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TABLE TALK: Dissecting The Flyers Rebuild This Offseason · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
What's going on, everybody. It's Jeff here. I wanted to let you
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know that we recorded this podcast episode on Monday, July twenty second, twenty
0:07
twenty four. By the time you hear this, some things may have changed
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here or there, but we hope you enjoy the show. Welcome to Table
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Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly
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sports podcast show in the world. That's right, eleven years strong. We've
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got a great discussion about the Philadelphia Flyers coming your way on Table Talk this
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week. It has been a great off season, at least in my opinion
0:48
for this Philadelphia Flyers team. I know you say great offseason, they really
0:52
haven't done too too much. Well that's part of the point, folks,
0:55
this Philadelphia Flyers front office. They haven't messed anything up, really. But
1:00
we got a great conversation coming your way. One of our favorite guests here
1:03
that we're gonna be talking to in just a bit, somebody who knows so
1:07
much about this Flyers team, he covers them so incredibly. Well, you
1:11
know what, let's just get to the conversation right now and let's get his
1:14
insights this week. Joining us from PHL y Sports. He is the lead
1:19
Flyers beat reporter and you can follow him on Twitter view. I mean you're
1:23
probably following already if you're following us quite frankly at Charlie o Underscore con And
1:30
also you can't forget about the phl Y Flyers podcast. I subscribe on Apple
1:34
Podcast. You should subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening to us on.
1:40
We've got the one and only Charlie O'Connor, buddy, Thanks so much for
1:42
joining us this week here on table Talk. Yeah, of course, it's
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great to bring to you back. It's been a while. I appreciate it.
1:48
I appreciate you taking the time, and you've been putting up some great
1:51
content over at phl Y and specifically I wanted to dive into one of your
1:56
recent pieces. Charlie. You summed up that it's been, you know,
2:00
a quiet offseason for the Philadelphia Flyers. Certainly not a disaster. A lot
2:04
of US Flyers fans out there appreciate that from the front office, but there
2:08
may have been a missed opportunity in the draft, perhaps for this team to
2:12
move up and grab a blue chip player, as you recently wrote, as
2:15
we know that didn't happen, and that said, they have instead Danny Briere
2:21
in this front office. They've accumulated a tremendous amount of draft assets for the
2:25
future and could very well draft some high end talent as they continue to rebuild.
2:31
As we know, Flyers scouting department has said that next year's draft is
2:35
going to be plentiful with regard to draft talent. And I'd really love to
2:38
hear your thoughts more about your piece and just why you came to the conclusion
2:45
that the Flyer's front office may have missed some opportunity this season, you know,
2:47
even given their cap situation as well. Here, what are your thoughts?
2:52
Yeah, well, I want to kind of go into where this idea
2:57
of the off season being a missed opportunity seven is from, because I feel
3:00
like some of the criticism I got for it was talking about like, well,
3:04
what did you want them to do? Right? Right? Well?
3:06
Could what could they have done? What trade? And that's not the argument
3:09
I'm making. The argument I'm making it really boils down to this, and
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I'll begin it from the top of really where my thinking comes from. The
3:19
Flyers have one obvious key weakness, not just in the short term but in
3:23
the long term is that it's a lack of high end town. Now.
3:27
Obviously they took Mafia Mitchkough with the seventh overall pick last year. The hope
3:30
is that he can be a star. I think he can be, but
3:34
we have to wait and say it's not a guarantee that he's going to be
3:36
a superstar. He might just be a good player. He could be a
3:38
bust. I'm not expecting either of these outcomes, but it's possible. However,
3:42
with mitchkov you have a guy who has the upside to be a blue
3:46
chip impact player. The hard truth of the matter, though, is that
3:50
if you're going to be a contender, you can't just have one guy.
3:52
We got to have two, three, four least, guys who you know
3:57
are are not necessarily super super stars, but are guys that you know are
4:02
always making their Olympic teams. Are guys who are battling for All Stars for
4:06
all star burst, guys who are point per game forwards or beyond that,
4:12
things like that. The Flyers right now don't have a lot of those guys
4:15
like the one guy they have on the roster right now. Who is that
4:19
guy? To a point, is Travis Connecty. He's also a little on
4:23
the older side, and you can make the case he doesn't even really fit
4:26
with the timeline, but he's one. Right, you need more than you
4:29
need more than two. So if this rebuild is going to work, they
4:34
need more of those guys now. The easiest way to get those guys,
4:39
by far, the most efficient way to get those guys is to draft at
4:43
the top of the draft, to have top five picks, top ten picks,
4:46
at least the top five picks. Probably that is it's not foolproof.
