Riley Cote ends NHL career, will assist in Adirondack

At 2PM Monday afternoon, the Flyers announced that Riley Cote’s hockey career is over. Cote’s minutes were extremely limited last season, even more so when Peter Laviolette took the reigns. He played just 7 games under Laviolette.

The Flyers salary cap situation gets a little breather with Cote’s 500k immediately coming off the books. With the team’s acquisiton of Jody Shelley and re-signing of Daniel Carcillo, Cote’s role for this upcoming season would have been in an Adirondack jersey anyway.

Now, Riley Cote, 28, will be an assistant coach in Adirondack aside Greg Gilbert and Kjell Samuelsson.

Cote has spent the last six years in the Flyers organization. Cote has played in 156 games for the orange and black, tallying just 1 goal and 6 assists for 7 points. Cote totaled 411 penalty minutes with the team.

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Flyers acquire rights to Dan Hamhuis

The Philadelphia Flyers have announced today that they have traded defenseman Ryan Parent to the Nashville Predators for the rights to UFA Dan Hamhuis and a conditional pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.

Now that the serious part is over, WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! How Holmgren got anything for a stay-at-home defenseman who can’t play the body and can’t clear the zone is beyond me. Even if Hamhuis doesn’t sign here, this is an automatic win, as Laviolette might actually play the 3rd pairing now!

Breaking it down, this creates an interesting situation regarding the contract status of Braydon Coburn. Coburn, who started this season horribly, really didn’t show up until the playoffs. For a young guy who has great raw tools, he hasn’t put it together yet to become the elite defenseman that the Atlanta Thrashers originally envisioned him as in 2003. He’s rumored to be seeking more than $3 million per year. If this is after the 2007-08 season, then it’s plausible, but his play has gone the other way since then. Holmgren needs to find a way to get him back below that price, as he still needs time to develop and mature. He certainly hasn’t hit his prime yet, and I don’t really want him to hit it somewhere else.

In addition, the Flyers will now look to get Hamhuis under contract, which will be interesting given the rest of the contracts already tied up on the backend. I would imagine that Hamhuis is going to get the contract that Coburn is looking for, which means Coburn is either gone, or is going to have to come back at a discount. In addition, Hamhuis probably needs to slot somewhere in the top 4, and also find PK time. Considering that he and Timonen played in Nashville, perhaps this is the future pairing? With Hamhuis playing the shut-down role, Timonen could regain some of that offensive prowess he had coming over from Nashville.

And finally, Ryan Parent packs his bags and returns to the organization that spent a first round pick on him in 2005. Having watched him consistently have forwards skate by him score during his tenure with the Phantoms, I’m not sad to see him go at all. I never thought the guy was any good given the role he was supposed to play, and the physical skill set he possesses. Maybe he’ll put some things together in Nashville, but he was never anything more than a body on IR or a 6th defenseman playing 5 minutes a game.

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Can I has goaltender?

So, remember that time we rode a backup onto the playoffs, lost that backup to injury, and then were forced to ride the original backup to the playoffs instead? Yeah, fun times. The goaltending issue has been a fun one in Philadelphia over the past 15 or so seasons, with a revolving door in net. The latest hope was Martin Biron, who was quickly dismissed after looking for too much money from the Flyers this past offseason. This season, Paul Holmgren went outside the box, and plucked Ray Emery off the free agent market to serve as the team’s starter this season. Signed to a bargain contract upon his return to the NHL, Emery was looked at as a redemption type project for the Flyers. Emery previously started for the Senators, and lead them to the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, losing to the Ducks. Locker room troubles in the capital city left him without a home in the NHL, instead forcing him to take his game to Russia and the KHL. While he put up good statistics, his most famous play came after he snapped at a trainer who tried to place a hat on his head. Not surprisingly, Emery ended up in Philadelphia after that incident.

