What a week of Flyers hockey it was, unreal. The Flyers (21 games played) currently sit in fourth place in the East Division (27 points) with games in hand on teams in front of them: New York Islanders (24 games played), and the Washington Capitals (23 games played). Without further delay, here are our answers to your questions.
Elliot ‘The Destroyer” Desnoyers is a very talented young prospect. He has really opened some eyes during his brief tenure in the Flyers organization, as he is playing well with the Halifax Mooseheads.
Desnoyers more than likely would be a second or third round pick if a redraft did occur. Watch out, he is a good playmaker that can pot goals with the best of them when he is hot, and everyone has seen that with the Mooseheads this season. The Flyers farm system continues to be in good shape in the future.
Michael Raffl is not a borderline NHL player. He does a lot of things right, and Raffl is a coaches dream. He can move anywhere in the lineup, whether that be Center, Wing, shoot I bet you he would even play goalie if you asked him too. Raffl is an asset in the locker room, and is best friends with Scott Laughton. Trust me Raffl is valuable.
The other two members that occupy the Flyers fourth line nightly are prospects. They are Connor Bunnaman and Nicolas Aubé-Kubel. Both are playing the way they are supposed to, which is give the team energy, be physical, and pot some big goals. NAK had a marvelous game against the Pittsburgh Penguins this past Thursday night, and Bunnaman did his job. Bunnaman provided minutes and provided energy. The fourth line is a good line, and was one of the best Flyers lines a little over a month ago.
With the way the Flyers are operating, I do not foresee a change in this area until the end of the season. Mike Yeo would definitely be given some lead way as he operated a successful unit last season, and some of his personnel (Sean Couturier in particular) missed time due to injury.
Michel Therrien for the second year in a row has commanded an inconsistent Power Play unit. The orange and black currently have the 19th ranked Power Play in the league with a success rate of 18.6%. This is just not good enough, and this is also one reason why some Flyers fans do not believe the Flyers are Stanley Cup contenders. Therrien should definitely be on notice, and Joe Mullen is still available.
Here are a list of players that might catch Chuck Fletcher’s eye:
Kyle Clifford- ST. Louis
Corey Perry- Montreal
Erik Gudbranson (Defenseman)- Vancouver
Mattias Ekholm (Defenseman)- Nashville
Jamie Oleksiak (Defenseman)- Dallas
All five of these players have expiring contracts at years end, so anything is possible to include trading from a contending team.
The one area of need the Flyers are lacking big time is sandpaper/grit. Chuck Fletcher is well aware of this, as he added Nate Thompson last year at the trade deadline. This year is no different, and Fletcher will add a player like this by the trade deadline.
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, and Let’s go Flyers.
Do only moronic questions get answered? And the answers? JB is like a Flyers apologist. He answers only softball questions with bunt replies.
The team isn’t close to a contender and the fact is Fletcher did nothing in the off-season and Hextall’s great prosects pool looks like crap at this point.
Ekholm doesn’t have an expiring contract at the end of the year. This Flyers analysis is suspect at best.
Yeah tell me something I don’t already know!