After a disappointing end to last season for Flyers, don’t be surprised to see significant changes.
When I tweeted a few weeks back there were only a handful of Flyers who were safe from what is sure to be a retooling by general manager Paul Holmgrem this summer, I got a lot of nasty replies telling me I'm nuts if I think the team would ever trade captain Mike Richards.
That may be true, but I don't think so.
To be precise, here is what I tweeted on June 13: Does talk of Flyers trading Carter shock U? I hear only Pronger, Briere, Timonen, Giroux, Hartnell @ JVR r safe.
UPDATE (June 23): Flyers trade Jeff Carter to Blue Jackets for Jakub Voracek and two draft picks.
The fact of the matter is some of the players I said are safe may be only because of no-trade or no-movement clauses in their contracts. Otherwise, they'd likely all be on the market -- that's how disappointed the Philadelphia Flyers are with how this season unfolded. And don't be fooled by no-trade and no-movement clauses -- they really just limit the teams a player can be shipped to if their club really wants to unload them.
The Flyers have not lived up to expectations the past few years so significant changes should surprise nobody. And with all the NHL's general managers huddled in the same location the next few days, chances are there will be some significant moves by a number of teams.
When many in the hockey world thought the Flyers were Stanley Cup contenders, myself included, there has been no championship. Even two years ago when they made it to the final, only to lose in six games to the Chicago Blackhawks, it wasn't until the final day of the regular season that the Flyers even qualified to participate in the post-season and despite an impressive playoff run, it did not erase the memory of a tumultuous regular season that included plenty of in-fighting.
This year was not much better. Injuries and, as always, questionable goaltending, certainly contributed to the Flyers' inability to make it out of the second round of the playoffs. But more than anything else, it is becoming evident this group needs to be tweaked. There is a chemical imbalance with this club.
It seems the signing of veteran goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov is imminent and that being the case, the Flyers are going to have to make cap space for the Russian stopper, who turns 30 Wednesday. There have already been rumours the Flyers were willing to part with scoring centre Jeff Carter, whom they signed to an 11-year contract for $58 million with a cap hit of $5.3 million a season not so long ago. The Flyers also signed Richards, their captain, to a 12-year deal worth $69 million with a cap hit of $5.75 million a year.
It seemed like these two guys were the future of the team. Now, if you believe the rumours, one or both of them could be history.
Richards, unquestionably, is the most surprising to be included in trade rumours. He is considered the ultimate warrior, Bobby Clarke light, if you will. Richards has won the Memorial Cup as well as gold medals at the World Junior Championship and the 2010 Winter Olympics. At 26 you'd have to think his best days are still ahead of him, and yet, for some reason the bloom has come off the rose. Richards had an okay regular season this year and then just didn't seem to be himself in the playoffs.
Further, Richards' relationship with some members of the local media is not exactly cozy and you have to wonder if that will play into any decision as to whether or not the team will keep him or cut ties?
That Richards had an off-year doesn't mean things won't be better next season. Like Hall of Famer Bob Gainey once said, "Just because a player has one bad year doesn't mean he'll have two." If it turns out the Flyers are indeed interested in moving Richards, there should be plenty of teams interested in acquiring him.
None of this is to suggest anything is imminent. The Flyers could come back with basically the same team next season, minus a player or two to make room for Bryzgalov, and could finally win their first Stanley Cup since 1974-75. However, when a team is subject to rumours of its young stars not making the necessary off-ice commitment to be a champion and then it falls short of expectations, it shouldn't shock anybody that there would be suggestions of significant changes.
That being the case, should anybody really feel safe in Philadelphia?
