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Written by Ryan
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Tuesday, 29 June 2010 21:18 |
 It's been a little over a year since I wasted a whole lot of effort trying to predict who the Flyers might pick with the 2009 1st Round draft pick that was eventually included in the Chris Pronger deal. After weeks of analyzing the Central Scouting Bureau's rankings and previous NHL drafts I came to the conclusion that no amount of scouting would help a general manager anymore than a $40 a month Metro PCS phone with unlimited internet could. In fact, the conclusion to my weeks of research was a post called 'A Scout's Work: Draft Guesses.'
But when the Flyers traded their pick my draft fun/analysis was over. Or so I thought until today when I looked at the roster for the Flyers 2010 Prospect Camp and immediately recognized a familiar name in Justin Dowling.
I picked Dowling as a post-first round sleeper that the Flyers should keep their eye on and possibly gobble up if the opportunity presented itself late in the draft. He had increased his point total from 28 to 66 in a single season and... I liked the sound of his last name - good enough for me. But instead, as the Flyers last pick approached and Dowling remained available the Flyers went with a 6'10 freak from Denmark, who I swear, if he ever scores a point for the Flyers I'll buy you all a Burger King Breakfast Bowl.
But I guess all's well that ends better than it would have if I had actually been involved. Because Dowling now has a chance to become a Flyers prospect and I still get to monitor the progress of an ESL Dane who pledges freshmen by making them climb him and drink the keg at the top. Or something.
While we're on the topic of tryout players being invited to Prospect Camp, here are some of the other forwards who were neither drafted by nor are under contract with the Flyers, but will be skating with Luke Pither and the gang starting on Monday:
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Blake Gal from Lethbridge, who recently went undrafted in his first eligible year.
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Phil Ginand, a freshman year standout at Mercyhurst who missed all of last season after having knee surgery.
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Kyle Mountain is a local kid from Bryn Mawr who should be thrilled just to be out there with Sensation Michael Chaput.
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Everett Sheen, a 23 year old Holy Cross grad who has ECHL written all over his Canadian face.
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We'll be back later in life to take a look at the Flyers defensive tryouts.
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Man, when you make it to the Finals the season never really ends, does it? |
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Written by Ryan
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Saturday, 26 June 2010 07:07 |
 So you're telling me that I might have to see this because Paul Holmgren couldn't convince a 27 year old of something that doesn't even exist? The guy was afraid of being our #5 defenseman? Why didn't you tell him he was going to be our #1, Paul? What would it really have mattered, Paul? And then why did you trade his rights to the Penguins, Paul?
No one had to know that the Penguins offered a 3rd round pick. You could have taken that mysterious 5th rounder and had a couple ECHL guys thrown in, like you love to do. Our some former first rounders that are AHL lifers. If you were just trying to make it look like you didn't give up Ryant Parent for nothing, you failed. Because what you've done, Paul, is traded Ryan Parent to Nashville so that the Penguins could have Dan Hamhuis and we're left with nothing. Great, it's like the prom all over again. You know, I know you're a prideful man, and you swallowed it to make this trade in order to salvage some value, but there's also something to be said for pissing in people's faces. I, as well as many other fans I'm assuming, would have rather seen Hamhuis hit the open market, would have rather seen him traded to the Omaha Lancers of the USHL for a Beauty and the Beast Enchanted Christmas DVD, then to watch him suit up for the Penguins for the next 3-5 seasons knowing that we were the ones who orchestrated the trade. |
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Written by Ryan
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Thursday, 24 June 2010 20:18 |
 If you developed some sort of gum that enabled you to time travel when you chewed it and went back to 1995, you wouldn't have found a bigger Eric Lindros fan than me. Granted, your time may have been better spent doing something other than looking for the world's biggest Eric Lindros fan, like hunting dinosaurs or convinving 15-year-younger-you that you really actually should study harder, but nonetheless if you stumbled upon me I could have renact the Matthew Barnaby leg-sweep fight with stunning precision.
