Endless weeks
By Kevin K

I am officially back! If you haven't noticed, I took a couple week hiatus from the Philly Phans page to take a little bit of a break. I won't lie to you, I was seriously thinking about ending the Philly Phans two weeks ago because of how much time it was taking from my life, but then something big happened that changed my mind completely. Both Jeff Carter and Mike Richards were traded the day after I went on hiatus and the Flyers announced the signing of Ilya Bryzgalov to a 9 year contract.

This opened up my eyes more than anything because I wasn't the first one there posting the moves on the Philly Phans page.

Now after two endless weeks, I finally will give you me thoughts on the moves the Flyers have made in the past two weeks. As soon as I heard the both Carter and Richards were traded my first reaction (like many) was WTF. WTF are the Flyers doing to their team and why is Bryzgalov coming off as the Yoko Ono who broke up the Flyers. And then I got to really thinking. In my mind the Flyers did something the Eagles, 76ers, and Phillies wouldn't do and that is get rid of the players that couldn't put you over the top. In 2009-2010, the Flyers made a great Stanley Cup run only to lose to the Chicago Blackhawks. Mike Richards and Jeff Carter had another year to prepare and to prove they were on the best team in the NHL in the 2010-2011 season. The thought looked great in the beginning of the year and then the Flyers changed. The Flyers offense was playing lazy and not scoring. So what did the Flyers do? They traded away the two stars of the team who couldn't put them over the top. Look at the 2001 76ers. Allen Iverson was at the top of his game, but could not put the 76ers over the top. The Sixers then wouldn't trade Iverson at max value because of just that, he was a star. The 2004-2005 Philadelphia Eagles lead by QB Donovan McNabb. The prime of his career and he couldn't get the Eagles over the top. It took five more years before McNabb was moved, five years too late. Neither Iverson nor McNabb got their Philadelphia teams back to the Championships. Could this mean that Richards and Carter wouldn't either? Possibly.

Now we all knew it was going to take some money to sign Bryzgalov, money in which the Flyers cleared quickly by trading Carter and then Richards. Yes the Flyers lost two key offensive stars, but it takes goaltending to win a Stanley Cup, and the Flyers haven't had a good, solid goalie like Bryzgalov since Hextall. Now we know how good Bryzgalov was in the NHL before joining the Flyers, and for his sake I hope he plays and wins multiple championships for the Flyers, if not he will forever be known as the Yoko Ono of the Flyers.

Now to Free Agency, the ULTIMATE WTF! The Flyers not only brought in Jagr, but also Talbot (both former Penguins and hated rivals of the Flyers). Many fans are still going crazy over these moves, but I say let it be. The Flyers now have players playing in their NATURAL positions and not looking to move centers to wingers. They have the offense to continue scoring even without Richards and Carter. Jagr is a great pick up for the Power Play, which the Flyers were so bad on in the playoffs and Talbot is a great pick up for the Penalty Kill, which will be even better this season because of him.

Many fans are still scratching their heads over the complete overhaul change of the Flyers for the upcoming season, but the Flyers may actually be better than they were in 2010-2011.

The key to being a better team was signing the goalie, which they have done. The Flyers still have some cap space to make another move, whether via trade or Free Agency.

Keep an eye open the next few days on what the Flyers will do.

FORMER FLYER WATCH

Ville Leino signed a deal with the Buffalo Sabres. Leino was a key to the Flyers offense the past two seasons, but a dispute with money forced the Flyers hand to let him test the market.

Brian Boucher signed a deal with Carolina. You do not get much classier than Boucher and I am one who is very happy he landed with a team. After the signing of Bryzgalov there was no room on the roster for Boucher.

Dan Carcillo and his suspension signs with the Chicago Blackhawks. Carbomb joins the squad that beat the Flyers in the 2010 Stanley Cup and brings grittiness to the Blackhawks team. Many Flyers fans will miss him, I really will not.

Sean O'Donnell also joined the Blackhawks. The veteran defenseman played one year with the Flyers and showed great leadership qualities with the team.

Simon Gagne joined Flyers West in the LA Kings. Gagne was rumored to be in pursuit by the Flyers, but he joins his former teammate Mike Richards in LA.

Kris Versteeg was traded to the Florida Panthers. Versteeg was acquired by the Flyers during the 2011 season and looked to make his back to the Stanley Cup. He did not and found himself traded by the Flyers in the offseason.

Bryzgalov wants to be a Flyer
By Kevin K

A year ago the Flyers traded for the rights of Goalie Evgeni Nabokov, the move didn't work out. Neither side could agree to terms and nothing happened. Nabokov ended up not playing in the NHL most of the season and signed with the Islanders, in which he continued to hold out due to money.

