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How Flyers Rebuilt Prospect Pipeline; 25 in 25: Roman Cechmanek; Quick Hits

August 17, 2017, 7:25 AM ET [108 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
FLYERS TOP 25 IN THE LAST 25 YEARS: ROMAN CECHMANEK

Czech goaltender Roman Cechmanek got a late start in the NHL but his three-season stay with the Philadelphia Flyers was nothing if not eventful. The highs were very high, and the lows were sometimes dreadful. It truly was feast or famine for him, especially in the postseason.

A five-time Czech Extraliga champion with Vsetin and a gold medal winner at the IIHF World Championships, Cechmanek came to the NHL at age 29 after the Flyers selected him in the sixth round of the 2000 NHL Draft.

Cechmanek's style in net was highly unorthodox but the combination of his 6-foot-3 frame, unpredictability to shooters and his willingness to use any part of his body -- frequently including his head -- to make saves often made him effective.



The goaltender could be brilliant when he was at the top of his game. He won two Bobby Clarke Trophies (2000-01 and 2002-03) as Flyers' MVP, was the top runner up for the 2000-01 Vezina Trophy, finished fourth in the 2000-01 Hart Trophy balloting, played in the 2000-01 NHL All-Star Game and shared the Jennings Trophy (lowest goals against average in the NHL) in 2002-03.

Statistically, Cechmanek's Flyers career ranks him to this day among the top goaltenders in franchise history. It is also worth noting that his career coincided with the lowest-scoring years leaguewide of modern NHL history but he deserves credit for ranking among the league leaders in two of his three seasons.

In 163 regular season games as a Flyer, Cechmanek posted a 1.96 goals against average, .923 save percentage and a record of 92-43-22. In 23 playoff games, Cechmanek had a 9-14 record, 2.33 goals against average and .909 save percentage. During his Flyers career, Cechmanek racked up an impressive 20 shutouts in the regular season. He also achieved three playoff shutouts (all against the Ottawa Senators).



During his first season, when Cechmanek stepped in and played at a Vezina-worthy level, he could do no wrong for long stretches. Unfortunately, that campaign ended in an 8-0 humiliation in the deciding 6th game of an otherwise up-for-grabs playoff series against the Buffalo Sabres. Cechmanek lasted just 23:24 of that game, surrendering five goals on nine shots before head coach Bill Barber sent in Brian Boucher to finish out the rest of the second and third periods.

Ultimately, Cechmanek's especially poor performances in playoff elimination losses became a recurring theme. So did wavering focus. Flyers head coach Ken Hitcock has stated that Cechmanek would get downright bored and distracted in games where he went long stretches between shots and the coach feared bizarre goals when the next puck finally came his way.

To some, Cechmanek's quirky on-ice and dressing room personality were what many remembered most of his tenure with the Flyers. This eventually overshadowed the fact that, along the way each year, he also provided long stretches of stellar goaltending.

It should also be said Cechmanek shined in the playoffs on occasion. In the 2003 playoffs, he ultimately outplayed Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Ed Belfour in the Flyers' first-round playoff series war with Toronto. The series featured two games that reached at least double overtime and another (a crucial Flyers 3-2 win in Game Four to knot the series) that went triple OT. In Game 7, it was Belfour who finally cracked.

Also, in the Flyers' pair of playoff series losses to Ottawa in 2002 and 2003, the three combined games Philly won all came via Cechmanek shutouts (including a 1-0 overtime win in Game One of their 2002 series). In five games, the Flyers scored two goals for the entire 2002 series. The next year, they never scored more than two goals in any of the six games. In short, Cechmanek worked with very little margin for error in all 11 games of those two playoff years.

On the flip side, Cechmanek's own play was subpar in three of the four games in which he did not record a shutout in the 2003 second-round series against Ottawa. For the third straight season, he played one of his weakest games of the season in the match that saw the Flyers eliminated from the playoffs. Over his final two games of the series, Cechmanek stopped just 37 of 46 shots. Three of the combined nine goals he allowed were potentially stoppable opportunities.

