Many apologies for the week long hiatus, working 12 hours a day since monday left me with little time to write... here's what I had penned last Thursday after the Flyers blew up their team.
Just a disclaimer to start, although this blog is called Just Blueshirts anything that has remotely to do with anything other teams do especially in the division will get covered on here. Sadly due to my work schedule unless big Rangers/NHL news goes down in the morning or on weekends I won't be able to join the massive clusterfuck of other Rangers bloggers on twitter especially a day like today after the Flyers began knocking down the dominoes of another offseason.
It was just another day in NHL land, the day before the draft, the NHL released the schedule and we marveled at how the Rangers begin the year over in Sweden against Lundqvist's old hockey team, followed by the two games against LA and Anaheim in Stockholm, the 7 game homestand in March and end the year running the gauntlet against teams such as the Penguins, Capitals, Canadiens, Flyers, and the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins. The NHL soon after released the official salary cap information for the 2011-12 season set at 64.3 million and a 48.3 million dollar floor. It wasn't long after that, that all hell broke loose....
It was then quickly reported by NUMEROUS sources on twitter that Robyn Regehr from Calgary was asked to waive his NMC and accept a trade to Buffalo. As of this writing on Thursday night/Friday morning he hasn't decided on accepting the trade. As that was going on it was revealed that Flyers center Jeff Carter was traded to Columbus in exchange for the rights to Jakub Voracek, the Blue Jackets 1st round (8th overall) as well as 3rd round (68th overall). As fans we didn't get a chance to digest that trade until the big blockbuster came in. The Flyers then traded captain Mike Richards to LA for top prospect Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds, and according to Bob McKenzie at TSN, the Kings second round pick in 2012.
Living in southern New Jersey and being constantly exposed to the Flyers, I'm not surprised by either trade to be honest. Jeff Carter saw his writing on the wall after the Flyers aquired Bryzgalov and was their most movable contract, despite the 11 year deal with a friendly cap number. The only thing that blew me away was that it was really only part one of two and then the next thing you know the Flyers captain is gone too. I've never seen the core of any one team gutted in just seconds like that. Absolutely incredible. After the the dust settled a little bit on the trades it was announced that Ilya Bryzgalov had signed a 9 year, $51 million contract with the Flyers that pays him 10 million in the first year alone! Flyers GM Paul Holmgren has a lot riding on these trades today. Failure to win a cup probably will cost him his job in a few years which brings me to my next point...
Without putting on the Rangers blue tinted glasses, where does this leave Philadelphia now? The Flyers didn't bring back anyone who put up the kind of production that the Flyers had in Richards and Carter. In fact Brayden Schenn, who is ready for the NHL but hasn't taken the next step to really solidify himself in a NHL roster, is capable of putting up bigger numbers than the former Flyers did but that may take a season or two. If and only if Schenn pans out will this deal be worth it. The Flyers, have very little room to maneuver under the cap, with just over 7.5 million dollars left that's without signing their RFA's and UFA's.
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