Gagne deal doesn't make much sense, but....
The Philadelphia Inquirer Blog - Flyers Report: Broad Street Bull
Gagne deal doesn't make much sense, but....
Sam Carchidi, Inquirer Staff Writer
(NOTE: Powe/Betts update below)
In three seasons, general manager Paul Holmgren has transformed the Flyers from the NHL’s worst team to Stanley Cup finalists.
So Holmgren obviously knows what he is doing.
But…
The team’s off-season moves have been more confusing than ‘Inception.”
To review:
The Flyers have failed to upgrade their goaltending, have gotten worse on offense, and are paying $4 million per season to a recently acquired player (Andrej Meszaros) who might be their No. 5 defenseman.
On Monday, they traded left winger Simon Gagne _ the classy, gritty veteran who returned from a broken foot and carried the Flyers into last season’s Finals _ to Tampa Bay for a player they didn’t need (defenseman Matt Walker) and just a fourth-round pick in 2011.
All because they needed to clear cap space.
OK, OK. It’s dangerous to judge the deal until all moves are made. Holmgren could have another trade coming.
But, from here, Gagne was just the type of fast, two-way player the Flyers NEEDED. And if they were going to trade him, they should have held out for a much bigger return. (Isn’t it easy being an armchair GM?)
The Gagne deal was set in motion by the puzzling July 1 deal in which the Flyers sent a second-round 2012 draft pick to Tampa Bay for the underachieving (and expensive) Meszaros.
The beefy Meszaros upgrades the Flyers’ defense, but the club is now paying a combined $21.8 million (of the $59.4 million maximum cap) for its five top defensemen. That’s $4.4 million for each of their top-five D-men.
Was the Meszaros trade necessary? If that deal had not been made, the Flyers could have kept Gagne _ and had a third defensive pairing of Sean O’Donnell and Oskars Bartulis. (That would have been an upgrade over Ryan Parent and Bartulis.)
It would have given the Flyers the following possible lines:
Gagne-Richards-Carter; Leino-Briere-Hartnell; JVR-Giroux-Zherdev; Carcillo/Shelley-Betts-Lappy. That’s three solid lines and a very good checking unit.
Now the lines may shape up like this:
Zherdev-Richards-Carter; Leino-Briere-Hartnell; JVR-Giroux-Carcillo; Powe/Shelley-Betts-Lappy.
The Gagne deal does open room for the possible re-signing of underrated Arron Asham, who could play RW on Giroux’s unit and bump Carcillo to the fourth line.
Again, Holmgren has worked wonders in transforming the Flyers from bottom-feeders to Cup finalists and deserves the benefit of the doubt.
But right now, there are a lot of doubters _ especially since L.A. lost out to New Jersey Monday in the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes and was seemingly desperate to add a quality winger.
Wouldn’t it have made more sense to wait a few days to see if the Kings offered more for Gagne?
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The Gagne deal did free cap room for the Flyers to re-sign Darroll Powe, who inked a one-year deal for $725,000 on Wednesday. The Flyers are about $325,000 under the cap. They can still make some demotions and have enough room to sign Asham.
Powe may start the season as the Flyers' fourth-line center. Blair Betts is recovering from shoulder surgery and could miss the first month of the regular season.
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For Flyers updates, follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BroadStBull.
There must be more to this. I think they have to trade a D for a winger. Gagne was great, but never seemed the same after the concussions...— beefbr- Is it possible that they saw more out of their undrafted FAs than was thought? Carcillo is useless on the 4th line. The best thing about the 4th line this year was that they played the game the right way most of the time. I'm all for seeing Coburn gone or 5th at this point, but I don't see another move coming? Who would want any one of the extra defencemen?— HandNik
- Well, it's interesting. It's a salary dump, sure, but why not try to get Hartnell to waive his NTC instead? Bottom line: If LA gives up one of their goalies in the end, Homer really made the wrong move.— BlairW
- Another Philadelphia GM in such a rush to make a quick deal, huh? Apparently no one in the front offices of these franchises can learn lessons from the mistakes of the other clubs. No surprise that we get a similar result: trading a quality commodity and key member of a playoff run for almost nothing in return. Why is this town plagued with moronic GMs?
- moronic GM's like the two that got their teams to the championship rounds last year? Thank God its not any of you.— seaonasdad
- Trading Gagne is understandable. But what is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS is taking back Matt Walker's 1.7 mill cap hit for the next 3 friggin years. So from now until 2014, the Flyers will have 2.8 million in cap space tied up in a 7th defenseman and a goon (Shelley) who will play a maximum of 5 minutes a game come playoff time. Managaing the salary cap is not rocket science. It's called adding and subtracting and Holmgren can't seem to understand it.— duffers
- I gotta ask, a much bigger return from who?— MBFlyerfan
I'm not often at a loss for words, but this is one of those times.— icarus- it is likely that Gagne had a short list of teams he'd waive his no trade clause for--hence why the Flyers weren't able to get other teams to increase the bidding for Gagne's services. as for paying Meszaros 4 million a year, keep in mind that Pronger and Timmonen will likely only play another year or two before they need to be replaced, allowing Coburn, Carle, Meszaros, and Bartulis to step up into the top four (a unit that will have played together as a cohesive grouping--much like how offensive lines develop in football).— yantastic
- the biggest problem i see is who is now going to play wing of our 5 centers? richards and giroux are so good at center. briere deserves to play center after what he did in the playoffs and carter is terrible at wing. so now carter has to play center to be effective and that leaves giroux really to play wing which i think will stump his growth. i really thought they were going to get younger wing from LA in return at a cheap price but instead got a defensemen which doesnt make sense. I would have taken 2 draft picks or a 2nd rounder only and nobody in return.— bigginn
- Nice and concise article, Sam. Thank you for not toting the company line on this. Gotta get Gagne moved but this fast? If the dopes on XM Home Ice know that Gags is the next big thing, why doesn't Homer? Sit tight for a spell, bunky - you just might get lucky. It's like that veteran negotiator always says - "The next one who speaks, loses."— Blvd Al
- seaonasdad - Flyers fans who actually know what is going on realize that we got extremely lucky to make the finals this year. Montreal did the grunt work knocking off Washington and Pittsburgh, and frankly it was the players who overachieved, not the GM. Holmgren made his bones early on a few good trades, but in most of the trades he has significantly mortgaged the future. Go back and look at them http://www.flyershistory.com/cgi-bin/trade.cgi. Why do you think he is trying to sign every undrafted college free agent out there? (but missing on the best one by the way). It's an unsustainable model, which will be proved out when our top players hit free agency over the next two years and there are NO legitimate forward prospects to replace them.— CupOrBust
- Even though the trade may be a robbery for Tampa, Philly better not waste more money on guys like Asham. He's a great guy but with Carcillo and Shelley wasting 2.2 mil you have to save money for an upgrade at goal or a scoring forward when you realize Carter/Zherdev are too streaky. Giroux cant play with guys like Carcillo and Asham. Give the kid help he has the best vision in the east. And for god sakes dont stack one line with zherdev and carter. Richie would never get the puck. Awful, biggest change needed is a hockey smart gm.— flyguys67
- Carchidi - I'm not sure how much research you did on this, but I read that Gagne waived the NTC for Tampa Bay only (that was a quote from Gagne). Kind of puts our team in a bind and Steve Y took advantage of it. LA may have wanted Gagne, but he never said he wanted to go there.— RichieRocks
- Gagne DID waive his NTC for LA.— wenonah