In the long term, Cechmanek hurt his stature by alienating some of his Philadelphia teammates. Infamously, Jeremy Roenick, Eric Desjardins and other Flyers fired pucks at his head in the first practice after he appeared to ask to be taken out of a playoff game where he felt he wasn't getting sufficient support from his teammates. Cechmanek was also known to periodically pull himself of regular season games very shortly before scheduled starts if he wasn't feeling 100 percent that day. His goalie teammates generally didn't mind because it meant unexpected playing time, but it didn't sit well with the locker room leadership group.

On May 28, 2003, the Flyers traded Cechmanek to the Los Angeles Kings for a 2004 second-round pick. The pick later dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks in the deal that brought Alexei Zhamnov to Philadelphia for the 2003-04 stretch drive and playoffs.

Cechmanek spent one season with the Kings and then returned to Europe. He played in the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden before retiring in 2009. Cechmanek subsequently began a coaching career. Last season, he was head coach of Czech minor league team HC Valasske Mezirici. He also owns a microbrewery in Zlin.

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HOW THE FLYERS REBUILT THEIR PROSPECT PIPELINE

Over on the Flyers' official website, I authored an article on how the Flyers' farm system has vaulted over a five-year period from one of the most barren in the NHL to one of the most well-stocked both in quantity and quality of NHL prospects.

The fact that ESPN ranked the Flyers' farm system atop the NHL heading into the 2017-18 season -- even with Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny having already graduated from prospect status to full-time NHLers last year -- is nice. It brings some well-deserved national attention to the work Ron Hextall, Chris Pryor, the Flyers scouts and development coaches have been doing and which Paul Holmgren started at the beginning of the process.

Frankly, though, the Flyers farm system rebuild didn't need outside validation from ESPN pundit Corey Pronman, NBC commentator Pierre McGuire or even from the universally respected likes of Bob McKenzie and Craig Button. The more satisfying rewards will come as more prospects filter up to the NHL and there is empirical evidence that the process is working as planned.

Before 2013, the Flyers traded away too many draft pick assets over too long of a span in order to supplement the NHL roster immediately with veterans. Some of these moves helped the Flyers reach the Stanley Cup Final during the 2009-10 season, post 106 points the next year, and to upset the Penguins in the first round of the 2012 playoffs.

However, the widespread trading of second-round and third-round assets as well as several first-round picks (Chris Pronger and Kris Versteeg acquisitions) as well as unforseen circumstances (career-ending injuries to young NHL-caliber prospects such as Marc-Andre Bourdon and Eric Wellwood) ultimately decimated the organization's prospect pool.

There were some assets acquired. The most notable additions were the 2011 draft picks acquired from Columbus in the Jeff Carter trade that were used on Sean Couturier (first round) and Nick Cousins (third round) plus young NHLer Jakub Voracek as well as the acquisition of top LA Kings prospect Brayden Schenn in the Mike Richards trade along with established young NHLer Wayne Simmonds. Overall, however, there were more draft pick assets and prospects going out than coming during the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Starting with the 2013 Draft year, however, the Flyers started to put more emphasis on retaining picks. That draft saw Samuel Morin and Robert Hägg enter the prospect pool as the organization's first-round and second-round picks. When Ron Hextall became GM the next year, he began to accelerate the process by not only keeping picks but also stockpiling additional picks. The rest was up to the scouts and development personnel.

Hextall has said that it is an organizational goal every year to identify not just a viable first-round pick wherever they may happen to select (which is something the Flyers have usually done well for the last 27 years) but also to identify multiple future NHLers from the Draft class as a whole. The latter is something that needed to be improved upon. While the returns are not yet in on recent Draft crops, all signs point to the organization having set itself up to accomplish both goals.

