Well Flyers fans….

And with that loss last night the season is sadly over. First and foremost let me say this. I love the Flyers… LOVE them but I am also a hockey fan as well. To say the officials have been good during this playoffs has been the understatement of the year. AS A NHL FAN I am pretty upset. I don’t even know if the ref’s know what they are calling half the time. Coming up with new penalties and lets not mention how many people have been suspended from the NHL this playoffs. It has been a very spotty at best performance from the officials. Please do not think I am saying the series from the Devils vs Flyers was determined because of officiating…that would be an absurd statement to make!

Ok moving on, lets roll this season into a ball, 2011-12 was a good season, after we beat Pittsburgh we thought we were destined. We ran into a speed bump called the Devils, how fitting because they always ALWAYS play us well in playoff hockey. Again Bryz was spotty as an overall goaltender. Call it the system, call it the defense, but I do not think at all it was him as a player. I think he’s a very very good goal tender and will prove that this upcoming year and hopefully shut his critics.

Moving forward we have to thank NJ and even Pittsburgh for exposing us. As they showed us where we need the REAL help

Dmen next year (in no particular order)
Staying
Mez and Gus will be our offensive dmen.
Coburn and Grossman will be our stay at home
Timmo will continue being our star dman

Gone / not resigned
Carle / Lilja / Kubina – No love lost.

Youngsters in the mix (Bartulis, Kessel, Lauridsen, Manning, Bourdon)

we NEED to add another solid 2 way / stay at home. I say try to get Luke Schenn from Toronto if you can, he really has the most potential out there. And remember what we did to Coburn? Schenn could be our next Coburn. Webber from Nash is a great option. But Sutter will be a FA and he will be about 7 million which is a lot, and NO I DONT WANT SUTTER here either, he’s just a little bit better version of Matt Carle.   I want nothing to do with that at all, but Sutter and Carle will get their money.  And with Sutter all but gone from Nashville its safe to assume that they will most likely not want to unload Webber as well.  That could cripple them.

Now please understand I am saying all of this with the idea that Chris Pronger is all but done. I just don’t know if he will put a jersey on again. I think the LTIR is coming his way.

As far as goal tending is concerned. Personally I am sick of hearing all of the people that are ready escort him out of the city. The guy played well considering everything that went into it. Look at my article here http://www.homeboyznetwork.com/?p=2214 that’s my take on Bryz.

We need to move BOB, he is the highest paid backup goalie and he has been spotty at best this year. I wouldn’t mind getting someone else in here as a backup role. Since Toronto is in need of a goalie maybe we can do a swap for Bob and Schenn 🙂

Offense
Not much needs to change here. We’re young and have great talent. If anything we need to replenish the farm, as the Phantoms are the ones taking a hit here. Your only UFAs are Jagr, Betts, Lappy. Well I don’t see Lappy on the ice again so he is as good as retired. Betts was injured this year so we didn’t see enough from him. Jagr at best 1.5 million is all I would offer, end of the season he looked 40 yrs old. So if anything we will have a void at RW. Speaking of getting Schenn from Toronto maybe you could offer JVR + BOB for Kessel + Schenn (have the brother duo). Regardless we will need a RW’er.

I think re-signing RFA Jakub Voracek is a need. Our other offensive RFA’s Zolnierczyk and Sestito are a coin flip.

Again I imagine the team to stay the same and do not think we will blow the team up like we did last year (Richards and Carter).
Staying (again in no order)
Briere / Hartnell / Giroux / Couturier / Schenn / Talbot / Simmonds / Read / Wellwood / JVR / Rinaldo

Again adding another winger or two would be ideal depending on what we do with our own RFA’s.

As far as coaching is concerned this will be quick. Lavy will need to install some type of a defensive system to his heavy powered offensive system. If not sadly I think he will be gone by the end of next year as well.

So to sum this up when you add together all of our UFA’s and RFA’s the Flyers look like this

RW = Jagr (3.3m) / Voracek (2.25m) / Laperriere (1.166)
LW = Zolnierczyk(900k) / Sestito (550k)
C = Betts (700k)
D = Kubina (3.85m) / Carle (3.4m) / Bourdon (875k)

adding up to roughly 17 million then deduct Lappys (LTIR) 16 million in cap space before knowing Prongers situation which could add another 5m (4.92m) if hes placed on LTIR.

16 million to get 1 solid defender. Resign Voracek (prob 3m), add another RW’er as well as a depth LWer and depth RWer.  Now I do not have calculated in pay raises, such as Grossman , JVR..

Not too too shabby.

FYI for those of you out there. NHL FA opens July 1st, 2012

For the image on the banner, pretty funny. They actually make a t-shirt out of this. A famous saying being a Philadelphia fan.