the actions in this case were of a smart GM
- hello it's me 2050

How dare you refer to feltcher as a smart GM!
Hogwash!
Although he made some solid draft choices but I mostly credit Flahr for thise nominations at this point. Chuck just agreed because he is just a yes man with no sack or common sense

Looking at Vancouver’s record, probably Tocchet
- BiggE

Remember when people in here lost their minds because there was talk of tocchet coaching here ans he was just another flyers retread? Good times

I do not buy he is the reason he is playing better.

What can you show that Torts is the reason?

Is torts the reason York has taken a step back? Cates? Torst the reaosn GH is just there doing nothing? Reason Zamula has had a few "bad" games?

RR really didn't play much better. The game was dumbed down for him.
- hello it's me 2050

A couple of things to consider. First, Torts stated that last year he did dumb down the Flyers game quite a bit because the team need to learn how to play defense, and play away from the puck. Now that the team learned to play the way Torts wants them to play without the puck, this season Torts and his staff are emphasizing more offense, taking intelligent risks and transition play to generate more scoring chances. You can already see this style in action and the results so far.

Secondly, consider both Torts and Risto have commented that it was rough start between the two of them last season. However Risto to his credit listened to what Torts wanted from him, changed his game considerably which cost him offense the first half of last season and then we started to see a much better defenseman in Risto. Risto has publicly given Torts credit for his turn around in fact.

All are certainly in the running. It’s way too early to tell. Not sure why you find the choice of Tocchet funny though. Vancouver was a mess last year and they are now 12-4-1 and hold the 3rd best record in the NHL.
- BiggE

I don't find it funny. I find jd250's choice of Tortorella over the obvious choice of Tochett funny.

Typical response from you. A team does not need elite talent on the PP to have a good PP. I have seen PPs with elite players that fail because of the decision making and other factors beyond pure talent. The Flyers do not have elite talent, of course, but they do have enough talent to be much much better on the PP than they are.

Any team wants to be over 100% on special teams, i.e. combination of PK +PP. The Flyers are currently 87.94% which is well below that goal. You cannot tell me that the Flyers don't have enough talent to have a PP that converts 18% of the time; the league average is about 21% this year.

But yes, you pretty much repeated what I already said, it's on the players and secondly the coaching is not getting through. What Torts says about what is needed is absolutely spot on, but it's not happening. That is why I think another voice that solely focuses on the PP is needed. Rocky Thompson is just not getting through to the players it appears.
- jd250

A typical response from me such as it being accurate and informed? Yes, I would agree.

Now onto my statement. Where did I say my response was about the PP? Once we clear that up, we can move on and discuss the PP specifically if you would like.

I don't find it funny. I find jd250's choice of Tortorella over the obvious choice of Tochett funny.
- MJL

Open your brain for 5 seconds to let the oxygen in! The reason why Tocchet would get consideration is because of the pre-season expectation of the Canucks, which were not all that good. If Vancouver keeps this up, of course Tocchet would be considered and he should be. Likewise for Torts. If the Flyers somehow made the playoffs give what was expected from this team, Torts would get equal consideration.

Lavy, Tocchet, DeBoer and Montgomery certainly should be considered. I don't believe Carbury will get in the running because I think the Caps will not be there in the end. If the Flyers somehow make the playoffs, and right now they would be in believe it or not, Torts will get a lot of consideration given the pre-season predictions for this team.
- jd250

First of all, the conversation was not about in the future. It was based on now. Then you add in "ifs" for the Flyers but fail to allow the same "if" for Washington.

Remember when people in here lost their minds because there was talk of tocchet coaching here ans he was just another flyers retread? Good times
- Bob Habib

It helps when you have 3 players, Hughes, Pettersen, and Miller who are the top 3 scorers in the league right now. Wish the Flyers had some of that.