4:50
There are teams all the time the draft high and don't get stars or get
4:54
busts. It happens. The Flyers did it quite recently with old Patrick.
4:58
Oh yeah, so it's not a guaran, but that is where it is
5:01
most likely that you're going to unearth those guys. The Flyers front office has
5:06
purposely structured their rebuild that they are not going to be picking there like that
5:12
is. It's not a bug. That's a feature of the plan, right.
5:15
They want to stay competitive. They think that it is more valuable to
5:19
build a strong off ice and locker room and on ice culture, and part
5:25
of that is staying at least remotely competitive doesn't mean you're battling for cups.
5:30
They certainly don't think they're at that level, but they do not. Part
5:33
of this rebuild is that they are not going to bottom out, at least
5:36
not intentional, that they are going to stay in the like. We're in
5:41
that muddled middle because we think that's the best way to develop our players and
5:46
to make sure that we don't get stuck in a ten year long stretch of
5:48
being terrible that we can't get out of Allah the Buffalo savers. So that's
5:53
their plan, and that's fair. It might not necessarily be the way I
5:56
would do it, but I think it's a reasonable plan that could work.
6:00
The blind spot, however, with that plan, is that if you are
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not drafting in the top five, in the top ten on a yearly basis,
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you do not have a clear cut path to getting high in town.
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The Flyers have made it clear they need high in town. It's not even
6:15
this is just the fans and pundits saying they need better players. Danny Er
6:19
and Keith Jones. If you talk to them, they openly admit that's what
6:24
we need. We need blue chippers, we need high end players. But
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you're purposely in the rebuild. They are purposely doing a rebuild that doesn't get
6:31
them the high end town and the easiest and most efficient way to do it.
6:35
So if you're removing that way, how do you get it? Well?
6:40
Way Number one is you jump on guys if they slip. That's what
6:43
they did with Mitchkalk. Great job they got him seventh. He probably was
6:46
a top two, if at least top four pick, probably a top two
6:50
pick in terms of town. So that's one way they got it. However,
6:55
the other ways are more difficult. Number one, I mean, even
6:58
the guy slipping is the because it depends on other people. You know,
7:01
letting a guy slip for reasons. You could trade up into the top five
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or top ten. That's one way. It's hard because teams don't usually trade
7:11
away those picks, but that's one way to do it. That's one way
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to you know, play well enough where you end up with the fifteenth pick
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and then end up drafting seven because you use assets to trade up and do
7:20
that. Another way is to attack free agency to sign a big name guy
7:25
and get them. That way, convince a guy to join your team.
7:28
Allah or Temy Pinera or John Tavares, things like that. Another way is
7:32
to make big trades is to use the assets that you've developed, or use
7:36
the assets that you've stockpiled, whatever, to trade for a really good player,
7:42
the same way that Vegas did with Mark Stone, things like that.
7:45
Those are other ways to do it now. The Flyers this offseason did not
7:50
do any of those things right now. The point I made in the piece
7:54
is that that doesn't mean they can't do it in the future. It doesn't
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mean that they can't sign a guide free agency when they have a better cap
8:01
situation in two three years down the road. It doesn't mean that during this
8:05
season or next summer that they can't make a big, blockbuster trade that gets
8:09
them a future one c. It doesn't mean that at next year's draft they
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can't use all the draft picks they've stockpiled to trade up into the top ten
8:16
if they don't end up picking there based on their performance this season. All
8:20
of those things are possible. It's just that if this is going to work,
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they need to get blue chip players. They've already removed the most obvious
8:28
and efficient way to get blue chip players from the possibilities in terms of tanking
8:33
and drafting in the top five for three three years. That's not an option.
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So if they want to get what they openly have admitted they need,
8:41
they're gonna have to do it in another way. And there's only so many
8:43
years you can do it that way before the rebuild fails. And that's why
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I consider this offseason, while not a disaster, and I made that clear,
8:52
it's not a disaster, and they can do they can make these necessary
8:56
moves later they have time, but it is a missed opportunity. And it's
9:00
not like I'm saying, well, they should have done this or they should
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have done that. What I'm saying is that if you're going to do the
9:05
rebuild the way they chosen to do it, that's fine. You are basically
9:09
saying we're going to remove the easiest avenue to solve our biggest problem. Okay,
9:15
you've removed that avenue, but that means that you now have the pressure
9:18
to address that problem in another way. And this off season was by nature
9:24
because they didn't address it. It was a missed opportunity to address it.
