Ah yes, another NHL trade deadline come and gone. Another minor splash made by the Philadelphia Flyers and all you hear the fans do there is best Democratic Party imitation about the economy.
“The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Help us please, do something, anything. Oh the humanity. The humanity!!”
What’s that? Flyers fans overact? Nah. The funny part is, this time the fans might have a right to be a tad ticked off at the team. Not because what they did at the deadline, but for what they’ve done ever for years, especially since the hiring of General Manager Paul Holmgren who replaced his friend and mentor, Bob Clarke.
In the years prior to the NHL lockout, the Flyers spent money like they were drunken sailors on shore leave. Well, four years and a salary cap later and well, nothing has changed. The Flyers have spent up to the salary cap ceiling and as of this second, according to Holmgren, are about $900,000 under the cap.
Yesterday Philadelphia traded left winger Scottie Upshall and their 2nd-round pick in the 2011 Entry Draft to
The Flyers picked up some minimal cap space by relieving themselves of Upshall’s $1.25 million in salary and acquiring Carcillo’s $850,000 salary. Upshall was an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, while Carcillo is signed through the end of next season.
So basically the Flyers trade a speedy left winger for a slightly slower, more physical player who drops the gloves at a moments notice.
I need someone to refresh my memory, don’t the Flyers already have Riley Cote and Aaron Asham? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Still Holmgren explained the trade to the media.
“Giving up Scottie to make our salary cap work a little better hurts a little bit,” Holmgren said. “Scottie is a good kid, and we all like him, but we got a guy back who plays a similar game to Scottie, but is a little more aggressive. It’s a better fit for us in a lot of ways.”
Yeah, if this was 1975.
“The core of our team is together, and we weren’t pushing to make any big deals,” he said. “At the end of the day, we like our team.”
Well, I’m glad someone does, because you can bet the fans will only like the club if they win the Stanley Cup. By the way, have you seen the way the Detroit Red Wings play lately?
Holmgren did point out that Carcillo scored 17 goals last season, and since he is only 24 years old that there is still a lot of potential upside to his career.
“Daniel Carcillo is a good player who happens to be aggressive, that’s the bottom line,” Holmgren said. “The fans are going to love him, trust me.”
Oh, they will. That won’t be an issue. The second be beats the crap out of someone he will be able to run for mayor.
Holmgren said, however, that the Flyers coaching staff would work quickly to make sure Carcillo reigns in his emotions and avoids putting the team in a hole by committing needless penalties.
“He has to be a hockey player first,” Holmgren said.
When told of this, Carcillo said he would be up to granting the Flyers’ wishes.
“I think I’ve come a long way since my first year when I was kind of reckless and wanted to get my name out there about what I could do,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been a lot more disciplined this year, but it’s something I’ll have to continue to work on — playing between the whistles and not putting the team down with any dumb penalties.”
With an NHL salary of $2.5 million, McLaren will be assigned to the Phantoms, waiting in the wings in case the Flyers need his services come playoff time, when the cap no longer comes into play.
“He has to be a hockey player first,” Holmgren said. Gee, ya think?
When told of Holmgren’s comments Carcillo said that wouldn’t be a problem.
“I think I’ve come a long way since my first year when I was kind of reckless and wanted to get my name out there about what I could do,” Carcillo said. “I feel like I’ve been a lot more disciplined this year, but it’s something I’ll have to continue to work on. Playing between the whistles and not putting the team down with any dumb penalties.”
Have you checked the stats lately? The Flyers are the most penalized team in the NHL, and are tied for the second most majors in the league. Needless to say he will fit right in.
Than, to top off the Flyers day, the team made yet another head scratcher of a move.
With an NHL salary of $2.5 million, McLaren will be assigned to the Phantoms, purely to wait in the wings in case the Flyers need his services come playoff time, when the salary cap no longer comes into play. Well, there is some good news for you.
Actually there is some good news that should get the fans off the ledge. The Flyers didn’t have to trade any of there top prospects for a quick fix. Rumors had left wing prospect James Van Riemsdyk possibly being moved as part of a package deal for the Florida Panthers defenseman Jay Bouwmeester.
JVR is a Bobby Ryan clone, and the last time I checked Ryan is a Calder trophy candidate for Rookie-of-the-year. Patience is not one of the Flyers strengths, especially when it comes to prospects. See the Flyers draft record for details.
They also didn’t have to give up on Claude Giroux who is showing everyone why he had 100 plus point seasons in the QMJHL all 3 seasons he played for the Gatineau Olympiques, not to mention shattering the Q’s playoff scoring record last season with 17 goals and 34 assists in only 19 games played.
Other top prospects they hung onto were defensemen Ryan Parent, Luca Sbisa, and Marc-Andre Bourdon. Parent and Sbisa have already contributed to the lineup, and Bourdon is easily the teams best offensive-defenseman in the system with 18 goals and 42 assists in 54 games (second overall by a defensemen) for Rimouski Oceanic.
There is some other good news as well. There is always the off-season to think about. If your thinking that the Flyers are a stud goaltender and defenseman away from being a true cup contender, the team will have roughly $11 million in cap space relief (providing the cap doesn’t go down) to play with.
Nikolai Khabibulin is someone the Flyers have had on their radar screen for some time now. He will be a
The Bruins Tim Thomas ($1.1) is surely getting a pay raise, and Manny Fernandez ($4.333) could either be close to his current rate or go down slightly.
With the Minnesota Wild signing Niklas Backstrom for $6 mill over the next four seasons, you can see where this is going.
Than of course Jay Bouwmeester and Chris Pronger might come back into play for around the same money. Moving Matt Carle and his $3,437,500 cap hit for a prospect of a draft pick at the draft to make room for both a goalie and a d-man might work as well,
Still, signing a d-man and a goalie might be out of the question. The Flyers need to finally settle the goaltending merry-go-round, so look for that to be their priority in the off-season, not a d-man. With some many quality defensive prospects in the system, the Flyers top 5 defenseman should look like this next season.
Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn, Matt Carle, Luca Sbisa, Ryan Parent. The last spot on the blueline will either be a free agent or a top rookie prospect such as Bourdon, Russian prospect Denis Bodrov, Michael Ratchuk, Kevin Marshall, or R.J. Anderson.
So cheer up Flyers fans. Even if it looks like the Flyers won’t win the cup yet again this year, next year just might be their year if they go with the Jennings plan by moving Carle, and signing a top flight defenseman (Bouwmeester) and either top flight goalie (Thomas or Khabibulin).
If that happens, look for the Flyers to be the favorites coming out of the East Division next season.
Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.