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Quick Hits: Crazy Day Before a Crazy Week, Belpedio, HB Mock and More |
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Quick Hits: June 25, 2023
1) Yesterday and evening were one of craziest days around the Flyers in recent memory, especially because it ended with nothing happening (at least not yet). It started out normally enough.
My original plan was to take my son, Benjamin, to the Phillies game. However, the ominous forecast of all-day thunderstorms, a break for a few hours and then all-night rain changed to plan to postponing the ballgame outing until August. Instead, to celebrate Benji's recent middle school graduation, we made a dinner reservation for our special occasion father-son place: Rodizio in Voorhees.
The rain ended up holding off, and we had a couple hours to fill before the restaurant reservation. The baseball fields in Voorhees and Gibbsboro were likely still wet from Friday's rain, so we went instead for a round of mini-golf. Things were still relatively quiet work-wise -- no indication there was anything forthcoming in terms of bonafide Flyers news -- and I shut off my phone so I could give my undivided atttention to my son.
We played our 18 holes of mini-golf. Ben won (although I gave him 3 mulligans on out of bounds shots, I might add, so don't get too cocky about it, buddy). There were still 30 minutes before our Rodizio reservation, which is located just a couple minutes away. Walking to the car, I turned my phone back on. As soon as the menus started up, my phone buzzed, and buzzed, and buzzed and buzzed.... about 15 text messages and a missed phone call.
"Uh, oh," I said aloud to Benji. "Something big must be going on with the Flyers."
That's when I found out that there'd been a whole lot going on during what had seemed like an exceptionally quiet day before things pick up in Nashville with the league gathered for the 2023 NHL Entry Draft week. Sure enough, there were all the preliminary reports, speculation and/or tips about a multi-piece deal between the Flyers and Blues. There were subsequent ones and after our graduation celebration dinner -- and ungodly amounts of steak, chicken, ham and glazed pineapple consumed. Things were on hold temporarily between Philly and St. Louis and there was a separate Flyers/Carolina deal also awaiting completion.
The Flyers have a policy -- as does every NHL team -- that team employees and contractors are not supposed to break, comment on, retweet or "like" reports of trades, hirings, free agent signings, etc. before the organization itself announces it formally. That goes even for when legitimate organizational sources confirm a report for newspapers, national reporters, and other reliable sources.
Sometimes that can be frustrating because it makes us the last to report something even in cases when we're the first (or among the first) to learn of what's going down. The Claude Giroux trade to Florida, specifically what was coming back, is an example. The most recent one was the hiring of Patrick Sharp as an advisor to Hockey Ops. We knew about it but couldn't publicly say a word until it was formally announced.
The flip side is that we accept that it's simply part of this particular job. We're not part of the "race to report first". Also, there's no worry about jumping the gun on something that ultimately falls apart or in getting certain details wrong. It's more important to be accurate in the details than to be the fastest.
In the case both of the Ivan Provorov trade and the current potential deals with St. Louis and Carolina, the info was very well-guarded by Hockey Ops; as well guarded as Keith Jones' hiring as POHO was until the final 24 hours before it was formally announced. In fact, while there had been Flyers-Blues rumors for the last few weeks, they centered around a different player.
It certainly seems that yesterday's false alarms of completed trades is a precursor to actual trades; whether the feverishly tweeted ones from yesterday, modified versions or totally unrelated deals.
2) The Flyers had some secondary news to report: Lehigh Valley Phantoms defenseman Louie Belpedio, 27, signed a two-way contract extension for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. The deal has a $775,000 AAV at the NHL level and, per Capfriendly, $450,000 at the AHL level. The real key to the deal is the AHL salary. Belpedio is a good American League defenseman but a fill-in depth option on an NHL roster. He played well for the Phantoms last season and is being rewarded accordingly with an attractive salary by American Hockey League standards.
3) With the 22nd overall pick of the HockeyBuzz mock draft, I selected towering (6-foot-5, 200-plus pound) and reportedly highly skilled Russian forward Daniil But. I don't typically favor players whom I've never seen play apart from highlight clips -- can't see MHL games, there's no more KHL broadcasts on Eleven Network and Russia is banned from IIHF competitions such as the U18s. However, I trust the folks who've actually scouted him or have multiple connections who've done so.
Craig Button had But to the Rangers at 23rd in his mock draft and there are active NHL club-employed scouts who have But in their top 10 to top 20 for this Draft. Bob McKenzie, whose rating are based largely on consensus from his extensive field scout and scouting director list across the NHL, ranks (not a mock) But 22nd. An NHL scout who is especially high on the player -- telling Grant McCagg of Recrutes that he ranks But seventh on his personal BPA list -- said that the player at his best reminds him of Evgeni Malkin.
In a real-life Draft, I probably would have selected at 22nd a player with whom I'm more familiar and have at least seen play in the U18s and/or via streamed games from their leagues in addition to research via input from people I trust. In the HB mock, defenseman Tom Willander was still on the board at 22nd and is more along the lines of what would be my real-life comfort zone.
But in the HB mock, why not take a swing for the fences? There's no consequence if it's a miss, so be bold.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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