The Philadelphia Flyers took steps on the first day of free agency to improve the bottom half of their forward lineup. The club signed forward Dale Weise, who will turn 28 next month, to a four-year, $2.35 million cap hit contract. They also brought about Boyd Gordon, who will turn 33 in October, to a one-year, $950,000 contract.
The Flyers are unlikely to bring back Sam Gagner, and Flyers general manager Ron Hextall indicated that a last ditch effort on Monday morning to come to terms on a new deal with Ryan White were unsuccessful. White ultimately signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Arizona Coyotes, from where Gordon is departing (for a second time in his career).
Combined, Weise and Gordon have 1,022 games of the NHL regular season experience.
Weise is a better-skating version and much less penalty prone player in the type of agitating forechecker role that the crash-and-bang specialist White plays. Weise brings good size and somewhat better goal-scoring ability than White. Both are hard workers. White's upbeat, bubbly personality will be missed. He helped keep the team loose. Coincidentally, Weise and White are fellow Manitoba natives.
In the latter part of the 2015-16 season, White started to get power play time as the netfront player on the second unit. Weise, who had three power play goals last season with Montreal, could also assume those duties.
"Dale Weise gives us size, he gives us some speed, he gives us some tenacious play. He plays with an edge. He’s got some pretty good hands. He can add to our depth scoring, our top line scoring, kind of one of the areas we identified that we wanted to add some depth to our top three lines, and we feel like we did that with Dale," Hextall said.
Gordon, whose fourth-line role last season in Arizona was almost exclusively tailored by head coach Dave Tippett to be one of taking defensive zone shifts, killing penalties and taking faceoffs --- the areas that are his specialties. He is an excellent faceoff man. Position-wise, he can play either center or wing. Gordon is also known as a well-respected dressing room presence.
"Boyd Gordon is a role player, high character guy. We felt like the right shot on the PK faceoff was important. Kind of like Dale, he blocks shots. He’s got some versatility – he can play the right side, can play the middle," said Hextall.
The Flyers general manager also pointed out one crucial potential use of Gordon that will not show up on his statistics -- whether basic or advanced stats -- but which could have a positive cumulative effect on team captain Claude Giroux and, by extension, the team as whole.
"I think the one thing it does for us is it should free Giroux up to not take quite as many D-zone faceoffs on the PK and hopefully give G a minute or two more of offensive situations," Hextall said.
Hextall indicated that while he will keep on the lookout at what is left in the free agent market as well as potential trades, there is nothing else imminent. He conceded that adding a scoring winger for the top six group of forwards proved unworkable.
"We addressed some of our needs. I think we would have loved to add a scorer to our top six, but it just wasn’t there. So we’ll go with what we’ve got. We feel comfortable with what we’ve got. We’ve got flexibility with the cap, and we’ve got multiple call-ups if we decided to go that way once the season starts. We’ll continue to monitor the market here, and if something falls we’ll take a look at it," Hextall said.
"You’re never done. You’re always looking at trades and what not. Whether there’s anything in the market right now, I’m not sure there is. But we’ll continue to monitor the market and if something comes along on the trade market, we’ll look at it."
Hextall also gave an update on Brayden Schenn, saying that it is something he will start working on in earnest "fairly quickly" and said that getting something worked out this summer "is not an issue."
The Flyers also made three signings geared toward the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Former Hobey Baker Award winner Andy Miele is a bonafide top-line center at the American Hockey League level.He was sixth in the AHL in scoring last year, and tops in the Western Conference.
He is very small physically -- so putting him on a line with fellow speedy mighty mite Danick Martel may not happen but it would be entertaining to watch. Miele is a very good playmaker. Rookie Nicolas Aube-Kubel and two-way forward Taylor Leier are potential linemates, too. If Oskar Lindblom had opted to play in the AHL rather than Sweden next year, it would have potentially been a nice combo of power and finesse. Perhaps that will be an option late in the season after Lindblom's (presumably final) campaign with Brynäs is finished.
Hextall indicated that he considers the 28-year-old Miele a potential call-up to the NHL next season if the Flyers need an offensive-oriented forward. He was signed to a one-year, one-way contract.
"He’s a depth player for us. Scoring has been an issue for us, so he gives us another option if we feel like we need to score more goals. He’s a skill player and he can score goals," said Hextall.
Former St. Lawrence University star Greg Carey, 26, is a pure goal scorer. Playing on a weak Springfield Falcons squad last year, he scored 26 goals. Nevertheless, Carey is a proven goal-scorer at the sub-NHL level. He once scored 72 goals and 114 points in just 48 games at the CCHL level, averaged well over a point-per game throughout his collegiate hockey career and really took off for Springfield in the AHL last season until late in the season.
According to Phantoms play-by-play announcer Bob Rotruck, Carey briefly held the AHL league lead in goals with 24 after a two-goal game against Lehigh Valley. He faded down the stretch.
Former University of Maine captain Will O'Neill, 28, is a proven AHL-level offensive defenseman. He's coming off a 50-point season (third in scoring among AHL defensemen) in 2015-16 for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Both Carey and O'Neill were signed to two-way NHL contracts. The combination of the three new signings plus the offensive talents of rookies Travis Sanheim and Aube-Kubel figure to give the Phantoms a much more potent attack than it is had in years.
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2016 FLYERS ALUMNI GOLF INVITATIONAL
The 2016 Flyers Alumni Golf Invitational will be held on July 18 at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. The event will raise money for the Flyers Alumni Association, Flyers Charities and BLOCS.
The Golf Invitational will offer a round of golf, lunch, cocktail reception and dinner program.
Subject to changes and additions, the following Flyers Alumni -- widely representing every decade of team history -- will be attending: Ray Allison, Bill Barber, Frank Bathe, Craig Berube, Brian Boucher, Jesse Boulerice, Danny Briere, Terry Carkner, Lindsay Carson, Jeff Chychrun, Bob Clarke, Bill Clement, Steve Coates, Riley Cote, Doug Crossman, Barry Dean, Eric Desjardins, Andre "Moose" Dupont, Doug Favell, Todd Fedoruk, Ross Fitzpatrick, Mark Freer, Larry Goodenough, TJ Gorence, Paul Holmgren, Ed Hospodar, Mark Howe, Kerry Huffman, Bob "the Hound" Kelly, Tim Kerr, Orest Kindrachuk, Mike Knuble, Ian Laperriere, Mitch Lamoureaux, Neil Little, Brad Marsh, Phil Myre, Bernie Parent, Dave Poulin, Brian Propp, Chris Pronger, Luke Richardson, Don Saleski, Dave "the Hammer" Schultz (attending but not golfing), Ilkka Sinisalo, Derrick Smith, and Joe Watson.
For more information,
click here.
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