Is this because you've been watching since the early 1980's or because they have been burned by longer term deals in the past? Should they never sign a long term deal because they had some that failed to work out?

There are some concerns I have about the contracts they signed. But I also realize that right now, trading young assets for guys like Yandle and Edler is foolish, because they won;t get full value for a kid coming off a bad second year.

There's no reason to expect Lecavalier to fall apart 3 years into the contract. He's put up solid numbers in Tampa, despite being on a line with revolving doors on his wings.

But go ahead, enjoy the bubble where salaries will magically decline and good defensemen will suddenly be easy and cheap to trade for.
- Jsaquella

See even you know they're stringing themselves out on thin ice with these deals. these deals, burn them constantly because they keep doing the same thing, taking ill advised risk on players they don't need or are past their prime or have injury history etc etc. and they don't just give them contracts they give em long deals with NMC 's

Forget about the past 30 years lets go back 3 years... Trade top two centers who are only two 2 mil more than what giroux's new deal will cost, they go onto win a cup very next year, give up on a young goalie, who goes on to win a vezina but nevermind that, sign a big name goalie have theist ridiculous luck for a change in a gift of amnesty buyouts use that to get out of that mess, now go out and get a goalie who has not shown he can handle the load of starting for a full season, and two players well into their thirties that have serious question marks.
Lecalvier may have pplayed with a revolving door but maybe that has something to do with his tendency to take mental holidays
Streit another dman that can't defend when the biggest problem we have in terms of on ice play us team that can't play in its own zone. Dumb moves all around oh yea and if mason lives up to the expectation this year now you're gonna be hemmed in salary wise with keeping this nucleus they haven't given up yet. Couturier and schenn and mason will need to get resigned this year. The flyers have to pray the cap goes up if it doesn't they're in serious trouble for acquiring players that don't solve their problems.

you've got a point, but the same could be said about the player he was traded for
- FlyerMike18

I think the difference is JVR was coming off an injury plagued season, although he has had consistency issues. It's almost like Schenn was falling out of favor in Toronto. I think the trade addressed needs for both teams, I feel JvR is the better player.

He's a beast for 10-20 games per season. I think that will always be JVR. He will be 35 and teams will say "Look at his potential!"
- PhillySportsGuy

35 goal pace last yr...pwr forwards take time. look at ladd, wheeler et al

See even you know they're stringing themselves out on thin ice with these deals. these deals, burn them constantly because they keep doing the same thing, taking ill advised risk on players they don't need or are past their prime or have injury history etc etc. and they don't just give them contracts they give em long deals with NMC 's

Forget about the past 30 years lets go back 3 years... Trade top two centers who are only two 2 mil more than what giroux's new deal will cost, they go onto win a cup very next year, give up on a young goalie, who goes on to win a vezina but nevermind that, sign a big name goalie have theist ridiculous luck for a change in a gift of amnesty buyouts use that to get out of that mess, now go out and get a goalie who has not shown he can handle the load of starting for a full season, and two players well into their thirties that have serious question marks.
Lecalvier may have pplayed with a revolving door but maybe that has something to do with his tendency to take mental holidays
Streit another dman that can't defend when the biggest problem we have in terms of on ice play us team that can't play in its own zone. Dumb moves all around oh yea and if mason lives up to the expectation this year now you're gonna be hemmed in salary wise with keeping this nucleus they haven't given up yet. Couturier and schenn and mason will need to get resigned this year. The flyers have to pray the cap goes up if it doesn't they're in serious trouble for acquiring players that don't solve their problems.
- JoeRussomanno

If you can't stand how things are run, how about you go pick a new team that makes all the right moves instead of whining and crying about how awful this team is run in every single post.

Agreed. Let's stop overpaying for all these free agents. Proposed lineup:

Read - Schenn - Voracek
Simmonds - Couturier - Akeson
Gagne - Laughton - Talbot
Rosehill - Hall - Rinaldo

Schenn - Gervais
Grossmann - Huskins
Gustafsson - Lilja

Trade away the overpaid Giroux, Timonen, Hartnell, Lecavalier, Streit, Coburn, and Meszaros. No reason to ever pay market value when it's an inflated market. Let's try to keep the cap number under $40M.

