Introducing the WeBelieveInOrange Mailbag Segment

We’d be lying to you if we didn’t admit that our activity this summer has been anything close to acceptable, but we’ve had plenty of reason. Between personal scheduling conflicts and Ilya Kovalchuk hogging the headlines, it’s been quite a boring summer in Philadelphia. The off-season started out very hectic, got crazy and confusing rather quickly, and then decided it’d be time to simmer down again after some free agency moves by the orange and black.

A few weeks ago, we reached out through various social networking mediums and asked our readers for ideas on a new segment to add to the blog. After an alarmingly low response, a week later, we asked again. That time, we got a good 50-75 responses on possibilities for things to add to the site. At this point in time, some of your suggestions cannot be fulfilled, but they’ve been taken into consideration for the future. They’re excellent, but we don’t have the resources to pull them off at the moment.

We made a list of five segment suggestions that got a ton of votes from our Twitter followers and Facebook friends, and the selection of our new segment seemed unanimous; The WeBelieveInOrange Reader Mailbag segment was born.

Once a week, either Friday or Monday, we’ll be taking all of the questions that you, the reader, leave for us during the previous week, and answering them in one big post. Questions can range anywhere from personal questions about the writers to our opinions of players and things surrounding the team.

How To Ask

You can submit your questions to one (or all) of our social networking pages. Shoot us an @mention on Twitter (@WBinOrange), leave a comment with your question on our Facebook page, or shoot us an email at mailbag@WeBelieveInOrange.com. Or, you can simply just leave us a comment here on the blog. We always love to read those.

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Pronger added to the list of those recovering from surgeries

According to Tim Panaccio of CSNPhilly.com, Chris Pronger underwent a successful arthroscopic knee surgery last week and is expected to be fine for training camp. Pronger had particles floating around in his knee which have been taken out.

Blair Betts and Dan Carcillo are also recovering from their surgeries. Betts is recovering from shoulder surgery and should be ready for training camp, but will stay away from contact, of course. Carcillo is recovering from a late abdominal surgery.

Arthroscopic knee surgery sounds extremely frightening, but Chris Pronger is a tough dude. Here’s hoping we don’t have to start the regular season without 20.

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A Look Inside Paul Holmgren’s Hazy Summer

The amount of rage that ran through my body yesterday after hearing that Simon Gagne had been dealt to the Tampa Bay Lightning was insurmountable. At the time, I had to leave my house before I wrote a blog post completely and totally calling for the end of Paul Holmgren’s tenure as the General Manager of the Philadelphia Flyers. As the day turned into night, I started to think about everything that Paul Holmgren has done this off-season, compared to the things that he NEEDED to do this off-season. Many people are telling me that my criticisms of Paul Holmgren are shortsighted and one-sided, and while I understand their point of view and respect their opinion, I have to humbly disagree with them. I suppose I’ll start from the end of the season, right after we’d lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

It was mutually agreed on by every Flyers journalist, beat-writer, blogger, and fan that there were just a few things that the Flyers absolutely NEEDED to do this off-season. Solidify a number one goalie, re-sign Arron Asham, Daniel Carcillo, and Darroll Powe, and find a defenseman on the open market who would push our third pairing over the hump. That’s it. So, what has Paul done so far this off-season that has everyone so ticked off? I’ll break it down positionally, because it’ll be easier that way, starting from the tail back end, then I’ll wrap it all up at the end. I apologize in advance if this feels like it’s “all over the place”.

In The Net

Heading into this off-season, our only goalie under contract was Brian Boucher. Ray Emery’s career is toast, for the most part, and many thought that Michael Leighton was sure to get the “thanks for your hard work, we appreciate it and wish you luck” treatment. That wasn’t the case. On the day before the free agency market opened up with a plethora of goalie talent, Paul Holmgren seemingly panicked and threw Leighton a $1.5 million deal. I really don’t hate the Michael Leighton contract. I tend to disagree with a lot of people when they speak negatively of him, but it’s no question that if we had just a SLIGHTLY better goaltender in the finals, we could have won it all. Let’s take a look at Leighton’s numbers, compared to some of the other names the Flyers were rumored to be looking at this summer, shall we? (All stat images taken from player’s team’s respected websites)

Micheal Leighton

Dan Ellis

Chris Mason

Evgeni Nabokov

Marty Turco

Without digging too deep into why I don’t feel like any of these guys would have been any better than Michael Leighton, I’ll try and sum it up as easily as possible.

