NHL reactions to Philadelphia’s transformation
When the Philadelphia Flyers came away from the first-round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft with highly-touted centers Jeff Carter and Mike Richards many thought general manager Bobby Clarke had gotten away with grand larceny.
Richards, named captain of the Flyers in 2008, quickly developed into one of the league’s best two-way pivots while amassing 133 goals and 349 points in six seasons in Philadelphia.
Jeff Carter, the club’s leading goal-scorer for the past three seasons, has blossomed into an elite sniper. Since 2008-09, Carter has tallied 119 goals – fourth most in the NHL.
Philadelphia had seemingly found two home-grown offensive talents to build around for many years to come. Fast forward to 2011, though, and Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren has jettisoned the two former building blocks out of the City of Brotherly Love altogether.
The shocking trades on June 23 were made all the more puzzling when considering Philadelphia’s success in recent years. The Flyers advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2009-10 and followed that up with a 100-point regular season in 2010-11.
In exchange for Richards and Carter, the Flyers received young, albeit unproven, talent in wingers Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, top prospect Brayden Schenn and the eighth-overall pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft which they quickly used on Sean Couturier.
The emergence of Flyers’ youngsters Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk made it easier for Holmgren to part ways with the all-star pair. Moreover, the trades freed up enough cap space for Philadelphia to sign netminder Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year, $51 million contract.
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Kent Wilson, managing editor of Calgary Flames blog Flamesnation, told The Good Point that despite the Flyers’ improvement in goal they are likely a weaker team overall.
“While I respect some of the packages the Flyers got, they mostly featured future assets […] who are several seasons away from contributing,” Wilson said, of his club’s cross-continent opponent. “If Schenn and Couturier develop as expected the Flyers could be a juggernaut sometime in the future, but there’s no guarantee either of them will be as good as Richards or Carter at this point.”
Philadelphia’s extreme makeover, offseason edition, will undoubtedly shake up what was already a tremendously competitive Atlantic Division.
Joseph Fortunato of SB Nation‘s New York Rangers blog Blueshirt Banter, said in the short-term the Flyers’ offseason moves have weakened the squad and made Philadelphia an easier match-up for his team.
“Mike Richards is a rare hockey player,” Fortunato said. “He blends speed, toughness and skill into one, and can beat you on so many different levels at anytime anywhere on the ice. Throw Jeff Carter in there and the duo would give any Rangers’ defensive pairing fits.”
“They should be competitive and make the playoffs, but I don’t see them being nearly as dangerous as they would have been with Carter and Richards.”
John Fischer, managing editor of In Lou We Trust, another blog dedicated to an Atlantic rival, said the loss of Richards and Carter has significantly diluted Philadelphia’s depth down the middle.
“While either Carter or Richards played wing at times, they were split up and gave the Devils some serious headaches when it came to match-ups,” Fischer said. “Now, their center depth is Giroux, Briere, Talbot and Blair Betts […] this group is not nearly as good as it was with Carter and Richards. The Devils’ centers […] can definitely go up against this group without trying to figure out who gets which All-Star from shift-to-shift.”
Frank Della Femina, the man behind rival Pittsburgh Penguins blog Pensburgh is perhaps one of the sports writers who will be most affected by Philadelphia’s makeover as there never seems to be a dull moment when the two Pennsylvania clubs are in contention in the Eastern Conference. He said the Bryzgalov signing addressed the Flyers’ biggest weakness, but cautioned that Philadelphia overpaid for the netminder.
“Ilya Bryzgalov is a great goalie, so I thought that addressed the situation. But when I saw what Tomas Vokoun signed for [a one-year, $1.5 million contract] in comparison to Bryzgalov I couldn’t help but feel like 29 other teams dodged a bullet by Philly not getting a guy like Vokoun for the price that Washington got him for.”
It will be several years before anyone can definitively say whether Holmgren’s alteration was pragmatic and forward-thinking or reactionary and detrimental to the long-term success of the franchise, but one thing is certain: We, writers, fans, and the Atlantic Division itself are all about to witness a new era on Broad Street.
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