It doesn't seem as if we will have that issue with Bryzgalov. In a press release Bryzgalov said, “I am pleased the Flyers thought enough of me to make the trade with the Coyotes. Philadelphia is a great city, a great organization and a great team with a rich history. I am looking forward to meeting with Paul Holmgren to discuss the possibility of us working together for many years to come. I would very much like to have the opportunity to play for the Flyers and be a part of the team Paul has assembled and to work with Paul and Mr. Snider to see if we can achieve the ultimate goal.

“I believe the Flyers are right there and I would love very much to be a part of the team that brings the Stanley Cup back to Philadelphia. It would be a great honor. And it’s time!”

July 1st is right around the corner as we sit and wait to see what the Flyers do with the rights of Bryzgalov. It looks this time that the Flyers may have found their man, the question remains though, who goes to clear up cap room?

Press release courtesy of PhillySportsDaily

Transcript courtesy of CrossingBroad.com

Paul Holmgren held a conference call with the media tonight to discuss the Bryzgalov trade. Here is the conversation via

Q: Are you confident that you can sign Bryzgalov?

“We’re going to give it our best shot.  Obviously we gave up an asset to get a chance to get in early so we have every intention of trying our best to get a deal done.”

Q: I spoke to Rich Winter yesterday for quite a while and he wants four or five years.  Are you willing to go that far with Bryzgalov?

“Well, we’ll see what we can do.  He’s certainly not an old goaltender.  He’s 30 or 31 years old.  I feel like he’s got a lot of good years left in him.  We’ll see how it goes.  When you get into a negotiation like this, you’re dealing with a salary cap, you try to get a number you can live with.  We’ll see.”

Q: Would you have to part with one of your pieces up front in order to make this work and are you comfortable doing that?

“Well, once we know what the salary cap is going to be next year, we’ll have a better idea what we need to do down the road.  We have options.  We’ll just see how it goes.”

Q: Do you think it’s possible to sign Bryzgalov and Ville Leino, or if you sign Bryzgalov would it be almost impossible to re-sign Ville?

“I don’t know Sam.  Obviously we still have the intention of trying to sign Ville.  With the salary cap, you can only do so much.  We’re trying to get the best team we can get to get ready for the 2011 season.  We’ll see how it goes.  There’s a lot of things that need to happen between now and July 1.  We’re going to see what we can do.”

Q: Can he mentor Sergei Bobrovsky?

“I don’t know him that well – in fact I hardly know him at all.  Just from talking to some of our guys… when Chris Pronger and Sean O’Donnell played with him, he was a young kid behind [J.S.] Giguere.  Some of the information we have on him from his days in Phoenix, it’s all good.  He’s a team guy, and he must have gotten along pretty well with the guy who was playing behind him in Phoenix.  I don’t see an issue with that.  I think the fact that they’re both Russians probably would help.”

Q: Do you ever know when you go into this what you’re looking at in terms of money and length of contract?

“I probably don’t know now.  We have some ideas we’ll bounce around… I’m sure Ilya’s agent has some ideas of his own that he wants to bounce around.  We’ll see if we can get a deal done.  We got our foot in the door now, we have some time to look at certain things and try to work through the issues and get a deal.”

Q: Are you comfortable negotiating before the actual salary cap number for next season is known?

“I’m not sure it matters, Frank.  We kind of have an idea what it is, we don’t know the exact number but we do have an idea what it’s going to be.  Obviously because of our tagging space right now, I don’t know that we could sign a guy right now, at this time – for the same reason we couldn’t sign Ville at this time.  We’ll do what we can do, and as I continue to say, try to get a deal done.  We didn’t make this trade to acquire his rights just to try to hang around.  We’re going to try our best to get him signed.”

Q: What’s the conditional pick?

“I’m not going to talk about it just because it’s a moot point right now, and when it happens, it happens.  It’s not a first round pick or a second round pick, so you can go from there.”

Q:  Is that the reason you did this now instead of waiting closer to the draft, so you do have the time to hammer out something?

“You never know what’s going to happen. You gamble and wait till July 1, you don’t know who else is involved.  This gives us negotiating rights, which nobody else has.  Is it an advantage?  I don’t know.  At least we get first crack at it, and we’ll see what we can do.

Q: What does this deal mean for Bobrovsky?  Do you still see him as the goalie of the future?

“I don’t know.  We’ll see if we can get a deal done with Ilya.  I still think the world of Sergei and I think he’s one of the top young goalies in our game.  Having said that, and again as I said at the end of the year, we continue to try to make our team better.  Right now the position we’ve put ourselves in, negotiating with Ilya, if we can get him signed, it’ll make our team better.”

Q: There’s been a perception outside the organization for years that the flyers haven’t invested a lot in goaltending.  Inside the organization, does that end the discussion if you sign him, that you have made an investment in goaltending?

We’re trying to get better, as we try to do every year.  Our idea is to put ourselves in the position to win the Stanley Cup.  We haven’t really had an opportunity to talk to Ilya’s agent yet.  Once we get the ball rolling there, we’ll see if we can get him signed.  If we do, I think we’ll have one of the best goaltending tandems in the league.  I feel confident in saying that, anyway.

