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We've Got The Feels For the Flyers And Sixers! (PST Episode 573) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:00
  What's going on, everybody, It's Jeff here. I wanted to let you
• 0:02
  know that this podcast episode was recorded on two separate days. Lennon and I
• 0:07
  did the first part of this show on Wednesday, July third. Our interview
• 0:11
  this week was done on July fourth, Yes Independence Day, So by the
• 0:16
  time you hear this, some things may have changed here or there, but
• 0:18
  we hope you enjoy the show. Welcome to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show,
• 0:45
  the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world, eleven years
• 0:49
  strong. It is great to be in your ears. It has been a
• 0:52
  busy time in the world of Philly sports, and we got a lot of
• 0:55
  stories that we're going to be getting into this week. Philadelphia seventy six,
• 1:00
  it's been a frenzy. How does that affect the Eastern Conference? What has
• 1:03
  happened with this team? We're also gonna be getting into the Philadelphia Union.
• 1:07
  My gosh, they had another meltdown in Montreal, and then from there,
• 1:11
  we're gonna get into the Philadelphia Phillies, believe it or not. We're gonna
• 1:15
  talk about a certain broadcaster as well. A lot of folks are talking about
• 1:18
  Howard Eskin. We're gonna get into him, but we're also gonna talk about
• 1:21
  this team here and how things are looking as the injuries are cropping up here
• 1:26
  and there. Then we're gonna get into some flyers talk. Got a lot
• 1:29
  of flyers talking, especially with Ryan Quigley from Broadstreet Hockey dot Com. He's
• 1:33
  gonna be joining us to dive into what happened at the draft of where this
• 1:37
  team is gonna be going. There's a lot of excitement there. I'm Jeff
• 1:40
  Warren and I'm here at my buddy Len Hunsicker. Len, buddy, it's
• 1:44
  good to talk to you. And like I said, there's a lot of
• 1:45
  stuff going on in the world of Philly sports here. Yeah. Yeah,
• 1:49
  we mentioned in our little talk before the show, but it's cool. For
• 1:53
  some weeks, it's just like, Okay, there's not a lot going on,
• 1:56
  you know, especially this time of year. It's the Phillies. Yeah,
• 1:59
  Union are playing and you know, maybe there's some stuff going on here
• 2:00
  and there. But there, let's face it. There, you know,
• 2:05
  not just for our show, but any show. There are certain weeks where
• 2:07
  it's like, Okay, this is a pretty slow news week. This is
• 2:09
  the opposite. You know, you got the Flyers and the Sixers both having
• 2:14
  their drafts, both having free agency going on, and those are two sports
• 2:17
  where like, as soon as the free agency deadline happens, stuff starts happening.
• 2:23
  It's not like baseball, where like, oh, we're gonna spread this
• 2:24
  out over you know, nothing's gonna happen for two months and then you know
• 2:29
  then stuff maybe starts happening. It happens right away, which is good.
• 2:31
  It is. It's very good too. And pull back the curtain a little
• 2:35
  bit. Sometimes when I'm doing the agenda for us in terms of what we're
• 2:38
  going to be talking about from week to week, Len, sometimes I start
• 2:43
  making that agenda well days and days in advance, and I was thinking to
• 2:46
  myself, boy, am I gonna have to talk to Len about my my
• 2:50
  my Broadway show that I went to with my family today. We went to
• 2:53
  the Harry Potter Show on Broadway. And first off, it was fantastic.
• 2:57
  You and I were talking about it before we hit the record button. But
• 3:00
  I had I thought we were going to be talking some Broadway shows on this
• 3:02
  podcast. Quite frankly, certain some weeks. You know, it's that slow
• 3:07
  exactly exactly, I gotta tell you folks, if you have not been to
• 3:10
  Broadway to see the Harry Potter I'm not a Harry Potter fan. I'm not.
• 3:14
  My wife. My kids are. They love it. They love the
• 3:15
  movies. My wife has loved the books. She's actually read the books twice.
• 3:20
  She is a huge Harry Potter fan. For her birthday, got her
• 3:23
  the twins myself some tickets to go, and it was one of the It
• 3:27
  was one of the greatest things that I have seen in terms of Broadway.