If you mean I read a lot about the Flyers, and I listen to different podcasts to get various opinions of how the team is playing, and that helps me be informed about the team and be open to different opinions, then yes, I do formulate my opinions based on various sources. If I had a vote I would vote for Torts, because I think the Flyers are playing as well as they are because of him.
- jd250

It doesn't help you. It completely leads you as you parrot and buy every word hook, line and sinker that Tortorella spews out.

Of course, you would vote for Tortorella. You labeled him the hands down winner last season. The biggest reason for the small bit of improvement for the Flyers, is having Couturier and Atkinson back. Farabee is back and healthy. The player who you don't see it with as a top 6 player who is currently in the top 25 in the NHL in ES scoring. Sanheim is playing well, the player who you labeled a stiff who is not good offensively or defensively. All examples of your spot on player evaluations.

Sanheim is playing better, and Torts is a big part of the reason why, just as Risto played better under Torts last year. Same with TK, Tippet, and even Frost.
- jd250

Really, why didn't the Totorella coaching kick in all last season with Sanheim? Why did Tortorella wait until this season to improve him with his coaching?

Ristolainen did not play better last season. He was demoted to the 3rd pair and shackled by a chain to keep him from being stupid. If you want to call that better.

Konecny was trending forward long before Tortorella. All Tippet needed was ice time. Tortorella did the same thing last year to Frost, keeping him on the 4th line in the beginning of the season. He escalated it this season to scratching him for 8 games. He had to be talked to play Frost and other young players more. He has held Frost back two seasons in a row.

You have the same blind allegiance to Tortorella that you had to Fletcher.

A couple of things to consider. First, Torts stated that last year he did dumb down the Flyers game quite a bit because the team need to learn how to play defense, and play away from the puck. Now that the team learned to play the way Torts wants them to play without the puck, this season Torts and his staff are emphasizing more offense, taking intelligent risks and transition play to generate more scoring chances. You can already see this style in action and the results so far.

Secondly, consider both Torts and Risto have commented that it was rough start between the two of them last season. However Risto to his credit listened to what Torts wanted from him, changed his game considerably which cost him offense the first half of last season and then we started to see a much better defenseman in Risto. Risto has publicly given Torts credit for his turn around in fact.
- jd250

If all of this was true, which it isn't. It would be an indictment of the job that Tortorella did last season. There was no reason for the so called dummying it down.

I'd like to see the link to that statement by Tortorella.

If you call coaching realizing that Ristolainen is not a top 4 NHL defenseman and need to be sheltered on the 3rd pair to be relatively effective, then Tortorella is the man. Most Flyers fans saw that anyway.

well the bottom line is he doesn't appear to be an nhl level caliber player. Horrible pick by the Saint.
- hello it's me 2050

Absolutely horrible pick, especially considering who was still on the board and picked after JOB. Thanks, hexy

It helps when you have 3 players, Hughes, Pettersen, and Miller who are the top 3 scorers in the league right now. Wish the Flyers had some of that.
- Pelle31Forever

Don't forget their goalie, as well.
A lot of potential hardware for that team this year when the awards roll around.
Tocxhet has turned that team around and Patterson adding that muscle mass has upped his game to a whole new level.
I never would have predicted the start that they've had after seeing them last season.
Way to go tocc!

Absolutely horrible pick, especially considering who was still on the board and picked after JOB. Thanks, hexy
- Bob Habib

You can play that game for every team and every GM. Reality is that Hextall did a solid job drafting when he was the Flyers GM. He drafted 12 NHL players in 5 drafts.

Open your brain for 5 seconds to let the oxygen in! The reason why Tocchet would get consideration is because of the pre-season expectation of the Canucks, which were not all that good. If Vancouver keeps this up, of course Tocchet would be considered and he should be. Likewise for Torts. If the Flyers somehow made the playoffs give what was expected from this team, Torts would get equal consideration.
- jd250

Since we're talking about opening your brain and letting in oxygen, which you obviously didn't do when making your post here. Nobody, with the exception of you, needs it to be explained why at this point in time, the obvious choice would be Tocchet. Yet you picked Tortorella. Again! Like you did last year over the blatantly obvious choice of Montgomery, who out of 82 voters, received 79 first place votes and the other 3 voters had him 2nd. Did you open your brain for 5 seconds then when making that statement? Of course, you didn't. You never do with any statement. Which is why you make a fool of yourself on a daily basis.