9:28
It won't be a big deal if next offseason they pull it off. Right,
9:31
If you know, if a blue ship player slips to them at number
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twelve, where they trade up into the top five, where they make a
9:37
blockbuster trade, or they somehow convince somebody in free agency to join them,
9:41
like then it won't be as big of a deal. But right now,
9:43
we don't have a time machine. We can't know that next off season they're
9:48
going to do that. So in the here and now, this is a
9:52
missed opportunity, not because they missed a specific opportunity, but because every off
9:56
season is an opportunity to get what what they need, and this offseason they
10:01
didn't get where they needed so it was a misopportunity. Not the end of
10:05
the world, it's a missed opportunity. Absolutely, every off season is an
10:07
opportunity to address their biggest need. This offseason they did not do that,
10:11
So I call the mis opportunity. Yeah. Absolutely, no, I completely
10:15
agreed with you, And you know, when you and Bill were talking about
10:18
it on the podcast as well, you made some really good points. But
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then it leads me to the next topic I wanted to get into, and
10:24
we mentioned it as well. It's like, well, what does a good
10:26
cap situation look like or a formidable cap situation look like? For this team.
10:31
It really does think that they are in such a tough financial situation that
10:35
really has hampered their ability to become even more strategic with the rebuild. And
10:39
it goes back to what you were just talking about. You know, there's
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one avenue that is, you know, some avenues They've decided, no,
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we're not going to go down that avenue. And when it comes to the
10:48
cap situation, I mean, I didn't even realize honestly, and I well
10:52
I probably did, but I forgot about it until a month ago that they're
10:54
still paying Brisgalla. For God's sake, you know, this is and look,
10:58
I know it's a general question question, Charlie, but like, what
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does a quote good cap situation unquote look like from a logical perspective for this
11:07
Philadelphia Flyers front office? Say, maybe over the next two to three seasons,
11:11
can they get to that quote good cap situation? What are your thoughts?
11:16
Yeah, I think so. I think one thing that you have to
11:18
take into account with their cap situation right now, because right now, yeah,
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it doesn't look great. They're slammed up against the top of the cap
11:24
ceiling and obviously they haven't built a very good team at least on paper,
11:30
a team that can compete for you know, maybe it could maybe could be
11:33
for a playoff spot, but it's not going to compete for a Stanley Cup.
11:35
I think everybody, including Flyers, brass fully understanding. Right. What's
11:39
worth remembering, though, is that this was intentional. This wasn't accident.
11:45
Like, yeah, there are a few contracts that they have on their books
11:46
that they would like to get out of short but for the most part,
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they are in I would even call a cap hell. But they are at
11:54
the cap ceiling because they have intentionally added players with the goal of stockpiling assets
12:01
that are on bad contracts. I mean, you will go down the list.
12:05
They're paying Ryan Johanson four million dollars on their capit for this season.
12:09
Why do they have Ryan Johanson on their books Because they wanted to get a
12:13
first round pick back for Sean Walker, So they will need to take the
12:16
Ryan Johansson contract in order to maximize their future return from a draft picks standpoint.
12:20
So like, yeah, that's four million dollars. That makes their cap
12:24
situation up her to navigate this year. But if they didn't take that,
12:26
they probably don't get that extra first round pick. Then going down the list,
12:31
like, yes, you have the Ryan Ellis contract. That's not great.
12:33
That was a contract was signed before Breer. He just got to deal
12:35
with it. But we're looking also, and I'm just going through Cal Peterson.
12:41
Okay, so cal Peterson will probably get buried. He has a five
12:45
million dollar capit. We'll get about a million dollars worth of cap relief.
12:48
Why do they have cal Peterson on their books. It's because they took cal
12:52
Peterson's contract so they could get as many draft picks as possible for Ivan perver
12:56
Off last summer. The Flyers have by my own math, they have about
13:01
twenty two million dollars worth of what I considered to be dead caps in terms
13:07
of guys who are on their books but aren't really providing anything. That's the
13:11
uh you know, that's guys like Peterson and Johansson. That's the Elis deal.