Marty Turco’s old. His best years are clearly behind him. And even though the Flyers claim to be “looking for a guy to hold us over until prospects are ready,” Turco’s age doesn’t come close to justifying his price.

Evgeni Nabokov went back to Russia, because he wanted entirely too much damned money. I’m still not sold on Nabokov as a playoff goalie, either. Aside from a few instances of brilliance, he never really did show any flash with the Sharks. Both Turco and Nabokov have less than appealing playoff numbers, granted Nabokov is actually over the .500 mark.

I can’t really say I know much about Dan Ellis, but I think there’s reasoning behind that, because not many people do. The Flyers not signing Dan Ellis reminded me a lot of when the Phillies traded away Cliff Lee. Social networks were all about slandering Paul Holmgren for letting go of this gem. If he’s such a gem, why wasn’t he Nashville’s starting goalie in the playoffs? Why didn’t Nashville lock him up? Ellis posted a 2.69 GAA last season, which is just marginally better than Leighton’s 2.83.

My point is, all of these guys would have been fill-in Band-Aid guys, and the same people who are complaining about not signing them, would be the same people complaining about them when they didn’t give us “what we thought they’d bring” between the pipes. We KNOW what we’re going to get out of Michael Leighton, so there’s no sense in starting yet another experiment with another unproven goalie, who will more than likely be shipped out in a year or two, anyway. So, while Paul Holmgren may have panicked and locked up Leighton prematurely, there wasn’t much difference on the open market that would have made this team ALL THAT better in net.

Defense

It’s a rarity in Philadelphia when fans aren’t pointing fingers directly at the man minding the net. This season, instead, fans and critics alike turned their negativity to the Flyers defense. Yes, the same exact defense that was touted as the #1 defense heading into last season and the same exact defense that was supposed to FINALLY bring us the Cup, as the HockeyNews predicted.

This is where things start to get hazy.

The Flyers biggest need on defense was to sure up the third pairing, so we weren’t left guessing who’s stick the next goal was going to come off of when Ryan Parent and Lukas Krajicek stepped onto the ice. Everyone got excited when we traded Ryan Parent back to the team that drafted him in Nashville for the rights of Dan Hamhuis. Hamhuis would have been a great fill for that third pairing gap, but the Flyers were unable to get a deal done prior to the NHL Draft, so his rights were dealt to Pittsburgh in exchange of a draft pick next season. Hamhuis didn’t sign with Pittsburgh, either.

So, again, doing what he does best, Holmgren decided to panic and pulled the trigger on a trade with the Lightning, acquiring Andrej Meszaros. Again, there were far better options for third pairing defenders on the market, but Holmgren had to have a deal done before free agency started. So now we have Andrej Meszaros who may or may not be beneficial to us this season, and he’s making $4 million on top of all that.

Holmgren then signed Sean O’Donnell. Probably my favorite of his free agency signings this summer. O’Donnell isn’t a superstar defender, but he’s a HUGE physical player who is going to do one thing. Be affective while allowing Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen to take a breather every once in awhile. O’Donnell is older than Chris Pronger by a year, but has only missed 5 games since 2005. That’s reliability at its finest, folks. And even if his age does catch up with him, he’s signed for 1 year at $1 million, so it’s a very low risk move.

That brings me to Matt Walker, our newly acquired, $1.7 million making career 7th defenseman. Walked was acquired in the Gagne trade with Tampa Bay, which was essentially Paul Holmgren just giving away Gagne, because there was really nothing else for him to do. Matt Walker will be lucky to crack the Flyers line-up because he’s no more than an overpaid depth defenseman.

There was plenty of defense available on July 1st, instead, Holmgren took the easy way out again. Here are a few names I would have liked to see Holmgren make a run at.

Kurtis Foster ($1.8 million), Anton Volchenkov ($4.5 million), Henrik Tallinder ($3.375 million), Toni Lydman ($3 million), Derek Morris ($2.75 million), Zbynek Michalek ($4 million)

Up-Front

I don’t know what’s been more frustrating. The salary ignorance toward the defensive positions or the ignorance at the forward positions. At the end of last season, Arron Asham, Dan Carcillo, and Darroll Powe were all unrestricted and restricted free-agents respectively. At season’s end, it quickly became more and more evident that the Flyers had no interest in re-signing Arron Asham.

