Wasn't Gaborik a TDL pickup?
- Tomahawk

Yes he was, but that is what I was saying they went out and made an addition to their team which in their case needed some more scoring. I was hoping Hexy could have done the same this off season via FA or trade.

I don't know if Coots' offense will get to where it was his rookie year due to him having to focus so much on his defensive skill when his on the ice. I think Schenn can stay consistent and have a year similar to last.

I think if G gets off to a quick start things will be good. This team goes as he goes.
- Pelle31Forever

You are right about G. This team has shown they go as he does.
If Couturier can be moved to 2nd line C he does have the tools to put up better numbers. He could play a " Mike Richards" role.
VL should C 3rd line

I appreciate Gagne's career. However, it speaks volumes the entire league has had this much time to sign Gagne to a contract and nothing has materialized. I don't know what happened last summer, but what it appears is that Gagne because of age just can't play hockey at an NHL level. Much rather have Akeson or Alderson have a chance at LW this season.
- ravishingone

100%

Yes he was, but that is what I was saying they went out and made an addition to their team which in their case needed some more scoring. I was hoping Hexy could have done the same this off season via FA or trade.
- 3flyerkids

TDL additions and UFA additions are completely different beasts, IMO.

UFA, you generally overpay in $ and it impacts the base quality of your team for the entire season. Give Player X $1M more than he's probably worth, and that's $1 less you can allocate to other needs -- that sort of thing.

TDL you generally overpay in assets (generally futures), which aren't going to be felt in the short-term... so you are actually adding to the quality of your team immediately, versus experiencing the kind of trade-offs/opportunity costs associated w/ UFA's.

Yes he was, but that is what I was saying they went out and made an addition to their team which in their case needed some more scoring. I was hoping Hexy could have done the same this off season via FA or trade.
- 3flyerkids

Tough to do. Hexy's hamstrung with the length on some of these deals. There's hardly any cap room. They could've added a guy like Raymond or maybe squeezed in a j jokinen, but I'm glad they didn't Bc those guys wouldn't move the needle very much

BSchenn G Voracek
Read Vinny Simmer
Akeson Coots Umberger
Rinaldo Laughton Rosie/Raffl

Kimmo Coburn
Macdonald LSchenn
Grossmann Streit
Shultz/one of the kids

Mason
Emery

I think Reads defense and speed would really compliment that 2nd line and help out Vinny tremendously. Lets face it, VL is only effective at center, and he will be on the Flyers roster at the start of the season. Playing Vinny as 4C is silly.

You are right about G. This team has shown they go as he does.
If Couturier can be moved to 2nd line C he does have the tools to put up better numbers. He could play a " Mike Richards" role.
VL should C 3rd line
- 3flyerkids

Vinny is a defensive liability at this point. Idk if I feel comfortable with him as the 3rd line C. He did fairly well on the 4th. I think Coots was taylor made for the 3rd line. Put Vinny at 2nd line with Raffl and Simmonds as his wingers. I think Schenn gets the nod at LW on the 1st line.

I am not all too concerned with the offense, that D they have out there worries me to death.

BSchenn G Voracek
- acd513

Hate the idea of B Schenn at LW for the same reasons as VL... guy needs to be in the middle or right-side to get his best looks at the net. He's murder from the slot and right-circle.

Putting him at LW, I feel, would more or less mean he's going to get relegated to ill-fitting net-front presence...

Hate the idea of B Schenn at LW for the same reasons as VL... guy needs to be in the middle or right-side to get his best looks at the net. He's murder from the slot and right-circle.

Putting him at LW, I feel, would more or less mean he's going to get relegated to ill-fitting net-front presence...
- Tomahawk

Bill Meltzer: Meltzer's Musings: Saturday Quick Hits
- bmeltzer

Faceoffs are absolutely a cause for concern heading into this season. Giroux is very good but once you lose the experience of Adam Hall and replace him with a rookie such as Scott Laughton, we should expect growing pains. Not that Lecavalier was ever a great faceoff man to begin with, he's an all time above 50% and with such a pour performance at the dot during the half season that saw us missing the playoffs, this is why Hall and Lecavalier were brought in. This and improving the PK from the standpoint of Adam Hall and secondary offense from Lecavalier.

