10,000 Posts for a Flyers Cup in 2019

[lasgop8]

Aww yes the lame attempt at humor that makes no sense?

I see your stalker is back.

 

[lasgop8]

Lou Korac: (11:05 PM) Have been told that a deal between the Blues and Patrick Maroon has been finalized and that they could announce it today. The deal is believed to be for one-year at $1.7 million. The Blues and Maroon are able to talk about a contract extension on January 1st, 2019, and the sides are expected to talk about a contract

 

[lasgop8]

A (very) early projection of the Flyers opening night lineup

 

[awaz]

Trying to make sense of where exactly the Flyers currently stand

Love the question that is asked: So were still two years from being two years away?

Same as it's been. Hextall isn't going to make huge moves that sacrifice the 'long term contender' status he's been chasing since he got here. Signing JvR and the progress of the kids should make the 2018-19 team the best Flyers team since Hextall got here 4 years ago. They continue to get better at the NHL and the prospect pool continues to be one of the best and deepest in the league. I'm real excited to see this team in action.

 

[lasgop8]

Same as it's been. Hextall isn't going to make huge moves that sacrifice the 'long term contender' status he's been chasing since he got here. Signing JvR and the progress of the kids should make the 2018-19 team the best Flyers team since Hextall got here 4 years ago. They continue to get better at the NHL and the prospect pool continues to be one of the best and deepest in the league. I'm real excited to see this team in action.

None of the serious problems were addressed PK (coach and players),defense, goaltending and size. I wish some of that player prospect pool rectified some of these problems this season. Granted Hart will be up in a season or two but by then we got our best offensive stars two years older.

 

[awaz]

None of the serious problems were addressed PK (coach and players),defense, goaltending and size. I wish some of that player prospect pool rectified some of these problems this season. Granted Hart will be up in a season or two but by then we got our best offensive stars two years older.

Defense, the hope is Sanheim will play a full season and be an upgrade over Manning. Provorov, Ghost, and Hagg all another year better too. I really do think the defense will be improved just from those things.

PK - still gunna suck. I can't defend that.

Goaltending - they got passable goaltending for spurts last year. Until Elliot starting wearing down.

Size - As you know, not my biggest concern. But they did add JvR 6'3 217 and Folin 6'3 204. JvR obviously not your preferred type of size, but Folin will bang bodies. And it is size. And Vorobyov is in the running for 3C, he's 6'2 194.

 

[lasgop8]

A deep-dive into Joel Farabee’s first development camp

 

[lasgop8]

NHL Trade Rumors: Latest Buzz on Erik Karlsson, Justin Faulk and More

 

[lasgop8]

Defense, the hope is Sanheim will play a full season and be an upgrade over Manning. Provorov, Ghost, and Hagg all another year better too. I really do think the defense will be improved just from those things.

PK - still gunna suck. I can't defend that.

Goaltending - they got passable goaltending for spurts last year. Until Elliot starting wearing down.

Size - As you know, not my biggest concern. But they did add JvR 6'3 217 and Folin 6'3 204. JvR obviously not your preferred type of size, but Folin will bang bodies. And it is size. And Vorobyov is in the running for 3C, he's 6'2 194.

None of this makes me warm and fuzzy about the 2018-19 season.

 

[lasgop8]

The NHL’s Free Agency System Is Broken

 

[awaz]

None of this makes me warm and fuzzy about the 2018-19 season.

Gotta be able to enjoy it without winning the cup. Obviously winning it all is the end game and you want to see progress towards winning the cup, but if you can't enjoy it without that I don't know what to tell you.

I want to see them get better every season. And if you follow that process, eventually you'll be better than all the other teams and will win the cup. On the way, maybe you get a little luck, maybe some of your players play out of their minds for a couple months, and you win a cup on the way to the being the best team.

Trying to win the next Stanley Cup every season is what turned the Flyers into garbage post-lockout. I'm OK following a new path.

 

[lasgop8]

Gotta be able to enjoy it without winning the cup. Obviously winning it all is the end game and you want to see progress towards winning the cup, but if you can't enjoy it without that I don't know what to tell you.

I want to see them get better every season. And if you follow that process, eventually you'll be better than all the other teams and will win the cup. On the way, maybe you get a little luck, maybe some of your players play out of their minds for a couple months, and you win a cup on the way to the being the best team.

Trying to win the next Stanley Cup every season is what turned the Flyers into garbage post-lockout. I'm OK following a new path.

I am looking at team like Vegas who just joined the league and went to the cup and i'm looking at a team like TB who are putting together a team we cant beat even 4 years down the road. We are 4 years in so i wouldn't call it a new path at this point.

