Six foot-five inches, two hundred-twenty pounds, the ability to make the big hit, block a shot, lead a rush, and be the quarterback on a power play — Braydon Coburn possess all of those qualities and more. But what happened to Braydon Coburn during the 2013 season? To be quite blunt, Coburn’s struggles epitomized the Flyers 2013 season. Coburn came to Philadelphia in 2006, the last time the Flyers missed the playoffs prior to this year, via a trade with the Atlanta Thrashers for defenseman Alexei Zhitnik. He was the crown jewel of new general manager Paul Holmgren’s salary dump …
2013 Year in Review: Brayden Schenn
When a team trades their captain, it is inevitable that a lot of pressure will be placed on the players that come back in return. Brayden Schenn has yet to play a full season in the National Hockey League, but it’s hard to believe it based on how high expectations are on the young forward to contribute. Starting last season with injuries before finally getting a chance to stick with the club, this lockout-shortened year was his first opportunity to play an NHL season from start to finish. Though he may have fallen short of becoming a reliable secondary scoring …
2013 Year In Review: Claude Giroux
The story of Claude Giroux as a Philadelphia Flyer will forever be a success for one simple reason: it could have been Bobby Sanguinetti. As the infamous story goes, the Flyers desperately wanted the American defenseman. The New York Rangers, sitting one spot ahead of the Flyers, in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft chose Sanguinetti, leaving the Flyers to frantically chose Giroux with the 22nd pick. The draft announcement by then-General Manager Bob Clarke was even better, as he forgot Giroux’s name. Giroux is one of the homegrown stars in the NHL and, more specifically, the Flyers. He signed a …
2013 NHL Entry Draft: Mock Draft Two
Breakdown by League: QMJHL – 8 OHL – 8 WHL – 7 USHL – 2 SM-liiga – 2 SEL – 2 KHL – 1 1. COL – Seth Jones, D, Portland Winterhawks (WHL) Jones is one of the most complete and exciting prospects we’ve seen in years. His combination of size, smarts, mobility, and puck-handling skills are unmatched by any player in this draft and previous drafts. He is a generational talent with the ability to anchor the blue line at an All-Star level for a decade. Jones is the closest thing to a sure bet as a prospect …
Offseason salary cap woes, Flyers currently sit over $64.3 million limit
On this week’s CBA Explained I didn’t want to just explain how the salary cap functions in the offseason, I wanted to illustrate the current state of the Flyers. It’s no secret that the Flyers have salary cap problems, but I wanted to see just how limited they would be this offseason. The salary cap is calculated slightly differently during the offseason than it is during the regular season. For one, teams are temporarily allowed to exceed the upper-limit by 10% during the offseason for the sake of maneuverability. (The new CBA Summary of Terms does not indicate any change in …
NHL Fandom Survey: Flyers/Penguins best rivalry in the league; Penguins the most loved and hated franchise
A friend recently pointed out an extremely interesting survey he discovered on Reddit. The survey asked for feedback from NHL fans on how they felt about all of the other franchises throughout the league. For every franchise you could choose love, like, indifferent, dislike, or hate. This information was then aggregated in a number of interesting ways. The original survey can be found here; credit to reddit poster WoundedLeprechaun. The analysis was then provided by another poster TeroTheTerror. For anyone that wants the cliff notes version; with respect to the Flyers: 9th most “Loved” team 12th most “Loved” or “Liked” team …
Breaking down the Bullies: Increased offense from more net presence
For better or for worse, this bunch of Flyers seems to be putting it together as the season comes to a close. Even with a severely depleted blue line, they have been able to put together a stretch of 4-1 hockey for just the second time this season. It may seem bizarre, but it shouldn’t be meant as a slight to injured defenders in the pressbox. Instead, the signs point to a resurgence of offense from this talented group of players. The last time (and only other time) they were able to go 4-1, they managed to put up 21 …
CBA Explained: the cap; 35-plus contracts; free agency; re-entry waivers; LTIR; NHL Entry Draft
While I believe I’ve covered most of the major changes in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in CBA Explained throughout this season, there are a few other points I wanted to touch on. Some of them are unchanged from the previous CBA, but are worth pointing out. They are all critical details in understanding how the league and its teams function. Wherever possible, I will link to my old CBA 101 articles for more detailed explanations of some of the old CBA’s stipulations that remain in place. From the CBA Summary of terms: The salary cap The 2013-2014 cap …
CBA Explained: Compliance buy-outs
With this pathetic Flyers season dwindling down the topic of compliance buy-outs will be a hot one into and perhaps throughout the summer.The Flyers’ disappointing season combined with continued salary cap issues on a reduced salary cap next year will lead to a lot of conversation about if, or perhaps more accurately, who the Flyers should use the compliance buy-outs on. Currently, Danny Briere and Ilya Bryzgalov are the most popular targets. I had thought that most people were aware of the details of the compliance buy-outs because it is/was such a highly visible change in the Collective Bargaining Agreement …
Five Questions: Rebuilding the Phantoms and Titans
Flyers Faithful revisited a former recurring feature, Five Questions, to address some current hot and important topics, including the draft, prospects, and the future of the Flyers. For this edition of Five Questions, we asked John Saquella, Jim Butler, James Centifonti, Joshua Janet, and our very own Jared Abbott to participate. Below, you will find their answers to today’s question. The organization has failed to produce winning clubs at the AHL and ECHL levels in recent years. With your GM cap still on, how do you go about fixing that? Is it even a big deal? John Saquella: Winning at …