Emery’s play through the season was solid enough to carry the Flyers through the early part of the season. A hip injury sidelined him around the holiday break, but he came back to play after that. The same hip injury would eventually claim his season prior to the Olympic Break, leaving the Flyers without their starting goaltender, scrambling to find a netminder to plug the gaping hole in net. Brian Boucher, certainly a name familiar to Flyers’ fans, was signed as the backup this season after serving as Evgeni Nabokov’s backup for the past two seasons in San Jose. Boucher actually signed with the Philadelphia Phantoms prior to the 2007-08 season, and performed well enough to be plucked from the team by San Jose, right before the AHL playoffs. Boucher had to carry the team during Emery’s absence, but was saddled with a few losses during the team’s dull showing in December. Boucher now finds himself the starter for the rest of the season now that Michael Leighton is gone for essentially the season.

If you still followed the team in 2006-07, you might have caught a glimpse of Michael Leighton. Originally drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks, Leighton saw time during Chicago’s low days, where Eric Daze led the team in scoring, despite playing in only about 45 games due to back problems. Leighton would have stops in the Buffalo Sabres and Nashville Predators organizations before finally being claimed off of waivers by the Flyers. Leighton had a good first stint with the Flyers, winning a couple of games in an otherwise dismal season. He had a solid few games with the Phantoms before the Montreal Canadiens plucked him off of waivers. Leighton spent the past two seasons in the Carolina Hurricanes organization, being named AHL goaltender of the year in 2007-08, also making a record 98 saves against the Phantoms (irony) in a 5-overtime game in the playoffs. Ryan Potulny (remember him?) would score in that overtime to end that game. Leighton spent 2008-09 as Cam Ward’s backup, seeing about 20 games and performing well enough to keep the job for this season. Leighton initially stumbled out of the gates, getting lit up by the Flyers in a 6-1 loss that Andy and I attended. Leighton would eventually be on waivers by December, where the Flyers snatched him away, obviously having seen his previous body of work.

If I told you Michael Leighton would be the starter for the Philadelphia Flyers a year ago, you’d laugh at me. If I told you he’d have a save percentage hovering around 92%, you’d spit whatever you’re drinking out in my face. If I told you his injury probably would seal another first round exit this season in the playoffs, you’d probably be on the floor already laughing. Welcome to reality. Leighton’s play with the Flyers has been remarkable, as he’s virtually saved (oh look, a pun) the season for the Flyers with his inspired play. While some fans have done nothing but spend 3 months trying to discredit his great play, he’s won 16 games in the meantime. Still prone to the occasional bad goal, Leighton’s relaxed play was very evident, as he made some huge saves, and displayed a flashy glove hand when needed. He provided the stability in net that the Flyers hoped to have with Emery in net. During the game in Nashville, Leighton made contact with Steve Sullivan, and subsequently sprained his ankle, while will sideline him for the rest of the season (insert sad face).

So now, the season rests on Boucher’s shoulders. He’s shown the ability to just go nuts and have huge hot streaks, so the Flyers are rolling the dice and are hoping for the best with Boucher. The more interesting picture is his backup, and who exactly it will be. Typical Philly luck will probably see Boucher suffer an injury or something else crazy, so this is a bit more important than it seems. Johan Backlund, who has had the best seat in the house to watch Greg Gilbert’s horrid coaching this season, is currently hurt and isn’t available to be the backup. Backlund has had a decent first season in North America, giving the Phantoms to win every night. John Grahame was signed to a PTO for some reason this season down in Adirondack, but was signed by Colorado for some reason. Yes, I know his mom works in the front office. Unfortunately, stopping pucks isn’t as easy as having your mom work in the front office.

