Photo Credit: Our very own Michael Reaves
The Flyers were on a winning streak until Monday night. That 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, now has the Flyers on their heels once again, after suffering a 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. The orange and black just continue to be inconsistent, as it is quite obvious that this team is still two-three years away from being a contender. Without further delay, here are our answers to your questions.
It sure does feel like the Flyers and Morgan Frost will breakup, possibly as early as the trade deadline.
Morgan knows he needs to be more consistent, but one thing he doesn’t understand is why, year after year, he gets off to a slow start. To his credit, he bounces back in the second half of the season, with the first half just being so-so.
“Frosty is going to wait his turn because he’s probably the most talented (At his position) out of anyone we have,” Tortorella said after practice last week. “I hope he shows up when he gets back in. It’s a kid that I like, as him and I have gone through that process. I cannot continue to go through the same process with Morgan that I have done for two years. It’s not fair to him. It would be stupid to coach that way because we have done that. He’s going to have to take some onus on himself here, when he gets an opportunity to make it stick. We certainly need help in that position.”
The Flyers definitely need help at the Center position. They need an impact Center today, not tomorrow. At the moment, it appears Frost is on the outside looking in to this organization. The Flyers have been very patient, and Frost has handled everything with class. Hopefully, he proves everyone wrong when he returns to the lineup.
Emil Andrae is here stay with the Flyers. The Flyers will carry three goalies, until all can prove they are healthy to stay within the lineup.
To the organizations credit, it would make more sense for Aleksei Kolosov to get seasoning with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms when that time arises. Ivan Fedotov, in my opinion, has outplayed Kolosov for the backup goaltending position. If that mean Kolosov returns to Russia in the KHL on a loan, so be it.
To the organizations credit, it would make more sense for Aleksei Kolosov to get seasoning with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms when that time arises. Ivan Fedotov, in my opinion, has outplayed Kolosov for the backup goaltending position. If that mean Kolosov returns to Russia in the KHL on a loan, so be it.
In the same token, an organization needs depth at the goaltending position, so it’s great the orange and black have depth at this position, as opposed to years past. Kolosov could use more seasoning in the AHL.
If Ryan Ellis retired, the Flyers would officially be on the hook for his salary. Placing Ellis on IR or LTIR offers the team cap flexibility, either immediately or in the future.
LTIR is a form of injured reserve that permits teams to exceed the salary cap if a player is to miss at minimum of 10 NHL games and 24 calendar days during the season. Teams are not granted additional salary cap, only cap relief in the form of LTIR pool value.
A team is allowed to exceed the cap, using what is referred to as the “LTIR pool.” If a player carries a $5 million cap hit and is going to be placed on LTIR on a team that carries only $200,000, then their LTIR pool is $4.8 million. However, once a player returns off the LTIR, then the team must get under the maximum cap threshold before activating him off LTIR.
From Couch Guy Sports, “The Accruable Cap Space Limit is a team’s new upper limit once they begin using the LTIR. It excludes LTIR relief pools. This number is used to determine the amount a team can exceed the salary cap using the LTIR. The closer to the cap a team is before using the LTIR, the more relief they’ll get. So, you typically see one day or otherwise short-term call-ups when teams are about to start using the LTIR. This allows them to be close to, or possibly even at, the cap when the ACSL is calculated. This means they’ll get more relief from it.”
Couch Guy Sports Continued, “The ACSL during the offseason is calculated using 110% of the current salary cap. This is because every team gets to go 10% above the salary cap during the offseason. So, this is reflected in the ACSL. That means that for this season, the salary cap number used to calculate the ACSL during the offseason would be $89.65 million ($81,500,000*110%=$89,650,000). However, the ACSL gets recalculated using the normal salary cap on the opening day of the season for any team that used the LTIR during the off-season. So, this season that would be $81.5 million.”
Essentially it’s like “Bank” money that is used for cap flexibility. In addition, a team doesn’t want to have to use it, unless they absolutely have to, as it’s a long season. Anything can happen, and really the Flyers should use it ONLY for an impact player. Unfortunately, they are not at that stage of the rebuild to use it properly.
The Flyers have worn their black jerseys at times this season, so absolutely it is used as an alternate jersey. It will be worn at different times throughout the course of the 2024-25 season, but I do not know the schedule of such.
Flyers’ Head Coach John Tortorella is committed to the rebuild and giving young players a chance. It’s up to the players to make an imprint, as Andrae has proven he is indeed NHL ready. It’s up to the player to take advantage of these situations. Every young prospect grows at different rates. At times, Egor Zamula has been inconsistent, thus deserving of a game or two in the press box. That is the beauty of having an established veteran like Erik Johnson, for these said situations.
Johnson is not playing over any young prospect. Those young prospects, that are mentioned by some, have to beat out Johnson for a job. Some have done so like Andrae and Grans, but others like Adam Ginning or Hunter McDonald have not.
It’s quite obvious that Adam Ginning has dropped depth wise within the organization, as Helge Grans made his NHL Debut earlier this week. If Ginning did not drop depth wise within the organization, then he would have received the recall. Actually, Ethan Samson has outplayed Ginning, so maybe Samson should get a recall here in the future.
I agree, that the young players have to play aspect, but they also have to prove they are worthy of being in the lineup on a nightly basis, like Matvei Michkov proved following his benchings last week.
Everyone is on the table to be moved, in the event a feasible trade makes the team better. James Hagans will be a top eligible draft prospect in June, but by no means will the Flyers tank. They WILL NOT tank, regardless of how the season fares. Trades will happen eventually, but only when the deal makes sense.
If they are bad, then they will be bad without tanking. Honestly, tanking does not help young individuals that want to win, like Michkov. Winning games are important.
Flyers Fans:
I am deeply sorry that this mailbag has come out a few weeks late. A lot has happened in my personal life. My family and I lost my Aunt Franny, and it really put me in bad shape. We have now lost my Mom, Dad, and Aunt Franny within a span of seven months.
Thank you for your patience, and being the best fans the sport has to offer.
If you would like to see your questions submitted in our weekly mailbag. Just submit your question on our Twitter page @flyersknitty using #Flyersmail, or @JameyBaskow. Thanks to all the fans for another great mailbag.
