Latest / Hattrick's Unofficial Flyers Podcast / Episode Number 1 - March 5th, 2026
Transcript
- Rick Mullen: Hi everybody. Welcome to Hattrick's Unofficial Flyers podcast. I will be your host today. My name is Rick Mullin and this is episode number one of hopefully many more episodes to come. A lot of things are happening out in the land of the flyers and ⁓ good or bad, we're going to try to talk about a few of them today. Right now the NHL trade deadline is tomorrow, Friday, March 6th at 3 p.m. There's a ton of rumors out there about a couple of our players from the Flyers that may or may not go. ⁓ real exciting. You know, you wake up, it's kind of like Christmas, you know, let's, let's see who we're getting. And, you know, a lot of years on, sadly we're disappointed. You know, we're all looking for that big splash and, it just never seems to come to fruition. ⁓ the first real big splash in recent history that we have made was a certain player. have Matt Vane Mishkoff. And Matvey fell to us at number seven. And a lot of people say that, but I don't think it really fell to us. think Matvey Mishkov wanted to be a flyer and he made it happen that the flyers were able to get him. So, you know, I'm excited to have Matvey Mishkov. He's a great little player. He's got fantastic vision, creativeness, good hands, but he's had a hard year this year. You know, him and Taked have not been getting along. and right or wrong, know, there, I'm sure there's truth on both sides. ⁓ it's something that, ⁓ it's sad to see the flyers are a really good organization. have a great history and it's hard to think that, this is going on and honestly, in that it's public and that it's consuming most of the media around this team. ⁓ it has slowed down a little bit lately and that's because of Danny Breyer, you know, Danny Breyer went and, had his press conference and kind of addressed what was going on. And since then, it's definitely gotten better. And there's truth on both sides. If Maffei Mishkov came out and he came to camp and he was not in shape due to an injury or due to just being heavy or not hitting the treadmill or the ice, that's not called for. mean, that's something you can't do as a pro. And I know he's aware of it now. I'm sure he's aware of it now. And for Taken, it's understandable that he's upset. know, he, one of the star young players coming into camp, he's not ready to play. ⁓ so topic talk, has a right to feel the way he does. However, this is the Philadelphia flyers and it's a professional business. It's a professional league and everybody has to learn to get along and do what's right for the team, the city and the fans. And in reality, it took up until maybe last week for a talk at the actually finally play Mishkov and points of the game where he should be being played. And maybe it's because Mishkov finally showed that he's in better shape and he's able to handle it. I don't know, you know, but when you look at it, there's no reason why Mishkov shouldn't be on power play. Number one, there's no reason why Mishkov shouldn't be getting time ⁓ in overtime. You know, he has what, four overtime winning goals. He's the most in our team. ⁓ This is a no brainer. These are things that he should be getting, you know, based on his skillset and what the rest of this team doesn't have. ⁓ You know, with that said, again, I think Danny addressed it. I think we're in a good place. We're heading in the right direction and I'm hoping it's past us and we don't hear about this anymore. ⁓ Mischkopf is a great player. think this off season coming up is huge for him. Just like Bobby Brink, Bobby Brink struggled to skate his first year or two here. In the off season, he did something. He went to power skating classes. He worked really hard on his leg strength, his core strength, and you could tell the next season Bobby Brink was a skater. He picked up a lot of speed, a lot of strength. His forecheck was faster. He was able to play the level of a game that was way higher than what he was playing before. And that's what Matt Vey Mishkov needs to do. Matt Vey needs to get this off season under his belt here and he needs to work hard, get more leg strength, get faster, take some power skating classes. ⁓ And next year he could come back and be one heck of a player. You know, if he can just work on that speed, that speed and power. will create so many chances for him. Because right now he's creating chances. He sees the ice unbelievably. He has great vision. He just lacks some speed. I think with that, he can definitely improve. And I think we'll see a much better Matt Vamishkov next year. But right now, we have a lot of things happening in the NHL and on the flyers. There's a lot of trade rumors out there that Bobby Brink ⁓ Is going to be moved. Um, you know, it's really sad. my son loves Bobby Brink. My son, Sean loves him. His favorite flyer player. I really liked Bobby Brink a lot. When Bobby went out hurt, you could see that he was sorely missed on this team. That four check, that aggressiveness, that dog in them, uh, was missed. And I think if, um, we do train them, which I think we will, and I'll talk a little bit about that more, um, I, I'll miss them. for sure and I wish him luck and I hope he does well wherever he goes. Bobby is sadly at