 

[awaz]

The NHL’s Free Agency System Is Broken

Ha, glad I read the whole thing (most of it at least) before seeing where it was from. Not a surprise coming from a Rangers blog. Not a knock on the Rangers specifically, but big market / big spend teams in general. The Flyers among them IMO.

He wants a Free Agency system change because most of the time the Rangers have spent poorly on free agents. Same can be said for the Flyers in a lot of situations. Same can be said from the Blackhawks, Kings, Sabres, so on and so forth. This plays right in to what I've been defending Hextall on and what he keeps saying in his press conferences. He's not going to go out and break the bank on Free Agents or big trades because he's saving his money for his young players as they start needing new contracts.

Didn't trade for Ryan O'Rielly because his term is 5 more years at 7.5.
Didn't sign de Haan because 4 years was too many
Didn't sign Beagle or Roussel to fix the PK because 4 years for them is asinine
Didn't sign Neal because 5 years is crazy.
Didn't sign Jack Johnson because 5 years is hilarious.

He's got Konecny, Provorov, Sanheim, Laughton, Hagg, Lindblom, Vorobyov, and Myers to plan for in the next 2 off seasons. UFA's get overpaid and RFA's get underpaid in terms of their actual contributions; as the article lays out as a problem. Is it a problem, or does his team just not take advantage of it properly? Hextall is planning to take advantage of it properly, by not tying up 5M over 6 years for guys like Andrew MacDonald who was slated to be a UFA. Instead, he's signing Ghost for 4.5M for 6 years. Or Couturier for 4.3M for 6 years. Drew Doughty is a good example of both sides. The Kings drafted him, developed him, and took advantage of the NHL contract structure by getting a Norris caliber defensemen for 7M/year for 8 years as an RFA. Now they're making the mistake of signing him under UFA conditions and will pay 11M/year for 8 more years while he declines in talent. Does that contract become an albatross when he's 36? 35? 34? Sooner?

If you save your money to sign your draft picks and restricted free agents, you get more value out of that money than if you were to use it on UFA's or other big contracts. That's why anyone with term had to be higher end players. So he put an offer out to Tavares (who wasn't interested) and put an offer in on JvR and got him. It's going to be awesome to have Provorov on an 8 year deal for 8M and watch him beat out 11M/yr Drew Doughty and Erik Karlsson for the Norris for years.

To win Cups, you draft well and you spend your money on your RFA's. The Flyers have boat loads of talent waiting for those bargain bin RFA deals. And they're going to dominate.

 

[lasgop8]

Ha, glad I read the whole thing (most of it at least) before seeing where it was from. Not a surprise coming from a Rangers blog. Not a knock on the Rangers specifically, but big market / big spend teams in general. The Flyers among them IMO.

He wants a Free Agency system change because most of the time the Rangers have spent poorly on free agents. Same can be said for the Flyers in a lot of situations. Same can be said from the Blackhawks, Kings, Sabres, so on and so forth. This plays right in to what I've been defending Hextall on and what he keeps saying in his press conferences. He's not going to go out and break the bank on Free Agents or big trades because he's saving his money for his young players as they start needing new contracts.

Didn't trade for Ryan O'Rielly because his term is 5 more years at 7.5.
Didn't sign de Haan because 4 years was too many
Didn't sign Beagle or Roussel to fix the PK because 4 years for them is asinine
Didn't sign Neal because 5 years is crazy.
Didn't sign Jack Johnson because 5 years is hilarious.

He's got Konecny, Provorov, Sanheim, Laughton, Hagg, Lindblom, Vorobyov, and Myers to plan for in the next 2 off seasons. UFA's get overpaid and RFA's get underpaid in terms of their actual contributions; as the article lays out as a problem. Is it a problem, or does his team just not take advantage of it properly? Hextall is planning to take advantage of it properly, by not tying up 5M over 6 years for guys like Andrew MacDonald who was slated to be a UFA. Instead, he's signing Ghost for 4.5M for 6 years. Or Couturier for 4.3M for 6 years. Drew Doughty is a good example of both sides. The Kings drafted him, developed him, and took advantage of the NHL contract structure by getting a Norris caliber defensemen for 7M/year for 8 years as an RFA. Now they're making the mistake of signing him under UFA conditions and will pay 11M/year for 8 more years while he declines in talent. Does that contract become an albatross when he's 36? 35? 34? Sooner?

If you save your money to sign your draft picks and restricted free agents, you get more value out of that money than if you were to use it on UFA's or other big contracts. That's why anyone with term had to be higher end players. So he put an offer out to Tavares (who wasn't interested) and put an offer in on JvR and got him. It's going to be awesome to have Provorov on an 8 year deal for 8M and watch him beat out 11M/yr Drew Doughty and Erik Karlsson for the Norris for years.

