I cannot take this at face value...sorry... Someone screwed the pooch with this deal at the medical level... and if it is a "core injury" there is a lot of smoke going on... I have zero trust for the medical and training staff
Ellis will get a payoff from insurance on his contract if he is medically unfit...maybe the best they can do is trade his contract to someone to get to the cap floor and he goes on permanent LTIR.... I wouldnt trust him to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk based on how brittle he appears to be - RajaAmpat
Truth is they gave up an albatross in Patrick and Myers who as it turns out isn't much either to take a chance on a very good but oft injured Ellis. There is a good chance he will help the Flyers next year. The guy that most likely is the LTIR candidate is Hayes. As far as Bill is concerned, he knows the difference between a columnist and an editorialist. The whole internet BLOG thing obviously blurs the lines, but when you interact with the contributors you go over the line and are no longer specifically an opionless writer. Thats OK...I enjoy his input and certaily he believes in what he writes...I often disagree...and thats OK too.
Truth is they gave up an albatross in Patrick and Myers who as it turns out isn't much either to take a chance on a very good but oft injured Ellis. There is a good chance he will help the Flyers next year. The guy that most likely is the LTIR candidate is Hayes. As far as Bill is concerned, he knows the difference between a columnist and an editorialist. The whole internet BLOG thing obviously blurs the lines, but when you interact with the contributors you go over the line and are no longer specifically an opionless writer. Thats OK...I enjoy his input and certaily he believes in what he writes...I often disagree...and thats OK too. - DANCER
I have never seen that information anywhere. Anything you can look up has Patrick as a #1 NHL center. All of the pundits including guys like Bob McKenzie had him at #1
On the first point, Patrick is clearly No. 1 on TSN's Top 15 preseason draft rankings. Ten out of 10 scouts surveyed by TSN had him at No. 1 and no other prospect was close to him in voting.
"It's Patrick's spot to lose at this point," said one NHL head scout, "but this is a much different draft class than the last two." - MJL
Perhaps but I do remember scouts cautioning that he was not a slam dunk pick ala McDavid or Matthews. Either way, as I said, no one questioned the pick at the time just as no one would have questioned the Devils had they taken him first.
Perhaps but I do remember scouts cautioning that he was not a slam dunk pick ala McDavid or Matthews. Either way, as I said, no one questioned the pick at the time just as no one would have questioned the Devils had they taken him first. - BiggE
McDavid was a sure fire generational player and Matthews was a step below. It was well know that there was not a forward in the draft on their level. Agree completely with your last statement.
AZ is a horrendous team. Take Flyers and double the ineptitude and you have AZ - hfc355
I was sort of internalizing that factor...
Chychrun is -31, worst in the NHL. The 2nd worst Ari Dman is -7, that is Stralman. His possession %s are bad, but better than team average. However, his GF% (which rates the % of goals from high danger areas) is terrible.
All this suggests a guy playing really poorly near his own net. That might be a danger sign.
Truth is they gave up an albatross in Patrick and Myers who as it turns out isn't much either to take a chance on a very good but oft injured Ellis. There is a good chance he will help the Flyers next year. The guy that most likely is the LTIR candidate is Hayes. As far as Bill is concerned, he knows the difference between a columnist and an editorialist. The whole internet BLOG thing obviously blurs the lines, but when you interact with the contributors you go over the line and are no longer specifically an opionless writer. Thats OK...I enjoy his input and certaily he believes in what he writes...I often disagree...and thats OK too. - DANCER
Neither Ellis or Hayes are going to be paid off by insurance. Both will be back for the next 3to4 yrs and likely not very productive
McDavid was a sure fire generational player and Matthews was a step below. It was well know that there was not a forward in the draft on their level. Agree completely with your last statement. - MJL
Lord knows, Hextall wasn’t perfect. His drafting record was so-so, he did little to help the team in FA and I don’t think he brought the best developmental coaches. He also didn’t seem to grasp the distasteful, but sadly necessary, politics of his position.
However all that being said, I’d take him back in a heartbeat over the vanilla mediocrity that is Chuck Fletcher. Hextall at least understood what the Flyers meant to their fans and the city.
Chychrun is -31, worst in the NHL. The 2nd worst Ari Dman is -7, that is Stralman. His possession %s are bad, but better than team average. However, his GF% (which rates the % of goals from high danger areas) is terrible.
All this suggests a guy playing really poorly near his own net. That might be a danger sign. - PT21
Guy is very very good. Gets tons of minutes on a horrible team. Get him to a good team he is a top notch young defenseman who any team would love to have. Add on his age and his contract he is very appealing. Love him on Flyers but we dont have the assets and our 1st will be too high
Chychrun is -31, worst in the NHL. The 2nd worst Ari Dman is -7, that is Stralman. His possession %s are bad, but better than team average. However, his GF% (which rates the % of goals from high danger areas) is terrible.
All this suggests a guy playing really poorly near his own net. That might be a danger sign. - PT21
Or it’s a young guy who is feeling the burden of being the #1D on a blatantly tanking and horrid team that is trying to do too much.
Lord knows, Hextall wasn’t perfect. His drafting record was so-so, he did little to help the team in FA and I don’t think he brought the best developmental coaches. He also didn’t seem to grasp the distasteful, but sadly necessary, politics of his position.
However all that being said, I’d take him back in a heartbeat over the vanilla mediocrity that is Chuck Fletcher. Hextall at least understood what the Flyers meant to their fans and the city. - BiggE
The Patrick pick was the black mark obviously. I think Flyers01 said it best when he said that Hextall made the wrong pick but there wasn't information at the time to know it was the wrong pick. Other than that, I think Hextall did a solid job drafting. He made some UFA mistakes and certainly wasn't perfect. What I think happened is that Hextall knew that drastic changes needed to be made across the entire organization. When he did that, some of the country club didn't like it that they were minimized. When Hextall got more and more heat, he circled the ranks and closed tighter. Correctly in my opinion. Hextall knew what needed to be done and what philosophy they had to take.