the end of his contract. He doesn't make much money and the Flyers are stacked. The Flyers have so many wingers in the lineup that we have to make room. know, Puerto Marton's coming in at the end of this year probably to play a few games. ⁓ Alex Bump down in the NHL, AHL sorry, is ⁓ killing it right now and I'm sure they want to get a look at him. The Phantoms, they just made it a trade. They traded a defenseman out for a Kachuk, not one of those Kachuks. Hopefully I'm pronouncing it right. ⁓ But that was a forward position that we brought in down at the Phantom. So now we have an over amount of forwards in the Phantoms, which is kind of everything signaling that we think Bump is probably going to get bumped up to the NHL. He's going to get a lot. Which makes sense, you you bring it forward for the Thanos one has to come out somewhere. So that's what I think, you know, if you look at it online, you're seeing some people now starting to talk about it that more than likely bumps going to get a look up in in the NHL and I hope he does. I think it's important for the Flyers to see more tone come in to see bump come in to see what we have going into this off season. So we know what moves need to be made. The Flyers need to make. ⁓ You know, and unfortunately some some good players, some loved players are probably going have to get moved because of it. And Brink is probably one of those players that are going to get moved. ⁓ Risto Lennon, Risto Lennon looks phenomenal right now. You know, this is really sad because we've had Risto for so long and ⁓ he barely played for us. You know, right now he went to the Olympics. He did great. He was on the world stage. Everyone saw how strong of a player he was and how good was playing. And it's sad that the Flyers didn't have him for three years or four years, however long he's been here playing at that level. ⁓ Unfortunately, he's been hurt a lot for the Flyers. It's a hard pill to swallow because I know honesty, if he can stay healthy, he's great. He's a great player to keep on your lineup. He's playing a number two role right now. ⁓ He's hitting people. He's hitting them hard. He's skating, he's getting the puck up the ice and when he has room, he's taking that room and he's driving the net and he's trying to create plays and he's really, really looked good. It's going to be hard to get rid of him. However, with that said, with the Flyers luck, if they do keep him, chances are he'll get hurt again and he won't be playing. And that's our fear. If we knew he was going to play, You know, at 5.1 in this contract, know, 5.1 mil left in his contract. Man, keep him. This guy is doing fantastic. But the fear here is, is he can't stay healthy. He's not going to play. And that's scary, you know, when, you possibly have a chance at moving them. So, you know, we had a lot of people looking at him, supposedly. We had, had Dallas and the Sabres and the Mammoth and I think Edmonton and the Bruins and Detroit. And, you know, as days go by here, we're one day out. Well, of the NHL trade deadline, a lot of these teams picked up their defense when they were looking for Dallas picked up Myers, ⁓ St. Louis traded, ⁓ Perry echo to the Sabres hypothetically, cause we're still waiting for, as a, at least out of this recording for Perry echo to actually accept that role. And, I don't know if he did yet, but if he does accept that move, ⁓ he's going to be a Sabre and the Sabres are a phenomenal team right now. They look fantastic. They completely turn the corner and put it together this year. And, no one saw that coming. And, know, Perry echo is probably sitting there thinking, I have a really good chance on a really good team to go there. But I think he has some time left on his contract and I don't know if he wants to go to Buffalo for a couple of years. ⁓ you know, if you had one year left, I think he'd take that deal and he'd run and he'd, you know, enjoy trying to get through the playoffs and win a Stanley cup. But I think he's. Probably thinking longer term, like I may have two or three years here where I have to live in Buffalo and sadly, a of people, a lot of stars don't want to be in Buffalo. A lot of the people when players are there, or I'm sorry, a lot of the players there are usually drafted there and that's why they stay there. But it's a hard decision for him, I'm sure. But if that does fall through, then maybe we have a couple other. teams left that will be looking for a wrist Aladdin and hopefully Danny Breyer would be able to move him for a good return. There's a little rumor out there right now that Nick Delurier is up for a possible trade. Some teams are actually, I think, calling and looking to see if he's available. Not bad. We can get rid of him. mean, the Flyers aren't going to do anything with them, he's not probably gonna get like a fourth round pick, something like that, you know, so it's not gonna be a dramatic change for us, but it opens up a roster spot where we can bring somebody up and, you know, have them play, hopefully here and there. So ⁓ I'm excited, I'm excited to see what's gonna happen with the Flyers and this trade deadline. ⁓ You know, I am 55 years old this year. Uh, I remember back in the seventies watching, uh, the Flyers win the Stanley cup. I think I was four