We pretty much summed up those thoughts on the day Eric Lindros officially retired.
Seriously, read that ^.
And with the recent Hall of Fame inductions, and it being Eric's first year of eligibility, we figured we'd be fielding ones of questions from our comments section about whether or not we thought Eric should ever make it in. Luckily, when sorting through literally hundreds of comments we found just that question from a Robert Ganusche. Thanks Robert.
After a long, sleepless night of tossing, turning and back-flipping I can assuredly tell you that my final answer (yeah Regis!) is 'No.' And here's why - I don't know why. And that's the truth. His stats were staggering, his international career incredible, his influence on the game undeniable. But he literally just lacks that je ne sais what. Just not enough complete seasons. Looking back it doesn't even really feel like a career, so to speak. It seems like a hockey drama. And I understand that a lot of that is due to unfair expectations placed on a 19 year old, but concussions and his parents really fucked up his career.
For fear of sounding like the old-timer I'm apparently turning out to be, if he was coming into the NHL as a rookie this season he'd end up playing 15 seasons and scoring 1,500 points, save possibly hereditary concussion problems. He'd also have gotten A LOT of hooking penalties. And then, yes, he'd be a in the HHOF. As it stands, the memory of him is too difficult to conjure - which is why I always have to resort to this and not the back of the hockey card stats page that reads 73 games, 52 games, 63 games, 55 games, Did Not Play: space
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Written by Ryan
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Tuesday, 22 June 2010 16:49 |
 You know who that guy on the right is? Come on…come on…think Flint Generals 2009. Think never made it to the NHL. Think never even made it to the AHL. Yes! Exactly! That's the Flyers 3rd round 62nd overall pick from the the 1997 draft, Kris Mallette! Good for you!
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Unless something shockingly big happens before Friday, it looks as if the Flyers are going to go without a first round pick in this year's entry draft. And I don't care. You know why? Because it's not 2006 and Claude Giroux has already been drafted. No second? I can live with that too.
But the Flyers are still holding onto the Alexander Mogilnyith pick of the draft, and despite my best efforts to get the club to "donate" some cool stuff to give away in hopes of running some sort of contest that would keep you even the tinyest bit interested in this year's draft, no such luck. Just pretend the draft isn't even happening.
Why, you ask? Because of a single stat called the only worthwhile thing the Flyers have ever picked after the 89th spot is Andrei Lomakin.
Plus, even if you did want to play along just for fun, it'd be too difficult for you anyway. Look at where the players chosen in spots 87 through 91 over the past 3 years were ranked by Central Scouting going into the draft:
2009
87 Simon Bertilsson - 17th Euro
88 Mattias Lindstrom - 22nd Euro
89 Daniel Delisle - 138th North American
90 Gleason Fournier - 62nd North American
91 Mike Lee - 4th North American Goalie
2008
87 Ian Schultz - 92nd North American
88 Geordie Wudrick - 71st North American
89 Scott Winkler - 176th North American
90 Tomas Kundratek - 12th Euro
91 Max Nicastro - 90th North American
2007
87 Corbin McPherson - wasn't even ranked!
88 Joakim Andersson - 5th Euro
89 Corey Tropp - 114th North American
90 Louie Caporusso - 121st North American
91 Tyson Sexsmith - 8th North American Goalie
You see the trend in there, turkey neck? There isn't one. Those GM's are crazy! It's pure chaos theory. Don't even try it.
But luckliy for you, I'm a professional and licensed to pull some Jackassian stunts on the web. So I am going to go for it. And since the Flyers won't give you anything for winning the contest we're not having, if I by some stroke of Paula Dean guess the Flyers 89th pick you all owe me a Klondike bar each. Yes, this is what I'd do for a Klondike bar:
and finally, what you've all been waiting for:
And that's all I've got. Click on some of those links if you miss the season as much as I do. Focker....out. |
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Written by Ryan
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Monday, 21 June 2010 07:37 |
 So in the end, so far, the Flyers of today now have Daniel Carcillo, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen, Dan Hamhuis, and Kevin Marshall under contract as a result of trading Peter Forsberg to the Nashville Preditors for 2 months worth of hockey.