Also, the Flyers should let it be known they will never sign a player for more than 3 years at a time, and the max. allowed salary/year is $2.3M. Don't want to take a chance on getting burned by those long-term, high-dollar salaries.
- jmatchett383

Well maybe they should roll out a young lineup like for a while until the right deal comes along.

See even you know they're stringing themselves out on thin ice with these deals. these deals, burn them constantly because they keep doing the same thing, taking ill advised risk on players they don't need or are past their prime or have injury history etc etc. and they don't just give them contracts they give em long deals with NMC 's

Forget about the past 30 years lets go back 3 years... Trade top two centers who are only two 2 mil more than what giroux's new deal will cost, they go onto win a cup very next year, give up on a young goalie, who goes on to win a vezina but nevermind that, sign a big name goalie have theist ridiculous luck for a change in a gift of amnesty buyouts use that to get out of that mess, now go out and get a goalie who has not shown he can handle the load of starting for a full season, and two players well into their thirties that have serious question marks.
Lecalvier may have pplayed with a revolving door but maybe that has something to do with his tendency to take mental holidays
Streit another dman that can't defend when the biggest problem we have in terms of on ice play us team that can't play in its own zone. Dumb moves all around oh yea and if mason lives up to the expectation this year now you're gonna be hemmed in salary wise with keeping this nucleus they haven't given up yet. Couturier and schenn and mason will need to get resigned this year. The flyers have to pray the cap goes up if it doesn't they're in serious trouble for acquiring players that don't solve their problems.
- JoeRussomanno

i view homer as an avg GM whose job should be on the line for many of the reasons you cited. i certainly don't get the cloying, sycophantic posts for what lately, has been a golden calf GM. that said, i'm ok w/ the moves so far except for streit.

If you can't stand how things are run, how about you go pick a new team that makes all the right moves instead of whining and crying about how awful this team is run in every single post.
- jmatchett383

You could always ignore my posts... Facing reality and demanding the team get their head out of their ass isn't whining and crying.

Well maybe they should roll out a young lineup like for a while until the right deal comes along.
- JoeRussomanno

It's never going to come along. Please submit a list of all of the top UFAs of the past few years who were had for under market value when going to a new team. MAYBE Vokoun, about all I can think of.

i view homer as an avg GM whose job should be on the line for many of the reasons you cited. i certainly don't get the cloying, sycophantic posts for what lately, has been a golden calf GM. that said, i'm ok w/ the moves so far except for streit.
- isaiah520

I think he's hamstrung by a desperate team president.

No, I don't think so.

I know that they can't do it right now or his salary would count against the cap. So when can they do it so that it doesn't count against the cap? It has to be done before opening day, so at what point before opening day do they allow you to place these guys on LTIR and have it not count against the cap?
- mikel33

The window between turning in final rosters and game 1 is pretty small -- a few hours to a couple of days, something like that.

You could always ignore my posts... Facing reality and demanding the team get their head out of their ass isn't whining and crying.
- JoeRussomanno

It's hard to ignore your posts when they're paragraphs long just crying about all of the terrible moves. I understand they have made mistakes, and they do their best to address them. But really, if you're so unhappy with how the team's been run since the 90s, go find a different team to cheer for.

It's never going to come along. Please submit a list of all of the top UFAs of the past few years who were had for under market value when going to a new team. MAYBE Vokoun, about all I can think of.
- jmatchett383

Here's what you don't get, just because they paid market value don't mean it's the right move. Case and point they paid market value for bryzgalov supposedly.

It's hard to ignore your posts when they're paragraphs long just crying about all of the terrible moves. I understand they have made mistakes, and they do their best to address them. But really, if you're so unhappy with how the team's been run since the 90s, go find a different team to cheer for.
- jmatchett383

They're really not addressing their mistakes they put dirty band aids on them.

Here's what you don't get, just because they paid market value don't mean it's the right move. Case and point they paid market value for bryzgalov supposedly.
- JoeRussomanno

I'm not arguing that Bryzgalov was a bad move. I'm just asking, can you please point of one of these "right deals" you're talking about?

They're really not addressing their mistakes they put dirty band aids on them.
- JoeRussomanno

Then go find a new (frank)ing team to watch if this team is so horribly put together. Maybe they'll win something for you one day. You're the Philadelphia fan I hate, the one who always bashes everything done by a team without every giving credit where it's due. You're a horrible fan.

