Photo Credit: Sportsnet.ca
For far too long the Philadelphia Flyers have been stagnant, settling for mediocrity year in and year out. With most fans becoming fed up over the last few years with the state of their team, they began to largely put the blame on the team’s management and were demanding a change. Which then should go without saying that, since taking the job as Philadelphia’s general manager, Chuck Fletcher has been accused of sitting on his hands and not making enough moves to help his team stay competitive. But that cannot be said about him anymore! Fletcher has heard the cries of the fans and has set out to meet their demands by hypothetically saying HOLD MY BEER!!!
After yet another disappointing end to the season where Fletcher said: “We never really seemed to get going and there seemed to be just a malaise over the team all year”. He went into this off season with the thought process that he needed to change the culture of the team. Here, Chuck concluded: “We couldn’t bring the same group of players back and expect different results”.
To do this, Fletcher set out to not only address and fill the glaring holes on his roster, but to replace others with a bunch of high energy, competitive players who are hungry and have a will to win. With that mind set, doing this will help to create a new leadership group in the locker room that would then force new chemistry and a different way to approach the game.
But, although Chuck’s current overhaul has been impressive so far, he is in fact far from being done: The team is still without a backup goalie and- if his new outlook on the team holds true- he will be looking to move on and try and find an upgrade from the 36-year-old veteran netminder Brain Elliott. This past season the Flyers had to rely on Elliott far too frequently for their liking. Brian had to come in after Hart had been pulled multiple times this past season, forcing him to have to compete in 30 of the team’s 56 games. That’s 53% of the teams’ total games guys! While in those games Elliott posted an atrocious 3.06 goals against average (GAA) which ranked him 48th in the league last season, and a horrendous .889 save percentage (SV%) which wasn’t even good enough to rank him in the top 50 goalies in the league.
With a rebuilt defense that is a lot more defensively responsible, Hart will be expected to rebound- but that doesn’t mean that the team should now devalue the backup position once again. With the schedule just being released, the Flyers have found out recently that they will be forced to play in many back-to-back games this upcoming season; Therefore, they should not simply skimp on some quintessential backup goaltender they find on the free agent market this off season. Especially since the UFA goaltender market currently is full of underachieving, over-the-hill veterans that, for the most part, have career-winning percentages below a .500 average. Consequently, it seems like Chuck will have to once again hit the trade market in order to provide his team with a true 1B option instead (like the ones the majority of this year’s playoff teams had).
One such player who might fit the role that Fletcher has already been rumored to be looking into acquiring is 31-year-old Braden Holtby of the Vancouver Canucks. Holtby (who you may remember from his time with the Washington Capitals) would bring a great winning pedigree. Braden won the Vezina Trophy (an award given to the league’s best goalie) in the ‘15- ‘16 season, the William M. Jennings Trophy (award given to the goalie/goalies who played in at least 25 games who was on the team with the fewest goals scored against them) in the ’16- ‘17 season and followed that up with a Stanley Cup win in the ‘17- ‘18 season. After having quite, the career in D.C., Holtby choose to take his talents to the Vancouver Canucks seeing that Washington’s goaltender of the future (Ilya Samsonov) was then ready to take over for a much cheaper price. However, Holtby ran into much of the same problem in Vancouver this season where Canucks’ prospect goaltender Thatcher Demko proved ready to take over the crease as well, leaving the Canucks with less of a need for their stop gap proven veteran netminder (Holtby) for next season and more of a need of his $4.3 million dollar cap hit so that they can utilize it elsewhere to resolve some much bigger issues within their lineup.
While Braden’s cap hit may seem a bit inflated for a backup goalie, it would only be for one year. Moreover, it should be looked at as insurance in case Hart does not bounce back fully or as quickly as we all may hope. Remember- Elliott had to play in 30 out of 56 games this past season and if you’re counting on a backup to win you the majority of the starts, you’re not going to make the playoffs! So, why not rely on a guy instead who has won 60% percent of his starts he has made in his career? A veteran who is used to (and would prefer to still) play 50, 60 and even 70+ games in a single season, if need be, like he has in years past.
Holtby would fit the same mold that Fletcher has been looking to acquire this off season. He is a leader in the locker room and a competitor who has a thirst to win every single time he steps out on the ice. He would be a good influence on Carter Hart and could help to show him how to maintain his focus for the next game.