Dan Carcillo also thought it would be a good idea to take the Flyers to arbitration, where he was rumored to be seeking a substantial pay increase from last season’s salary. The Flyers and Carcillo, who was a restricted free agent, agreed to terms on a 1-year, $1.075 million deal, which, in my opinion, is too much for Dan Carcillo to be making, given the fact that Homer had already given Jody Shelley an absolutely terrible monumental mistake of a 3 year, $3.3 million contract.

Signing Jody Shelley to such an alarmingly large contract for a guy of his skillset (or lack thereof) basically gives every player that the Flyers discuss contracts with the right to say, “Well hey, Jody Shelley barely gets ice time when he’s not in the press box, and he makes $1.1 million, so why can’t I?” And do you blame them?

So, we lose Asham, who is a player with a tremendous upside, as he showed us during the latter parts of last season and essentially replace him with Dan Carcillo and Jody Shelly. If you ask me, we get worse. Though, the Flyers and Asham’s agent are still in negotiations, but I just don’t see how he can fit back into the picture.

Then we decided we’d take another player coming back to North America from the KHL who’s desperate for a team and signed Nik Zherdev. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great deal financially, but we don’t really know which Zherdev is going to show up for the Flyers this season. Zherdev says he’s put a lot of work and commitment toward his defensive game, but I just don’t see how that’s even remotely possible in the KHL. Zherdev is likely Gagne’s replacement, and number-wise, I’m pretty sold that it’ll work. That said, I highly doubt that he’ll be able to replace Gagne’s 2-way contributions. Surely, we can’t rely on Jeff Carter for that. So, who’s going to take Gagne’s spot? Briere isn’t a great 2-way guy. It’s up for debate, but I still think trading Gagne instead of Jeff Carter was a mistake.

Wrap-Up

So here I sit on July 20th, 2010. The Flyers are currently $1.52 million under the salary cap. They have 8 defenseman. And possibly a few questions still looming in net. They just traded away the longest tenured Philadelphia Flyer and got absolutely nothing in return. Would the Flyers have had to trade Gagne if they hadn’t acquired Andrej Meszaros and signed Jody Shelley, Braydon Coburn, and Daniel Carcillo to contracts that they don’t necessarily deserve? What about Sean O’Donnell? Was his $1.3 million really necessary with all of the defensive players on the market? All of this remains to be seen, and there are still a few moves probably up Homer’s sleeve, but for now, I remain extremely skeptical of Paul Holmgren’s ability to manage a salary cap era NHL franchise. His mismanagement of this team has done more harm than good to the team this off-season and it’s hard to say if he can dig himself out of it. He sure couldn’t yesterday, so he figured he’d trade Gagne for a $1.7 million nobody.

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An ode to you, Simon Gagne: a Philadelphia idol

Let’s take a few minutes to forget about this entire day. Let’s forget that we’ve known that this day would be coming. Let’s forget about Paul Holmgren’s shortcomings as a cap-era NHL General Manager. Let’s, for a second, forget about all of the Flyers’ cap problems, present and future. Let’s take a few minutes to honor one of the classiest individuals to put on the orange and black.

Bobby Clarke drafted Simon Gagne with the 22nd overall pick in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft. Simon Gagne played his first game as a Philadelphia Flyer on October 2nd, 1999 against the Ottawa Senators; I night that I remember clearly. Just ten days later, in a game against the Washington Capitals, Gagne tallied his first two NHL goals. Simon Gagne wasn’t always my favorite player. In fact, he didn’t become my favorite player until the 2001 season when he scored one of the prettiest goals I have ever seen. Simon Gagne made the NHL All-Star team that season. He played in-between Mario Lemiux and Joe Sakic. Gagne never really talked about that game to the media, but former Flyer captain Keith Primeau once told the Philly media that Gagne couldn’t stop talking about how amazing it was to be playing alongside two of his childhood idols.

I molded my own playing style after Gagne’s.

I would love to continue to ramble on about the things that helped me discover Simon Gagne as my favorite NHL player, but it would just take entirely too long.