• 3:30
  It was fantastic. Special effects were great. Len you've seen it, right,
• 3:34
  because I know your wife is Harry Potter. Well, yeah, she's
• 3:37
  seen it. I haven't seen. Oh you run into that. That's right,
• 3:40
  you did see MJ. I thought you went and saw Harry Potter with
• 3:43
  her too for some reason. Well you got to get there, buddy.
• 3:46
  You gotta do it. You gotta do it. We'll see I mean,
• 3:53
  I'm sure we'll get up there. You know we're seeing it around. No,
• 3:55
  you and I should go together and errow the three of us. It'll
• 4:00
  be a date. Good luck with that, I know. Kidding. All
• 4:05
  right, forget this talk because we've got a lot to get into this week.
• 4:09
  Here man, the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. Len when they decide to
• 4:14
  go hard, they go hard. I mean, look, a lot is
• 4:17
  gonna happen, and a lot of changes, of course, happened with this
• 4:21
  team over the course of this past week. Of course, Nick Patoom he
• 4:27
  left the Sixers. He signing a two year deal with the Los Angeles Clippers.
• 4:30
  The Anthony Melton he signing a one year deal with the Warriors. We're
• 4:33
  no longer going to be seeing them at the Wells Fargo Center on a consistent
• 4:38
  basis in a Sixers uniform. But a lot of acquisitions here just to go
• 4:44
  through him, of course, the big one, Paul George signing that four
• 4:46
  year Max deal. Kelly Oubre Junior He's coming back on a two year deal.
• 4:50
  Andre Drummond signed a two year deal with this team. Eric Gordon signed
• 4:55
  a one year deal, and another big one, Tyrese MAXI extended and given
• 5:00
  a Max deal for five years. When there's a lot of excitement. We're
• 5:05
  gonna get into a little bit later what this means for the Eastern Conference and
• 5:10
  how the Eastern Conference is looking. But dude, like I feel like at
• 5:14
  the end of this past season, even the end of the previous season and
• 5:16
  then the previous season. From that, it's just been a letdown, and
• 5:20
  then we let ourselves get really excited about the Sixers signing this person or this
• 5:26
  person. Okay, if Embiid just stays healthy. I know we have talked
• 5:30
  about Paul George extensively on this podcast platform and how it's not necessarily the most
• 5:35
  exciting signing and acquisition. But like, now that attack actually happened, I'm
• 5:41
  kind of like, all right, let's see what happens here. But then
• 5:42
  again, I'm like, there's gonna be a time where where Paul George and
• 5:46
  Joel Embiid are probably gonna be injured at the same time, and what the
• 5:49
  hell's gonna happen to this team? So I don't know, in terms of
• 5:54
  excitement, it's high for me, but there's still I still have those realistic,
• 5:59
  lies, logical things going through my brain at this point too, as
• 6:01
  it pertains to this team. I don't know, how have you been feeling
• 6:03
  after this, you know, Sixers frenzy over this past few days. I
• 6:09
  mean, I know that leading up to free agency, it was like,
• 6:13
  you know, okay, if they signed Paul George, you know, you
• 6:15
  mentioned the injury concerns. He's had his ye and Beans had his so you
• 6:20
  know, it is what it is, and you kind of like, I
• 6:25
  don't know, I guess it's been it's been so long with the sixers going
• 6:29
  down this road of like okay, first round X, a second round exit,
• 6:32
  same thing every year, blah blah blah. And it's like, Okay,
• 6:35
  Paul George is going to be an upgrade over Tobias Harris, but how
• 6:39
  much blah blah blah. And I really think, and I'm guilty of it
• 6:42
  too, I think that a lot of us have like you know, kind
• 6:46
  of poop pooed the career of Paul George so much that perhaps somehow we've made
• 6:50
  him a little underrated and I mean and interesting. Again, Yeah, I'm
• 6:55
  not saying, you know, oh man, this is the guy that's going
• 6:58
  to turn it all around. I'm still, you know, so I need
• 7:00
  to see more. Even though the sixtions have done a lot over the past
• 7:04
  week or so, I would still if you can make some kind of package
• 7:10
  a first round look, because this is your window, right, you got
• 7:13
  you got George for four years. You got you know, maybe the last
• 7:16
  three four you know, healthy years of Embiid's prime, you know, because
