Trade Deadline Recap- Flyers Thoughts
Well, another deadline passed, and more teams shuffled players, but no big move came at this year’s deadline. The Kovalchuk trade that sent Ilya and his stardom to Parise and the Devils made the last big bang prior to the Olympics. Some of the larger acquistions on Wednesday were Wojtek Wolski to the Phoenix Coyotes in return for youngsters Peter Mueller and Kevin Porter in Colorado.
The Flyers looked prime to make a deal for either a defenseman, or a netminder at this year’s deadline after freeing up around 2-2.5 million in cap by putting Emery on LTIR, and waiving Riley Cote and Danny Syvret. Paul Holmgren claims to have manned the phones with a couple of teams, but nothing really struck him as necessary, and at the end of the day, I tend to agree.
First off, let’s list the names of the players who the Flyers were reportedly after: Dan Hamhuis (D), Tomas Kaberle (D), Dwayne Roloson (G), Tomas Vokoun (G), and Marty Turco (G).
Now of course the most promising names of that list are Kaberle and Vokoun. The Leafs were after primarily the Flyers youth, and Holmgren has no desire to move either James Van Riemsdyk or Claude Giroux, so it’s obvious why that deal went nowhere. Next, we move onto Vokoun and the Panthers. The Flyers would have to move some players in order to take on the $5 M cap hit with the Florida goaltender. Florida thought Jeff Carter fit that role, and Holmgren didn’t, and I’ll tend to take his side on that one. Roloson has played well this season, but for the minimal upgrade he would have cost the Flyers, it was probably the right to decision to hold off on this trade. Turco also held minimal value other than the fact he is an expiring contract at the end of the year. However, the Flyers would have to create about $2.5 M extra cap space in order to fit him in, and that is very difficult to do without giving up a significant piece.
The final and most intriguing situation would be the one surrounding Dan Hamhuis. Now, Hamhuis a UFA at year’s end, was expendable as soon as Nashville brought in Grebeshkov from Edmonton. The Predators reportedly wanted either Coburn or Parent in return for Hamhuis, which isn’t that big a price considering the large ice time Hamhuis can log, and the injury concerns with Parent. Coburn would also be expendable due to the fact he’s due a raise at year’s end being an RFA. Apparently the big hold up on this deal was Holmgren’s uncertainty of being able to sign Hamhuis to an extension, after he reportedly didn’t want to be moved in the first place, making an extension very unlikely.
So at the end of the day, the Flyers stood pat at the trade deadline and have handed the reigns to Michael Leighton, an untested netminder in the league, and one apparently peaking in performance. They have faith in their top 7 defensemen, and they probably should as long as Parent can stay healthy.
Did the Flyers make the right move by doing nothing, only time will tell.