Another name Chuck Fletcher has been rumored to be in on is the 32-year-old goaltender Jonathan Bernier who spent the last three seasons playing in the Motor City playing for the down on their luck Red Wings. Bernier, who is categorized as a hybrid goaltender (one who plays a mix of old-school stand-up style with a little butterfly), rights were just acquired by the Carolina Hurricanes along with a third-round pick for rising star goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic in a desperate effort for the Hurricanes to save cap space. Bernier may have not turned out to be the once fast-rising star he was once thought to be after the Los Angeles Kings selected him in the 1st round back in 2006, but he did help the Kings to raise the Stanley Cup in the ‘11- ‘12 season. Since then, Bernier has seemed to have found his niche: Bouncing around to a number of different teams (with Carolina now being his 6th) he has managed to become known as a stop gap if you will- a transition goalie for a rebuilding team who is waiting for a star draft pick to develop or a fill in when a team’s #1 goes down with an extended injury. In saying that, throughout his well-traveled career playing on a list of terrible teams, Jonathan has been able to maintain some pretty respectable numbers: With 394 games now under his belt, Bernier still holds a career average of 2.77 GAA and a .913 SV%. While he may not be the most intriguing option, he has proven to be a dependable one.
Either of these not exactly who you may have had in mind? Well, this writer has some suggestions of his own: How about trading for 29-year-old Casey DeSmith from (I can’t believe I’m going to say this) the Pittsburgh Penguins? Former Flyers’ general manager Ron Hextall is in control up there now and he just might be willing to give DeSmith up for someone that he still covets from his old roster. Especially if Pittsburgh goes out and reacquires goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury from the Vegas Golden Knights like they are rumored to be looking into. DeSmith played in 20 games last season for a less-than-impressive Penguins team, and he still managed 11 wins on the season and did so while posting a 2.54 GAA and a .912 SV%. He has played in the NHL now for 3 seasons and (before sustaining an injury late this past season) he had seemingly taken over the net for the struggling Tristan Jarry. DeSmith has since had surgery for that injury and is set to be in camp at the start of next season. Casey is heading into his last year of his contract which pays him just $1.25 million; A very affordable contract for sure if Chuck’s own restricted free agents become a little more costly than expected.
A final option would be to try and trade for a young up-and-coming goalie like Filip Gustavsson who is a restricted free agent for the Ottawa Senators. Gustavsson is a 23-year-old goaltender who was drafted in the same draft class as Carter Hart but just 7 picks later. Ottawa already has their star goalie in Matt Murray whom they signed to a pretty hefty deal recently. They also have 28-year-old Anton Forsberg signed to be Murray’s backup as well. Gustavsson has played professionally in Ottawa’s system for parts of the last 4 seasons now and has been stuck in the American Hockey League playing for the Belleville Senators for the majority of his professional career. He got his chance to shine this season when the Senators’ star goalie Matt Murray went down with an upper body injury. Gustavsson may have played in just 9 games in the NHL where he was able to post 5 wins and only 1 loss, but the numbers he was able to produce in that limited number of starts is what is really impressive: Filip managed a 2.16 GAA which, compared to the rest of the NHL goalies who had more starts, would have slotted him in 7th overall for the league. Not to mention his .933 SV% that, when compared to the rest of the league, was the best of any goalie in the NHL- including Alex Nedeljkovic’s historic breakout campaign in which he posted a .932 SV% in 23 games played.
While Gustavsson did play in just a fraction of the teams’ games it was hard to not be impressed by this young goaltender who played with the kind of confidence you would expect from a 10-year pro. In saying that, Filip is sadly destined to head back to the AHL once again if resigned by the Senators. As far as his style goes, Filip’s legs are mighty, and he covers the bottom of the net rather well. He also frequently shows off a quick glove hand that he used to absolutely embarrass even the greatest players in the NHL at times this season.
You might be thinking “why would Ottawa being willing to get rid of such a player,” right? Well, they are a team in a constant state of rebuilding, and they have possibly one of the best goalies not in the NHL signed and playing for them in the AHL currently. That player being 6’7 Mads Sogaard who went undefeated in his North American professional debut- winning 7 straight starts in the minors this past season after coming over from his native Denmark. Sogaard is the future in-net for the Senators, and it would be smart of the team to let Gustavsson walk if the Flyers were to put in an offer for him. Having the competition of another young goalie to share the crease with, Hart might then be persuaded to get back on top of his game and it would then be close to what the Columbus Blue Jackets have with Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzlikins.
Any of these above-mentioned moves would be a vast improvement over bringing back Brain Elliott for another season. The team needs an upgradeable change in between the pipes and the team needs to have a legitimate 1B option in place for next season (not just a backup goaltender). The days of a starter playing 60 to 70 games a season are quickly going by the wayside. Teams that are successful in the league today have two fully capable goaltenders that they feel comfortable playing against any team on any given night. The Flyers’ defense was a mess last season but has now been revitalized with Ryan Ellis and Ramus Ristolainen. Forwards that were not 200ft. players have been replaced by defensively responsible All Star goal scorer Cam Atkinson. With Chuck going out and making these moves it shows that he wants to win now and after all his hard work to make his team better he shouldn’t stop short by just signing back the same goalie and expecting different results. Finish what you started Chuck we believe in you now!