13:16
That's all the buyout money they have because they bought out Kevin Hayes,
13:18
Cam Agison, and Tony di'angelo. They're sitting on their books for a while.
13:22
But again these are moves that were made in further into the rebook.
13:26
They bought out Kevin Hayes, or they retained on Kevin Hayes. They bought
13:30
out Atkinson Diegel. They retained on Kevin Hayes not to get assets. They
13:33
got a late round pickback for him, but they didn't want him around him.
13:35
They felt like his influence was not a positive one in terms of developing
13:41
the kind of culture they wanted to develop. Atkinson they bought out in large
13:45
part because they need spaces for guys like Mitchkoff and Bobby Brinck. So what
13:48
they're doing right now from a caps standpoint is they are sacrificing future cap flexibility
13:54
in order to embark on the rebuild the way they want to embark on.
13:58
And that's both in terms of clearing out spaces and more importantly stockpiling assets because
14:03
guys like Peterson and Johansson in particular are only on the books because they're trying
14:09
to gain future assets. That's why they have two first round picks next year
14:13
in addition to the one that they have for themselves. They have three first
14:16
round picks. They wouldn't have those assets had they not taken on the contracts
14:22
that they did. They might have been able to trade guys like prover Off,
14:24
and they might have been able to trade guys like Walker, they would
14:28
have gotten less back for them in terms of tangible assets. So that's the
14:31
long answer of why I don't freak out about the cap because this was parted
14:39
like this was part of the plan was We're not trying to contend until probably
14:41
twenty twenty six, So our cap situation until then not that big of a
14:46
deal because we're looking three years in the future. Now, the question that
14:50
you have of when will they be able to get out of this, they
14:54
really should because again you look at these you look at these numbs. Pierce's
15:00
contract inspires at the end of the season. Johans's contract inspires at the end
15:03
of the season. Kevin Hayes and Cam Atkinson's buyout and retention money it expires
15:09
at the end of twenty twenty six. Tonyangelo's buyout money ends at the end
15:11
of the season. The only one that lasts past twenty twenty six is the
15:16
Ellis contract. But in theory, you could just put them on long term
15:20
injured reserve and go over the cap if you really want to get his obviously
15:24
can't play hockey anymore, so not ideal, not the end of the world
15:28
in theory, if they don't make any more bad trades or bad signings or
15:33
whatever, they will be well positioned in my mind by the summer of twenty
15:37
twenty six to go heavy into free agency and to really use that cap space,
15:41
not to stock by all assets, but to actually go out and get
15:45
players that will help them now. But like I don't want to position this
15:50
as they put themselves in cap trouble because their viewpoint is, we weren't going
15:54
to spend this money on players anyway over the next two years because we're still
15:58
in the thick of the rebuild. So instead we're going to use that rather
16:03
than go out and spend ten million dollars on a second line winger and then
16:07
a number four defenseman or whatever and use that money that way. Instead,
16:11
we're going to use that money to essentially buy ourselves better draft picks and better
16:15
assets. That's why they're in cap trouble right now. And their plan is
16:19
that once they hit twenty twenty six and most of those guys, almost all
16:23
those guys are off the books, that's when they're going to be ready to
16:26
turn the corner into try to attend anyway. And that's why they're going to
16:30
want to spend that money. So in deary, they should be in pretty
16:33
good cap shape at least have some decent flexibility to go out and attack the
16:37
free agency market, you know, have more flexibility to do things in the
16:41
trademark where maybe you're like just trading away a first round pick for a player
16:45
you know, and you can fit them under the cap easily. That should
16:48
open up by the summer of twenty twenty six, and I think that's their
16:49
plan. I think they're really looking at looking at this next summer as the
16:53
big draft pick summer as like this is where we're going to really blow up
16:57
our prospect pool and get it as beats up as possible, and then the
17:02
summer twenty twenty six will be the summer where it's like, all right,
17:04
now, let's turned the corner. Time, let's go out and maybe go
17:07
for a big name free agent or something. Yeah, yeah, I know
17:11
what I want to say for folks out there to the brisgall Of contract that
17:14
I was talking about, I don't think it's necessarily hampering them right now.
