2 Andreas Lilja
3 Oskars Bartulis
5 Braydon Coburn
9 Jakub Voracek
10 Brayden Schenn
11 Blair Betts
15 Andreas Nodl
17 Wayne Simmonds
19 Scott Hartnell
20 Chris Pronger
21 James VanRiemsdyk
25 Matt Carle
28 Claude Giroux
30 Ilya Bryzgalov
35 Sergei Bobrovsky
41 Andrej Meszaros
44 Kimmo Timonen
45 Jody Shelley
48 Danny Briere
68 Jaromir Jagr
**Max Talbot has still not gotten a number, I guess due to the contract violation.
There seems to be a flaw in Max Talbot’s contract – just a minor mathematical flaw. The five-year, $9 million contract will reportedly pay him $2.5 million in the first year and $2.25 million in the second and third seasons, and $1 million in each of the final two seasons.
Reporters are calling it a “violation of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).” I call it a mathematical error. I think the problem should be fixed rather quickly.
On a side note, I spoke with a Penguins fan yesterday. He was telling me that Max is a super nice guy and extremely fan friendly (as is Jagr…according to a Ranger fan I know). This is a far cry from the “fan friendly” duo that recently got traded.
Welcome to the Flyers, Max and Jaromir.
WOW!! What a day.
Jaromir Jagr
Jaromir Jagr. Who’d have thunk? After 3 years in the KHL, he wanted to come back to the NHL. The Pittsburgh Penguins (who was one of the 2 teams he wanted to play for) pulled their offer, the Flyers made him an offer of $3.3 million for 1 year. He took it. That is ex-Penguin #1.
As I sat, watched and waited, I hear words I never thought I’d hear.
Maxime Talbot - the Flyers Sean Avery
Maxime Talbot to the Flyers for a 5 year $9 million contract. That is ex-Penguin #2. Someone on the Flyers Facebook page declared yesterday “Penguins Day in Philly.” I was in total shock. But like my friend, Denise, said about Sean Avery…you hate him until he’s on your team, then he’s not so bad.
I will also mention that Talbot has the experience of bringing home a Stanley Cup, along with Pronger, Bryzgalov, Lilja and Jagr.
I could have added Versteeg into that “bringing home a Stanley Cup” mix, but we traded him to the Florida Panthers for 3 draft picks to clear up cap space to make an offer to Brad Richards. We are one of the 5 frontrunners to make him an offer. Richards, will make his decision today what offer he is going to take. I’m under the belief that he wants to look over rosters to see which team has the better shot at a Stanley Cup victory next season.
Andreas Lilja
The third player we acquired yesterday was Andreas Lilja, a defenseman. Lilja inked a 2 year contract worth $737,500a year. Lilja also has in his possession, one 2008, Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cup ring.
We brought in a lot of Stanley Cup power & experience for the upcoming season.
Now we’re just waiting on Brad Richards.
On a side note, Dan “Carbomb” Carcillo, signed a 1 year $775,000 contract with the Chicago Black Hawks (he will head to Chicago with Sean O’Donnell). That is almost a $400,000 pay cut. I guess it wasn’t too smart to get a suspension after the last game we played in the 2011 playoffs for mouthing off to a linesman. Although, my feeling is, the idiots in the NHL offices are going to believe ANYTHING that someone says negatively about Carbomb. Bye Dan, we’ll miss you.
In another shocking day for Flyers fans, Paul Holmgren traded Darroll Powe (an excellent penalty killer & checker) to the Minnesota Wild for a 3rd round draft pick in the 2013 draft. (THIRD round in 2013). Basically, he let Darroll go for free. This trade was also unexpected by Powe, just like Carter and Richards didn’t see their trades coming.
The Flyers did, however, offer deals to RFAs – Wayne Simmonds (our new #17, acquired in the trade with Los Angeles for Mike Richards), Jakub Voracek (acquired in the trade with the Blue Jackets for Jeff Carter).
Andreas Nodl, signed a 2 year deal with us for $845,000. Nodl will take Powe’s place on the penalty kill.
