Q: How did this progress so quickly? “Well, I think probably what got the ball rolling for a lot of talk over the last 10 or 12 days was the acquisition of the negotiating rights for Ilya Bryzgalov. That set the wheels in motion. Most teams probably viewed us as trying to sign Ilya – we did come to an agreement today – and I think that got the ball rolling. I know over the last few days, I spent a lot of time talking particularly with both Los Angeles and Columbus, and that culminated in what happened today.” Q: …
Holmgren pre-draft conference call transcript
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 …
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 …
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 …
Bryzgalov conference call transcript
Courtesy of the Philadelphia Flyers PAUL HOLMGREN The Flyers have acquired the rights to Phoenix goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov for a 2012 3rd round pick along with the rights to Matt Clackson. There’s also a conditional pick if we sign him. Q: Are you confident that you can sign Bryzgalov? “We’re going to give it our best shot. Obviously we gave up an asset to get a chance to get in early so we have every intention of trying our best to get a deal done.” Q: I spoke to Rich Winter yesterday for quite a while and he wants four …
Bring Back Gagne? A look at the pros and cons.
We have 25 days until free agency and I’m sure each and every one of those days will be rumor laden until July 1 arrives. Paul Holmgren was fairly active last season, adding Andrej Meszaros, Sean O’Donnell, Jody Shelley and Nikolay Zherdev, while retaining Darroll Powe and Daniel Carcillo. However all of that activity caused casualties of the cap. Arron Asham signed with Pittsburgh as a free agent and Simon Gagne, the longest- tenured Flyer at the time, waived his no-trade clause in a much maligned deal with Tampa Bay, while we took on Matt Walker — or more precisely, his two hip surgeries. …
The Lost Season
Nursing the heartbreak of a Stanley-Cup caliber Flyers season that came to a screeching halt with a stupefying early playoff exit is a rare and beautiful thing. Although the Flyers have prided themselves on not shitting the bed in the postseason after being near the top of the NHL standings, it has been known to occur every once in a blue moon. Like in the early 1980′s. Tucked in between the Year of the Streak that ended in a loss to the Islanders in the Finals and the Mike Keenan-led surprise 1985 Cup finalists, was four deeply disappointing years that saw a …
PHI/WAS poll response
I agree with the majority of responders and would not trade Jeff Carter and Matt Carle to Washington for Mike Green and Semyon Varlamov. The Flyers could certainly use a right-handed shot from the point to help boost scoring, especially on the powerplay. However, Mike Green is a defensive liability who comes along with a hefty price tag. You could limit his defensive faults by pairing him with Chris Pronger or Kimmo Timonen but it’s simply not practical to consider adding Green’s $5.25M cap hit to an already expensive defense, even if he does have the potential to score 20+ …