In building the farm system to its current level of depth, Hextall also deserves credit not just for stockpiling picks but for his willingness to either trade down or trade up at the NHL Draft depending on the circumstances and opportunity.

In 2015, the Flyers traded up in the first round. After selecting Provorov with their own selection at number eight, they used a 1st-round selection acquired in the Braydon Coburn trade with Tampa Bay and a second-rounder from the Kimmo Timonen deal with Chicago in order to move up and select Konecny with the 24th pick.

In 2016, conversely, the Flyers traded down in the first round when they projected that German Rubtsov will likely still be on the board if they moved to the 22nd spot. In so doing, they were able to pick up an additional second-round pick (an early second-rounder at that) to the two they already had. The second rounders were used on Pascal Laberge, Carter Hart and Wade Allison.

At the most recent Draft, the Flyers had a stroke of good luck in winning the second overall pick in the lottery rather than selecting 13th. Taking Nolan Patrick was a no-brainer after the New Jersey Devils selected Nico Hischier. The Flyers then traded Schenn to the Blues and acquired first-round picks in 2017 and 2018 (conditional to top-10 lottery protection but which would become a non-lottery protected 1st rounder in 2019 if deferred). The 2017 pick was used on playmaking speedster Morgan Frost with the 27th overall pick.

Entering the 2017 Draft, the Flyers held 11 picks: 1/2, 2/44, 3/75, 3/80, 4/106, 4/107, 4/108, 5/137, 6/168, 7/199 and 7/200. The acquisition of the 27th overall pick in the Schenn trade gave Philly a dozen picks. Thus, Hextall felt comfortable about packaging three picks (the 44th, 75th and 108th overall) to acquire one pick from Arizona. Philly moved up to the 35th overall pick to take raw but intriguing 6-foot-6 power forward prospect Isaac Ratcliffe.

In these examples from the last three draft years, we have seen how stockpiling draft picks can be helpful to target specific players from the organization's internal pre-Draft rankings or else to add further selections within the first few rounds. There is two other benefits as well. Having more picks makes it easier to 1) diversify the prospect pool by position and skillset and 2) draft based upon upside rather than risk aversion.

For instance, if the Flyers had not held three picks in the second round in 2016, the likelihood that they would have taken goaltending prospect Carter Hart (48th overall) would have decreased due to the inherent developmental risk factors with goalie prospects. Likewise, the Flyers have been able to bring into the system both power-based and speed-oriented forwards, an array of athletically talented goaltending prospects and defensemen of varying projected roles and physical profiles.

They've also played their cards right in identifying higher-ceiling players who fell in the Draft. For example, Oskar Lindblom was considered a potential 1st-round or 2nd-round pick for 2014 at the time of the 2012-13 season (in fact, International Scouting Services projected him as a top 10 pick for 2014 in the "Looking Ahead" section one season prior to his Draft eligibility). The player's stock fell precipitously the next year due to skating development concerns and a so-so first three-quarters of the 2013-14 season.

Thus, the Flyers were able to pounce on Lindblom in round five of the 2014 Draft. Very quickly, he got back on his previous developmental track and his skating improved significantly through hard work and physical maturation. Now he's a potential future top-six NHL forward whom the Flyers believe is ready to challenge for an NHL job in 2017-18.

Last summer, when I had a discussion with Pryor before the Flyers' Development Camp, he had a chuckle at the organization's stroke of good fortune with Philippe Myers. The defense prospect Philippe Myers blossomed almost immediately after Philly signed the undrafted player following an impressive tryout at their 2015 training camp. Pryor readily admitted that no one -- not the Flyers and not even Myers himself -- would have predicted his rocket-like ascension as an NHL prospect thereafter.