Tom Sestito will move up from the Phantoms to become a sidekick to Jody Shelley. I’m guessing Sestito will cost much less on the cap hit than Dan Carcillo. Carcillo was not given a qualifying offer and will become a UFA on Friday. I can be pretty sure that the 2 game suspension he will start next season with has something to do with the fact that he will not be re-signed.
Jon Kalinski also received a qualifying offer. Will he make it up to the Flyers this year? One can only hope.
Pick #8 Sean Couturier Center
- 6’4″ 197 lb. Center from Bathurst, New Brunswick.
- Finished last season with a +55
- Regular Season 30 – 66 for a total of 96 points
- Playoffs 8 points in 4 games
- First 17 year old since Sidney Crosby to lead the QMJHL in scoring
Pick #68 Nick Cousins Center 
- Finished the season with 68 points in 68 games
- Represented Canada in the 2011 Under – 18 World Championships scoring 5 pts in 7 games
Pick #116 Colin Suellentrop Defenseman
- Born in Plantation, Florida
- Has no problem dropping the gloves
Pick #118 Marcel Noebels Left Wing
- 28 goals and 26 assists in 64 games in his first WHL season
- Debuted as a professional hockey player in Germany at 17 years old
- Had 53 points in 25 games for the German under 18 team
Pick #176 Petr Placek Right Wing
- 13 points in 8 games last season
- Was ranked in 54th place for the 2011 draft until he needed knee surgery
- Says it doesn’t matter what place you get drafted in so long as you have the skills
Pick #206 Derek Mathers Right Wing 
- Had 27 fights in his first OHL season
- I will liken him to a young Jody Shelley (1 goal, 4 assists and 171 penalty minutes in 55 games)
Meet our newest member of the Philadelphia Flyers…
Sean Couturier
This is the man who will be replacing Jeff Carter. He was chosen 8th overall by the Flyers in the draft last night. That 8th pick was part of what we received for trading Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Sean Couturier was one of six QMJHL players ranked among the top 30 skaters on the National Hockey League’s midterm list in January of this year.
Sean was born in Phoenix, Arizona where his father, Sylvain, played for the IHL’s Phoenix Roadrunners.
Couturier said that he suffered from mononucleosis last year, and that may have slowed him down this past season, hurting his fitness and dropping his draft stock.
One of the commentators last night stated:
“This guy’s going to be one of those players that everyone’s going to say, ‘How did he slip?’ “ While the ticker at the lower right side of the screen compared the newest Flyer to Jordan Staal.
Welcome to Philly, Sean.
I was shocked beyond belief.
I had a feeling about Jeff Carter being traded. Then, I received the text…yes, Jeff was traded. That was at 3:39 in the afternoon. Less than 45 minutes later, another text came in. My assumption was that the Flyers reached an agreement and signed Ilya Bryzgalov. WRONG. The Flyers traded Mike Richards. The captain, wow. It must have taken a hour to pick my jaw up off the floor, that’s when the next text came in…we signed Bryzgalov to a 9 year, $51 million contract.
So this is how it goes. Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Jakub Voracek, the 8th overall draft pick in tonight’s NHL draft and the 3rd round #68 pick.
Mike Richards to the Los Angeles Kings for Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and a second round draft pick from Los Angeles.
We sign Ilya Bryzgalov.
According to Chuck Gormley’s interview with Chris Pronger regarding Ilya Bryzgalov:
Is he among the elite goaltenders in your opinion?
Well, I think if yiou look at his play over the last three years you pretty much have to put him there. I don’t know. Who do you consider the elite goalies in the league?
Well, I think a lot of people will say Ryan Miller, Henrik Lundqvist, Tim Thomas. Is he in that category?
You probably have Miller, Lundqvist, Kiprusoff. Bryz, I would have to say, has done as much as those guys. If you want to start compare stats, I’m sure he compares quite well against all those guys.
I hope this squelches someone who made the comment “we traded Richards and Carter for someone who is nothing more than a back-up goalie”. Some people really have to learn to not talk when they don’t know what they’re talking about.
