After the Flyers’ latest defensive breakdown which resulted in a 9-0 loss to The New York Rangers (who didn’t even have any of their normal coaching staff behind the bench thanks to COVID), the Flyers’ brass may be finally realizing that drafting and signing so many offensive-minded defensemen was a bad idea!
With so many defensemen on the Flyers blue line right now that would rather score a goal than prevent one (i.e. Shayne Gostisbehere, Travis Sanheim, Philippe Myers, and Erik Gustafsson), it’s no wonder the Flyers’ goaltenders save percentage and goals against average are at an all-time high!
The Flyers have no one on the back end who will erase the opposition off the puck with a nice body check, no one who will clear the porch in front of their team’s goaltender, and no one who will strike enough fear in their opponents to prevent them from taking the liberty to deliver a dirty hit or play to their star players, let alone having anyone who has the stones enough to stand up and fight for them when the other team chooses to do so.
The Flyers’ defensemen, as a whole, are timid and meek by nature: Instead of performing any of the above-mentioned methods to prevent a goal, help their goalie be able to see the play, and/or protect their fellow teammates, these players listed above would rather try a score a goal themselves or attempt a lack-luster poke check when the opposition is coming down on them. They’d even stand next to the player trying to screen their goalie, and head to the bench for a change at the first sight of a skirmish. Such efforts have resulted in these players seeing their plus/minus stats plummet. In that Ranger game alone both Sanheim and Myers were a -6! Not to be outdone, Gostisbehere has finished many games this season with a -3. This is a trend that has to change!
Gone are the days that the Flyers would employ a rugged, tough, stay-at-home defenseman to complement the offensive-minded defenders that reside on their roster. Such players who have exemplified that role for the orange and black in the past would include Chris Pronger and Derain Hatcher.
Now, the Flyers do have a lot of reinforcements coming in the way of defensive prospects that are already in the system: Yegor Zamula, Wyatte Wylie, Emil Andrae, and Mason Millman but they are all offensively-minded as well!
So, I ask you: What good is a defenseman that can score 60 points in a season if, when he is on the ice, the other team scores 80?
But what can the Flyers do to expedite a resolution for this problem before it is too late, and this season is all but considered a loss? Sure, they could overpay for one of the 30-year-old rental players like Mattias Ekholm from Nashville who has 1 year remaining on his contract, or David Savard from Columbus whose contract is set to expire at season’s end. Both of whose cost to acquire them is steadily going up as more and more teams have begun to show interest in obtaining their services to the point where Ekholm’s price has been rumored to be a 1st round pick and two prospects. To me, this is far too much to pay for a player who is either at the tail end of his prime or just past it.
Instead, if the Flyers are going to have to pay such a high price to obtain a player who could come in and contribute, why not go out and try to get someone who could stick around and be a force on the Flyers’ blue line for some time to come?
One such player who could be that guy (and more) and who might just be available is the right-hand shot Rasmus Ristolainen, Buffalo’s 26-year-old towering 6’4 221-pound defender. Who over his already-8-year career has proven to be a force to messed with while playing for the Sabers since being drafted in the first round back in 2013. Why may the Sabers be willing to part with such a dominant player (who the great Flyers Nitty Gritty founder Jamey Baskow has previously alluded to as a possibility for the Flyers)? It’s quite simple: The Sabers’ head coach Ralph Kruege was just fired after the team found themselves on a 12-game losing streak) and thus at the bottom of the Eastern Division) with just 16 points on the season. It’s quite clear they will be sellers once again this trade deadline; and, while Ristolainen may still be in his prime, Buffalo as a whole will still not be able to truly contend for a few more years.
But herein lies the problem for Buffalo: As it stands now, the Sabers are a small-market team who have to overpay free agents to get them to agree to come up to the great white north, or stay if they are already there, which has resulted in them being up against the salary cap. With many pending unrestricted free agents and restricted free agents who are set to come off of rookie deals in the near future- most of whom were former 1st round lottery picks- they are the perfect team for the Flyers to make a trade agreement with!
To put in prospective the wealth of young talent already on Buffalo’s roster or within their system, here’s the list of the 1st round selections that they possess from the last couple of years (not including Ristolainen).
- (C) Curtis Lazar 26 yr. old
- (C) Jack Eichel 25 yr. old
- (W) Sam Reinhart 25 yr. old
- (W) Tage Thompson 23 yr. old
- (W) Casey Mittlelstadt 22 yr. old
- (D) Henri Jokiharju 21 yr. old
- (D) Rasmus Dahlin 20 yr. old
- (C) Dylan Cozens 20 yr. old
- (W) Jack Quinn 19 yr. old
- (D) Ryan Johnson 19 yr. old
Not to mention 2nd rd. picks: (G) Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen 22 yr. old, (W) John Jason Peterka 19 yr. old and 3rd rd. pick: (D) Oskari Laaksonen 21 yr. old- whom are all well on their way to the top of the Sabers prospect pool.
So, with all that being said, you can see that the Sabers are, and will be, in need of some cap space in order to retain all of these talented young players now and in the future. Ultimately, that would make a now-veteran player like Ristolainen expendable, given that Buffalo’s best shot at contending for the Stanley Cup won’t come for a few seasons.
Knowing all this, why shouldn’t the Flyers’ general manager Chuck Fletcher forget about the overpriced rentals and instead call up Buffalo to obtain Rasmus (by not taking NO for an answer and giving up whatever is necessary to do so)? Doing that would ensure the Flyers a player who could come in day one to Philadelphia and solidify the top pairing by slotting in alongside Ivan Provorov? I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather see the team overpay a bottom-dwelling team NOW (who will be sellers anyway in the near future) for a player who will instantaneously make this Flyers’ roster better- both today and in the future! The Flyers have plenty of draft picks and are now stocked full of prospects in every position that they could utilize in order to obtain a proven NHL talent that could help the team now and thus not waste yet another year of Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek’s careers.
Why they won’t ? Fletcher is a terrible gm that’s why he brought in gutstuffon