Gagne earned a second chance with the Flyers. I saw instant improvement from the defensive side of the puck with Gagne joined the team after the trade from LA. He got back faster to help the defense in most cases, which was an element missing in the first half of the half season. This experience alone could have helped last season. I thought Gagne played extremely well for us and most importantly he avoided injury both with LA and the Flyers. Unfortunately in LA he was a healthy scratch a few times.

Hate the idea of B Schenn at LW for the same reasons as VL... guy needs to be in the middle or right-side to get his best looks at the net. He's murder from the slot and right-circle.

Putting him at LW, I feel, would more or less mean he's going to get relegated to ill-fitting net-front presence...
- Tomahawk

Thats why I'd put Vinnie on Giroux's RW and go with:

Read or Raffl-G-VL
Umberger-Schenn-Voracek
Read or Raffl-Couturier-Simmonds
PEB-Laughton-Akeson or Rinaldo

To me, it's the only place that makes sense for VL. His defensive liabilities aren't as harmful at wing rather than at center, and playing with Giroux, he should be able to score some goals.

TDL additions and UFA additions are completely different beasts, IMO.

UFA, you generally overpay in $ and it impacts the base quality of your team for the entire season. Give Player X $1M more than he's probably worth, and that's $1 less you can allocate to other needs -- that sort of thing.

TDL you generally overpay in assets (generally futures), which aren't going to be felt in the short-term... so you are actually adding to the quality of your team immediately, versus experiencing the kind of trade-offs/opportunity costs associated w/ UFA's.
- Tomahawk

I see what you are saying by " different beasts" but ultimately you have to give something to get something. I think the Kings gave up the same thing for Gaborik as we did for AMac ( I believe 2nd and 3rd).
Teams win trades and loose trades and that is up to the GM. They can also overpay for FA's like you said but again that is up to GM.
Stevie Y did not overpay for Stralman. Rutherford did not overpay for Ehrhoff ( who would have been perfect at that term and coin)
I know Hextall is a little cap restricted, but I was more or less hoping for some kind of trade to enhance the blueline

Faceoffs are absolutely a cause for concern heading into this season. Giroux is very good but once you lose the experience of Adam Hall and replace him with a rookie such as Scott Laughton, we should expect growing pains. Not that Lecavalier was ever a great faceoff man to begin with, he's an all time above 50% and with such a pour performance at the dot during the half season that saw us missing the playoffs, this is why Hall and Lecavalier were brought in. This and improving the PK from the standpoint of Adam Hall and secondary offense from Lecavalier.

Gagne earned a second chance with the Flyers. I saw instant improvement from the defensive side of the puck with Gagne joined the team after the trade from LA. He got back faster to help the defense in most cases, which was an element missing in the first half of the half season. This experience alone could have helped last season. I thought Gagne played extremely well for us and most importantly he avoided injury both with LA and the Flyers. Unfortunately in LA he was a healthy scratch a few times.
- SuperSchennBros

Couturier seems to improving each season on faceoffs, I think he will pick up the slack for Hall.

Anyone else surprised Del Zotto is still unsigned ?
I would think he's listening/filtering offers before signing, but one would think a couple of teams are willing to take a chance on him.

Streaky player, inconsistent, but the kid does have potential. I doubt he would fit or add much with our current offensive D-man (Kimmo, Streit and AMac). But unlike the first two guys, he is young and still developing.

Is a one year contract with a low cap hit worth the gamble ?

I see what you are saying by " different beasts" but ultimately you have to give something to get something. I think the Kings gave up the same thing for Gaborik as we did for AMac ( I believe 2nd and 3rd).
Teams win trades and loose trades and that is up to the GM. They can also overpay for FA's like you said but again that is up to GM.
Stevie Y did not overpay for Stralman. Rutherford did not overpay for Ehrhoff ( who would have been perfect at that term and coin)
I know Hextall is a little cap restricted, but I was more or less hoping for some kind of trade to enhance the blueline
- 3flyerkids

Agreed, but it's really hard to trade for quality D anymore without significantly over paying.