I’m seriously looking forward to the new season to see how all of our new guys fit in. The beginning of July, we’ll get our first look at Brayden Schenn. He is supposedly the TOP player in the AHL. He’s young, but apparently Paul Holmgren is going to be watching to see if he will be coming directly to the Flyers or go to the Phantoms. Personally, I’m hoping for the former.
In my opinion, everything will work out just fine. As for others who said “now we’ll wait another 10 years before winning the cup”, I say, you have a lot of young blood now. They will be hungry, hungrier than some of the guys who half-assed their way through the play offs this past season – just because they had better things to do.
Welcome to Philadelphia, Brayden, Wayne, Jakub & Ilya. We’re glad to have you here.
While I’m unhappy that we lost, I mean really, really unhappy, I’m proud of the Flyers. No one ever expected us to make it as far as we did. All of the adversity we faced this season with injuries did not help. Emery, Leighton, Boucher, JVR, Lappy (twice), Carter (twice), Gagne, did I miss anyone? The injuries seemed endless. In 41 years of watching hockey, I never saw a team have to suit up so many different goaltenders. But every time our backs were against the wall, we thrived.
Another thing that didn’t help was a 2 week break for the Winter Olympics. That is something that should remain for the amateurs. Leave the pros play professionally.
Now, as a team, we see what its really all about: hoisting the cup. Next year is our year. We will probably meet the Black Hawks again. In the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals, it was Pittsburgh vs. Detroit. Detroit won. In 2009, it was again, Pittsburgh vs. Detroit, Pittsburgh won.
This was a trial season for us. On December 4, 2009, the Flyers fired Coach John Stevens and brought in a new head coach. Peter Laviolette had amazing credentials. He worked wonders with the team. Training camp starts the end of August. Lavy will have a full season to work with our boys. We will be better, stronger.
I’m not less of a Flyers fan just because we lost, I love them more. To watch them bounce back time & time again this season was amazing. Eventually, the bounce had to run out. Unfortunately, it ran out 2 games too soon.
I love you guys, I’m very proud of you. I look forward to next season… I hope you each have great summer.
Go Flyers
It seems to me that instead of the NHL having 2 referees and 2 linesmen, there should be one referee with a seeing eye dog.
The Blind Ref & His Seeing Eye Dog
I asked Michael Barkann why there was no penalty to Keith for the high stick that drew blood on Danny Briere. He said, “They didn’t see it as it happened.” Well, common sense says “people just don’t explode & bleed”, unless of course, Danny Briere is a medical mystery.
He just started bleeding - for no reason.
I do think, however, that Danny should have just laid down on the ice so they would have had to blow the whistle.
The officiating disgusts me. Had that been Toews or Kane, I seriously doubt that the high stick would have gone uncalled.
I’m not saying that a major penalty for this high stick would have changed the outcome of the game, but these referees are supposed to be the “best in the league”. What league? The Helen Keller Hockey League? Or did the go to the Stevie Wonder School of Officiating?
I was really glad though that JVR scored. Hopefully, Gagne, Richards & Carter will come alive in game 6, lord knows we need them so bad.
Reemer
I’m not worried. Remembering game 3 against Boston…that game pissed the boys off enough to come back and win 4 straight. In my opinion, game 5 only gave Chicago a false sense of security. The Cup is coming home.
Go Flyers
Your screaming fans, your pregame rituals, your favorite restaurant for your pregame meal and the comfort of your own bed for your pregame nap. Playing at home has its advantages.
That was evident in the 4 – 3 win last night against the Chicago Black Hawks.
The play of the game was a pass from Scotty Hartnell to Danny Briere which resulted in the scoring of the first goal. Scotty was laying down, twisted and facing the opposite direction, but somehow managed to get the pass to Danny who put it in the net with a great wrist shot. The other assist on that goal was by Braydon Coburn who has been playing a fantastic series.
The goal of the game…the overtime game winner by Claude Giroux. While I watched the entire game, I do not watch overtime…sudden death, the thought makes me ill. I only watch when we are down the other end of the ice.
The shot by Simon Gagne in overtime that just slid, on end, along the goal line, was aggravating. I’m so glad Giroux came right back and scored.
Looking forward to game 4. Hopefully, an easier win, no overtime.
Go Flyers