Q: What interests you about Bryzgalov?

“Well, you look at how he played not only when he was in Anaheim, but the last few years in Phoenix, I think he’s probably one of the reason, probably the biggest reason why they became a playoff team the last two years, with his play in the regular season.  I know last season he and his team took Detroit to seven games in a hard-fought series, and this year was obviously not as good for Phoenix in the playoffs, but he’s one of the better goalies in the league.  You can make the argument that he’s among the top 10 goalies in the league, if not higher.  We’re happy to get this opportunity to talk to him early and we’re going to try our best to get him signed.”

Q: Ed Snider was pretty adamant that he didn’t want to go through another season like this again with the goalies.  How much did that weigh in on this?

“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to field a good team.  We want to win a Stanley Cup. We’re trying to make ourselves better in all areas.  We’re going to give it our best shot.”

 

 Q: Are you comfortable exceeding the salary cap once it’s announced, like you did last year?

“We’ll see, Frank.  It’s not a comfortable spot to be in.  The more you get into the summer, the more difficult it becomes to move money.  We’ll see how it goes.”

Q: You said you could not sign Bryzgalov until the new cap is announced – is that correct?

“Unless we made some kind of a deal.”

Q: In the past you’ve had success doing this obviously with Kimmo and Scott Hartnell, and it didn’t quite work out last year with Dan Hamhuis.  What point in your mind do you say we have to get this done or move on to something else, or do you not worry about that at this point?

“I’m not really too worried about it right now.  I think we have some time.  Ideally before you get to the Draft, you’d like to know if you have a deal in place, and then we’ll see what we can do at the draft in order to – if we need to make some adjustments or whatever.  As long as we sense over a period of time that we’re making some progress, I don’t feel uncomfortable going late into June 30.”

Q: Is it the goal to do this and keep the team, at least the core players, intact?

“[We have some] good pieces that you need to win a Stanley Cup.  In acquiring Ilya, we have an opportunity here to negotiate a contract and get him signed sort of ahead of other teams that might have had those same ideas in mind.  So we’ll see what we can do.  If we can agree to a deal, and then necessary adjustments in order to get him in the salary cap, I think we’ll still have a good team – if not better.

Q: If you’re able to sign him, do you think he’ll have a good impact on Bobrovsky?

“I would assume he had a good relationship with his [other] goaltender in Phoenix.  From what I can gather talking to Chris Pronger and Sean O’Donnell about his time in Anaheim, he was sort of behind Giguere when they won the Stanley Cup.  He was in a little bit of a different role, but he was a good kid, certainly no issues that we hear of with the guy.  He’s a good goalie, and I think the fact that they’re both Russian can’t hurt.

Q: When Ilya was in Phoenix he had a pretty significant workload.  Do you see him doing that here or do you think you can pare that down just a little bit?

That’s one of those things that you play by ear.  I’ve said numerous times, that I really like Sergei and that he’s got a really bright future as a Flyer, so we don’t want to lose track of that.  Having said that, if we can sign Ilya, he’s a guy that is used to the workload.  So there’s a little bit of give and take there.  He played 70 in Phoenix… maybe he can play 65 here with I assume easier travel than they have in Phoenix, maybe he can play more than 70.  We’ll just play that as it goes if we can accomplish what we need to accomplish and get him signed.  First things first right now – we’ll deal with that later.

Flyers get a goalie, can they sign him?
By Kevin K

The Flyers traded for the rights of Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov from Phoenix in exchange for LW Matt Clackson and draft picks.

The Flyers now have until July 1st to sign him to a contract or he becomes an UFA. The Flyers have traded for the rights of players before and it has worked out (Timonen and Hartnell); however, recently it has not (Hamhuis and Nabakov).

This move is a little bit of a risk for the Flyers because now they have to find cap room to sign Bryzgalov to a deal. The upside is that the cap looks to expand in a couple of weeks; however, the Flyers still need to look for a way to open up more space to sign him.

“We’re going to give it our best shot,” Holmgren said of Bryzgalov. “You give up an asset to get in early, so we have every intention of trying to get a deal done.”
 
Winter will be looking for a minimum of a four-year deal worth at least $5 million a season for Bryzgalov, who has six years of NHL experience.
 
“We’ll see what we can do,” Holmgren said of signing the Russian goalie. “He’s certainly not an old goaltender. I feel like he has a lot of good years left in him. We’ll see how it goes. When you get into a negotiation like this you are dealing with a salary cap and you try to get a number you can live with.”

If the Flyers can get a deal done with Bryzgalov, it leaves an opportunity open for him to mentor another Russian goaltender in Sergei Bobrovsky. "Bob" is the goalie of the future for the Flyers and could look strongly at the Flyers signing another Russian to the team.

If the Flyers are going to get the deal done, they are going to have to make another move. Whether it involves Carter, Hartnell, Leino, Shelley, Lappy (retirement?), etc. we will now soon, and we will keep you updated.