MELTZER'S MUSINGS: MAY 21, 2015
1) Although Flyers general manager
Ron Hextall declined to confirm any specifics on the contract given to newly signed defenseman
Evgeni Medvedev, it has been widely reported that the Russian veteran signed a one-year, $3 million contract.
Why so much for a soon-to-be 33-year-old player who has never played in North America? Competition.
After signing with the Flyers yesterday, Medvedev told the Russian media that he had received contract offers from five different NHL teams. Initially, he said, he had hoped to get a two-year contract from the Flyers but realized it was to both sides' benefit if he signed for one year. Iif things go well next season, he can negotiate an extension.
During a media conference call yesterday, Hextall said that he expects Medvedev, who was a perennial minutes eater in his KHL and international career, to be a top four defenseman for the Flyers next season. Another appealing facet of signing Medvedev is that he is comfortable playing either left defense (he's a lefthanded shot) or the right side. That creates more flexibility in potential pairings.
Currently,
Luke Schenn and
Radko Gudas are the only righthanded shooting defensemen in the Flyers crowded blueline picture, and it seems unlikely that a lineup featuring both players in the starting six (assuming the team has a healthy lineup) would jibe with the system new head coach
Dave Hakstol plans to implement.
2) Hextall acknowledged that
Erik Gustafsson contacted the Flyers through his agent, the controversial
Ritch Winter, and expressed interest in returning to the team. Gustafsson, a restricted free agent, opted last season to play in the KHL because he wanted more playing time (and more money) than he was getting in Philadelphia. The Flyers nevertheless tendered the player a qualifying offer in order to retain his NHL rights.
Gustafsson had a good KHL season as a top-pairing defenseman for Avangard Omsk. However, with his long-term ambitions still laying in the NHL and the Russian economy cratering since last year, his hope was to return to North America.
Hextall said on Wednesday that the Flyers currently don't have room for any more defensemen. Swedish newspaper Expressen reported three weeks ago that Gustafsson was in negotiations to extend his contract with Avangard.
Although a segment of Flyers fans holds Gustafsson in very high regard, the consensus on him among NHL pro scouts is that he is something of an AHL/NHL "tweener" whose ideal level of play might actually be found as a solid KHL defenseman rather than as 7th or 6th NHL blueliner.
Talk to scouts and this is usually their impression of Gustafsson (which hasn't changed much in the last three or four years): He is a decent puck-mover and passer but not top caliber. He's developed into a competent coverage defenseman but he's not what could be deemed a shutdown defender. He has produced points at a healthy clip at the AHL level, but he's not quite talented enough to be an offensive defenseman in the NHL (at least not without becoming a defensive liability). He's a good skater but not off-the-charts. Last but not least, while solidly built with a low center of gravity, Gustafsson is undersized and sometimes gets manhandled along the walls and in front of his net. He lacks physicality and there are bigger and better containment defenders.
As a result, Gustafsson repeatedly found him in a frustrating situation where he was clearly good enough to play above the AHL level but not quite good enough to hold down a regular starting six job in the NHL.
Prior to the 2013-14 season, then-coach
Peter Laviolette was very high on Gustafsson, believing that he turned a corner and reached a new level in his game during the final 10 games of the lockout-shortened previous campaign (when Laviolette experimented with pairing Gustafsson with
Kimmo Timonen and "Gus" pulled down 20 minutes of ice time per game) and during a stellar performance for gold medalist Sweden at the 2013 IIHF World Championships.
Gustafsson came to came in 2013 with an NHL starting job in his grasp, but seemed to be putting too much pressure on himself. He had a mediocre-at-best preseason and wound up an healthy scratch by a disappointed Laviolette in each of the first three games of the regular season. Laviolette was fired as head coach after the third game of the regular season and replaced by assistant coach
Craig Berube.
Although Berube was very different than Laviolette in many ways, he seemed to be on the same page in regard to Gustafsson. The Swedish blueliner dressed in 31 regular season games and two of seven playoff games. While Gustafsson actually played rather effectively in stretches, he was unable to stay in the lineup.
Unless he had given up on his NHL dream and shifted his focus to being a higher-end two-way player in the KHL (or other European circuits) and a Tre Kronor candidate, leaving North America last summer was a risky move for Gustafsson. Demand for his services among other NHL teams already seemed lukewarm, because many clubs have compare players already available in-house. Despite his solid season in Russia, the 26-year-old Gustafsson's situation relative to the NHL does not seem to have markedly improved.
Rest assured that if Hextall viewed a potential Gustafsson return as an upgrade of any significance, the Flyers would have added him to the current logjam, knowing they will be paring down the roster as the offseason progresses. That will be the topic of an upcoming blog but it's fair to say that pretty much anyone from last season's defense can be had in a trade this summer depending on the offer.
In a similar fashion, if another NHL team were to contact Hextall and tell him they were interested in acquiring Gustafsson's rights, it's a safe bet he'd be agreeable to it. At least as of now, that hasn't happened. For Gustafsson's sake, hopefully there is a team that thinks he can compete for a job out of camp.
3) There is a certain full-circle irony about Ritch Winter calling Ron Hextall to discuss negotiating a new contract for a client who bolted the team a year ago. During Hextall's playing days, he made an ill-fated decision to hire Winter as his own agent. The decision nearly ruined Hextall's relationship with the Flyers.
