Q: Can you walk us through the depth of this draft and the overall look at this draft and how it compares to others in the past? “I think this is a fairly decent draft. We had our end of the year scouting meetings, it ended ten days ago, and our list looks pretty good. If you look at guys that we think are going to be first round picks I think it’s comparable to last year. There are drafts that have been better, think back to the draft of 2003. It’s not looking like that but there are a …
Prospect Profiles: Ben Holmstrom
Photo courtesy of theahl.com Position: Center Shoots: Right Height: 6.1″ Weight: 180 Birthdate: April 9, 1987 Age: 24 Hometown: Colorado Springs, Colorado Acquired: Signed as free agent (3-17-10) Ben Holmstrom spent his junior years playing for the Sioux Falls Stampede of the United States Hockey League from 2003-2006. He tallied 14 goals and 18 assists in 126 games over three years with the Stampede. In his final season with te Stampede, he captained them to their first ever championship and to a franchise best record of 43-13-4. Holmstrom headed to the NCAA to play for the University of Massachusetts Lowell …
2011 Stanley Cup Winners
The Lulz feature was originally inspired by the lolcats site but features hockey pictures with funny, quirky, ironic or just plain mean captions. This feature should run weekly on Mondays, just to try to make your Monday a little brighter.
Just a reminder to keep those fires burning…
…or, A Child’s Garden of Stanley Cup disappointments. 1976 1980 1985 1987 1997 2010 2011
Do the Flyers have a deal in place with Bryzgalov?
Rich Winters did not mince words when he spoke with Chuck Gormley. “The fact is there will be no disclosure by the Bryzgalov camp,” said Winters, the agent for prized goalie, Ilya Bryzgalov. “Anybody that guesses at this point will be proven only to be one thing: a guesser and misrepresenting things to the public.” Around that time, Winters put a kibosh on public comments relating to negotiations between his client and the Philadelphia Flyers. So, it caught many people off guard when Bryzgalov joined Twitter yesterday and wrote this in his second tweet: Negotiations Negotiations Negotiations # Flyers Although …
Friday roundup
First, there was this from Flyers GM Paul Holmgren: “Spent the day getting to know Ilya and Jeniya. There will be no comment on discussions that are ongoing.” Then, there was Peter Laviolette personally chauffering his presumed netminder around town. Now, this: Ilya Bryzgalov left town and a deal was not signed. Well…there’s always next week’s draft… In other non-local, non-garment-rending news: The Minnesota Wild have a new head coach. Good luck with that. And the Dallas Stars begin a new era where they can’t admit they’re rebuilding with a new bench boss. $50 if you can say his name …
Former Flyer Recchi retires a champion, but legacy here is mixed
Mark Recchi, a 22-year NHL veteran, announced his retirement from the game early this morning after the Bruins beat the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Recchi made his pro debut with the Pittsburgh Penguins late in the 1988-89 season, and completed his career with 577 goals and 1,533 points in 1,652 games. He added 61 goals and 146 points in 188 playoff contests, winning a trio of Cups with Pittsburgh (1991), Carolina (2006) and Boston (2011). The 43-year-old British Columbia native spent two separate and memorable stints with the Philadelphia Flyers — the first coming …
Then and Now: Janne Niinimaa
What do Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, and Janne Niinimaa all have in common? They were all drafted in the 1993 NHL Entry draft. How many were drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers? Only Janne Niinimaa. Pronger went second, to the Hartford Whalers, while Timonen could be considered the hidden gem of the draft going 250nd to the Los Angeles Kings. Well, we know what Pronger and Timonen are doing with their careers now, but what about Niinimaa? Before the aforementioned question is answered, let us remember Niinimaa’s brief time spent in Philly. Spending three seasons with Jokerit in the SM-liiga after …
Was trading for Bryzgalov’s rights a worthwhile risk?
To answer this question, we must first ask another one: What benefits are there to trading for the rights of a pending unrestricted free agent? Ideally, negotiating rights will allow you work out a reasonable deal before a player hits free agency. If this is the intent of a general manager, then he had better be sure that the player is willing to take a discount to sign now in lieu of testing the market. Also, he should be sure that the player wants to play in that city. In the case of Ilya Bryzgalov, his actions suggest that he …
The Numbers Game
October 7, 1990. An otherwise unremarkable day in the history of the universe. In hockey circles, It was the Philadelphia Flyers’ 1990-91 home opener, played against the Detroit Red Wings after opening the year with two straight losses at Boston and New Jersey. In and of itself, that 7-2 victory played out in front of a sell-out crowd wasn’t notable, unless you count falling behind 2-0 early and then scoring seven straight goals. What did make it special was, it was the official retirement ceremony for Bill Barber’s #7. Honored first towards the tail end of the 1985-86 season for his 13 years …