The offseason is an import time for all. It can be a time
for teams to regroup after a disappointing season, or a time when a team tries
to keep a gelled team together and intact for a another run at a Stanley Cup.
It is hard to say who the winners are due to the various
ways you can look at the summer’s results. A few candidates could be the Los
Angeles Kings have kept a Stanley Cup Championship roster complete and did not
lose one player this summer, while the New York Rangers one the Rick Nash race
and added to an already impressive roster.
However, it is somewhat of a given that the Philadelphia
Flyers have been the loser of this year’s offseason.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room, their defense.
Their blue line took an immediate hit when they lost Matt Carle to free-agency.
But, most saw Andrej Meszaros could possibly carry the load and be the Flyers’
go to guy next season.
Then the unthinkable happened and Meszaros went down with
and achilles injury that will likely sideline him for the entirety of next
season. Put all this on top of former Chris Pronger’s future pretty much not
being there, things can’t get much worse for the Flyers on the back end.
There are some capable players in Luke Schenn, Kimmo
Timonen, and Braydon Coburn but Philadelphia’s defense is looking quite shaky.
The Flyers’ brass tried to fill their hole on the blue-line
in a big way, when they tried to steal Shea Webber from the Nashville Predators.
But to Philly’s despair, the Predators matched their offer sheet and burned the
Flyers hopes and dream of having Weber patrolling the ice in Philadelphia.
On the offensive end, they lost ageless wonder, Jaromir Jagr
to free-agency. Sure Jagr wasn’t the offensive juggernaut that he once was, but
he contributed a hell of a lot and provided some key goals for the Flyers.
To top things off, almost a salt in the wound kind of deal,
Nash was traded to the Rangers, the Rangers, the Flyers’ most hated rivals, a team
that the Flyers went winless against last season. This lackluster defense could
fall victim to Nash regularly next season, a site that Philly fans will learn
to hate quickly I’m sure.
The offseason still has a way to go before the puck drops in
October, that’s if this CBA thing gets settled, and the Flyers have planet of
time to turn things around. It has been said that the Flyers are in talks
trying to acquire Bobby Ryan via trade from the Anaheim Ducks.
This recent development and blue-line depletion, could and
should change the Flyers position in the Ryan talks and refocus them to get
some defensive depth.
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