17:17
But that's just money. It's just much money, exactly. There's nothing on
17:22
their cat books with that. It's just cash right now. Again, like
17:26
maybe that matters a little bit on their bottom line, But in the end,
17:27
I don't think cop Guess really cares. I don't think they care at
17:30
all. No, not at all. All. Right, Well, as
17:33
we're moving along here, you know, we've been diving into some player categories
17:34
here at the PSD podcast show over the past month or so. Charlie and
17:37
I wanted to bring this bit kind of to our discussion here this week as
17:41
we look toward this coming season here. So I want to give you a
17:45
category and if you'd like to give me a Flyers player that comes to your
17:49
mind, and maybe a brief reason as to why that player matches the category
17:53
as it pertains to their potential ability to get it done this coming season.
17:59
So the first one is is the comeback kid? Who do you think the
18:00
comeback kid may be on the Flyers this coming season? Yeah, this is
18:06
an interesting one, but I'm gonna go with a little bit of an outside
18:08
the box answer. I think most people will understand where I'm coming from,
18:11
though. I'm gonna go Jamie Drysdale. All right, it's a it's a
18:15
little weird to call him a comeback kid because he hasn't played for that long
18:18
in Philadelphia. He was obviously the main piece that came back in the Cutter
18:22
got a trade in January. But I get the sense that a lot of
18:25
Flyers fans are out on Jamie Drysdale because he didn't look that good when he
18:30
came over. He got hurt, he had some bad games, his underlying
18:34
metrics weren't very good, he didn't score a lot for his pedigree, and
18:37
the fact that he was the guy they got back for Cutter gotier. So
18:41
he's got to be good. The things you have to remember about Drysdale are
18:45
he wasn't healthy last year. He was number one, he was coming back
18:48
from a major injury the year before, and then apparently in the very first
18:53
game of the season, he had a sports arnay. Yeah, so we're
18:56
talking about a guy whose entire talent level is entire Basically what makes himn exciting
19:02
play is that he's an incredible skater, and suddenly he wasn't able to use
19:07
that ability to his full potential because he had a core injury that he was
19:10
battling through the entire season. Plus, the Flyers are convinced with Drysdale that
19:17
he was not developed well and now that he was rushed to the NHL and
19:19
that he is nowhere near what he's ultimately going to become if he has developed
19:26
properly. The Flyers believe they have an assistant coach at Bradshaw who can develop
19:30
him properly. And also, you know, with the help of John Truderell,
19:33
who is being like the bad cop to Bradshaw's a good cop and pushing
19:37
him and teaching him in tape study sessions and whatnot. So I think Drysdale
19:42
has the biggest comeback potential in the sense that last year was not a good
19:45
year for him. There are a lot of people who are low on him
19:49
because they were not terribly impressed by what they saw. But the talent level
19:53
is there for him to have a legitimately cool first full season as a Flyer.
19:59
So I love him to come back potential guy. Okay, I love
20:02
that. Love that next one, the needs to bounce back guy on this
20:06
team. Who is that for you? Brief description? Why? Yeah?
20:10
I think for me this is this is an easy one. This is Joel
20:12
Araby. And the thing with Joel Farraby is is not even the full season.
20:17
I actually think overall his season was good I think he had a good
20:19
all around season. When I evaluate it for, you know, for its
20:25
statistical merits, probably at some point over the next couple of weeks, I'm
20:27
gonna come away by saying, like, I think he took a step forward.
20:30
I think Joel Ferraby had a solid year. Problem is that for the
20:33
final month and a half of the season he was actively bad. It was
20:36
dreadful. Yeah, that that has That has colored a lot of people's opinions.
20:40
I think it's it's affected the way the Flyers view They're they're concerned that,
20:44
like, okay, is Joel Farabie ever gonna be able to handle a
20:47
full eighties two game season without wearing down? Is this just part of his
20:49
his thing? Is he the kind of guy who doesn't step up when the
20:52
games get more important? Like he needs to show that that final month and
20:59
a half to on so the season is not who he is, That that
21:02
was just he got stuck in a rut and couldn't get out of it.
21:04
It's important, It's really important because while he is young enough to be part
21:08
of this long term plan, I don't think the Flyers are convinced the way
21:14
they are with other guys on the team that they need to be part of
21:18
this. I think Joel Faribe is the guy where it's like, yeah,
21:19
you know, we're not going to give away we like him. You know,
21:22
he's at the age where he could fit the long term plan. But
21:26
hey, if if you're a team that has a one C and you're interested
21:30
in Joel Farrabe, we're willing to listen, Like, let's talk. He's
21:33
very much a guy that still needs to show more if he wants to be
21:37
viewed by the organization as someone who is essentially untradeable the way that guys like
21:42
Owen Tippet and Tyson Forrester or I believe are viued by the organization. All
21:47
right, very good. Next one, the rising star? Who do you
21:49
think of the rising star is going to be for this Flyers team this coming
21:52
season. I mean, the guy I'm the most excited to see what he
21:56
does and what step forward he takes is Tyson Ford. Because this is a
22:00
guy who had from the time he was drafted his biggest ability was a shooting
22:07
ability, and then in the entire first half of his true rookie season he
22:11
did everything except score goals. He was doing all the little things right.
