On the Philadelphia Flyers …
Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Daily News: Center Claude Giroux had a down year by his standards, and going through seven left wingers probably didn’t help – Brayden Schenn, Matt Read, Travis Konecny, Taylor Leier, Jordan Weal, and Nick Cousins.
Part of GM Ron Hextall‘s offseason wish list should be a top-line left winger and one that has some size.
Jordan Hall: Pending unrestricted free agent defensemen Michael Del Zotto and Nick Schultz both said that they won’t be back with the team next season.
Jordan Hall of CSN Philly: The Flyers don’t have any plans to add free agent defenseman to their lineup for next season.
“Our young players, they’ve done enough,” the general manager said Thursday at Flyers Skate Zone. “We’ll continue to monitor some of them through the playoffs, but our young players are going to get a long look. We don’t plan on going out and signing veterans on the back end. Our kids, it’s time to give them a shot, and we’re going to do that.”
Hextall has said they are rebuilding through the draft and with their organization youth, so don’t expect a big free agent signing or trade.
“We’re not going to put roadblocks in place where two years from now, we want to be able to sign Player X and we can’t do it where Player X is a better fit than the guy we would have signed July 1 this year,” Hextall said. “I think most of our moves at this point right now are going to come internally.”
Tim Panaccio of CSN Philly: The Flyers had 197 man games lost this past season. GM Ron Hextall said that they are all to blame, starting with himself. Hextall admitted it was his fault that they had to carry eight defenseman therefore limiting the number of forward they were able to carry.
“It’s not a good situation for anybody,” Hextall said. “There were times where we only had seven because of injury but that’s a tough situation for the coaches, tough situation for the defensemen, and quite frankly for the team. I look back at what I could have done different, that’s one of the things.”
With Michael Del Zotto and Nick Schultz already being told they won’t be back next year, the Flyers will have five returning defensemen. Depending on how training camp goes, prospects Sam Morin and Robert Hagg could be with the team.
The Flyers won’t be big players in the free agent market. They will be looking for a short-term options in net. Steve Mason won’t be back and their young goalie prospects aren’t ready to be an NHL backup just yet.
The Flyers could use a sniper on the wing, but Hextall said they will fill holes from within.
Swedish prospect Oskar Lindblom could make the team next year out of camp.
They won’t re-sign Chris VandeVelde.