This is an ode of nothing but the best wishes for Simon, wherever the rest of his career takes him. This is an ode to the man who nearly sent me tumbling over the mezzanine in section 210A when he scored an overtime goal to send the Flyers to a game seven in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. An ode to the man, no matter how painful the loss, would never shrug away from the media. We may not see Simon Gagne as a leader in the locker room, or even, at times, on the ice, but I see Simon Gagne as a role model and the type of person that every hockey player should strive to be. A player who can over come the worst of adversities. A player who doesn’t know the meaning of “quit”. A player and a gentleman who was always willing to give back to the Flyers, the city of Philadelphia, and the fans that loved him so much. A player who always kept quiet and did what was asked of him, no matter how big the odds.

We’ll miss you, Simon. I can’t get my #12 Lightning jersey quick enough. A big part of me will be smiling if you pull off one of your OT winners against the Flyers this season.

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Flyers re-opening contract talks with Arron Asham

Reported first by CSNPhilly.com’s John Boruk, the Flyers are re-opening contract negotiations with UFA winger Arron Asham.

At the moment, it’s completely hazy as to why the Flyers have gone back to Asham, after they essentially decided to completely ignore him when the season ended, but you’d have to think it has something to do with the recent situation developing with Dan Carcillo and the ongoing trade talks surrounding Simon Gagne. If they lose both of those players, they’ll be hurting on the wing, and Asham is a reliable depth winger who had a career year last season.

Asham, 32, is rumored to be seeking a multi-year contract and a  hefty pay raise from the $640,000 he’s made the last two seasons here in Philadelphia. Asham has received numerous offers from teams in the West, but Boruk says Asham wants to stay in the Eastern Conference, where Asham has spent his entire career.

Like I said, it’s hazy, but this could very well mean the end for Daniel Carcillo in a Flyers uniform if they don’t get things worked out before or in arbitration, but given the Flyers history with players and salary arbitration hearings, it’s not looking good for the Dave Schultz wanna-be.

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Flyers Announce 2010-2011 Preseason Schedule

I always love when the Flyers announce their preseason schedule. It typically always comes out around this time of year, which makes hockey season seem so much closer.

The Flyers announced their schedule today, and they’ll open up at home on September 21st against the New Jersey Devils. See the rest down below!

Date	Opponent	Venue	Time
Sep. 21	vs. New Jersey	Wells Fargo Center	7pm
Sep. 23	vs. Toronto	John Labatt Centre (London, ON)	7pm
Sep. 24	@ Toronto	Air Canada Centre	7pm
Sep. 25	@ Minnesota	Xcel Energy Center	8pm
Sep. 28	@ New Jersey	Prudential Center	7pm
Sep. 29	vs. NY Islanders	Wells Fargo Center	7pm
Oct. 1	vs. Buffalo	Wells Fargo Center	7pm
Oct. 3	@ Buffalo	HSBC Arena	TBD

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Previous rumors and reports about Kovalchuk and Philly are false

Yesterday we posted a piece with a rumor that the Flyers were one of three teams who had offers out on the table for the Russian free agent, Ilya Kovalchuk. Speculation of possible cap-clearing trade scenarios ran wild throughout Flyerdom, and while anyone with a brain knew that these rumors couldn’t possibly be true, they certainly had some fans foaming from the mouth.

Early yesterday, a Russian website, Sports.life.ru, broke a story claiming that Ilya Kovalchuk’s agent, Yury Nikolaev, told a source that he and Kovalchuk had received offers from three NHL teams willing to acquire the 27 year old sniper. Along with the Colorado Avalance and Los Angeles Kings, the Flyers were one of the three clubs rumored to have an offer on the table.

In regards to the report, today Yury Nikolaev claimed he “never said this.”

It’s probably safe to put this rumor to bed for good, seeing as the LA Kings were actually the only team still in the running for Kovalchuk’s services at the time. Earlier yesterday, Colorado pulled from the race.

A weird story to begin with, seeing as the Flyers have absolutely zero cap maneuverability at this moment in time.

Anyway, carry on with your 4th of July. There won’t be a puck hogging, defenseless Russian in Philadelphia anytime soon. We still have Shelley, though!

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Russian website confirms Flyers interest in Ilya Kovalchuk

A frustrating and confusing off-season just got a little bit more odd. The trade rumors are getting difficult to keep track of.

While many sources are claiming that Ilya Kovalchuk is on Long Island today in New York, fine tuning his alleged deal with the Islanders, a Russian website has posted an article claiming that the Flyers are among three teams interested in acquiring the prized sniper. Kovalchuk’s agent, Yuri Nikolayev, is said to be the source behind this information, making it all the more credible. Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Colorado are all said to be in negotiations with Nikolayey and Kovalchuk.