It helps when you have 3 players, Hughes, Pettersen, and Miller who are the top 3 scorers in the league right now. Wish the Flyers had some of that.
- Pelle31Forever

Boeser is leading the NHL in goals.

You can play that game for every team and every GM. Reality is that Hextall did a solid job drafting when he was the Flyers GM. He drafted 12 NHL players in 5 drafts.
- MJL

I was only referring to this pick. Although I was not really a huge fan of hexy's drafting in general, this pick in particular really stings and is by far his worst choice, imo
Hexy did draft sanheim, hart, and tk so he gets credit for them. The Ruby draft was just a really weak class so I don't fault him for that year at all.
But again, the JOB pick was horrendous.
NoPa is what it is. Nothing you can do about Morin, either. I don't fault him for that.

He chose Ottawa...he could have signed with the Avs, as they wanted him when Florida traded for him, but he didn't want to go to Colorado. He would have been a nice second line center behind Mckinnon, but he chose to play in Ottawa.
I think Ottawa is way better than they have shown so far...I had them pegged for top 2 in their division. Stutzle is a really good player, and Tkachuk ain't bad either. I can see this year being the first of many of them being a top seeded team once the season shakes out. The new owner is a great thing for that team.
- TheFreak

They are 7-7 at the moment. Hardly out of it. I also expected them to be in the playoff mix this season.

Few questions for you Bill if you don’t mind to create some conversation. In your opinion.

1. Do you see the Flyers wanting to move Cam if he continues his solid play?
2. Do you think there will be a market for Cam with an extra year left on this deal?
3. Do you see the Flyers wanting to move Hart by the deadline? If so who do you think makes sense for a possible trade? Will throw Carolina into the mix as they can use an upgrade.
4. Rizzo will be a free agent come August. You think he will sign with the flyers or wait it out? Would a younger offensive player really want to play for a guy like torts? Will how they treat Brink play any factor? Not sure if those 2 are tight at all.
5. For argument sake what type of ext can you see TK signing in terms of $$$ and term?
- hello it's me 2050

Answers to 1, 2 & 3 are no -- the flyers are NOT rebuilding in spite of what they say. They have a long history of lying to the fanbase
Answer to 4 is absolutely not
Answer to 5 is regardless of the amount, the term will not age well, especially if you use their recent extensions as an example

I was only referring to this pick. Although I was not really a huge fan of hexy's drafting in general, this pick in particular really stings and is by far his worst choice, imo
Hexy did draft sanheim, hart, and tk so he gets credit for them. The Ruby draft was just a really weak class so I don't fault him for that year at all.
But again, the JOB pick was horrendous.
NoPa is what it is. Nothing you can do about Morin, either. I don't fault him for that.
- Bob Habib

It was a really bad pick. No getting around that.

It was a really bad pick. No getting around that.
- MJL

Im seeing nothng anywhere about JOB status, injury or otherwise. Its like he has disappeared off the face of the hockey rink.

Remember when people in here lost their minds because there was talk of tocchet coaching here ans he was just another flyers retread? Good times
- Bob Habib

As I remember it people mostly just thought he was a bad coach. Being a Flyer retread made him even more unappealing.

Is Bobby Bench on the brink of a demotion to the AHL?

Is Bobby Bench on the brink of a demotion to the AHL?
- Feanor

No.

First of all, the conversation was not about in the future. It was based on now. Then you add in "ifs" for the Flyers but fail to allow the same "if" for Washington.
- MJL

Washington was not picked to miss the playoffs, so if they remain a bubble team which is ultimately where I think they will be, their coach will not get consideration. The Flyers we expected to finish last in the Metro, so if they finish ahead of the Caps, Penguins, Blue Jackets, etc, Torts will get real consideration.