Hints at who stays and who goes for the Flyers
IT WAS THE BEST regular season of any Stanley Cup runner-up since the 2000 Dallas Stars. The second season ended, with a bitter empty-net exclamation point, on Friday night in Boston with utter disappointment.
IT WAS THE BEST regular season of any Stanley Cup runner-up since the 2000 Dallas Stars.
The second season ended, with a bitter empty-net exclamation point, on Friday night in Boston with utter disappointment.
Less than 3 days after the fact, the sun still rises in the East.
The golf clubs will be dusted off for a long summer. The Flyers players will start to scatter across the globe today after exit meetings take place, with weddings and births and other normal day-to-day lives to be lived.
The focus has already turned to next season.
This much, though, is certain: This Flyers team, as it is now assembled, will never be together again in its entirety. The same is true even for championship teams.
But it's especially true for a team with such high expectations that fell so short.
Sure, as the Flyers clean out their lockers today at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, we will hear all about the injuries and bumps and bruises that may have gotten in the way of advancing past the second round. Or at least winning a game in the second round. With this team, though, there was a fundamental mental flaw that prevented a talented bunch from putting itself in a better position to succeed.
That's one of the reasons general manager Paul Holmgren will sit back, starting today, to carefully examine the way this team is built, piece by piece.
Here's an offseason cheat sheet to put the roster in perspective:
(The NHL salary cap is expected to rise approximately $3 million from $59.4 million to $62.5 million. An official announcement will be made after the Stanley Cup finals.)
FORWARDS
Danny Briere
Age: 33
Key stat: 34 goals, 34 assists
2011-12 Salary: $7 million
Years remaining: 4
2011-12 Cap hit: $6.5 million
Comment: Briere is one of the go-to players, making his salary money well spent in the playoffs.
Mike Richards
Age: 26
Key stat: 66 points
2011-12 Salary: $6.6 million
Years remaining: 9
2011-12 Cap hit: $5.75 million
Comment: After more leadership questions in the playoffs, would the Flyers consider sitting down with Richards to discuss his role as team captain?
Jeff Carter
Age: 26
Key stat: 36 goals
2011-12 Salary: $6 million
Years remaining: 11
2011-12 Cap hit: $5.273 million
Comment: Carter has always been durable in the regular season throughout his career, but has faded in both production and in the lineup with injuries in the playoffs. If the Flyers were interested in moving the pure goal scorer, no fewer than 20 teams would be interested.
Scott Hartnell
Age: 29
Key stat: 4 game-winning goals
2011-12 Salary: $3.7 million
Years remaining: 2
2011-12 Cap hit: $4.2 million
Comment: Hartnell was very quiet for the Flyers in the playoffs after putting together a solid regular season. He would be hard to move with his salary.
Kris Versteeg
Age: 24
Key stat: 46 points
2011-12 Salary: $3.083 million
Years remaining: 1
2011-12 Cap hit: $3.083 million
Comment: The Flyers were just 11-9-7 since acquiring Versteeg from Toronto on Valentine's Day.
Nik Zherdev
Age: 26
Key stat: 16 goals in 707 minutes played
2010-11 Salary: $2 million
Years remaining: Unrestricted free agent
Comment: No player in the last 10 NHL seasons has produced like Zherdev did in such limited minutes with no power-play time. He was a healthy scratch 24 times.
James van Riemsdyk
Age: 22
Key stat: 7 playoff goals
2011-12 Salary: $875,000
Years remaining: 1
2011-12 Cap hit: $875,000
Comment: JVR will need to live up to his playoff reputation in order to cash in next summer as a restricted free agent.
Jody Shelley
Age: 35
Key stat: 127 penalty minutes
2011-12 Salary: $1.2 million
Years remaining: 2
2011-12 Cap hit: $1.1 million
Comment: Shelley was a positive influence in the Flyers' locker room and added spunk to the team in the regular season when called upon.
Dan Carcillo
Age: 26
Key stat: 4 goals, 2 assists
2010-11 Salary: $1.075 million
Years remaining: Restricted free agent
Comment: Carcillo is one of the Flyers' few restricted free agents. They will have to figure out how they fit on both the roster and on the salary cap.
Andreas Nodl
Age: 24
Key stat: 11 goals, 11 assists
2010-11 Salary: $850,000
Years remaining: Restricted free agent
Comment: Nodl will be back with the Flyers next season. He reportedly suffered a concussion in the first round against Buffalo.
Claude Giroux
Age: 23
Key stat: 76 points
2011-12 Salary: $2.75 million
Years remaining: 3
2011-12 Cap hit: $3.75 million
Comment: The Flyers' leading scorer during the regular season inked a 3-year extension last November.
Ville Leino
Age: 27
Key stat: 53 points
2010-11 Salary: $800,000
Years remaining: Unrestricted free agent
Comment: The Flyers wanted to re-sign Leino during the season but did not have the tagging space in the salary cap to do so. He would require a deal somewhere between $2-3 million this summer to stay here.