Nevertheless, the Flyers liked Myers enough in the summer of 2015 to invite him to training camp after he attended the Calgary Flames' development camp but did not get a September camp invite from the Flames. Philly also recognized enough in training camp to get Myers under entry-level contract to secure his rights. Even if the player's projected NHL ceiling has been significantly raised since that time, the Flyers got in on the ground floor. Unexpectedly, Myers' stock exploded. If Myers had re-entered the NHL Draft in 2015, he'd have been a first-round pick after going undrafted the previous year.

It remains to be seen if sniping Russian forward Ivan Kosorenkov, twice undrafted but impressive as an invitee to the Flyers' recent Development Camp and set to attend next month's Rookie Camp as a tryout player, can duplicate what Myers did. Lightning rarely strikes twice. However, even if Kosorenkov were to earn an entry-level contract and go on to a pro career of any length, it would be another success story in building system depth.

Yet another system depth-builder: landing prominent collegiate free agents. The Flyers did that in each of the last two years as they got standout Yale goalie Alex Lyon and 2016-17 Hobey Baker Award finalist Mike Vecchione (Union College) under contract. In 2015, the organization picked up Cornell's Cole Bardreau; an alternate captain on the gold medal winning Team USA squad at the 2013 World Junior Championships and an ECAC Defensive Forward of the Year (2014-15) winner.

Prior to 2013, signing collegiate free agents was something of a depth lifeline to a Flyers thin farm system. There were multiple undrafted players the Flyers signed out of the college ranks who went on to play at some point in the NHL.

The biggest success story was Matt Read but there were also the likes of Darroll Powe, Erik Gustafsson, Harry Zolnierczyk and Ben Holmstrom who at least put in some time with the Flyers. Nowadays, it is a bonus to the system if the Flyers can add such players.

Hextall and Pryor get much of the credit for the farm system overhaul but the work of the scouts in the field as well as the developmental coaches is the day-to-day foundation on which it has been built. The Flyers have some excellent scouts on staff, including but not limited to Mark Greig, Rick Pracey (a very valuable addition after 15 years with the Colorado Avalanche), Todd Hearty, senior scouts Dennis Patterson and Simon Nolet, young collegiate scout Nick Pryor (Chris' son) and their European-based scouts as well as established development coaches John Riley, Kjell Samuelsson and Brady Robinson.

Something that has gone largely unnoticed but is worth comment: the Flyers have done a greatly improved job in recent years in converting their European scouting work into upwardly mobile prospects. With mixed results, the Flyers have also signed multiple European league veterans who joined the NHL team in recent years -- the biggest success stories being Michael Raffl and the now-departed Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- but that is an extended pro scouting function. The focus here is on the amateur side and the reconstruction of the prospect pipeline.

In Russia, Ken Hoodikoff has done some tremendous lead-in work for the Flyers over the years. The Flyers prospect chain, which has added not just Rubtsov but also under-the-radar top-nine forward Mikhail Vorobyev, 2017 goalie prospect draftee Kirill Ustimenko, has been bolstered through their selections.

The Flyers' 2013 hiring of an astute young Sweden-based scout named Joakim Grundberg has also filtered into the organizational prospect chain's huge improvement. After years of the organization having little to show from scouting the country that became the NHL's third-biggest source of future talent over the same time period, there is now a solid foothold.

The prime examples are Lindblom, Hägg and goalie prospect Felix Sandström. However, do not be surprised if at least one of defense prospects Linus Högberg or David Bernhardt eventually make their way over to North America on entry-level deals with the Flyers. The organization drafted forward Olle Lycksell this year as a long-term project. While 2014 seventh-round pick Jesper Pettersson is now out of the organization and had trouble staying in the AHL lineup with the Phantoms, he at least added some minor league depth for a couple years.

At present, I think there is opportunity for the Flyers to beef up their leads in Finland. Scouting is a team effort each year, whether it is of North American or European players. Even so, the regional scouts who view players the most times typically have to do the heaviest lifting within their area and provide good leads when their fellow scouts travel for cross-over viewings. That is why it is helpful when there's a home-base scout whose primary duties are in that area in addition to scouting international tournaments and doing cross-over work.