Chychrun is -31, worst in the NHL. The 2nd worst Ari Dman is -7, that is Stralman. His possession %s are bad, but better than team average. However, his GF% (which rates the % of goals from high danger areas) is terrible.
All this suggests a guy playing really poorly near his own net. That might be a danger sign. - PT21
depending on cost and team makeup, he is a guy i would have a good bit of interest in. i know i was laughing a mile away when you guys traded for risto and you dont need to squint too hard to see potential similarities (the whole physically gifted young d man who shows flashes but is allegedly ultimately drowning on a bad team etc) but i think chychrun would be a much better get. i dont know if there is a deal for either the flyers or pens that makes sense there given the state of the teams involved, but i would be interested in general as an NHL GM. could definitely see the rangers in the mix.
Or it’s a young guy who is feeling the burden of being the #1D on a blatantly tanking and horrid team that is trying to do too much. - BiggE
ok. I will take you guys words for it.
depending on cost and team makeup, he is a guy i would have a good bit of interest in. i know i was laughing a mile away when you guys traded for risto and you dont need to squint too hard to see potential similarities (the whole physically gifted young d man who shows flashes but is allegedly ultimately drowning on a bad team etc) but i think chychrun would be a much better get.. - stayinthefnnet
That was exactly the comparison I had in mind. Chyrchrun's #s before this season however have been kinda meh at worst, nowhere near as consistently as bad as Risto, so that does support what you are saying.
It was very clear that it was the 2 forwards followed by the 2 d-men.
There is no revisionist history.
Hischier and Patrick were never viewed as generational players like McDavid or Mathews.
There was debate as to who would go no.1. As the draft got closer it was Hischier who settled into the no.1 spot and there was no surprise that NJ took him there.
There were scouts who liked the d-men better. But the consensus was 2 forwards followed by the 2 d-men.
Miro Heiskenen was 17 playing in the Finnish Elite League. Labeled the best overall D-man in the draft.
Cale Makar scouts loved but because he played at a lower level of JRs some did not know how he would perform against tougher competition. Was compared to Erik Karlsson(when he was playing well with Ottawa).
I don't think we are screwed. Anything that jolts the comfortabe numbness of the mediocrity train is good, including derailment of train.
This season is good. I want a repeat for the next. - PT21
You know, if I had any confidence that management would make the proper assessment and make the correct course adjustment, I would be in agreement. However I fully expect them to look at the injuries to Ellis, Hayes, Couturier and other players they were counting on to cause them to think what might have been. If they trade Giroux and or Ristolainen and gain some cap space. I fully expect them to enter the UFA market and attempt to reset and take another run at it.
You are an imaginative guy, with the sly "planned tank" comment of a few days ago, that I feel in retrospect I was a little too hasty in dismissing out of hand.
I think the comment made by Black Francis the other day (from his source) makes the most sense to me. Flyers knew they were getting a potential #1D with a potentially significant injury risk.
They understood that is why the price was so low, and because they were in a desperate situation (needing not one but *two* RHD in the top 4 of line up to desperately salvage the accumulation of poor decisions over the past decade, including those made by Hextall), they took the risk.
It went belly up, but no one was fleeced, no one was surprised, and no one engaged in subterfuge. Or payback. - PT21
At the very least (Tell me you don't think the Nashville owners ( I have no idea if it is the same group now) who were forced to match the offer sheet poison pill are not chuckling at this and gloating at our teams misery.. being saddled with Ellis contract
Every 5 Things game preview I write -- which goes on the team website and goes in depth-- is critical in a stick to the facts way. Every Postgame 5 analysis portion is critical. Every Flyers Daily I've done with Jason the last two months has been critical. - bmeltzer
On top of it all, I WORK for the organization. Yet I try to be as objective as possible in the public sphere. That's not the same as apathy. Plenty gets said behind the scenes. - bmeltzer
Thank you Bill, for all you do here. As well as your Twitter content, the Flyers Daily with Jason, and yes, particularly the stuff you do for the team site. To anyone who really pays attention to all of your contributions as a whole, it's clear you are in no way trying to fool us into seeing the state of the team as being not as bad as it really is, through the written equivalent of rose colored glasses. I agree with MJL. Anyone who pays attention to your blog here over the years knows that you are just as frustrated as we are, and as a professional there is no need to do anything other than be completely objective. The current brevity of the blogs on this site speaks more than if you were to just angrily rant like so many of us here do. Keep on doing what you do, and I'll be grateful for it.
For those that want to see something else than what Bil provides here, I believe this site still let users write their own blog articles. So if anyone thinks they can do better, have at it: https://www.hockeybuzz.co...rol_panel/myblog_form.php
On a side note, I noticed that this site has removed Jay's name from the list of bloggers at the top. If someone hasn't bookmarked his archive, the only way to get to it would be to do a web search, and some may not have success with that.
Is it possible that maybe you can talk to the person in charge here and have them add his archive link back to the bloggers list (or somewhere else if more appropriate)?
Bill doesn’t have to tell me they suck….I can figure that all out on my own. We can all argue about why we are here till we are blue in the face, but I’m more concerned with what’s next. There is so much blame to go around, to point the finger at any one move, trade, draft pick or person is beyond stupid. Bill does and should remain objective. I’m not sure what some expect beyond stating the obvious…he has to work with all theses guys that he’s expected to be overly critical of? This team is in a downward spiral and as G alluded today at “rock bottom”. I’m sure Bill has his personal opinions, but this is professional Bill that we get. I hope he keeps up the good work. - landros 2