Jeremy Duchesne, who was probably the worst of the Flyers’ goaltending prospects at the season, has had a pretty good season that has seen him play a couple of games in the AHL, securing a shutout. He finally had somewhat consistent play in the ECHL this year. I certainly wouldn’t want to dump an NHL playoff series on him, but he’s the best option right now over everything else we have. Michael Teslak, who probably was above Duchesne at the start of this season, has had a horrible year, and hasn’t sniffed a save percentage over 90% this season. Not good. Teslak is currently part of a mashup of goaltenders in Adirondack. Kris Mayotte, who is horrible (I’ve seen him play in person) is currently the backup right now. He’s marginal in the ECHL, and for some reason keeps getting signed to PTOs. For some reason, the Phantoms are trying to find someone worse than Grahame. Eeek. The current starter is Carter Hutton, who I’ll cover in another article. He’s on an ATO out of college. So you can see, fun times in Philadelphia goaltending today! Godspeed Michael Leighton.

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An idea for next year’s sweaters……..

So we never really go off the beaten path and do feature stuff here. Time to kick that to the curb. Have I ever mentioned my love for hockey sweaters? Perhaps my collection of over 100 of them speaks for itself on that issue, but I’m faced with a daunting task. I have to buy a Flyers jersey FOR SOMEONE ELSE OTHER THAN ME. Gasp! The girlfriend is slowly becoming a Flyers fan (not a puck bunny, under strict orders from Geleff), and it’s time to get her some orange and black. After deciding on purchasing an orange sweater, it got me thinking. With the team sporting the orange full-time, the Winter Classic sweater likely taking over on the road, what becomes of the 3rd jersey? To get some of you that read to comment on an article for once, I’m taking suggestions as to who should go on the back of my own orange sweater that has been blank for far too long. Leading candidate is JVR. The girlfriend wants Carcillo because “he kicks people’s asses”. Looks like I’m doing it right.

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Flyers sweep home-and-home with Devils in overtime

Simon Gagne finally snapped his 12 game goalless streak Wednesday night with a dominant shift in overtime, wristing home the winner over the left shoulder of Martin Brodeur. After missing with a shot just seconds earlier, Gagne skated around Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrik Elias before letting go of the game winner in the slot. The Flyers also received goals from Arron Asham and Jeff Carter. Michael Leighton gave up two first period goals, albeit softies, to Travis Zajac and Rob Niedermayer, but settled down to stop 21 shots for the victory.

The Flyers managed to win a game down 2 goals against the Devils for the second straight game in a row, while only mustering a total of 15 shots on goal. The first period started off with those two fluky goals, but the Flyers got a huge response from former Devil Arron Asham to make it a close game. The Devils certainly squandered their fair share of scoring chances, with prized acquisition Ilya Kovalchuk “Jeff Cartering” a few shots off of the glass/wide, and Travis Zajac missing an empty net as well. The hot topic of debate was Scott Hartnell’s no-goal that would have tied the game at 2 at the end of the first. While physics may have told you that the puck was in, the NHL’s war room saw things differently. Cue the “MSG+ didn’t send the correct camera angle” theories.

Jeff Carter buried a wrister off the iron in the second to tie the game, so the no-goal didn’t exactly hinder the offense. Earlier in the day, Carter received the news that he would be a part of Team Canada, as Ryan Getzlaf suffered an ankle injury earlier this week which will put his Olympic status in doubt. The Flyers had a couple of breaks in this game, with Zach Parise missing the game completely due to an upper body injury (which isn’t good for Team USA :/). The Devils also lost Bryce Salvador early on, as he took a high stick in the defensive zone, leaving with vision problems. The Flyers played relatively disciplined, but special teams weren’t the key point of this game. Leighton coming up with the big stops certainly was the highlight of the game, with Gagne’s goal being the icing on the cake.

Upcoming notes: The Flyers play another home-and-home set against Montreal this weekend, before the Olympic break takes over. The Opening Ceremonies for the Games is tomorrow for our Olympic followers. Ray Emery will get 3 weeks, including the Olympic Break, to rest his ailing hip.

