Potential Draft Lottery Changes?

[FlyerFinFan]

Some teams that are peaking do nothing and then fail to win a cup. Their fans freak out. Some teams take a chance and trade for a player to get them over the hump sometimes it works but you never know if you don’t try. Pronger gave them a cup shot and they probably would have been close or won one. Are you telling me that you wouldn't have made this trade giving away a so so dman and potential prospects to give your team a legitimate chance to win a cup? Yes long-term business wise bad move but who gives a fuck if you win a cup and no one can tell me that Pronger didn't give them a far better chance of accomplishing that goal. It's not like you can find game changing dmen on trees I'd do it in a heartbeat right now if we could add a guy like Pronger right now...their chances of winning a cup would increase dramatically.

 

[lasgop8]

NHL may tweak draft lottery process - ESPN

 

[banditshcky11]

Some teams that are peaking do nothing and then fail to win a cup. Their fans freak out. Some teams take a chance and trade for a player to get them over the hump sometimes it works but you never know if you don’t try. Pronger gave them a cup shot and they probably would have been close or won one. Are you telling me that you wouldn't have made this trade giving away a so so dman and potential prospects to give your team a legitimate chance to win a cup? Yes long-term business wise bad move but who gives a fuck if you win a cup and no one can tell me that Pronger didn't give them a far better chance of accomplishing that goal. It's not like you can find game changing dmen on trees I'd do it in a heartbeat right now if we could add a guy like Pronger right now...their chances of winning a cup would increase dramatically.

I understand what you're saying and I am by no means saying Pronger did not help the Flyers get to the finals, he was one of the main reason they did. However if you're asking me if I would make that trade the answer is no and I wouldn't make another trade like that now. Now the reason I wouldn't make that trade is actually quite simple. At the time we did not have a legitimate #1 goalie. If everyone remembers we had just signed Emery after he had been exiled to Russia to play after he healed from having the major hip surgery to correct his injury and our backup goalie was Boucher. Now the Flyers biggest problem for years had been finding consistency in net and they were going into the season with a huge question mark back there. I was a fan of the Emery signing and before he got hurt he was very good and we all know what we were getting in Boucher (a decent albeit streaky career backup). The Flyers were actually in midst of a minor rebuild, Richards and Carter had yet to really establish themselves before the season, we had very little depth at the forward positions and our defense was really suspect past Timonon, Carle & Coburn were still developing.

Now I understand why management targeted Pronger like said you said defense men like him don't grow on trees. The thing is that the Flyers were honestly just not in a place to be real contenders going into that season and without some of the ridiculous over performances of the playoffs they would have never reached the finals. Was what they did right or wrong, who knows. They got to the finals but gave up 4 players and then handcuffed themselves for 7 years with a 35+ contract. The injury to Pronger was indeed unfortunate and no one could have predicted it but he also had known back and knee problems before the contract was signed. My point is that this was a prototypical Flyers move and very Clarkesque. You sign an aging player who is a future hall of famer at any cost when you can but this was not like teh 90's and early 2000's there was a cap and no way to get out of 35+ contracts so Pronger would have had to play until he was 42 and at the time there was absolutely no mention of the cap growing so quickly, which was honestly a blessing for the Flyers.

I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything I'm simply stating my point of view and I just never thought it was the smartest move. I tend to agree with the Kings and Blues model of drafting well, developing your talent and making shrewd trades and signings instead of trading away your prospects and spending money a tad bit recklessly then saying we'll deal with the ramifications later. Right now our team is in a great place and I'm happy Homer didn't blow it up to get Weber or anyone else for that matter who would have gutted our depth. I know it seems like I hate Homer, that's not true at all I think he's made some really good deals and signings but I don't think Hexy comes here if he isn't assured he will be getting the job sooner rather then later.


just my $0.02