22:15
His play driving metrics at five point five are through the roof. His defensive
22:18
metrics in particular, were great. He had earned John Tortorella's, if not
22:23
trust, straight up admiration of bluff. Like Tortorella forgin loves this kid.
22:27
All I thing he wasn't doing was scoring and then finally, in like mid
22:30
January, starts scoring and then you're starting to think yourself, man, he
22:34
would have been doing this from the start of the year. What would we
22:37
be thinking about when we think about Tyson Forrester. So I don't know what
22:41
Tyson Forrester's upside is. Obviously, his major weakness is the skating, and
22:45
he's never going to be a great skater. I think he's improved to the
22:47
point where he's passable, but he's not a quick guy. Marc Stone,
22:52
for example, is not a quick guy either, and he turned himself into
22:55
a point per game, you know, stellar underlying metrics, two way Selky
23:00
contending winger. I think that is Tyson Forrester's ceiling. I'm not convinced that's
23:04
what he's gonna end up because that's absolutely a best case scenario ceiling, but
23:07
I think it could happen and if that's his ceiling, that's a rising star.
23:12
And Tyson Worris is a guy I'm really excited to see what he can
23:15
do this year. I don't know what's gonna happen this year. I don't
23:18
want people to get too because I think this has happened way too often with
23:21
Flyers fans. It happened with Travis Connecting, it's happening with with Joel Ferraby
23:25
right now. People get impatient. They see something early and it's like,
23:27
he's gonna be great, and then when he's not that guy as quickly as
23:30
people want him to be, then it's, oh, he sucks. You
23:33
gotta trade right right. I don't know if Tyson Forrester is going to take
23:37
the leap this year. I think he could because his rookie season was really
23:41
impressive, but it could happen the following season, it could happen two years
23:45
down the road. But I do think the upside is there for him to
23:48
be a potential top line scoring winger who also is a really good two way
23:52
player. And that's an exciting guy. That is a you know, maybe
23:56
not a Mitch Cough level rising star, but it could be a you know,
24:02
it wouldn't shock me if in aggregate value he becomes a Travis Connecty like
24:06
that level player. That's a pretty darn good player. That's a guy who
24:08
could be your third or fourth best player if you're a coptech. So to
24:12
me, Tyson Forrester is my rising star on the Philadelphia Flyers development year after
24:18
year after year. That's what you want to see out of some of these
24:21
guys, Like you said, some of some in Flyers Nation, they get
24:22
really impatient and it really gets tiring sometime. Exactly exactly all right, as
24:29
we're moving along with the last category here, Charlie, who do you think
24:32
the dark horse MVP may be this coming season on this Flyers team? Yeah,
24:37
I think the answer to this is probably Owen Tippet because the two most
24:41
obvious ones are Mave Michikov, of course, right, because I mean,
24:45
no shit, everyone's extremely excited about Mave miss Yes. And then the other
24:51
guy, obviously is the MVP of this past season, who was Travis Connecty.
24:55
Now you could make a case probably for a you know, a player
25:00
like say Sam Arison. Maybe Erson takes a big leap this year, and
25:03
if you've got a great goaltender, he's generally speaking, gonna be your MVP.
25:07
Like that just is the way it goes, because goaltending has such an
25:11
outsize impact on the way that games right in seasons and careers end up getting
25:17
played out. You have a good goalie, you're gonna be a contendant.
25:19
If you don't, well, you're probably gonna need to have a really,
25:22
really good team everywhere else to make up with the fact that you don't have
25:26
a good goal So Arison's an option, But to me, Tippet is the
25:30
easiest one to point out because the upside is just so apparent. When you
25:36
watch him at his best, he looks awesome. He hasn't shown the ability
25:41
to do that for an age two game season, and maybe he never will.