The Flyers have had several Finland-based scouts in the past including the late Ilkka Sinisalo and Antero Niitymäki (who at first served as a goalie-scouting specialist but later expanded his scope of duties), but I believe there is none at present. Now a New York Islanders scout, Matti Kautto scouted for the Flyers from 2008 to 2013.

A vacancy was eventually created after Nittymäki took on a general manager role with Liiga team TPS Turku. He did double duty for awhile as both a Flyers scout and the GM of TPS but he eventually focused his energies on running the Finnish team.

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QUICK HITS: AUGUST 17, 2017

1) Alum Birthday: Pete Peeters, a two-time All-Star goaltender with the Flyers and a Vezina Trophy winner the season after he was traded to the Boston Bruins, celebrates his 60th birthday today. The Flyers dealt him to the Bruins on June 9, 1982. In return, the Flyers received young defenseman Brad McCrimmon. The move also cleared a path for top goaltending prospect Pelle Lindbergh to be promoted to the NHL on a full-time basis.

* Alum birthday: Right winger Drew Callander turns 61 today. Callander was a second round pick in 1976 who spent parts of three seasons with the Flyers. Along with defenseman Kevin McCarthy, Callander was traded to the Vancouver Canucks in Dec. 1978 in an ill-fated deal for former two-time NHL All-Star Dennis Ververgaert. McCarthy went on become the Canucks captain and played in an NHL All-Star game, while former 37-goal scorer Ververgaert notched a combined 23 goals over one-and-a-half seasons in Philly.

* Today in Flyers History: Forty years ago today (Aug. 17, 1977), the Flyers signed an undrafted collegiate free agent forward from Providence College. The player had finished the 1976-77 season on an AHL tryout with the Springfield Indians. Although the player never earned an NHL callup and did not make much impact with the Maine Mariners in his one and only full AHL season, he went to become a recognizable -- sometimes controversial -- name and face around hockey.

The player's name: Brian Burke.

Burke was a bit player on the Mariners' Calder Cup championship winning team of 1977-78. He dressed in 65 games as a fourth-line forward, collecting three goals, eight points and 60 penalty minutes. Burke dressed in eight of the Mariners' 16 playoff games, failing to record a point but posting 25 penalty minutes.

After playing one season in the AHL, Burke temporarily left hockey to attend Harvard Law School. He earned his juris doctor in 1981. Burke then got back in the hockey business.

For much of the early to mid-1980s, Burke was an NHL player agent. In 1987, Pat Quinn (a connection from Burke's time in the Flyers' organization) hired him as the Vancouver Canucks' director of hockey operations.

Burke served in that post until 1992, when he left the Canucks to accept the general manager post with the Hartford Whalers. After one season on the job in Hartford, Burke accepted a job with the NHL and gave way for Whalers' head coach Paul Holmgren to also become the GM.

From 1993 until 1998, Burke served as the NHL's executive vice president and director of hockey operations and handled league disciplinary issues. In 1998, he returned to the Vancouver Canucks, succeeding old friend Quinn as the general manager. Burke remained through the 2003-04 season.

After the lock-out canceled 2004-05 season, Burke joined the Anaheim Ducks front office. As general manager in 2006-07, his club won the Stanley Cup. In Nov. 2008, Burke left the Ducks to join the Toronto Maple Leafs.

From Nov. 2008 to Jan. 2013, Burke had a tumultuous tenure as president and general manager of the Maple Leafs. On January 9, 2013, Burke was kicked upstairs into a senior advisory role and removed from hockey operations. He resigned nearly nine months later to pursue an opportunity with the Calgary Flames.

On Sept. 5, 2013, Burke became the Flames' president of hockey operations; which remains his current job title. After general manager Jay Feaster was fired, Burke served as interim general manager until hiring Brad Treliving to take over GM duties.
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