Diehard Exclusive
Unlock Your Full Philadelphia Flyers Experience
This premium content is a Philadelphia Flyers Diehard exclusive.
DIEHARD MEMBERSHIP
$79.99
/year
As a Diehard, you'll get:
Plus
Join Now
Cancel anytime. No questions asked.
Manage Membership
You're already a Diehard! Manage your subscription from your dashboard.
Already a Diehard?
Sign In
12 Comments (6 conversations)
guadzilla
I choose to (“hope to” may be a better choice of words) interpret Briere’s phrasing about looking to add players to mean that he is now looking to add players who will help the Flyers in the long run – not provide a short-term boost, which can be counter-productive to what they have been doing so far.
In support of that is the fact that everything he has done so far has been aligned with this.
Working against this is the fact that i believe he has mentioned something about hoping to not pick so high again. And i also wonder to what degree all those impatient halfwits who keep baying “50 years without a Cup” at everything affect ownership’s thinking and puts pressure on the GM to think short term as well.
luketd
Lundestrom would make the most sense
Jason
Am I the only one who thinks York is not worth nearly that much?
Also, I think DB’s best option is to simply do nothing, go through a soft tank, and remain a lottery team for one more year, given who will be available at #1. They’re still at least two years away from starting to truly contend again, so why not keep yourself in the running for a generational talent?
AJ
Agree 100%. Idk why we would pivot towards winning more games this year, I don’t want to change anything about the goalies. Let fedotov play out his contract, hope you’re a bottom 5 team in the league and next year start building back out when your cap is even cleaner. Weaponize the cap space this year to get more draft picks or prospects in exchange for alleviating other teams cap crunches. I don’t think missing the playoffs one more year sinks this teams long term outlook
guadzilla
I suspect it creates a culture of losing. It is hard to get a bunch of uber-competitive athletes to give 100% when the team itself wants to lose – and once you get in the habit of losing and/or being stomped on by every other team, you end up in trapped in that mess.
Jason
I get that argument, but I think everyone recognizes that they’re not truly close to being back to relevant again. Plus, another year of not losing on purpose, but also not trying to shortcut the path back to relevance will show which players on the roster are truly willing to keep working for long-term benefits, not just a quick “fix.”
Michael Curran
No you are not. York is at best a 2nd pair D man with more likely a 3rd pair. What flashed through my mind was the old familiar theme of Flyers front offices over valuing their own players. Bridge him and let’s avoid what potentially could be a long term bad decision. I mean if Tocchet gives him grief is he going to pout like previous history has shown.
Wesley Rusk
I hope you’re right.
guadzilla
Dvorak for $5MM/year – sure, why not…. Gives them a body for this year and they can always pull a Poehling and trade him for assets at the deadline, if need be. That said, $5MM a year for a 35 point center seems high, even allowing for a the premium for a short term contract.
Dan Vladar, G, for 2 years @ $3.35MM AAV. This one is puzzling – he doesnt seem to be much better than Fedotov or Kolosov.
rawgman
Vladar makes sense as a stop gap. His numbers are simply okay, which is a lot better than Fedotov and Kolosov did last year. There are also no other better options on the market. It’s not a long deal and not a lot of money.
David LaVeck
Great primer for Free Agency, you did some deep dives given the seemingly limited options out there! I especially like all the work on the current Cap situation, you explained all of that very well with some good projections. Well done, Charlie!
rawgman
Not sure how you missed Vladar!