Quick Hits: July 22, 2023
1) USA Hockey has announced the split-roster assignments for the World Junior Summer Showcase (July 27 to August 4) in Plymouth, Michigan. Cutter Gauthier and Devin Kaplan have both been assigned to USA While, while Cole Knuble will skate for USA Blue. On July 29, USA Blue opens against Team Sweden (1 p.m. EDT) while USA White plays Finland (4 p.m. EDT).
2) Today in Flyers History: July 22
* 1974: The defending Stanley Cup champion Flyers sign head coach Fred Shero to a three-year contract extension. Shero had been publicly toying with the idea of leaving hockey to attend law school instead. Neither Ed Snider nor Keith Allen took the threat seriously, but Shero had earned a raise by leading the team to the Cup semis in 1972-73 and the Stanley Cup championship the next year.
After the Flyers won the Cup again in 1974-75, beat Red Army and later returned to the Cup Final again in 1975-76, Shero's contract was extended again through the 1978-79 season. The Flyers reached the Cup semis in 1976-77 and 1977-78 before Shero jumped the final year of the contract to become the head coach and general manager of the New York Rangers. The Flyers accepted a 1978 first-round draft pick (Ken Linseman) from the Rangers as compensation to settle the tampering dispute.
* 2019: For several consecutive years in the late 2010s to early 2020s, the Flyers flipped their final pick of the Draft to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for the Habs' seventh rounder in the next year's Draft. In 2019, general manager Chuck Fletcher continued the peculiar pattern started by predecessor Ron Hextall by doing it again.
Montreal picked Rouyn-Noranda Huskies left winger Rafael Harvey-Pinard with the 201st overall pick of the 2019 Draft and sent their 2020 seventh-rounder to Philadelphia. The player enjoyed a promising rookie NHL season with the Canadiens in 2022-23, collecting 14 goals and 20 points in 34 games after making a splash in the AHL with the Laval Rocket.
The Flyers subsequently traded the 2020 pick, too, in a swap with Nashville to gain a fifth round pick. Philadelphia used the acquired selection (135th overall) to take current center/left wing prospect Elliot Desnoyers. Desnoyers, who led the Lehigh Valley Phantoms with 23 goals as a rookie this past season while playing in all game situations, made his NHL debut late in the campaign and dressed in four games in total for the Flyers.
* 2021: During the pandemic shortened 2020-21 season, Shayne Gostisbehere missed time with a knee injury (the same injury he'd had to his other knee the previous year) while producing 20 points (9g, 11a) in 41 games. On March 30, 2021, the player was placed on waivers. He was unclaimed. The Flyers elected to keep Gostisbehere on their NHL roster for the rest of the season rather than assigning him to Lehigh Valley.
After the season ended, the Flyers let it be known leaguewide that Gostisbehere was readily available in trade, whether a trade partner was intent on keeping him or for purposes of exposing him the Expansion Draft. With no trade at hand, the Flyers exposed Gostisbehere to the Waiver Draft. The fledgling Seattle Kraken opted instead to select AHL winger Carsen Twarynski off the Flyers' list.
On July 22, 2021, the Flyers were finally able to unload Gostisbehere's contract with no retention. However, the cost was steep. The Arizona Coyotes received Gostisbehere, Philadelphia's 2022 second-round pick (36th overall, used by Arizona on Russian defenseman Artyom Duda) and a 2022 seventh-round pick (later flipped to Montreal and used on the selection of defenseman Miguel Tourigny). The Flyers received nothing in return in terms of players, prospects or picks but got the remaining two seasons off the books from the six-year contract extension "Ghost" had signed under Ron Hextall in the summer of 2017.
Ghostisbehere, offensively skilled but defensively challenged, had been a Calder Trophy finalist in 2015-16 and posted a career-best 65-point season in 2017-18 after a rough second season in the NHL. However, three straight inconsistent/injury plagued seasons followed his stellar 2017-18 and it seemed like most of the NHL was down on the player. An NHL pro scout predicted in 2021 that Gostisbehere would be out of the NHL within a year.
To his credit, Gostisbehere proved his harshest critics wrong. While Arizona acquired him primarily for the purpose of leveraging their cap space to collect assets on the front end and then, hopefully, getting another asset to eventually trade him as a rental, they got value from the player himself.
As a Coyote, "Ghost" stayed healthy and rebounded offensively. In 2021-22, the player enjoyed a 14-goal, 51-point season. This past season, he had 10 goals and 31 points in 51 games. The Coyotes then traded him near the 2023 deadline to Carolina for a third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.
Gostisbehere's presence was somewhat superfluous on a stacked Carolina team. The offensive defenseman did have 10 points (3g, 7a) in 23 games down the stretch but posted just three points (0g, 3a) in 15 playoff games. As an unrestricted free agent this summer, the 30-year-old Gostisbehere signed a one-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings for $4.125 million.
Meanwhile, one day after the Gostisbehere trade to Arizona, the Flyers applied the $4.5 million of cap relief they received via the Gostisbehere deal toward the acquisition of Rasmus Ristolainen from the Buffalo Sabres.
3) I'll discuss Ristolainen in tomorrow's blog. For now, I'll say this: I'm far from a Ristolainen basher. In fact, I think the player brings some good things to the table.
However, ever since the abrupt retirement of Matt Niskanen immediately after the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Flyers have gone down expensive roads in trying to fill the void in one way or another: the ill-fated signing of Erik Gustafsson (who was, at best, redundant to Gostisbehere) in 2020-21, the Ristolainen trade acquisition and long-term extension, and the 2022 acquisition and 2023 buyout of Tony DeAngelo. To some extent, at least, the downturn in Ivan Provorov's career was a degree of collateral damage after he lost his "steady Eddie" defense partner.
Strictly in terms of draft pick costs, the Flyers expended a first-round pick (2021, 14th overall via the trade for Ristolainen), three second picks (2021 to deal Gostisbehere, 2023 via the Ristolainen trade, 2024 via the DeAngelo trade), a third-round pick (2023 via the DeAngelo trade), a fourth-round pick (2022 via the DeAngelo trade) and seventh-round pick (2021 via the Gostisbehere trade to Arizona)in a two-year period.
At present, the Flyers have assembled a decent group of young forwards and several very good forward prospects (led by 2023 first-rounder Matvei Michkov and 2022 first-rounder Cutter Gauthier, with the likes of 2020 first-rounder Tyson Foerster and Desnoyers having shown promise at the AHL and, briefly so far, in the NHL). However, the organization still faces a large-scale rebuilding process on the blueline for the long term. General manager Danny Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones are well aware of that fact. There are also a handful of promising defense prospects in the system but none who are likely to be top-pair candidates.