Darroll Powe
Age: 25
Key stat: 17 points
2010-11 Salary: $725,000
Years remaining: Restricted free agent
Comment: Powe was a competent penalty killer and energy-line player that is well worth his relatively paltry salary to stay with the team.
Blair Betts
Age: 31
Key stat: 12 points
2011-12 Salary: $700,000
Years remaining: 1
2011-12 Cap hit: $700,000
Comment: Betts is the Flyers' top penalty killer and a quiet teammate but willing to do the dirty work to be successful.
Ian Laperriere
Age: 37
Key stat: 0 games played
2011-12 Salary: $1 million
Years remaining: 1
2011-12 Cap hit: $1.167 million
Comment: For all intents and purposes, Laperriere is retired with his postconcussion symptoms. But the Flyers will need to convince the league again that he is still trying to make a comeback.
DEFENSE
Kimmo Timonen
Age: 36
Key stat: 37 points
2011-12 Salary: $5 million
Years remaining: 2
2011-12 Cap hit: $6.33 million
Comment: Timonen did not have his best playoff run as a Flyer and is believed to be suffering from a lower-back injury that did not keep him out of the lineup.
Chris Pronger
Age: 36
Key stat: 40 games missed
2011-12 Salary: $7.6 million
Years remaining: 6
2011-12 Cap hit: $4.921 million
Comment: It's fair to start to wonder whether Pronger's 36-year-old body, with 17 years of NHL wear and tear on it, can remain healthy for an entire season given his injury woes this year.
Andrej Meszaros
Age: 25
Key stat: Plus-30
2011-12 Salary: $4 million
Years remaining: 3
2011-12 Cap hit: $4 million
Comment: Meszaros received the Flyers' Barry Ashbee Memorial Trophy for best defenseman this season.
Matt Carle
Age: 26
Key stat: Plus-30
2011-12 Salary: $3.8 million
Years remaining: 1
2011-12 Cap hit: $3.438 million
Comment: Carle was statistically one of the Flyers' most underrated defensemen.
Braydon Coburn
Age: 26
Key stat: 16 points
2011-12 Salary: $3.4 million
Years remaining: 1
2011-12 Cap hit: $3.2 million
Comment: This will be the final year of Coburn's 2-year extension that was reached on July 1 last summer.
Sean O'Donnell
Age: 39
Key stat: 18 points
2010-11 Salary: $1 million
Years remaining: Unrestricted free agent
Comment: O'Donnell picked up some big minutes this season on the blue line, especially with the injury troubles, but it is not known whether he would like to continue playing or whether the Flyers would be interested.
Oskars Bartulis
Age: 24
Key stat: 13 games played
2011-12 Salary: $600,000
Years remaining: 2
2011-12 Cap hit: $600,000
Comment: Bartulis rehabbed after shoulder surgery and was ready to play during the playoffs but was skipped over in favor of Danny Syvret.
Nick Boynton
Age: 32
Key stat: 51 games played
2010-11 Salary: $500,000
Years remaining: Unrestricted free agent
Comment: Boynton, a February waiver wire pickup, left the team during the playoffs to take care of family issues.
Danny Syvret
Age: 25
Key stat: 10 playoff games played
2010-11 Salary: $600,000
Years remaining: Unrestricted free agent
Comment: Syvret played a limited role in the playoffs but the Flyers were clearly interested in reacquiring him last November when he left to sign a 1-year deal with Anaheim.
GOALIES
Sergei Bobrovsky
Age: 22
Key stat: 28 wins
2011-12 Salary: $900,000
Years remaining: 2
2011-12 Cap hit: $900,000
Comment: Bobrovsky will be back, it's just not known whether he will be the starting goaltender or the backup when the season starts in October.
Michael Leighton
Age: 29
Key stat: 1 playoff start
2011-12 Salary: $1.6 million
Years remaining: 1
2011-12 Cap hit: $1.55 million
Comment: Leighton has 1 year left on a 2-year deal signed last summer but we're not sure whether the Flyers would be interested in stocking him in Adirondack again next season. He was reportedly suffering from the same lower-back injury that forced surgery last October.
Brian Boucher
Age: 34
Key stat: 2.42 goals-against average
2010-11 Salary: $925,000
Years remaining: Unrestricted free agent
Comment: Boucher would love to be back in Philadelphia. If the cool-as-a-cucumber veteran isn't able to land a backup job here, he will certainly garner interest around the league.
Johan Backlund
Age: 29
2011-12 Salary: $800,000
Years remaining: 1
2011-12 Cap hit: $800,000
Comment: Backlund makes the list because this year, the final year of his deal, flips to a one-way NHL contract that would make the Flyers pay attention to the Swedish goaltender.
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For more news and analysis, read Frank Seravalli's blog, Frequent Flyers, at www.philly.com/frequentflyers.
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