Flyers GM Paul Holmgren has had his dealin shoes on since his team was eliminated from the NHL Playoffs in May. In the past week, the Flyers have lost core contributors JVR, Jagr, and Carle. Though he only has Luke Schenn, Ruslan Fedetenko, and Bruno Gervais to show for all of his hard work, Holmgren was in the Parise and Suter poker games until he was informed that the tandem would be signing in Minnesota. What happened to the Broad Street Bullies?
Mi professore, Tim Panaccio tells it like it is. Panotch says that Philly was in on the Pairse-Suter bromance until the end stages.
Holmgren also addressed the dual, 12-year, $100 million offers to Suter and Parise that were turned down.
“We took a couple swings for the fences early on in free agency,” he said. “Those are adding players and not taking away from your team. Now we’ll slide to Plan B.
“We took our shot. They’re both elite players. We’re not the only team that took shots. Whether we had a chance or not, I don’t know. We took our shot.”
Suter’s camp informed Holmgren late July 3 the Flyer were out; Parise’s camp called the morning of July 4.
Fedetenko will skate in the top 6 and will contribute to the Flyer offense. Gervais is not Matt Carle, however, he eats minutes and doesn't make big mistakes in his end. Having said that, Holmgren and the Flyers are not looking to mortgage the farm in order to land a sniper like Bobby Ryan.
Up until Thursday afternoon, pundits had Philly pegged as a clubhouse leader to bag the disgruntled Duck, Bobby Ryan. Holmgren put to bed the scuttlebutt and rumours regarding a Ryan trade to Philly. He said as much on the media phone conference to announce the Fedetenko and Gervais signings.
“I really like our team,” Holmgren said, “and I’m hesitant to look at anything where I’ve got to give up something (important) to get something back. We have a lot of good young players that have tremendous potential. Quite frankly, I’m happy with our team right now. That doesn’t mean we won’t look and see what happens.”
And, by giving up "something to get something", Holmgren meant that he's not interested in trading Brayden Schenn and/or Sean Couturier to Anaheim for Ryan.
Holmgren's had some competition on the Ryan front in the form of Darcy Regier. Sounds to me like Homer just gave Regier the green light to pursue the Cherry Hill, NJ native.
Will Regier created an attractive enough offer to convince Anaheim GM, Bob Murray to trade Ryan to Buffalo?
Personally, I think Regier is doing just that. Perhaps Thursday's acquisition of centre Kevin Porter will serve as a catalyst for a Ryan-to-Buffalo deal. Luke Adam had been used primarily by Amerks coach Ron Rolston as a left winger last season, after Adam was demoted to AHL Rochester in February. For whatever reason, Adam lost his way at centre and was juxtaposed to the wall.
Bob Murray is looking for a second line centre. He already has Corey Perry and Saku Koivu on lines one and three, respectively. he needs a centreman for his second unit.
Adam proved in October-December 2011 that he can skate with to line talent and can tickle the twine. His faceoffs need some work, but he's a young kid. he'll learn the fine art of face off cheating before you know it.
Word in the OC, and elsewhere, is that Buffalo are still in the hunt for Ryan.
Tanya Lyons and Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register talk about it in this video. Fast forward to the 3:40 mark for Stephens' take: Murray is not shopping Ryan, however, he's accepting offers for the perennial 30 goal scorer.
Might Holmgren's comments precipitate a Ryan to Buffalo trade in the days to come? We'll have to wait and see. I've been told that Buffalo are one of four teams with serious interest in Ryan, the others being the Islanders, Bruins, and Rangers.
The longer Scott Howson waits to unload Rick Nash, the more attractive Bobby Ryan appears. One thing is clear to me. Bob Murray and Bobby Ryan aren't chillin at Disney World together this holiday weekend. Smells like angst and animosity. Such things are good for Ryan, and bad for Murray. Ryan's sick of the B.S, he said as much two weeks ago. Murray should have sat the kid down and hugged this thing out after he returned from the draft in Pittsburgh. From the sounds of it, Murray and Ryan are not communicating. Hurts Murray's leverage.