25:45
Maybe Owen Tippa will always just be like a twenty five to thirty five
25:49
goalie year guy who goes on these crazy runs when you think, oh my
25:52
god, he could be a star, and then he crashes back to earth
25:56
and it's just decent for a while. And that's a good player. It's
25:59
a guy who I don't think is on a bad contract for the Flyers,
26:00
but it's a guy who in general doesn't have star level potential, but you
26:04
watch him when he's at his best and you think he could be a start.
26:07
Yeah, and at any point he could have that big year where he
26:12
carries the team. Do I am I expecting it to happen. No,
26:15
I don't think I'm ever gonna be expecting it to happen. My expectation for
26:19
Owen Tipott is that he's going to remain a perfectly good thirty goal type of
26:23
guy who you know, finishes with fifty five sixty points and is a good
26:27
like Wayne Simmons level. Not obviously not the same in terms of you know
26:32
what Simmons brought to the table when you're talking about in tangibles and physicality,
26:36
but like in the end of the at the end of the day, you're
26:37
gonna look at his numbers and you're like, yeah, that makes sense,
26:41
like that, that's that's a solid second line type player. But at any
26:45
time he could break out and be a lot better than that. So if
26:48
I'm going to say a dark horse MVP, like, would it blow me
26:51
away if Owen Tippett finishes the season with forty goals and eighty points, No,
26:56
like it, it would surprise me. Yeah, But I think he
26:57
has the ability to do that, and if he ever did that over the
27:00
course of a season, I'd be like, Yeah, that's always been his
27:04
offside. You can do it. I'll take it. I would absolutely take
27:07
that into a heartbeat. And again, folks talking to Charlie O'Connor from PHL
27:11
Y Sports and listen to he and his co hosts over at the PHL Y
27:15
Flyers podcast at Charlie oh Underscore con on the Twitter slash x and Charlie,
27:22
We've got time for one more topic I wanted to dive into with you,
27:26
and it's really, as you know, an underrated storyline that we're looking at
27:30
this coming season here, I mean, as this team is looking to rebuild
27:34
their varying storylines as we've just discussed here over the course of the past you
27:38
know, twenty five minutes here or so. But again, to close us
27:41
out here, I'm wondering, what do you believe is that underrated storyline heading
27:47
into this upcoming Flyers season, Perhaps a topic that's not getting its due at
27:52
this moment that you think we need to keep our eyes on. Yeah,
27:56
Bill and I actually on phly Flyers we talked a little bit about what we
28:00
viewed as the big storylines going into the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five
28:04
seasons, Obviously the top storyline is Monday Mitchcoff. That is going to it's
28:10
going to blot out everything else because the focus, the spotlight is going to
28:14
be so much on Mitchcoff. I would say that number two is somebody we
28:18
talked about earlier, Jamie Drysden. It's really important for Jamie Drysdale to at
28:22
least be a solid NHL defenseman, given the fact that they gave away the
28:27
number five overall pick in cutter got again. Now, obviously there were circumstances.
28:33
Cutter Gojy did not want to play for the Philadelphia Flyers, but the
28:37
Flyers didn't have to trade for Jamie Drysdale. There were other teams interested in
28:41
Cutter Goje offering other whether picks or prospects, roster players, and the Flyers
28:47
chose Jamie Drysdale because they think Jamie Drysdale fits this team and they think he's
28:52
going to be a really good player, So his development this season is going
28:55
to be a big deal as well. I think that's number two, But
28:56
number three, I think is the one that I would say is the most
29:00
underdiscussed storyline that is a big thing, and that's the goaltending. The goaltending
29:04
is going to be number one, extremely important to deciding whether this team is
29:08
any good or not. This right, because if you have bad goaltending,
29:11
as we saw the Flyers get the final month, month and a half of
29:15
the year heat winning shit, but losing a lot of games. Yes the
29:18
Flyers did. But number two, the Flyers are very much trying to figure
29:22
out what their future and goal looks like. Carter Hard has gone. You
29:26
know, not only is he facing very very serious legal charges, he's not
29:29
even under contract anymon. He did not qualify it. He is officially out
29:33
of the organization. This is the guy who really, ever since like twenty
29:36
seventeen, we've been viewing as the president and future of the Flyers goaltending position.
29:41
He's gone not a factor anymore. Now they need a new plan and
29:45
this year they're going to be going into the season at least with two,
29:48
hopefully with three plausible answers to the goaltending problem. The number one is Sam
29:53
Merrison. I believe he's going to start the year is the number one.