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Gameday Preview: Hurricanes at Flyers

Andy isn’t around to cover this game preview, so I get to give this a shot. In an afternoon matchup at the Wachovia Center, the Carolina Hurricanes (15-27-7) take on the Flyers, fresh off their victory over the Rangers. The Flyers have defeated the Hurricanes in the three previous matchups between the two clubs this season, shutting out the ‘Canes in the first game of their season. The Flyers blew out the Hurricanes 6-1 on Halloween, a game Michael Leighton started for Carolina. Their next meeting was a 4-3 shootout win, where Leighton, in goal for the Flyers after being claimed off of waivers, stoned both Carolina shooters in the shootout to secure the victory. It will be interesting to see if Peter Laviolette goes with Emery fresh off of a shutout, or with Leighton against his former club.

The Hurricanes have been abysmal this season, stacking their roster with veterans off of a run to the Eastern Conference Finals. That has landed them in the basement of the Eastern Conference, with many Hurricanes fans already set on drafting Taylor Hall first overall. While their play of late has been better, the team is looking to move a number of their veterans with no-trade clauses, and has somewhat started the rebuild by anointing Eric Staal captain of the team. Veteran Rod Brind’ Amour, a Philadelphia fan favorite in the 1990′s, has been among the worst in terms of plus/minus in the NHL for the past two seasons, and may be playing one of his last games in front of the Philly faithful.

The Flyers come in off of a hard-fought win over the Rangers on Thursday night. The physical play was on another level, as a number of scrums and fights broke out, and the Flyers returned to their effective intimidation style of old. However, with a number of players riding hot streaks into this game, most notably, Jeff Carter, James Van Riemsdyk, Mike Richards, and Chris Pronger, the Flyers should be look to continue those streaks and exploit the weak Carolina defense. Through their previous two matchups, almost all of the goals have been scored at even strength, which should make this game an interesting one. The Flyers have managed to pounce on teams early lately, scoring the first goal a number of times. Hopefully the team comes out with some energy, and doesn’t perform like they did in a 4-0 loss to Toronto earlier this month. Also adding distraction are news reports about Calgary Flames GM Darryl Sutter was in attendance Thursday night to discuss a trade with the Flyers, which has started the spectulation of numerous rumors, with the most amusing being Dion Phaneuf for Jeff Carter (which would make me sick, personally).

Other Notes:

• Cam Ward is starting his 18th straight game for the Hurricanes.
• Mike Richards has 14 points in his last 14GP.
• Jeff Carter has 7 goals and 15 points in his last 13GP.
• Daniel Briere has 13 points in his last 13GP.
• Chris Pronger has 10 points in his last 8GP.
• Aaron Asham has 8 points in his last 9GP.
• James van Riemsdyk 10 points in his last 9GP.

Injury Report:

Hurricanes: Erik Cole (upper body), Tuomo Ruutu (upper body), Scott Walker (shoulder), Joe Corvo (leg)

Flyers: Danny Syvret (shoulder), Ryan Parent (back)

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Phantoms Update pt. 2

The Phantoms currently sit 4th in the East Division (last playoff spot) with a total of 38 points through 38 games. While that seems okay, this was a team that was on the upswing at the start of training camp, yet has underachieved, scoring the lowest amount of goals in the league. While AHL scoring is down as a whole, the fact that this team doesn’t score goals is somewhat concerning.  There isn’t a lot to get excited about, looking at the team right now. Jon Matsumoto leads the team in points with 31, good for 26th in the league. However, Stefan Legein is the only other player in the top 100 AHL scorers from the Phantoms. Many players have underperformed this season, with the only real bright spot being Danny Syvret making the squad out of training camp, and Oskars Bartulis sticking with the big team.

Stefan Legein has been a revelation. After quitting hockey, he got into 26 games last season and scored once for Syracuse. This season, the Flyers handed over Mike Ratchuk for him, a trade that has worked well for the Flyers.  Legein has scored 16 times (18 overall) in 32 games for the Phantoms, and has provided an offensive spark for the team. I’m personally excited to see him get a shot with the big club. Matsumoto has also consistently scored, but won’t see any time with the big club if a top 6 spot doesn’t open up. Legein’s edgy play may allow him to see some time in the bottom 6.