Before the 1989-90 season, Winter advised Hextall to stage a holdout to renegotiate his previously signed contract (an eight-year deal paying $500,000 per season). Hextall did as his agent suggested. That's when things turned very ugly and personal between Winter and the Flyers'
Jay Snider and
Bob Clarke. The two sides stopped speaking, because any discussion rapidly devolved into a shouting match.
The Flyers refused to renegotiate the deal, pointing out that Hextall was already making more at the time than even
Patrick Roy. Winter dug in his heels.
The holdout dragged on for six weeks. Hextall started to get very nervous. Eventually he made the decision himself to end the holdout. Unfortunately, the lengthy holdout left Hextall out of game shape and scrambling to catch up. In what turned out to be a disastrous season both for Hextall and the Flyers (who missed the playoffs for the first of five straight years), the former Vezina Trophy winning goalie suffered a groin pull on Nov 4, a pulled hamstring on Nov. 15 and then tore the right side of his groin on Dec. 13 and missed the next 18 games. About six weeks after his return, he hurt his left groin.
Immediately after the 1989-90 season, Winter once again informed the Flyers that he wanted to renegotiate Hextall's contract. Jay Snider
publicly ripped the agent. New general manager
Russ Farwell began to look into trade possibilities. Rumors of potential trades to Detroit or Vancouver swirled.
In late July 1990,
Hextall hired Steve Mountain to be his agent and dismissed Winter. In October 1990, the Flyers and Hextall agreed to a new contract.
Twenty-five years later, Hextall is the general manager of the Flyers. He is professional enough to get a deal done with any agent if he wants to sign a particular player. That includes Winter's clients as well as everyone else's. Likewise, Winter's job is to get contracts for his clients. He's not going to let past clashes with Flyers management preclude placing a client (especially one with restricted movement in the NHL and lacking overwhelming outside interest) with Philly.
Nevertheless, given the long ago back-story here, it is an awkward situation. It's always a bit awkward based on more recent history. Winter represents
Ilya Bryzgalov and that particular player-agent-management triangle was far from harmonious, either.
Let's put it this way: Having Winter as his agent and signing in Russia last summer without first telling the Flyers he was going there did not cost Erik Gustafsson a new Flyers contract for 2015-16. But it sure didn't help the Swedish defenseman's chances of coming back, either.
4) Earlier this month, a Russian-language
article in Championat.com reported that the Flyers were among the most active pursuers of 23-year-old CSKA Moscow defenseman
Nikita Zaitsev. Immediately after the Flyers' signing of Medvedev became public, unsubstantiated rumors swirled from Russia that Philly was still interested in signing Zaitsev, too, despite the logjam on defense and the reported rebuffing of Gustafsson.
This is what is known about Zaitsev with a reasonable amount of reliability: The Flyers considered drafting him back in 2010 but did not due to concerns about signability. However, the team remained interested, with Russian-based scout
Ken Hoody holding the player in high regard. Two years ago, the Flyers were said to have made a heavy push for the player (then coming off a breakthrough season with Sibir Novosibirsk) but he elected to stay in Russia and sign with CSKA.
Now the Flyers would have competition for Zaitsev. The Championat article said that Buffalo was another team -- among several others -- with interest. However, the player has one year remaining on his KHL deal with CSKA and a termination agreement would have to be reached, as Medvedev did with Ak Bars Kazan. Furthermore, Zaitsev is coming off an undisclosed injury that reportedly was what kept him off the Russian roster for the 2015 IIHF World Championships.
How strong is the actual possibility of Zaitsev eventually joining countryman Medvedev on the Flyers? That's hard to say. The Flyers are completely tight-lipped about it and Zaitsev's agent recently declined comment to the Camden Courier Post, saying he can't comment "until something happens" (presumably a termination agreement with CSKA and the acceptance of an NHL offer).
The primary allure of Zaitsev: youth and upside. At 23, he's nearly 10 years younger than Medvedev. He's a righthanded shooter with good skating and sufficient size. Finally, he's been on a steadily upward-arching development curve that may continue to rise. Zaitsev is coming off a fine KHL season, posting 32 points (12 goals, 20 assists) and a plus-27 at even strength in 57 regular season games and then adding eight points in 16 playoff games as CSKA fell one win short of reaching the Gagarin Cup Finals.
5) Earlier today, the Flyers announced that they have signed unrestricted free agent right winger
Aaron Palushaj to a contract for the 2015-16 season. Palushaj, who will turn 26 in late September, spent the past season in the KHL after shuttling between the NHL and AHL with several organizations. This a depth signing to help the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms while also adding a potential callup to the NHL roster.
********
FLYERS ALUMNI FANTASY HOCKEY CAMP
The Flyers Alumni will host a fantasy hockey camp from August 21-24 in Atlantic City, open to anyone age 21 and older. Instructors and Alumni participants will include
Bernie Parent,
Brian Propp,
Ian Laperriere,
Todd Fedoruk,
Andre "Moose" Dupont,
Dave "the Hammer" Schultz,
Joe Watson and
Bob "the Hound" Kelly.
The registration deadline is June 1. Participation costs $3,000 apiece but it is free to
register a spot online. Over on the Flyers' Alumni website, there is
more information on camp-related activities and on-ice schedules.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»