To win Cups, you draft well and you spend your money on your RFA's. The Flyers have boat loads of talent waiting for those bargain bin RFA deals. And they're going to dominate.

If Prov takes anything less that 10 mill per season his agent should be fired and then publicly shamed.

 

[awaz]

If Prov takes anything less that 10 mill per season his agent should be fired and then publicly shamed.

He doesn't have any leverage. Offer sheets are set up to murder whoever does it. Nobody is going to give up 4 consecutive first round picks to sign Provorov to an offer sheet. He's also not arbitration eligible for 2 more years, after this contract expires.

So his choice is to either sit out and not play or sign a contract with the Flyers.

Option 1 - Holdouts almost NEVER happen in the NHL. I'll eat my shirt if that happens.
Option 2 - Sign a contract with the Flyers. He could try to bet on himself, and take a shorter 2-3 year deal. But if he's going to do that, the Flyers will say i'm only offering you 5M per for 2 years because we want to sign you long term. So his choice is 2 years 5M or 8 years 8M. Since NHL contracts are guaranteed, that's 10M in his pocket, or 64M in his pocket. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a guy that believes in himself and his ability to stay healthy so much that he's willing to turn down 54M.

Or, if he got drastic, he could force a trade. But forcing a trade doesn't change his position, it just changes who has all the leverage. His new team can take the exact same position as the Flyers.

 

[lasgop8]

He doesn't have any leverage. Offer sheets are set up to murder whoever does it. Nobody is going to give up 4 consecutive first round picks to sign Provorov to an offer sheet. He's also not arbitration eligible for 2 more years, after this contract expires.

So his choice is to either sit out and not play or sign a contract with the Flyers.

Option 1 - Holdouts almost NEVER happen in the NHL. I'll eat my shirt if that happens.
Option 2 - Sign a contract with the Flyers. He could try to bet on himself, and take a shorter 2-3 year deal. But if he's going to do that, the Flyers will say i'm only offering you 5M per for 2 years because we want to sign you long term. So his choice is 2 years 5M or 8 years 8M. Since NHL contracts are guaranteed, that's 10M in his pocket, or 64M in his pocket. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a guy that believes in himself and his ability to stay healthy so much that he's willing to turn down 54M.

Or, if he got drastic, he could force a trade. But forcing a trade doesn't change his position, it just changes who has all the leverage. His new team can take the exact same position as the Flyers.

If i was his agent and the Flyers didnt offer 8 years at 80 million i would sign a two year deal and leave immediately following. i would think that would be his leverage.

 

[awaz]

If i was his agent and the Flyers didnt offer 8 years at 80 million i would sign a two year deal and leave immediately following. i would think that would be his leverage.

That's turning down $54M guaranteed money. Honestly that's just irresponsible to turn down IMO.

(To correct a mistake I made, he's actually got to sign a 4 year deal. 2 years doesn't even get him to UFA status. It's 7 years in the league or 27 years old. So it'd be a 5M x 4 year deal maybe, so you'd only be turning down $44M, but you'd have to make it through 4 years without decreasing your value or getting hurt, for it to pay off)

 

[awaz]

We can argue it all we want. We're not in on the conversations. But the hundreds of stars that signed contracts when they were RFA are a good indication that Provorov will get paid significant less than his open market value would be.

And that's the whole point of the article and my defense of Hextall.

 

[lasgop8]

That's turning down $54M guaranteed money. Honestly that's just irresponsible to turn down IMO.

(To correct a mistake I made, he's actually got to sign a 4 year deal. 2 years doesn't even get him to UFA status. It's 7 years in the league or 27 years old. So it'd be a 5M x 4 year deal maybe, so you'd only be turning down $44M, but you'd have to make it through 4 years without decreasing your value or getting hurt, for it to pay off)

If you do this to a player you probably wont be getting his best effort every night like we see now. Injuries start to last longer shifts get shorter until the final year when he goes all out and increases his value for a new team.

 

[awaz]

For fun. RFA stars and their contracts.

Erik Karlsson - 7 years, 6.5M
Victor Hedman - 5 years, 4M
Ekman-Larsson - 6 years, 5.5M
Drew Doughty - 8 years, 7M
Kris Letang - 4 years, 3.5M
John Carlson - 6 years, 3.9M
Dougie Hamilton - 6 years, 5.75M
Roman Josi - 7 years, 4M
John Klingberg - 7 years, 4.25M
Alex Pietrangelo - 7 years, 6.5M

All defenseman, all receiving Norris trophy votes in the past few years. And look at those contracts. Provorov will be a bargain. It's just a fact.