• 7:23
  he's you know, he's what late twenties or early thirties at this point,
• 7:27
  don't right now? So yeah, exactly, so you know this run here,
• 7:33
  this this four years whatever it is. You know, I feel like
• 7:36
  you have so draft picks really at this point for a team like the Sixers
• 7:42
  that isn't like contending or that it is contending. Rather, the draft picks
• 7:46
  aren't the priority getting the players that can help you win, right. The
• 7:48
  second is the priority. If you got draft picks, you know, for
• 7:53
  for that dude marketing out in Utah. Yeah, why not do it right,
• 7:59
  right, because then then you have that window and if it happens in
• 8:03
  this four years, awesome. If it doesn't, well we tried, and
• 8:05
  then you know, listen, once George's contract is up, and once Embiid
• 8:09
  is you know, not really you know, once he starts to get on
• 8:15
  the downside a little bit, then you need to think about what you're doing
• 8:18
  for the future. Anyway, we can at least say, okay, we
• 8:20
  threw everything we had at this, whether it worked or not, we did
• 8:24
  every damn thing we could. I think they should. I would like to
• 8:28
  see marketing even though I like a lot of what they did. I love
• 8:31
  the fact that they got Andre Drummonds back. I think that is a sneaky
• 8:37
  underrated I mean, let's fix it. Embiid is gonna, you know,
• 8:41
  play maybe sixty to sixty five games a year in a good year. So
• 8:45
  you can get by in the regular season with Andre Drummonds starting twenty straight games
• 8:52
  for you and not have everything going in the tanks. He's totally fine as
• 8:58
  a star or in a couple weeks stretch, you can totally get away with
• 9:03
  that. So I love they got in back. He's by far the best
• 9:05
  backupsetter that they've ever had. With Joel Embiid, I was sad to see
• 9:11
  him go in that trade. I'm glad he's back, So I'm super happy
• 9:15
  about that. I okay, but I was gonna say kind of to piggyback
• 9:18
  off what you were just saying. You know, I think for the Sixers
• 9:22
  to win in this new era, because it essentially is I mean, we're
• 9:24
  in a new Sixers era, the chemistry has to work. The chemistry has
• 9:28
  to work with what's coming in. And I know that may sound obvious,
• 9:31
  but I mean, look the deals that were made here, like you.
• 9:37
  I love Andre Drummond, I really do, and like you, like you
• 9:39
  said, a very underrated signing. I don't think it's getting its due right
• 9:43
  now. But with regard to Paul George, like, unless they were going
• 9:46
  to put Embiid on the market, the Paul George signing was the best move
• 9:50
  available on the board, you know what I mean, And like absolutely,
• 9:54
  and so it's like what it's like, well, what are you gonna do?
• 9:56
  I mean, it's it may be imperfect, but I don't I think
• 10:00
  there was necessarily that perfect fit for this team as they're looking at free agency
• 10:05
  and even the draft as we saw as well. You know, I don't
• 10:09
  think there's there's nothing perfect with regard to this team, but they did what
• 10:13
  they had to do, and I think because of that, there does feel
• 10:18
  like there's that level of excitement there about what the future could potentially be.
• 10:22
  Yeah, And it's tough because you know, the Celtics, Okay, they
• 10:24
  just want a championship and they are. They look like they're just set for
• 10:30
  the next five six years to be top contenders. And the Knicks, I
• 10:33
  mean, they beat the sixers of the playoffs and I know, you know,
• 10:37
  they lost Hertenstein. But you know, you just got Michael Bridges.
• 10:41
  Yeah, so I mean that team and then they just had Bridges and you're
• 10:46
  just like, oh my god, Like when I saw that, because that
• 10:50
  happened before the Georgia deal went down, yep, I was like, dude,
• 10:52
  they're not anywhere near these two teams and that's just those two teams.
• 10:56
  Who knows if you know, Okay, there was a transition year for Dame
• 11:01
  Lillard in Milwaukee. Maybe him and Giannis come back strong. So the Bucks
• 11:05
  are there too, Like you know, there's there's no guarantees here, but
• 11:09
  I feel like they've the Sixers have done a good job of bolstering the roster.