Watch this video from September 2010. Murray took the entire Summer to sign Ryan to a five year contract. Listen to the emotion in Tyan's voice. That was two Summers ago. Imagine how he feels towards his GM now.
Players always want to know where they stand with their coaches and GMs. Sounds like Murray makes it a habit of keeping Ryan on the outside of the circle of information.
Don't worry Sabre fan. Cody Hodgson and Tyler Ennis are not going anywhere. They are off limits. However, Leino may like to chill out West with Finn bros Selanne, Koivu and Lydman.
Playing with Selanne may be just what the doctor ordered for the enigmatic Leino.
So the news of the Kevin Porter signing is indeed true. No earth-shattering news. Good player with excellent pedigree. Long odds of winning one of four centre slots in Buffalo for next season. Hodgson, Ennis, McCormick, and Ellis are all in the mix. Grigorenko will be busting his tail all Summer to get himself in the right head space, to say nothing of his peak cardio and physical level in order to unseat an incumbent. Plus, Darcy Regier is still fishing for a tried and true #1 centre.
So, where does that leave Porter. Here's your EZ Pass, kid. See you in Rochester.
The Amerks are thin at centre and this Porter signing re-unites Amerks coach, Ron Rolston, with a former USA Hockey foot soldiers in Porter.
Kevin Oklobzija of the Rochester D and C spoke with Amerks boss, Rolston and tweeted:
Kevin Porter went from every-night to part-time with Avs. "He kind of understands he has to fight his way back," #Amerks' Ron Rolston
The Amerks, like their big bros, are thin at centre right now. Luke Adam may, or may not play the middle next season. Rolston likes him better on the LW wall. Varone's a given. Girgensons? Will he make Amerks or go to Vermont? Matt Ellis may be an Amerk, if he can get through waivers without getting plucked off the wire. Ellis is a brick and mortar guy. The kind of player that every coach loves to have on his team.
So, Porter represents a needed upgrade at the pivot in Rochester. Porter would have to clear waivers to get down the I-90, too.
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If the Twitterverse and the player's agent, Alec Schaal, are correct, then the Sabres have signed centre Kevin Porter, formerly of the Colorado Avalanche.
Darcy Regier has been wanting to add another center with size and skill.
Porter won the Hobey Baker Award in 2008 for best NCAA Hockey Player
Flyers GM, Paul Holmgren, signed Ruslan Fedetenko and Bruno Gervais today.
On his conference call to announce the signings, Holmgren all but said that he is not interested in moving young assets (read: Brayden Schenn andd Sean Couturier) for the Cheey Hill, NJ sniper, Bobby Ryan. Holmgren said that he likes the composition of his team right now.
Next move is yours, Mr. Regier.
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16 players have opted for NHL salary arbitration. How'd that work for Shea Weber and Zach Parise last Summer? How about Danny Briere and JP Dumont in Buffalo, back in the day?ntil
The hearings will take place in Toronto from 7/20-8/4.
Teams can sign their players to contract extensions right up until the day of their hearing with the arbitrator. Historically speaking, most cases that go before the arbitrator end up straining the relationship between the player and the team because the team presents its best case for why the players doesn't deserve a pay raise, while the player agent and player sell their best to convince the arbitrator that the player is deserving of a substantial bump in pay. Remember how Briere was awarded a one year $5 million arb ruling and he was blown out the door the next July 1st? The Sabres still haven't fully recovered from the departures of Briere and Drury. In Briere's case, the Sabres were not will to pay him what he felt he was worth. He played out his one-off contract and won the lotto on 7/1/07.
The four notables that jump off the page at me are:
TJ Oshie, Sam Gagner, Jamie McGinn and Kris Versteeg.
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