If there’s positives, David Laliberte made a great impression in his first few games with the Flyers, scoring twice in his first two games. He won’t score a PPG, but wouldn’t be a bad option on the second line in the future, and has displayed some grit in the past. Jon Kalinski also saw time with the Flyers, and fits as a fourth-line center with some agatating capabilities. He’s not replacing Blair Betts, but the job could be his in the future. Jared Ross’ NHL highlight this year was being boarded by Patrick Kaleta. Nodl played a few games, but is still not putting up numbers as a professional.

The only other prospects worth mentioning have been average. Pat Maroon has added toughness to his game, and is still scoring at a good clip. He suffered somewhat of a bad injury against Albany, but has bounced back. He might see a game or two this year, if he’s developed a defensive game. He’s still got a good shot to make the club in the future. Marc-Andre Bourdon has started to put up some points, but started off slow. He garnered accolades in the QMJHL, but it will be interesting to see how he develops. The same goes for Kevin Marshall, who has been seemingly average, yet still physical. Both are in their rookie professional seasons, and have plenty of time to develop. Hey, Bartulis came out fine, so I have hope.

Overall, the team seems lackluster. I’m still bitter they aren’t right in the Broad Street backyard of old, but that doesn’t change the fact that the team has underperformed, and needs to have a offensive makeover for the second half of the season. It’s going to be interesting to see how Legein, Matsumoto, and Maroon fare, as well as the continued development of Marshall, Bourdon, Laliberte, and even Kalinski. While none are sure locks for the future, it’s a nice mix of 2nd line types, and two way defensemen that are going to complement the veteran top line pieces that the club has assembled. It’s been tough gathering info on the team this year without being able to watch them, so I hope this helps you guys keep up on the prospects down on the farm.

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On The Farm #1

So I’ll be honest, I haven’t followed the Phantoms as closely this year. It’s kind of hard getting to games when I’m in another state. Oh well. I also don’t think I’m going to shell out my money for AHL Live’s subpar service, so I’m stuck looking at boxscores and relying on beat writers from lovely Glens Falls, NY. As of today, the Phantoms are 5-4-1 for a total of 11 points, good for 3rd in the East Division.

So far, they’ve played the same handful of teams, and are playing Albany a total of 12 TIMES. Yes, 12. The AHL isn’t huge on teams playing outside of their own backyard. This should get old fast. To make matters worse, both teams introduced special jerseys to be worn on the occasion that the two meet, which are visible on their websites and Flickr, because nobody mainstream wants to look at them. From the looks of it, the purple is completely gone, meaning that my sweet purple phantoms third from last year is a waste. Oh, and they got rid of Jeff Szwez too. Sweetastic. I’m sure you’ve seen their current jerseys, but the headshots on AHL.com of the players lead me to believe that they’ve got a retro-themed alternate that mimics the parent club’s current orange beauties. I’ll buy it

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A couple of Six Packs over the Weekend

So, Andy and I were able to witness the 6-1 drubbing of the Hurricanes in person. Unfortunately, we were also treated to a lackluster Halloween Costume Contest that Lou Nolan would simply dub, “pretty shitty.” Some big things stood out to me during that game:

• Matt Carle looks dominant so far. He’s obviously playing with confidence being paired with Pronger, and looks like the Hobey Baker award winner from seasons ago. He’s racking up assists so far and has shown a great feel for the offensive zone. His goal in this game was the result of him taking control on the powerplay and banging in a wrap around that Leighton horribly overplayed.
• Chris Pronger looks comfortable and has been worth the price of admission most nights. His passes are on the tape, and his shot has been deadly accurate this year. The first goal was set up off another one of his slappers. He’s been dominant on the PP and has been fine in his own zone to this point.
• The Timonen-Coburn pairing was broken up, and both responded well. Timonen chipped in with an assist and looked more comfortable. Coburn finished off a broken 2-on-1 with JVR and also buried a bomb from the point, notching both goals in the third. Together, the two have looked lost, but perhaps this showing gets them going once again.
• Ryan Parent played and had an assist, but left after re-aggravating an injury.