Anyone else surprised Del Zotto is still unsigned ?
I would think he's listening/filtering offers before signing, but one would think a couple of teams are willing to take a chance on him.

Streaky player, inconsistent, but the kid does have potential. I doubt he would fit or add much with our current offensive D-man (Kimmo, Streit and AMac). But unlike the first two guys, he is young and still developing.

Is a one year contract with a low cap hit worth the gamble ?
- Chris48

If Timonen had retired, it would have made sense. Not sure where he'd fit at this point.

So what happened to Gagne last season? Did he play in Europe? How did he do?

So what happened to Gagne last season? Did he play in Europe? How did he do?
- xShoot4WarAmpsx

As far as I know, he didn't play anywhere

Anyone else surprised Del Zotto is still unsigned ?
I would think he's listening/filtering offers before signing, but one would think a couple of teams are willing to take a chance on him.

Streaky player, inconsistent, but the kid does have potential. I doubt he would fit or add much with our current offensive D-man (Kimmo, Streit and AMac). But unlike the first two guys, he is young and still developing.

Is a one year contract with a low cap hit worth the gamble ?
- Chris48

Not really, he'd be a good low risk high reward player since he is still relatively young but he just isn't that good.

If Timonen had retired, it would have made sense. Not sure where he'd fit at this point.
- BiggE

I agree, he doesn't fit at the moment. But is it worth the gamble ?
Kimmo is most likely done after this season, a 1 year deal at 1.5M let's say for Del Zotto. Maybe a bounce back year and an eventual ''replacement'' for Kimmo.

I appreciate Gagne's career. However, it speaks volumes the entire league has had this much time to sign Gagne to a contract and nothing has materialized. I don't know what happened last summer, but what it appears is that Gagne because of age just can't play hockey at an NHL level. Much rather have Akeson or Alderson have a chance at LW this season.
- ravishingone

I think a lot of things are being overlooked.

First, Simon Gagne was playing so well within all three zones his last season with the Flyers that Peter Laviolette took Hartnell off the top line and replaced Hartnell with Gagne. So Gagne has never proved he couldn't play anymore. He never had the chance to prove otherwise.

Second, it was reported that Gagne (as well as most of the fans in here) thought he was a lock to be re-signed with the team that drafted him and knew him so well. The Flyers prior had never proven to be unloyal to Gagne in the past, so as reported Gagne told his agent to not take any offers. We went all summer expecting him to be signed at any time. There was no reason to suggest that he wouldn't be signed until training camp came.

Third, maybe teams were interested. Maybe they weren't. At this moment in time we haven't passed on anyone in free agency. We simply do not have the cap space to sign anyone. We only know what's been reported. We're assuming no teams weren't interested, but it's never been reported nobody was. Heck, even Scott Gomez was signed last summer and he's been bad for a number of years now.

Last, we don't know if Akeson can play Left Wing, nor do we know if Alderson is even going to get consideration to make the Flyers next season.

I agree, he doesn't fit at the moment. But is it worth the gamble ?
Kimmo is most likely done after this season, a 1 year deal at 1.5M let's say for Del Zotto. Maybe a bounce back year and an eventual ''replacement'' for Kimmo.
- Chris48

Who are you sitting to get him into the lineup?

Thats why I'd put Vinnie on Giroux's RW and go with:

Read or Raffl-G-VL
Umberger-Schenn-Voracek
Read or Raffl-Couturier-Simmonds
PEB-Laughton-Akeson or Rinaldo

To me, it's the only place that makes sense for VL. His defensive liabilities aren't as harmful at wing rather than at center, and playing with Giroux, he should be able to score some goals.
- BiggE

I just think G and Jake work well together, I would not want to break them up. I am not sure if Raffl is 1st line material and Wayne should be no less than 2nd line. What to do with VL seems to be the question....as we all know

- PhillySportsGuy

I see your point. Just dont see Chief splitting up G and Voracek. Schenn is the most versatile option to slot at LW. Umberger aint top 6 material

If Timonen had retired, it would have made sense. Not sure where he'd fit at this point.
- BiggE

Would he be worth a one year deal at 1.5....if they traded Grossman. Could get something for him plus save cap money. MDS would provide more mobility but he is streaky