The Predators are better to us than the Phantoms are.
I'm really excited about this trade - obviously assuming that the Flyers can lock Hamhuis down for Mike Rathje-like money before he would hit the open market next week. We were big supporters of the Flyers trying to get this kid before the trade deadline, and he seems like a perfect fit for our blueline.
He's already played with the rest of our Nashville core for 3 years down in Tennessee and played two years of juniors with Blair Betts a lifetime ago in Prince George of the WHL. I think the one word most people who have seen him play over the past couple years would use to describe him is 'steady.' Which is exactly what the Flyers need to keep adding to their roster if they hope to rise to the top of the Eastern Conference as a consistently difficult team to play against for an entire season, instead of a perennial post-season Cinderella.
Plus he did this:
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Written by Ryan
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Thursday, 17 June 2010 12:30 |
 They should be.
Flyers Goal Scored By is personal friends with Kurtis Foster via a relationship with our professional hockey consultant Matt Herneisen. I tell you this in the interest of full disclosure. I also tell you this in the interest of yeah, there's an NHLer who knows my name, even though when our relationship began with me dancing in a hotel room for the entire Chicago Wolves team (true, weird story) he thought my last name was 'Lunchmeat.'
But a recent article on Pro Hockey Talk citing a recent article on capgeek.com had a stat that is at best directional and needs to be taken with an entire salt shaker, but tells a tale none the less. If you divide 2009-10 points by salaries, straight up, the best deal on a blueliner was our very own Kurtis Foster:
1. Kurtis Foster - Tampa Bay - $14,286 (42)
2. Kyle Quincey - Colorado - $18,103
3. Andy Green - New Jersey - $19,932 (37)
4. Duncan Keith - Chicago - $21,377 (69)
5. Anton Stralman - Columbus - $21,520 (34)
There's a lot more to being a hockey player than scoring points such as yada, yada, yada….we all know how that goes. But what this debatable stat does is it makes me want to point out a post I wrote specifically to Paul Holmgren on March 20, 2008, the day after Fozzie suffered what was possibly a career ending injury. And instead of linking to it I'm putting the whole effing thing right in this post to make it look long and interesting. So take that:
In the wake of a season-ending injury we turn to the future. Last night Kurtis Foster was taken into the boards by Sharks rookie Torrey Mitchell and suffered a broken leg. While there appeared to be no ill will on Mitchell's part as he fell into Foster, the injury was no less severe. It is time for Kurtis to focus on healing and eventually rehab, in hopes for a healthy start to the 2008-09 season.
If the Wild offer Foster what is required to keep him an RFA, which is 100% of his 07-08 salary, the Flyers would have to make an offer that is greater than the Wild's offer as an initial step to getting the defenseman from Carp, ONT. If the Flyers do this, the Wild can choose to match the offer - which means that the Wild sign him right there for what the Flyers offered and can't trade him for 1 year - or the Wild can choose to accept draft compensation from the Flyers. If the contract the Flyers had offered was between $1M - $2M a year they would owe the Wild a 3rd round pick in the upcoming draft. If the contract was between $2M - $3M the Flyers would have to give up their 1st and 3rd round pick.
Now, I don't advocate doing this deal by any means possible. First round picks are like free money in the NHL, and as the Flyers stand to pick somewhere in the middle of the 2008 Entry Draft I would be unwilling to give that up for almost anyone, especially when there are some quality UFA's out there. Some players drafted in the 10-20 positions over the past few years include Anze Kopitar, Alexander Radulov, Jeff Carter, Brent Seabrook, Dustin Brown, Zach Parise, Ryan Gezlaf, and Alexander Semin. I wouldn't be willing to give up a shot at free cash money for Fozzie. But I would be perfectly happy to part with a third round pick, and it just might be possible - here's why:
Fozzie's had an injury prone NHL career. If he wasn't getting hurt on the ice it was on the bench. He's had some bad luck, but it's not like he's fragile, and the past does not necessarily predict the future. Last night he was more or less hit from behind. He's been hit in the face and the throat with the puck. He's had back and groin injuries. In fact, in his first three NHL season's the most games he has played was 58. It looked like he would wash out that number this year but his season ended last night at 56. These injuries are not do to weakness or some nagging injury. Fozzie is 6'5" and 250 lbs. He's just had some unfortunate luck. But when looked at all together, this is the type of player that a short-sighted or narrow-minded GM might not be willing to take a chance on.