• JVR has gone from potential bust to star in an offseason it seems. He’s using his size to his advantage, scoring a great goal by driving the net and deking out Wallin and Leighton with a weak backhander, but he’s also showing that he’s not afraid to at least get somewhat physical, responding to a challenge from Andrew Alberts. I’m sure the time in the weightroom helped, as he looks stronger and more determined this year. Could be shaping up to be a darkhorse candidate for ROY.
• David Laliberte, who I assumed would be called up with Briere’s injury, responded with a goal and an assist his first NHL game. Considering he was in the ECHL 2 seasons ago, he’s had a monumental rise. He has the talent to stick around and produce from the looks of it, and has some chemistry with Carter it seems. I’m seeing why he stuck around so long in camp. The hot streak he went on at the end of last year with the Phantoms doesn’t seem to be a fluke.
• Arron Asham is awesome. Enough said. This needs no explaining.
• Somehow, the great check of the game was not the monster shot Laperriere landed on Carcillo that had Andy and I in stitches. :/
• This game got physical, and the Flyers responded well. Bonus points for escaping without Conboy biting anybody this time around.

Monday night’s game was almost a replay, as the Flyers dropped the Lightning by a 6-2 final. They didn’t dominate this game like I thought they did against Carolina, but they made their shots count and embarrassed Mike Smith to an extent. Carter had a pair of nice goals, as well as setting up Laliberte for another one. Pronger had a couple of sweet assists to Richards on the night, and I thought Claude Giroux had an excellent game, with a highlight reel pass back to Pronger on the 5th goal. The points haven’t been there for Claude, but as long as he’s moving his feet and working his magic with the puck, you know he’s on. The only negative was that Syvret had a relatively poor game in limited action, and the third line seemed to get burned on the TB goals. Stamkos ripped a laser which nobody would have stopped, and the Halpern goal was crappy to say the least. Overall, an excellent past 3 days for the Flyers and their fans.

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Training Camp winding down, Roster seemingly set

So, since it’s been a while since anybody has posted anything, I’d thought it would be good to take a quick look at some of the stories surrounding the roster before the start of the season. With the season finally starting, I’ll try to contribute more often. The opener draws near, and the Flyers’ roster seems to be intact at this point. The past week has had some interesting developments as well.

First, Randy Jones time in the orange and black has seemingly come to an end. Awarded a 2 year, $5.5 million deal at the end of the 2007-08 season, the pressure and scrutiny have been intense for the once undrafted free-agent. Jones first cracked the lineup in the disastrous 06-07 campaign, displaying a good feel for the offensive game, while not showing any real willingness to play physical. Aside from a disastrous hit on Boston’s Patrice Bergeron in late 2007, he had a solid 07-08 campaign, which he parlayed into the new contract. The $2.75 cap hit was seen as too much for a guy who would at best play 15-18 minutes a game this season. The trade for Matt Carle last year seemingly sealed his fate. While a bad camp and poor showing this preseason may have attributed to it, he has almost an identical skillset to Carle, yet wouldn’t be seeing top-4 minutes. He’s cleared waivers, and may receive the Denis Gauthier treatment this year. Two things worry me. Personally, I love the guy, and have been one of his biggest fans, so seeing him waved doesn’t make me too happy. I understand he makes too much for a 5-6th defenseman, so his only choice was to have an outstanding camp, and he blew it. Sending him to the AHL creates 2 problems. One, he’s taking a spot away from a player who has a chance to see top-4 minutes, like say a Kevin Marshall or a Marc-Andre Bourdon. Two, there is the possibility that Holmgren brings him back through re-entry waivers, which means the team is on the hook for half of that $2.75 million. I’m sure both options, in addition to his whipping boy status, make a him public enemy number one for Flyers fans at this point. It will certainly be interesting to see how this one plays out over the course of the year.

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