There is no question that the Philadelphia Flyers have added a lot of reliable veteran stability with the additions of Kimmo Timonen, Daniel Briere and Jason Smith.

But it still remains to be seen if the Flyers have the makeup of a contending team. To me, it all depends on the extent to which Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Scotty Upshall and Braydon Coburn step up this season.

This group of four players will go a long way toward determining whether the Flyers have the type of depth they need to contend.

After a brutal first half last season, Richards had an outstanding second half of the season. He needs to build from that.

Carter was extremely streaky offensively in both his first and second years and still needs both to improve his play without the puck and make better use of his linemates. Whether he's playing with some combination of Scott Hartnell, Upshall and/or Lupul, it will be Carter's play that will be the catalyst, for better or worse.

Upshall was a revelation when he came over from Nashville, showing hustle and determination but also some very high caliber skills. With young players, it's never a guarantee that a late season rush in a relatively low-pressure situation (the Flyers were playing out the season, knowing they had no shot at the playoffs) will translate to a similar full season the next year. But the early returns were very promising.

With Coburn, there are still some rough edges to be smoothed out but he has much the same collection of raw skills-- speed to go along with his size, untapped two-way ability, an ocassional mean streak. Like most young defensemen, he had his ups and downs last year.

It's not a given that he'll make significant progress this year If he does, the Flyers' blueline outlook moves from a collection of Kimmo Timonen, three reasonably solid defensive D (Smith, Hatcher, Kukkonen), a hitting D who needs to be spotted well (Gauthier) and still unproven younger D (Coburn, Picard, Jones, Parent and others) to more dynamic unit.

In my opinion, the Flyers still need to add an offensive D to the mix, preferably one with a righthanded shot, to lessen to reliance on Coburn being ready now for a key role.

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