, Murphy was known for being a poised and intelligent defenseman in addition to having good skills with the puck. A big part of the reason for his assistant coaching longevity with mostly struggling young teams in Columbus and Florida was his communication skills and patience. The teams themselves were often just not very good and not ready to win.

Paddock had been an assistant general manager under Paul Holmgren but returned to coaching first as an eye-in-the-sky team defense coach during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season and then as defense coach when Kevin McCarthy was fired along with head coach Peter Laviolette three games into last season.

The fact that Murphy is 13 years younger than the 60-year-old Paddock may have played in his favor. Murphy can relate to the mentalities both of veteran and current day young players. Paddock is highly respected as a good hockey man but is more of an old-school type. In the bigger picture, however, when a team is unhappy with its five-on-five goals for/against performance over a two year period, changing coaches is a common result. Murphy went through the same thing in Florida.

Ultimately, defense is a team responsibility. Unless the blueline corps gets help from the forwards and there is mutual trust between the goaltender and the skaters, a team is going to look bad defensively. Coaching is part of the puzzle, of course, but most NHL coaches of the modern era are competent at their jobs.

For his part, Murphy is excited to work within Berube's system, which heavily emphasizes a structured approach based on collective skating, puck support and quick decision-making. When the Flyers executed that system this past season -- in conjunction with getting strong goaltending -- they showed an ability to beat high-caliber opponents. When they went off system, they looked slow, vulnerable defensively and prone to over-relying on their goaltenders.

"They play a fast, strong brand of hockey. They’re very competitive. I don’t personally see many weaknesses in the club. They were as good as any team the last three or four months of the season. The run they went on just show the depth and the ability of that team," said Murphy.

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STRALMAN AND DEFENSE BUILDING

I have followed defenseman Anton Strålman's career since he was a wunderkind 20-year-old defenseman for Swedish team Timrå IK and a prospect for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Back in those days, he was being hyped to the moon in his native country.

Veteran coach Torgny Bendelin called Strålman "the next [Nicklas] Lidström" while commentator Niklas Wikegård raved over how the young defenseman could take over a game like Lidström or Peter Forsberg. That raised expectations unreasonably high, and the player has never come anywhere close to superstar level in the NHL.

When Strålman got to the NHL, he found the sledding much, much tougher. He struggled in Toronto. In Columbus, where he played his first season with Gord Murphy as the defense coach, he continued to have his share of ups and downs; not quite productive enough offensively at the NHL level to be a run-and-gun type and not quite strong enough defensively to overcome his below-average size and strength.

A few years ago, Strålman was nearly out of the NHL; pinned with a reputation of being more of a secondary power play point man and undersized sixth defenseman at five-on-five. When he first got to the New York Rangers, irascible head coach John Tortorella did not take to the player. Over time, however, they built up trust and Strålman found his niche. That success carried over and was built upon this past season under Alain Vigneault.

Strålman simplified his game to be more of a mobile puck-mover and positionally solid defender. His offensive opportunities decreased but so did his susceptibility to getting beaten and turning over pucks. Paired with huge and skilled shutdown defenseman Marc Staal, Strålman formed half of a highly effective second pairing to support the duo of Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi.

Now, Strålman is an unrestricted free agent (UFA). He is set to cash in on a major raise and receive a long-term contract. First of all, he is coming off a strong season for a team that reached the Stanley Cup Finals. Secondly, salaries leaguewide for proven veteran defensemen have skyrocketed in recent years, especially for ones who have reached UFA status. Lastly, with so many teams locking up their desirable defensemen before they hit the open market, the market prices for those who do opt for unrestricted free agency are greatly inflated.

Strålman should have little difficulty finding a multi-year deal that will pay him something north of $4 million per season. That is just the going rate for second pairing defensemen right now.

I like Strålman as a number four defenseman for a contending team with a similar top-three mix to what the Rangers have in place. However, I do not think he's well suited to playing higher in the rotation nor is he is the right role player for every team's blueline needs.

The Flyers are one of the teams for which I do not think Strålman would be a good fit. Here's why: Although the Flyers could use his mobility, passing ability and righthanded shot, the rest of the blueline mix is less than ideal for him to come in and be nearly as effective as he was with the Rangers.

The Flyers already undersized, finesse-oriented defensemen in Kimmo Timonen and Mark Streit. Andrew MacDonald blocks a ton of shots but is slightly built and not a physical player. That is half the starting defense right there.

Adding Strålman to that particular mix would make the Philadelphia defense corps tilt heavily toward smallish puck movers; the puck moving part is fine and desirable, but the collective lack of size and muscle is something that Ron Hextall specifically said he'd prefer to avoid as the defining characteristic of the defense corps.

In the Flyers' case, Streit and especially Timonen are not defined by their mobility at this stage of their careers. They make up for it with puck skills and high levels of hockey sense. The 27-year-old Strålman gets around well but needs to play with a bigger and stronger partner, preferably a lefthanded shooting one.