• 11:11
  That's why I'm saying, you know, if if marketing is available,
• 11:16
  get them do it. Yeah, it's the future for now, because this
• 11:20
  four years is what it's all about. Because after that, you know,
• 11:24
  there's not really there's not much else in this era. I know, I
• 11:28
  know Maxi is still young, and you'll have to maybe transit transition with him
• 11:33
  on the fly or maybe by the end of that he is your your big
• 11:35
  trade ship to allow you to get the draft picks you need to start over
• 11:39
  at the end of that four years or whatever it is. But but this
• 11:43
  is the window, so don't you know, it's time to be bold.
• 11:48
  It's time to be bold. Look that's available. The Celtics had to prove
• 11:52
  their worth on the NBA final stage. The Knicks made their move by,
• 11:56
  like you said, adding Michael Bridges, the Calves signed Donovan Mitchell. From
• 12:01
  my understanding, and they continue to keep building. You know, with regard
• 12:05
  to that team, the Bucks should be in better shape. You know,
• 12:07
  year two here with Dame Lillard and the Magic are coming to by the way
• 12:13
  they're coming. The list kind of goes on, so Philly had to find
• 12:16
  a way to respond. I do like the fact that this team also did
• 12:22
  resign Kelly oubre Junior. I think he averaged a little over fifteen points per
• 12:26
  game last season, Len, and I think it was I think it was
• 12:31
  a really good signing because of the chemistry that he does have with certain players
• 12:37
  on this team. And I think he played if I'm not mistaken in terms
• 12:41
  of the games this past season he played and I'm not finding it right now,
• 12:48
  Oh I'm sorry. Sixty eight games for the sixer, the last two
• 12:50
  seeds for the last season, fifty two starts sixty eight games, and he
• 12:56
  averaged fifteen point four points five rebounds per game. And just I mean,
• 13:00
  he really did thrive in several roles on both ends of the floor all year
• 13:03
  to really kind of help propel a team when they were often decimated by injuries.
• 13:09
  So I really I thought it was a great resigning. Kelly Oubray junior.
• 13:13
  He's coming back and I love it. Yeah. No, he's a
• 13:15
  good player, good to have off the bench. Yeah, he's probably the
• 13:20
  best guy coming off the bench that you're going to have. So yeah,
• 13:24
  this is the kind of guy that you need, you know, because you
• 13:28
  got to have depth. So you got to have this coming off the bench
• 13:31
  if you're going to make a run. And you know, I'm really happy
• 13:35
  with what they've done so far. I And it's funny because I always thought
• 13:39
  that they would get George and I always thought I'd be like, eh,
• 13:41
  whatever, we talked about it. Yeah, so but hey they're trying.
• 13:48
  That's all you can do. Awesome if it doesn't, hey you tried.
• 13:54
  So yeah, I'm excited about it. You know, we'll see what they
• 13:58
  get out of McCain. If anything. You know, you never want to
• 14:01
  depend on a rookie for anything, because you know they're they're you know,
• 14:05
  gonna be swimming, just trying to you know, keep up in the league
• 14:09
  here. But you know, we'll see what he can bring, if anything,
• 14:11
  you know, maybe that won't be until the midpoint of the year when
• 14:15
  he gets fully acclimator or whatever, but you know, we'll see what we
• 14:18
  get there. Yep. Absolutely, Look as we transition, you know to
• 14:22
  you know what this does with regard to the Eastern Conference here, lhen,
• 14:28
  I think it's it's interesting where the odds have gone in terms of not only
• 14:31
  winning the East, but winning the NBA Finals. To look, the Celtics
• 14:35
  are still the favorites to win the NBA Finals in twenty twenty five at plus
• 14:39
  three hundred. The Denver Nuggets are next at plus seven fifty, and the
• 14:43
  seventy six Ers are tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder at plus eight hundred.
• 14:48
  Right after that, so like tied for third, and the odds to win
• 14:52
  the East really changed with the Paul George news and signing. Seventy six Ers
• 14:56
  moved from plus six fifty to plus four hundred to win the Eastern Conference overnight
• 15:03
  at bet MGM. So there's the idea that the Sixers will be able to
• 15:09
  contend with these teams. It's there, It really is there. It's interesting.
