Flyers Off-Season D-Building
Posted 10:55 AM ET | Comments 3
I will make this short and brief…
The Flyers could have had 5 to 10 more wins this season had their power play produced. The last time the Flyers had a solid PP, they came one game away from beating Tampa Bay and heading to the Finals.
They need Power Play specialists. Other than Gagne, no opposing penalty kill player hesitates to swarm our players while on the power play because there is no threat to be exploited. A solid PP quarterback is completely necessary to open up space. This is where the Flyers need to possibly trade their 1st round picks plus a player and to pick up one of the following players:
John Michael-Liles (Age: 26), Lubomir Visnovsky (age:30), Marek Zidlick (Age: 30), Andrei Markov (Age 28), Dion Phaneuf (Age 22) (let me know if I left some out).
The Flyers would be ill-advised to pursue the older players like Pronger (32), Timonen (age 32) or Rafalski (33). By the time this team is ready to be a force in the league again, these players will be well past their prime of little use to us for the future. And I believe Sheldon Souray is completely over-rated and a team like Atlanta or New York will greatly overpay for his services. He had the worst plus/minus in the league last year, took terrible penalties, and would be exploited defensively on a team already defensively challenged. So I do not even consider him an option.
The Flyers are going to be hard pressed to be competitive in just one year. But by securing a defenseman for the future, they will have solidified something that has been lacking for a very long time in Philadelphia.
The Flyers could have had 5 to 10 more wins this season had their power play produced. The last time the Flyers had a solid PP, they came one game away from beating Tampa Bay and heading to the Finals.
They need Power Play specialists. Other than Gagne, no opposing penalty kill player hesitates to swarm our players while on the power play because there is no threat to be exploited. A solid PP quarterback is completely necessary to open up space. This is where the Flyers need to possibly trade their 1st round picks plus a player and to pick up one of the following players:
John Michael-Liles (Age: 26), Lubomir Visnovsky (age:30), Marek Zidlick (Age: 30), Andrei Markov (Age 28), Dion Phaneuf (Age 22) (let me know if I left some out).
The Flyers would be ill-advised to pursue the older players like Pronger (32), Timonen (age 32) or Rafalski (33). By the time this team is ready to be a force in the league again, these players will be well past their prime of little use to us for the future. And I believe Sheldon Souray is completely over-rated and a team like Atlanta or New York will greatly overpay for his services. He had the worst plus/minus in the league last year, took terrible penalties, and would be exploited defensively on a team already defensively challenged. So I do not even consider him an option.
The Flyers are going to be hard pressed to be competitive in just one year. But by securing a defenseman for the future, they will have solidified something that has been lacking for a very long time in Philadelphia.
Timonen will play and be effective for many many years, he is like a poor mans Nick Lidstrom, I still think Timonen is the man.Zidlicky could easily be had in a trade, he had a bad year and it wouldn't take a ton to get him as he has a pretty hefty salary, over 3 mil I believe.Phaneuf is a pipe dream, he will not be traded and Souray should never ever wear Orange, he is not what the Flyers need.
I love Liles, I was pretty sad when he resigned with the avs last year and it would be pretty hard to pry him from their grasp, that said he is extremely fast, has a great shot from the point, and is able to hit the tape on any stick on the ice. Too bad hes one of the quarterbacks of their power play... they will never give him up.
Good stuff, but how the heck can you put Phaneuf on this list? Calgary would not move him for almost anyone. Crosby and the mad russian in Washington.That's about it.I like the Lubomir Visnovsky idea.Pronger (32), Timonen (age 32) or Rafalski would be fine for me although I don't think Pronger is available. Think about the impact to both the Devils and the Flyers if they could land Gomez or Rafalski..