Good stuff. Thanks, Charlie.

Hopefully the brain trust will find a coach who can unlock every ounce of talent on the roster while not alienating key contributors.

“What impedes motion advances action”

Holy crap…did I just get something to drive intention and motivation…from a guy who I thought was “just” a fighter/agitator? I may have to put that on the wall. Well done Garnet!

I hate to be the guy who is always going on and on about the same thing (heya Bob) – but while all this talk about feelings, conflict, communication, feeling free etc is all well and good, a more pertinent question is: what role do Coots and York have on the team going forwards?

I have always been a fan of Coots, and I think he is the one player who deserved to be treated with a little more respect by Torts, but he’s a 3C in a couple of years when the Flyers hopefully are in contention, and he’s overpaid for that role, unfortunately. The glass-half-full view is that he remains a 40-45 point player for 2-3 seasons more and then is a buy-out candidate for the last 2 years of his contract.

York – I have seen nothing in his game that makes me think he is a 1st pairing D-man. Even the non-flashy top pairing guys like Desjardins and Timmonen had a presence on the ice in terms of neutralising opposing forwards – York is a system defenseman, like Andrae and Zamula. If he is able to start putting up 35-40 points, he could be a solid 2nd pairing contributor, but it is by no means a given that this happens.

(Also add Tippett to the list – he certainly has the talent but at this point, he is what he is, and that inconsistency is very much a part of that. The hope there is that maybe a better C gets another 5-10 goals out of him, and if he is regularly scoring 25-30 goals a season, that’s decent enough depth production)

I sure do like Garnet Hathaway.