But this makes absolutely zero sense. Just yesterday, the Flyers had asked Simon Gagne to waive his NTC so they could potentially move his salary to re-sign players and make a run at a free agent goaltender. Today, they’re targeting a $7.5-10 million forward.

The Flyers would have to move a lot more to even consider acquiring Kovalchuk.

As of now, it looks like the deal with the Islanders is a sure thing. Doesn’t make this any less odd.

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Another quick Gagne rumor update…shoot me now, please

Just thought I’d take a few minutes to shoot out some of the latest Gagne rumors that are circulating around the hockey blogosphere.

There aren’t many and they probably aren’t really credible, but they’ve been posted around multiple sources by people who typically know what they’re talking about.

Several sources are claiming that the Flyers and the Leafs are talking about a Gagne for Giguere trade. I don’t like this, obviously. Giguere is seemingly past his time, which is probably why the Leafs are trying to unload him. He hasn’t been the same since his run with the Ducks. Not to mention the fact that seeing Gagne in Leaf Blue would make even the most casual of Flyers fans vomit all over themselves.

Next is the Gagne to LA rumors. There have been plenty of rumors floating around suggesting that not just Gagne, but Gagne, and several other players would be sent to LA for a return of Bernier, Brown, and Simmonds. While anyone would probably kill to have those three on their team, it doesn’t make sense from a Flyers stand point. In terms of salary cap, it would be nearly impossible to fit them here unless you’re sending away Jeff Carter and/or Scott Hartnell along with Gagne in a package deal, which Paul Holmgren has stressed time and time again that he isn’t doing. There’s also the fact that the Flyers seem to be confident in their goalie prospects, which is why they’re desperately searching for a dinosaur to mind the pipes for the next few years. Adding Bernier would be great. Kid’s a great goalie and has tons of potential waiting to be unleashed, but if the Flyers are as heavily dedicated to their goalie prospects as they say they are, I wouldn’t expect much. Then again, they’re trying to trade Simon Gagne. Slinging the word “dedication” around is apparently a joke.

Speaking of goalies, jokes, and dinosaurs, the final rumor I’m going to mention is that this entire ordeal is so the Flyers can wipe Gagne’s $5 million cap hit and make a better offer to UFA goaltender Marty Turco. If you’ve been a reader of the site for awhile now, you can go back to February when I said that trading for Marty Turco would be a devastatingly huge mistake. Turco is on the back-end of his career, he’s old, and he’s not the Marty Turco that I grew up watching any longer. Point being, this is stupid. Don’t do it Homer. Keep Gagne, please.

That’s it for tonight. I’m sure there will be plenty more to report with over the weekend, but for now I want to take my mind off of this.

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Why trading for Marty Turco is a horrible idea

The Stars recent acquisition of former Thrasher goalie Kari Lehtonen almost certainly means the end of Marty Turco’s career as a Dallas Star. The end of Turco’s tenure in Dallas instantaneously jump starts the rumors of Turco being traded to Philadelphia.

Marty Turco is 34 years of age and is clearly on the downswing of his career. It’s clear that Turco still has the ability to be an effective goalie in the NHL, but he has Marty Biron syndrome. Turco lets in some terribly soft goals and doesn’t have the best positioning I’ve ever seen. He’s become disliked in Dallas and fans are ready to move on from the Turco era.

Nick Kypreos of Rogers’ SportsNet first broke the news of Philadelphia being interested in Turco’s services on Twitter:

Dallas/Atlanta still waiting for trade call to complete Kari Lehtonen deal. Dallas/ Philly talks ongoing for Marty Turco.

On the other hand, you have TSN’s Bob McKenzie who is reporting that the Flyers aren’t as interested in Turco as the Chicago Blackhawks are.

Whichever way you look at it, this is a terrible idea. Why?

Marty Turco comes with a $5.7 million cap hit which is absolutely insane for a goalie of his skill level. He doesn’t deserve that kind of money and he flat out will not be able to fit here unless the Flyers move a big money maker. Namely, Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell, Simon Gagne, or Jeff Carter. Briere and Gagne have NTC’s, and Jeff Carter has already been deemed untouchable by Paul Holmgren.

In order for this to work, the Flyers would have to do several things that they’d end up regretting, one of which includes trading for a 34 year old goalie who can barely play anymore. That, and the Flyers don’t need a goalie.

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