See even you know they're stringing themselves out on thin ice with these deals. these deals, burn them constantly because they keep doing the same thing, taking ill advised risk on players they don't need or are past their prime or have injury history etc etc. and they don't just give them contracts they give em long deals with NMC 's

Forget about the past 30 years lets go back 3 years... Trade top two centers who are only two 2 mil more than what giroux's new deal will cost, they go onto win a cup very next year, give up on a young goalie, who goes on to win a vezina but nevermind that, sign a big name goalie have theist ridiculous luck for a change in a gift of amnesty buyouts use that to get out of that mess, now go out and get a goalie who has not shown he can handle the load of starting for a full season, and two players well into their thirties that have serious question marks.
Lecalvier may have pplayed with a revolving door but maybe that has something to do with his tendency to take mental holidays
Streit another dman that can't defend when the biggest problem we have in terms of on ice play us team that can't play in its own zone. Dumb moves all around oh yea and if mason lives up to the expectation this year now you're gonna be hemmed in salary wise with keeping this nucleus they haven't given up yet. Couturier and schenn and mason will need to get resigned this year. The flyers have to pray the cap goes up if it doesn't they're in serious trouble for acquiring players that don't solve their problems.
- JoeRussomanno

I agree they have made mistakes, Bobrovsky being a huge one.

But they're not repeating the Bobrovsky mistake by trading young players for veterans now, which shows they can adapt.

Yes, they traded Carter and Richards and they won a Stanley Cup, but as second line players and not the focal points of the franchise. Without the pieces in place in LA, Carter and Richads don't win the Cup.

They didn't add players that fit their problems? The biggest personnel issue was a lack of a puck moving defenseman. Streit addresses that.

If you want to generalize and be negative about everything, best wishes, because honestly that exactly the kind of moronic stuff I tend to ignore on these boards and make fun of, being it's being a stupid child.

You could always ignore my posts... Facing reality and demanding the team get their head out of their ass isn't whining and crying.
- JoeRussomanno

Being pessimistic and whiny isn't 'facing reality'. Sorry, Joe.

If they fired lavy I would feel a lot better about this team next year.

If they fired lavy I would feel a lot better about this team next year.
- PhillaBully

Depends on who they'd bring in. I wasn't wild about Lavy last year, but if you don't have a good replacement you could very well leave the team worse off.

Here's what you don't get, just because they paid market value don't mean it's the right move. Case and point they paid market value for bryzgalov supposedly.
- JoeRussomanno

They paid what they believed to be market value when they signed him prior to free agency....When the market actually opened it showed they overpaid by an extreme margin.

I'd rather have Vinny at age 33 with his cap hit than keeping Briere for two more years at a higher salary with below average offensive abilities, and zero defensive.

I know Homer is trying to stand pat, but, doesn't feel eerily similar to a calm before a storm?

I know Homer is trying to stand pat, but, doesn't feel eerily similar to a calm before a storm?
- Deasr1

Possibly. At this point, he doesn't have to make a move unless it makes a pipedream a reality.

I still want mez moved for anything. I don't trust he'll make it through the year.

I think the difference is JVR was coming off an injury plagued season, although he has had consistency issues. It's almost like Schenn was falling out of favor in Toronto. I think the trade addressed needs for both teams, I feel JvR is the better player.
- PLindbergh31

that's very possible. jvr is really talented. and i know you'll probably respond who cares (because ultimately we're flyer fans not leaf fans) but they can say the same thing about trading schenn low for a player that's "falling out of favor." it can keep going around and around if all you're trying to do is squeeze every bit of value you can out of a player

it's going to be one of those situations that's interesting to monitor and revisit years down the road. my take: if schenn winds up being a solid contributor in our top 4 for a decade (which is certainly possible imo), jvr's gonna be hard-pressed to make me really regret it. meaning that if it's a "hair-splitting" type situation with a solid top-six forward v a solid top four d-man, i'm more than comfortable with homer having sided with d. different story if jvr turns into brendan shannahan or something

Possibly. At this point, he doesn't have to make a move unless it makes a pipedream a reality.

I still want mez moved for anything. I don't trust he'll make it through the year.
- the deaninator

He has to make a minor move. We are over the cap I believe.

I like Schenn. Very encouraged by what I saw. No question JVR was sold low.
- PLindbergh31

I'm sure there are those in Toronto saying the very same about Schenn.