The Flyers have Braydon Coburn, who is both huge and mobile and shoots left. However, although Coburn occasionally shows a physical side to his game, that is not a hallmark of his game. As a defender, he is generally solid (although prone to streakiness) but he is not as good of a shutdown defenseman as a healthy Staal. Then again, few are. Also, I do not think the Flyers would want Strålman out there in the type of defensive matchups that Coburn sees.

Presumably, Strålman would replace either Nicklas Grossmann or Luke Schenn in the lineup -- one of whom would theoretically be traded -- and be paired with either with the remaining player or else be placed with MacDonald. Both Schenn and Strålman are righthanded and prefer the same side of the ice, but that could be worked around if need be.

I personally would not mind seeing a Grossmann - Strålman pairing; not because they are both Swedes but because they might be able to balance off each other's respective weaknesses with their own strengths. The 30-year-old Grossmann is good without the puck, shoots left and is strong like an ox but is adequate at most with the puck and accumulating injuries (both knees and most recently an ankle have been operated on). Strålman is good with the puck, mobile and plays the right side. The 27-year-old gives away size and has no physical game to offer, although his compete level has greatly improved.

However, Grossmann seems to be the most likely candidate to be traded this offseason even though he gets more minutes than Schenn under Berube. Conversely, Schenn may have somewhat higher trade value because he's five years younger, has a cleaner health record and came to Toronto as a top-end draft pick with as much hype built up in Canada as Strålman had in Sweden when he left to join the Maple Leafs.

Although he is still young (turning 25 this coming November), Schenn has probably reached the point where he's a finished product in his development. He is strong, aggressive, courageous and competitive with what I believe is underrated passing but average-at-best puckhandling ability. Schenn's skating and positional games have always left a bit to be desired, and he is prone to getting beaten to the outside or over-committing. When he stays within his limitations and keeps his game as simple as possible, Schenn has shown that he can be effective. He did that pretty well in 2012-13 but only sporadically this past season.

Assuming either Grossmann or Schenn are moved this offseason to try to add mobility to the defense, the Flyers need to be careful in their roster planning about not getting too undersized when the blueline is viewed collectively (which, incidentally, was a problem with the Dallas Stars this past season and created line matchup and defensemen-pairing problems at times). As such, a player like Strålman is probably not a good fit when the total picture of roster building is looked at along with the financial considerations.

Anton Strålman has become a good NHL defenseman but that doesn't mean he is the RIGHT one for this team's needs. If the Flyers replace Grossmann or Schenn, they would probably prefer whomever they bring in to offer some size as well as a mobility and puckhandling upgrade. They might have to sacrifice some physicality to do it. For example, unrestricted free agent Mark Fayne fits that profile. He's big, mobile and a good puck mover but a bit soft on the physical side.

During yesterday's Gord Murphy conference call with the local media, I asked Murphy how much stock he places in the need for a team to have a good balance of lefthanded and righthanded shooters on the blueline. He said that it is a nice luxury to have, but that it is not the be-all and end-all of building an effective defense. I agree wholeheartedly.

Two years ago, after the Flyers lost to the Devils in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, much was made of the Devils forechecking strategy. In part, the Devils tried to exploit the fact that the Flyers had an entirely lefthanded shooting starting six on defense by dumping pucks in to force a defenseman onto his backhand and then coming at him hard with the first forechecker into to offensive zone.

In the months that followed, the Flyers acquired three righthanded shooting defensemen -- Schenn, Bruno Gervais and Kurtis Foster -- via trade or free agency. What they soon found, however, was that left-right balance in the top six didn't mean too much if two of the three righthanders were of seventh defenseman caliber.

Currently, Schenn is the only righthanded shooter in the Flyers blueline rotation. It would be nice to add a second one like Fayne or Strålman via free agency, but characteristics other than the defenseman's handedness have to take precedence.

Regular readers of my blog know that, for years, I have coveted Winnipeg Jets defenseman Zach Bogosian. Acquiring him via trade would neither be easy nor inexpensive. It would have to be a major deal to pry him loose from Winnipeg but that is the type of player whom I'd consider a genuine upgrade to the top end of the blueline.

I have said this before and will say it again: The Flyers' problems on defense do NOT stem from a lack of bonafide NHL defensemen. They have six of them and each is perfectly serviceable in his own way. The problem is that they lack a true number one or number two defenseman. For many years, Timonen was of All-Star caliber but as he continues to age and lose mobility, he has become more well suited to being a role player.

Don't expect Hextall to perform miracles with the Flyers blueline in a single offseason. Also keep in mind that this isn't fantasy hockey. When a real hockey team is being built, you can't just say "Player A is more skilled than Player B so A is an upgrade." You have to look at the multitude of different roles that need to be filled and whether adding A and deleting B would create an overload of certain types of players and open up a need to fill B's niche.

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