29:56
He had a really good start to the season, and I think his struggles
30:00
down the stretch we're less about town and more about just being run into the
30:03
ground. This year, we're gonna see what he does when he's given a
30:07
more normal workload and have his starts, you know, scattered a little bit
30:11
more. Still gonna, I think, get the line's share of the starts,
30:12
but he's gonna get you know, fifty to fifty five starts rather than
30:15
starting twenty six of thirty two games like he did at the end of the
30:18
season, which is batshit insane, especially in today's day and age. So
30:22
Aris is number one. Number two is I'm Vdodo who's coming over. He
30:26
signed his contract. Now he's a little bit on the older side, but
30:30
they're excited to see what they have in it. He's not that he could
30:33
make He's not necessarily gonna be the goalie ten years from now, but he
30:37
could still be the goalie five six years from now if he comes over and
30:41
immediately established himself as an above average NHL goalie. So he's a potential future
30:45
option. Then you have Alexi kolosof now call us off a sign to an
30:49
extry level contract. The Flyers believe that he is tied to them. There
30:56
have been rumors all summer that he maybe does not love the idea of coming
30:59
back to North America. He's only under contract with the Flyers, and if
31:03
he does come over, the Flyers plan because he is, as he calls
31:06
on in my mind, is their top goaltending prospect. Sam Ayerson is now
31:10
an NHL goalie, is not a prospect anymore. I'm Vodotov is twenty eight
31:12
years old. He ain't a prospect period. Coals Off is their top goalie
31:17
prospect. So their plan for kolos Off at the moment is you're gonna get
31:19
the bulk of the starts in the AHL, and then at the end of
31:22
the season, at the end of the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five
31:25
season, we're gonna reevaluate all three. We're gonna reevaluate Airson, We're gonna
31:29
reevaluate Fidotov, We're gonna reevaluate call us Off, and then we're gonna see
31:32
who is looking like is rising to the top, who's the cream of this
31:36
class, And then we're gonna reassess for the following season as to you know,
31:38
who should be part of this who shouldn't be part of this who we
31:41
need to see more of. That's what they're hoping to do now. If
31:45
Kolosof doesn't come over, if he ultimately tells the Flyers, I don't want
31:49
to play in North America, I'm home sick, I want to stay in
31:52
the KHL, then all bets are off and I don't know what the hell
31:55
they're gonna do with the Kolosof situation. But even in that scenario, they
31:59
still will have Erson and Fidotov to evaluate and look at for the idea of
32:04
like, could either of these guys be the long term goalie? Then,
32:07
as they hinted at earlier, there's a simple fact that if Arison and Fidotov
32:13
both stick, the Flyers is gonna lose a lot of games. And then
32:16
that whole concern about how are they going to get high end talent? Maybe
32:20
that solves itself, right because if you end up with two goalies that are
32:22
both sporting eight to ninety say percentages, you're going to finish in the bottom
32:28
six or seven of the league. Right now, that would be bad for
32:30
the Flyers fans sanity in terms of watching games all the year, because if
32:35
they get good goaltending. I think they could do what they did this year,
32:37
which is be in the playoff mix, maybe not make it, but
32:40
definitely be in that bubble area. If they get bad goaltending, though,
32:45
they're going to be a bad team, and then that'll be a major storyline.
32:47
Because nothing is a bigger storyline, maybe not even Mafe Mitchkoff than when
32:52
the Flyers are playing crappy and everybody's mad now. So goaltending is always going
32:57
to be a big storyline because it has such an outsized impact on the outcomes
33:00
of games. But this year is going to be an especially big storyline because
33:02
the Flyers are trying to find that long term solution and goal. They no
33:07
longer have that long term solution goal with Carter Hart, so the need to
33:10
find a new guy, or at least the guy who they think maybe could
33:14
be that guy. So keep an eye on Arson, keep an eye on
33:16
Fidotov, and keep an eye on call us Off if he does indeed come
33:20
over again, folks. Charlie O'Connor from Phly Sports Buddy, it was great
33:24
talking to you. Thank you so much for taking the time to jump with
33:28
the PSD podcast show. Here. I hope we can talk to you at
33:30
some point down the road, my friend. I'm sure, I'm sure I
33:32
will definitely be willing to call on the show. Been on here quite a
33:35
few times and it's always always a good time. That's gonna do it for
33:38
us here on Table Talk this week. Please share our podcast with your friends
33:43
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33:47
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33:52
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