Flyers Weekly Mailbag: Will The Flyers Obtain A Sniper? Ghost Talk

And so the offseason begins. Chuck Fletcher will be a busy man from now until November at the very least with the hopes of improving the team. The Flyers went from a pretender to a contender in just one season, so let’s hope that Fletcher continues to improve this team to make them a contender once again next season. Withouts further delay, here’s are our answers to your questions.

Shayne Gostisbehere had some good moments in the playoffs. I personally believe that Robert Hagg was in the lineup for physicality purposes and to block shots. He did both admirably. Unfortunately, you bring up a great point with the struggling Power Play, or should we say power outage!!! 4-52 with the man advantage (7.6% success rate) is unacceptable, and I would have liked to see Ghost get a shot, as well.

Alain Vigneault went with a lineup that got the team to Game 7 against the New York Islanders. That was the defensive core that excelled during the Regular Season, and playoffs. Unfortunately, the defense fell apart at the wrong time. It was unfortunate to most likely see Ghost not getting one last chance in a Flyers sweater, and his Flyers career to possibly end on the bench.

Would Vigneault like to go back into time and insert Ghost into the lineup…possibly. At the end of the day the Islanders just out muscled the Flyers.

The likelihood of the Flyers obtaining a sniper this offseason are slim to none. Fletcher’s blueprint for the offseason are defensive depth, re-signing Brian Elliott, Power Play help, and shoring up the bottom six.

I have only heard rumblings about one sniper, and that is Patrick Laine. However, I have had heard rumblings on Nikolaj Ehlers, although I wouldn’t classify him as a sniper. Could Fletcher work a deal for either of these players? Possibly, but I think it’s unlikely.

Now with that being said if the right deal came about, absolutely Fletcher would bite. Some UFA’s that are available via free agency are Taylor Hall, Mike Hoffman, Evgenii Dadonov, Erik Haula, and Tyler Toffoli. Fletcher has indicated that he wouldn’t be as active for the next few years in free agency, so I don’t see any of these players donning a Flyers sweater anytime soon. He is more likely to add via trade, rather than obtain a need in free agency (Lawson Crouse or Clayton Keller hopefully, as Arizona is willing to shed $10 million in salary). Some exceptions for adding via free agency are Patrick Maroon, Zemgus Girgensons, or Matt Martin for physicality purposes.

They just don’t have the luxury to add a bonafide scorer, even though the team could use one. Hopefully, some key players have big years next season with the likes of Oskar Lindblom and Nolan Patrick (Hopefully). Fletcher mentioned that a healthy Lindblom and Patrick would improve this team.

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.