If you were to blow out his stats for a full year he would've gotten about 35-40 points in each of his first three seasons. He's only 26. He's a big defenseman who can move the puck, is extremely mobile, and has one of the hardest shots in the NHL. If that's not enough he also wears the #26, which has been disgraced this year by JV and JM and needs some revamping...back to the Propp days.
If it weren't for the injuries I'm sure the Wild would sign him for $3M, or over, for significant time. But this might be a great player that the Flyers could pick up on the cheap. A guy who might flourish in a new environment. Might be able to forget all those random injuries that happened in Minnesota if he got a chance somewhere else.
If the Flyers are looking for a 2nd/3rd defenseman who can move the puck he's a great option. Time will tell.
So there. I'm the new Theo Epstein. We got Krajicek when we could have had Foster (who funnily enough both played on the OHL's Peterborough Petes with FGSB professional hockey consultant Matt Herneisen).
This summer Kurtis Foster is going to become a free agent on July 1st unless Stevie Y decides on a preemptive strike. He deserves a significant pay raise over the paltry $600k he made last year after finishing the season 20th among all defenseman in scoring and only -5 on a team that finished -43 overall, and all signs point to his resigning being one of Yzerman's higher priorities. But it's in Fozzie's best interest to test the market. While he's not going to see Finger money (ha!) as a result of his injury history and only one good year since the broken leg, I think the Flyers should get in on the bidding - maybe going as high as $2.25M. Where's that $2.25M come from with a team that is already up against the cap? Well, amigo, that is a discussion for another day… |
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Written by Ryan
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Wednesday, 16 June 2010 10:04 |
 So we're looking to make what stands to be a very unexciting draft for Flyers fans a little more exciting. Pictured above is a screen grab of a form I submitted to the Flyers PR staff earlier today. Here's what the comments section says:
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Hey!
Flyers Goal Scored By ...( www.flyersgoalscoredby.com ) is looking to run a third round draft pick contest in which our readers will try to guess, given some guidance, who exactly the Flyers will pick with the 89th overall pick in 10 days time. Is there any swag that you're basically on the verge of throwing away that you could send to us that we could offer as prizes? Like a Mike Rathje or Nolan Baumgartner jersey (that was a silly signing btw). Or even a 20 min call with Derek Settlemyer. I would really love to hear back from you or else I'm going to have to give away more naked pictures of the site's other editors!
Thanks!
Ryan
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Will they respond with one of Trent Klatt's teeth? Who knows.
Will there be a contest? If they respond (and maybe even if they don't).
The ball is in your court Philadelphia Flyers, chances stand at 1 in a million. Yes, I'm telling you there's a chance. |
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Written by Ryan
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Tuesday, 15 June 2010 23:20 |
 Holy Winston Churchill.
I was going to write this whole funny thing about VILLE-A-PALOOZA being cancelled for the second year in a row but, not shit, it just took me 2 hours to make that stupid picture.
I was going to include ice castle jokes.
I was going to make fun of Antti Niemi for having a fat, clock face like Cogsworth.
I was going to do a lot of things. But being very new to photo editing is really cramping my style. So just look at that picture and... I don't know, do what ever you want.
I'm ready to get back to hockey posts but work is absolutely kicking the shit out of me. It's as if work knows the NHL season ended.
And Ville Leino. Making really uncreative GIMPed (photoshoped) pictures of Ville Leino is kicking the shit out of me too.
Hallelujah! Holy Shit! I should be in bed! |
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