• 15:13
  It was interesting looking like where the Knicks are. The knickser plus three
• 15:16
  seventy five, still second behind the Celtics to win the East. But still
• 15:22
  it's they're still in the conversation. The Sixers are still in the conversation.
• 15:26
  Celtics obviously are going to be the favorites to dominate the East. We know
• 15:30
  that, but you know, it's it's good to see that it didn't flounder
• 15:35
  like we had thought that it might, and it hasn't. In that regard,
• 15:39
  it's odd to me because, like I just and again, I like
• 15:43
  what the Sixers have done so far. I don't think it propels them to
• 15:48
  any spot in which they should have the third best odds in the league to
• 15:52
  win a championship. I think, you know, Boston obviously there. Yeah,
• 15:56
  Denver's obviously there, Oklahoma City is there. In my mind, the
• 16:00
  Mavericks should be there ahead of them. I think the Knicks should be there
• 16:03
  ahead of them at this point. Like you know, yes, it's great,
• 16:07
  and I don't know with the Knicks, maybe they just think they're not
• 16:10
  big enough upfront. I don't. That's really the only knock I think you
• 16:14
  can come at the Knicks with, you know, with regard to the Sixers,
• 16:17
  is that you think maybe somehow they're just not big enough upfront. But
• 16:21
  I still have to me, I still have the Knicks ahead of the Sixers
• 16:25
  in terms of if I was if I was doing I would too. Yeah,
• 16:27
  have the Knicks ahead of the Sixers absolutely, as I mentioned earlier too.
• 16:32
  And I'm not saying that they're going to be contending at all, but
• 16:34
  they're a sneaky team that we should be keeping our eyes on even during the
• 16:37
  off season, you know, as they're going through camp. Is the Orlando
• 16:42
  Magic. I think the Orlando Magic is a team that is on the rise
• 16:47
  and really could surprise a lot of folks of this coming season, Glenn,
• 16:51
  I really do. I think so it's possible. I mean, what have
• 16:53
  they done? And they did sign somebody in free agency, right they did,
• 16:59
  And I'm forgetting off the top of my head who it was right now,
• 17:00
  of course, I'm forgetting it off the top of my head. But
• 17:03
  yeah, I just I see them as a team that has been making some
• 17:07
  decent choices, and I'm even forgetting who they drafted at this point. But
• 17:11
  I don't know. I just think they're they're kind of that sneaky team in
• 17:14
  the background that we just just maybe keep our eyes on. Yeah, it's
• 17:18
  weird like they it feels like they're a team that's always like, okay,
• 17:22
  they they've got these good pieces. They've got you know, a Palo Bancaro
• 17:26
  and Jail and Sugs and guys like that coldwell pulp, sorry, coldwell,
• 17:30
  Yeah, that's what it was. Now I'm remembering, Yeah, who's you
• 17:34
  know, you know, been a good one of those good three and D
• 17:38
  guys that you needed the mix on a good team. So yeah, it
• 17:41
  feels like the pieces are there. Can they finally get it to come together?
• 17:45
  They've always had some intriguing players, but it just feels like, for
• 17:49
  whatever reason, it hasn't come together for them. Maybe maybe this is a
• 17:52
  year where they kind of make a step forward. Who knows, All right,
• 17:55
  very good? You got anything else for the Sixers in the Eastern Conference
• 17:59
  Before we move on to a more pathetic storyline here in the world of Philly
• 18:03
  sports, Do you have any draft thoughts? Any draft thoughts? Honestly,
• 18:07
  I don't know much about McCain, only that he ran for president in two
• 18:11
  thousand and eight. That's about it. There you go, that's about it.
