Your 2006-07 Flyers team?

[Blindside]

Just wanted to see what everyone thinks our Flyers should do over the off-season to prepare for next year.

Here are my thoughts...

Leaving the team:
- Primeau (retire, one more hit and he might be a veggie for the rest of his life, plus saves Philly $4ish mil' if he does it soon)
- Stevenson (too hurt & inconsistent in his role, Eager can replace him)
- Brashear (good grief, I'll pay for his taxi out of town)
- Therien (see Brashear)
- Desjardins (Flyers HOFer for sure, but doesn't have it anymore)
- Savage (has a shot, but that's about it)
- Nedved (had a few good games, but disappeared in the playoffs... Give Handzus, Richards & Carter more ice-time instead)

Savings = around 10.5 mil'

Re-sign:
- Gagne (no-brainer)
- Johnsson ($1M per season, tops... maybe another 1 year deal with a team/player option to make sure he stays healthy and gives the team an out if he isn't)
- Antero Niittymaki (see Gagne)
- Joni Pitkanen (see Gagne)
- R.J. Umberger (see Gagne)
- Branko Radivojevic (Showed flashes of being a good power forward)
- Rosario Ruggeri (We need cheap young d-men in the system)
- Kiel McLeod (Still cheap, relatively young and has some unrealized potential)
- Tony Voce (Cheap scoring for the Phantoms)

Total raises of about $6.5 mil (mostly on Gagne, Nits and Pits)

Leaves us $4 mil to pick up a 2nd line scoring forward and/or a bona fide puck-moving blueliner.
My choices: Andy MacDonald and Filip Kuba
A-Mac had a great year in Anaheim and it's doubtful that Burke is going to pick up his contract for next year. Has wheels, soft hands and good vision for making plays. Potentially could be a temporary replacement for Forsberg on the top line, then bump down to the 2nd line when Foppa returns... OR... could play 2nd line centre or wing with Carter & Umberger?
Kuba's a big but mobile defenseman with a great shot, good instincts of when to join the rush and still very solid in his own end. Arguably Minnesota's top blueliner the last few seasons.

Draft:
- PHI 1st, PHI 2nd, LA 2nd, PHX 2nd, CHI 3rd, PHX 4th, PHI 5th, PHI 6th, PHI 7th

Defense, defense, defense... With as many as 15 quality defensemen available over the first 2-3 rounds I'd say go after a couple strong defensemen that play both well in both ends of the rink, then a scoring winger, then another defenseman that just plain murders people (if one's available). After that, best player available...

Gagne-FA/Richards-Knuble
Dimitrakos?-Carter-Umberger
Kapanen-Handzus-Ruzicka/Radivojevic
Eager-Potulny-Downie/Radivojevic/Ruzicka/FA

Pitkanen-Rathje
Gauthier-Kuba
Johnsson-Hatcher

Niittymaki-Esche --> 55 GP for Frank, 25 GP for Esche... give or take.

Another year older, another year wiser... hopefully a healthy year. When we're fit, we can skate with the best of them. Replace a few grizzled vets with fresh-faced younguns and watch them go.

What do you guys think?

[Chris342]

I like everything, except the KJ situation. They were only rumors, but multiple sources had him saying that he wasn't coming back to the club next year because of the way his injury was handled.

[Blindside]

That I hadn't heard Chris, but I'd rather have KJ back next year (if he's willing to come back) than Rico.
Yes, Desjardins was playing on a bum hip in the playoffs, but he was badly exposed with plenty of turnovers and blown coverage assignments. His mental game just isn't there anymore and his body can't hold up over an 82 game season either. Not a good combination.

[Pitkanen44]

Voce is probably gone from the Phantoms next year. He's looking to the NHL next year and the Flyers won't give him much of a chance because of his size. Columbus was interested in getting him, they would play him immediately.

How do I know? I know his dad very well. :)

[FlyersFan900]

I like all your waives/re-signings except Primeau. If he wants to play, we could really use him. With his grit and leadership, not to mention playing abilities, I bet the Flyers would have gone deeper in the playoffs.

[Blindside]

Originally Posted by FlyersFan900

I like all your waives/re-signings except Primeau. If he wants to play, we could really use him. With his grit and leadership, not to mention playing abilities, I bet the Flyers would have gone deeper in the playoffs.

I don't doubt it either, but speaking from a cost/benefit perspective, I'd rather have the extra cap space and not risk Primeau's career and personal life. Like I said, one more hit (even a soft one like Perezhogin's cheapie this year) and Preems could be getting colouring books at Christmas for the rest of his life.

[flyersdude121]

the salary cap will be about 46mill this coming season i think...which is about 5 million more than last season, so the flyers could make a big acquision...i would prefer them to resign their younger/quicker players.

i also think we need to trade handzus for some speedy player or a good puck moving D-man. flyers need to keep esche in case something happens to niitymaki *knock on wood* b/c storr is probably not the answer as back-up.

is there any way the flyers could buy out hatcher and rathje? they are poorly fitted for the new NHL and take up a big part of the cap...gauntier plays a similar style as hatcher and costs us > 1million cheaper.

i think the only reason that the sabres beat us was b/c they skated right around our slow defenders...that is the first place the flyers need to look for improvement IMO.