or five years old when it happened. And it's crazy because it's one of the best memories of my life. Um, you know, I've always played hockey, been playing hockey my whole life and it's a passion of mine. Um, and remember the Stanley cup is a really nice thing because there's so many fans nowadays that just don't, don't know any better. They see the Flyers for the last 10, 15 years and they. don't know what the Flyers organization was like back from the 70s forward. I remember being four or five years old, they won the cup. We made signs on our pillow cases. We ran down on Brass Avenue in Philadelphia, holding up signs saying, you Flyers number one, you know, honk your horn. And it was great. It was such a great memory. I wish I celebrated ⁓ more Stanley Cups through the years, but unfortunately that was it. That was the only one or two that we saw. ⁓ you know, I was alive through my teens through the ⁓ eighties where we had some really great teams like Rick Tuckett, Hextall. All those players were fantastic. what, what good hockey, mean, Paul Hong and trying to everything he could do to create, ⁓ teams back in like the nineties. And, ⁓ it was, it was good hockey. You know, we had Jeremy Rowan and Tony Imani, Sammy Kaepernick. We had so many players back then, like when we started getting close to the playoffs that. You just can't do nowadays with these trades and due to salary caps, it's very difficult. So you have to really, really be patient and make smart choices right now. know, Danny Breyer has a very hard job right now to figure out who stays and who goes from these kids. And a lot of these kids haven't played yet. So he's taking a gamble on them. You know, if Danny Breyer wants to go out and try to get a Rob Thomas, It's going to be hard. You know, he's going to have to give up probably a Marton or a Mishkov. And do I want that to happen? Absolutely not. You know, I think Marton is a big body. He's got a great trajectory. I'd hate to give them up. ⁓ Mishkov as well. You know, so Danny's got a really tough job to try to figure out how to get these one Cs, two Cs and retain his talent that he has ⁓ without, you know, giving up the house and making his team better. So, I'm to see what he does. You know, I really am. And I think as you're a young person, a young fan, you you look at this team and you think, ⁓ my God, they're terrible. It's Flyers hire, know, just Danny Breyer and Jonesy. It's the same, same old, same old. You know, they can't put together a team. They can't do this. They can't do that. And you know what? I remember being a younger person and thinking the same thing. Like, holy cow, like this guy's available. The Flyers won't get him. Why won't we trade this guy? Why won't we get that guy? And as you age and you get a little more wiser and you start seeing how money affects the contracts, how the players affect the contracts, if they want to come here or not. And it's a whole other animal. And that's where we're at now. We have a really good group in Jonesy and Danny Breyer trying to make this team better. They really are. And some players I'm sure they've talked to did not want to come here because we're not a winning organization yet. ⁓ And I'm sure there are players that would come here, but it's going to cost a fortune to get them. And this is where it's hard in a salary capped environment. So I think Danny and Jones, you're really doing the best they can. This is the first time in a long time we've had a lot of prospects in our, in our prospect pool. ⁓ you know, the future looks strong for us right now. And I really think this team is probably one or two picks away or not picks, but, ⁓ additions away from being a really strong team. You know, if Forster didn't get hurt this year and he played and we add, ⁓ Porter Marton in, ⁓ Mishkov hopefully get some legs. ⁓ those three people, there's three additions, not including like a bump or a bunk. ⁓ you know, I think are huge. think this team is not as horrible as some Flyers fans make it out to be. So have some patience. Let's get through not just this draft deadline because a lot of times bigger deals aren't made during the trade deadline. They're made in the off season. The trade deadline hopefully is a plus for the Flyers and us as fans. But as we go into the deadline, the trade, I'm sorry, the off season, that's where where more decisions and more movement will be made. you know, in closing, this is the first episode. You know, we'll have a mailbag probably open soon to try to just take some questions or ⁓ ideas for topics of discussions from some of the fans. Hopefully we'll generate some fans here in the future. And thanks for listening. You know, we appreciate you checking in with us and hopefully this is again, Episode one of many more to come. Hopefully tomorrow we'll have a really good draft. I'm sorry, trade deadline. And if so, we'll do another episode. We'll get another one on the books, just talking, go over what has occurred and hopefully it's a good trade deadline for the Philadelphia Flyers. But the future's bright. We have a really good young team. We need to make a few moves here. And I think Danny Breyer and Jonesy again are doing what they can to make it better. Thanks for joining us and we'll talk to you all soon. Take care.