• 18:15
  He has a hard time lifting his right arm. I think, yeah,
• 18:18
  exactly. I hope this kid comes out and does well. And I
• 18:26
  know, I think Philadelphia is a bit of a kinder, gentler, more
• 18:33
  understanding town than the than the Philadelphia that I think we as fans grew up
• 18:38
  with in the in the eighties, in the early nineties. But man,
• 18:44
  with the TikTok stuff, if he if he struggles, I just feel like
• 18:52
  I could like and this is this is me. This is just coming from
• 18:56
  my own old white as a forty eight year old white guy that isn't like
• 19:03
  super social media savvy, right, but like I see the TikTok dance stuff,
• 19:07
  and that that part of me is just like you know, it kind
• 19:11
  of hits the turn off. So I'm like, man, I hope you
• 19:15
  come and you ball out, because if you don't, the people are going
• 19:19
  to come for you quickly. I feel absolutely. Look, I think,
• 19:22
  you know, look looking at and understanding what his game is like on the
• 19:27
  court, his fit alongside Joel Embiid in particular, I think could potentially be
• 19:33
  pretty clean and there's room to well, let's just say this, there's room
• 19:38
  to dislike the pick. There are reasons for concern, but I think he
• 19:44
  does have some high floor prospects, I would say, with the chance of
• 19:49
  being a pretty useful NBA contributor. Now that's not necessarily saying much. I
• 19:55
  don't necessarily think he has any star upside at all, but I think he
• 19:59
  could be a control But going back to what you just said, what does
• 20:03
  what do those contributions look like? We don't know. It remains to be
• 20:07
  seen. But if those contributions aren't what we would like to see in six
• 20:11
  Ers Nation, then he could be in for a hell of a time in
• 20:14
  Philadelphia. Yeah. I worry about like because neither of it's not like Himmer
• 20:18
  MAXI or like big guards right right, six five six six, So I
• 20:22
  just wonder how it's going to play defensively, Like, if you decide to
• 20:26
  go with those two at the same time, do they kind of get torched
• 20:30
  a little bit defensively? It'd be interesting to see. Yeah, absolutely,
• 20:33
  all right, Well, let's get into our next story and the next Philly
• 20:38
  sports team that we want to dive into a bit here before we get to
• 20:41
  our break. Our first break this week lend the Philadelphia Union. My goodness.
• 20:47
  I remember, Buddy, when we decided we were going to start talking
• 20:49
  about the Union every now and again on this show, saying, you know
• 20:52
  what, this is a team that could potentially surpass the Philadelphia Flyers as the
• 20:56
  fourth most important team in city of Philadelphia. Well, I gotta tell you,
• 21:02
  they have been proving us wrong this season. My gosh, they had
• 21:06
  another meltdown in Montreal. They're winless streak is now at seven games. They're
• 21:11
  currently twelfth. I think in the Eastern Conference. As we are recording this,
• 21:15
  well out of a wild card spot, the season does appear to be
• 21:19
  lost at this point. They are currently playing Chicago as we were recording this
• 21:23
  on Wednesday, July third, and Land. Again, I do think the
• 21:29
  season appears to be lost at this point, and I think this is a
• 21:36
  team that has not a lot of depth. From what I have seen,
• 21:41
  they're often becoming punchlines. I think in the world of soccer, specifically Major
• 21:48
  League soccer, often at the expense. I think of mediocre teams, you
• 21:52
  know, and sometimes what we are seeing in fact a lot of times,
• 21:56
  I think we are seeing our players who are put in tough spots, like
• 22:00
  beyond what they should be put into, and all too often we are seeing
• 22:04
  veterans that are not stepping up, and we're seeing that it's a lot of
• 22:08
  the veterans who are at fault on this team. This Union team is right
• 22:12
  near rock bottom and they may not they I don't even know what the score
• 22:17
  is against Chicago as we're recording this at this point, but they have to
• 22:21
  find something, anything to just end this awful streak, this winless streak at
• 22:26
  right now again as we're recording this at seven games, they're a pretty lifeless
• 22:30
  team right now, and it's it hasn't been fun to watch watch these matches
• 22:34
  at all. Yeah, And it's been a depth thing. And currently they
• 22:38
  are up three to one against Chicago, which is good because you know the
• 22:42
  I think the last uh this if they win to like this will be their
• 22:47
  first win since like the middle May. Yeah, yeah, so against New
• 22:53
  England. So yeah, I mean that to me, it's it's been a
• 22:57
  depth thing. But you know that. So you have a lot of guys
• 23:03
  that were at the Euro Tournament. I know Gosdag is back because Hungary got
• 23:07
  knocked out, but we have so the Union have a bunch of guys that
• 23:11
  are playing. They weren't playing in the euro Tournament or the Copa America,
• 23:15
  you know, so you know, it's it's been kind of the junior varsity
• 23:18
  quite a bit here over the past couple of weeks. But you know what,
• 23:22
  I guess who else has been dealing with that? Everybody and everybody has
• 23:26
  had has had players who have gone off to these you know, not court
• 23:32
  uh their national teams for the tournaments. So that just that what that tells
• 23:37
  me is that you're you're not a very deep team because once you know,
• 23:41
  that happened, once all those guys went away, and I think it's it's
• 23:45
  maybe started even a little bit before those tournaments, but you really see the
• 23:49
  quality or lack thereof, and the fact that they've kind of just fallen off
• 23:55
  so bad. But this is a team that, if I'm not mistaken,
• 23:57
  I think they were the last team in the MLS this year to lose a
• 24:03
  game. Oh it was the last team I think in the MLS this year
• 24:10
  to lose their their zero in the lost column. And now they're four to
• 24:15
  eight and eight four wins, eight draws, eight losses, So the fall
• 24:19
  has been staggering to say the least. So yeah, I mean, hopefully
• 24:26
  having these guys come back will help. But I mean, you know,
• 24:29
  there's a lot of finger pointing. There's a finger pointing with the players.