[Blindside]

Originally Posted by flyersdude121

the salary cap will be about 46mill this coming season i think...which is about 5 million more than last season, so the flyers could make a big acquision...i would prefer them to resign their younger/quicker players.

i also think we need to trade handzus for some speedy player or a good puck moving D-man. flyers need to keep esche in case something happens to niitymaki *knock on wood* b/c storr is probably not the answer as back-up.

is there any way the flyers could buy out hatcher and rathje? they are poorly fitted for the new NHL and take up a big part of the cap...gauntier plays a similar style as hatcher and costs us > 1million cheaper.

i think the only reason that the sabres beat us was b/c they skated right around our slow defenders...that is the first place the flyers need to look for improvement IMO.

Cap should be between 43 & 45 mil next year, which is a $4-6 million increase over this season. Re-sign our young contributors and see what's left over.

Handzus should stay because if Primeau is gone, Zeus is the only shut-down centre we have left. They just picked up Marty Murray again, so putting together a checking line of Kapanen-Zeus-Murray would be pretty effective at shutting down any offense from the wings using Kappy and Marty's speed, and Handzus is very efficient at clogging up the middle of the ice. Not to mention Kapanen and/or Marty as an aggressive forecheck as well.

I have no problems with Esche, as long as Niitty gets the lion's share of the starts, like 53-57 instead of splitting time evenly with Esche. It's time that Hitch can see what Niitty is capable of over a full season.

Who are we going to replace Hatcher & Rathje with? We have no NHL-ready young defensemen and any mobile, puck-moving blueliner from the FA market will cost us just as much, if not more, than Hatcher and Rathje. We would also be saddled with a big cap hit for the next 3-4 years without having those guys play for us. This is not a worthwhile exercise in my opinion, and by no means was the "only reason that the Sabres beat us". We had 2/3 of our team playing at 50% or less due to injury. Hatcher actually played pretty well for only having one working leg. Rathje was being exposed, but he had no lateral movement because of his hip. Desjardins was decimated by any and every Sabres forward because... well, he wasn't hurt, but he is a shadow of the player he used to be. If our forwards knew how to score and create offense rather than just dumping the puck in, half-heartedly chasing it and not finishing checks, well, I think we could have seen a different story.

Bringing John Stevens up from the AHL to coach the younger guys on the team was a great move and should help guys like Carter, Richards, Umberger, Eager, etc. all make the transition a bit smoother. I'd really like to see what guys like Potulny, Ruzicka and even Downie are capable of in at least pre-season action.

[flyersdude121]

Originally Posted by Blindside

Cap should be between 43 & 45 mil next year, which is a $4-6 million increase over this season. Re-sign our young contributors and see what's left over.

Handzus should stay because if Primeau is gone, Zeus is the only shut-down centre we have left. They just picked up Marty Murray again, so putting together a checking line of Kapanen-Zeus-Murray would be pretty effective at shutting down any offense from the wings using Kappy and Marty's speed, and Handzus is very efficient at clogging up the middle of the ice. Not to mention Kapanen and/or Marty as an aggressive forecheck as well.

I have no problems with Esche, as long as Niitty gets the lion's share of the starts, like 53-57 instead of splitting time evenly with Esche. It's time that Hitch can see what Niitty is capable of over a full season.

Who are we going to replace Hatcher & Rathje with? We have no NHL-ready young defensemen and any mobile, puck-moving blueliner from the FA market will cost us just as much, if not more, than Hatcher and Rathje. We would also be saddled with a big cap hit for the next 3-4 years without having those guys play for us. This is not a worthwhile exercise in my opinion, and by no means was the "only reason that the Sabres beat us". We had 2/3 of our team playing at 50% or less due to injury. Hatcher actually played pretty well for only having one working leg. Rathje was being exposed, but he had no lateral movement because of his hip. Desjardins was decimated by any and every Sabres forward because... well, he wasn't hurt, but he is a shadow of the player he used to be. If our forwards knew how to score and create offense rather than just dumping the puck in, half-heartedly chasing it and not finishing checks, well, I think we could have seen a different story.

Bringing John Stevens up from the AHL to coach the younger guys on the team was a great move and should help guys like Carter, Richards, Umberger, Eager, etc. all make the transition a bit smoother. I'd really like to see what guys like Potulny, Ruzicka and even Downie are capable of in at least pre-season action.

i guess the flyers can't buy out hatcher/rathje, maybe we could trade one of them for future considerations...but it was clearly obvious that these two players were hurting the team (just look at all the shots buffalo put on esche).
if primeau is definetly going to be back, then in a way he'll make handzus obsolete (i like handzus but he made more than 2mill last season...i'd like to see that money go towards a young puck moving defenseman or a skilled winger with some speed).
esche must stay on the team but as a back-up because he is a good goalie who doesnt demand a large salary.
the young players really stepped up huge last season and they will be really depended on this season and especially in the playoffs.
kapanen really needs to start playing better.
even with a healthy flyers line-up...we dont have 2 strong lines, heck, without forsberg for a while...we dont have 1 good line. i'm actually worried that next year's flyers will resemble last year's eagles.

the flyers need more players like KNUBLE, he is an affordable player who had experience playing on a top line when he came here from the bruins.

[Brett]

I like pets. Mainly dogs and cats. If I had to choose, I'd get a dog before I'd get a cat.