Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Posted: 1:03 p.m.
By Tim PanaccioCSNPhilly.com
Imagine you were overseas from April through June, didnt know a thing about how the Flyers finished the regular season or even whether they made the playoffs.
Let's say you return to the States on July 2 and see the Flyers have traded their captain, a guy once likened to Bobby Clarke; traded their 40-goal scorer; traded another guy they burned a first-round pick for; then proceeded to add seven new players, including a Russian goalie, whose only fault is going to be that hes too damn honest; and a Czech winger, who was among the most gifted ever to grace the ice in Pittsburghbut will be 40 by the middle of next season.
Knowing all that and being away, youd have to assume that the Flyers didnt make the playoffs and were in a rebuilding mode instead of being close to the Stanley Cup, as they often say of themselves.
Thats how it would look to an outsider with no knowledge of the Flyers these past few months.
After the Flyers were ousted by the Boston Bruins in four games, general manager Paul Holmgren said there would be changes to the roster, but overall, he liked his roster and was happy with his team.
Going into the draft, before he blew apart the core nucleus with the trades of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, Holmgren again said he liked his roster.
After the draft and going into free agency he repeated for the third time that he liked where the club was at and was happy with his personnel for the most part, even after wrestling with his conscience about making a restricted free agent offer for Steven Stamkos.
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Yes, Holmgren liked things so much, he blew the entire roster apart again last Friday when free agency began by adding Jaromir Jagr, Max Talbot and Andreas Lilja.
And the kicker is, everyone keeps hinting that the restless trigger finger of Holmgren still has another bullet to look to in the chamber of his gun.
Its fairly obvious that no one in the Flyers organization from chairman Ed Snider, to team president Peter Luukko, to Holmgren, to coach Peter Laviolette liked where this team was at seasons end, nor were they happy with the personnel.
This is a bigger off-season makeover than what the Flyers underwent in 2007, when the team completed its worst season in history and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1995.
That off-season, Holmgren made the deal with Nashville for Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnells rights, signed Danny Briere in free agency, then traded for Joffrey Lupul and Jason Smith.
Total new faces: five. Not seven. True, some of the makeover began before the off-season, but were talking June and July here.
Incredibly, the Flyers went into this off-season with about 450,000 cap space. They arrive in July with a new salary cap number and roughly 3.8 million to play with for next season.
At the same time, a team that wasnt all that young and wasnt all that old, is still leaning toward the older side of the bench with the additions of Jagr and Lilja (Talbot looks 37 with a beard, but is really 27), but the question remains as to whether the Flyers are closer to winning a Stanley Cup than they were when the playoffs ended.
A lot is going to depend on whether Brayden Schenn actually makes the roster and is front line center; whether Jagr, who looked and played like the Jagr of old during the recent World Championships, remains that way; whether Ilya Bryzgalov can finally duplicate regular season stats when it really counts during the playoffs; whether Talbot can fill the glue gap within the dressing room that Ian Laperriere once did; and whether Chris Pronger and Timonen come back healthy and strong next season.
And we havent even mentioned what Jakub Voracek may be capable of. Or whether people will like Wayne Simmonds better than Dan Carcillo. Or whether first-round pick Sean Couturier will surprise everyone in training camp by imposing his will to make the roster.
If all that happens, the Flyers will indeed be closer to the Cup than they were before all this began.
Thats a lot to happen.
Many feel Pronger is the key because we all saw firsthand how different the Flyers defense was without Mr. Warmth in the playoffs.
Brian Burke had it right. He said more than once that his final piece to winning the Cup in Anaheim in 2007 was Pronger.
Thats still true, although the Flyers have shown its equally true theyre not going to win a Cup unless they have a goalie who gives them consistent play in net during the postseason. Which is where Bryzgalov has to make a difference.
Of all the players the Flyers picked upLilja is a No. 6 guy like Sean ODonnell, but could be No. 7 if Erik Gustafsson makes this roster, the real key here is keeping Jagr content.
He was widely known for being moody and pouty in Pittsburgh. It ranged from personal clashes with coaches, to not playing with specific linemates, all the way down to people taking his parking spot outside Gate 2 at Mellon Arena.
A happy Jagr is a productive Jagr. Even at age 39, he alone has both the talent and ability to make up for much of the scoring deficit the Flyers incurred by moving Carter and Richards.
When you think of the acumen of Claude Giroux as a playmaker working with Jagrwell, it might not be Mario Lemieux, but its as close as it gets in this generation of Flyers.
Laviolette now has a tantalizing group of players to present to the fans next fall when the newly, re-priced (tickets, that is) Wells Fargo Arena opens.
Expectations will again match what they were last seasona Cup.
Nothing else will suffice.
Nothing else will make Holmgren and everyone else like where the organization is at, happy with the results.E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net
Related: Flyer & Ice: Talbot's contract in questionCould the Flyers still target Stamkos?