• 24:32
  There's some finger pointing towards Jim Carton. I tend to point my fingers towards
• 24:36
  ownership. They just have not spent the money on the on the depth that
• 24:41
  you need and the quality of players that you need. They just haven't done
• 24:45
  it. I think you and I talked about that the last time we talked
• 24:48
  about the union, which was probably a good like five weeks ago maybe we
• 24:51
  talked about the union. Well, you know, it's it's it's it's like
• 24:55
  this for a couple of years. Yeah, And that's the thing that the
• 24:56
  team hasn't really changed that much since the team that won the Supporter Shield a
• 25:00
  couple of years ago, the team that went, you know, to the
• 25:03
  MLS Cup Final and lost to l a FC. But it's been kind of
• 25:08
  the same thing. And you know, so so now you know, those
• 25:12
  players get older, they're not being replaced with guys that are coming in and
• 25:18
  picking up the slack. You know, the guys that you do have that
• 25:21
  have come in, like I know, joining Caronza is now he's now off
• 25:26
  in Europe. He's no longer with the team. So and then that was
• 25:30
  your your primary striker this year. So where are you getting goals from now?
• 25:34
  Because that guy that was pretty much the best player on your team this
• 25:38
  year is going and how are you replacing him? Yeah, and that's where
• 25:42
  were scared. Spend the money on the desk exactly that Where is he in
• 25:47
  fader nerd Rotterdam. Yes, I think I think where he's at now.
• 25:52
  We were scared that that was going to happen at some point where Caronzo was
• 25:55
  going to be heading back over to Europe. It happened, and we're seeing
• 25:57
  the results of a lot of Like you said, the depth is just not
• 26:02
  there. We were saying that at the beginning of this season, I mean
• 26:04
  a few games into the season, we were already able to see that,
• 26:08
  and I think I think we may have discussed it a little bit then the
• 26:11
  last time we talked about the union, But that line is now really drawn
• 26:15
  in the sand when it comes to ownership and whether or not they're gonna truly
• 26:19
  invest in getting talent to this team in the future, Like, really make
• 26:23
  some investments, because I haven't been willing to do it, and this team
• 26:27
  is gonna be successful in the future if they don't start doing it. I
• 26:30
  don't understand sports owners. I don't get sports owners who just decide that they're
• 26:34
  gonna idly sit by and say, Okay, we'll make some money here and
• 26:37
  there, we'll make money, we'll make money, blah blah blah. People
• 26:41
  want to see wins. Fans want wins. You're gonna have a dwindling fan
• 26:45
  base. If the wins aren't there and the promise and the hope of successful
• 26:49
  future seasons aren't there, you're gonna lose people. You know, I don't
• 26:53
  care how much money you're making. Yeah, I mean, if really all
• 26:56
  you care about is making money, then I guess that respect is fun.
• 27:02
  But outside of that, like, how is this fun? Yeah? Exactly,
• 27:07
  Well, it's not fun for us to continue talking about it, So
• 27:08
  why don't we go to the break? What do you think? All right?
• 27:11
  All right, well, if you're new to listening to a subscribe on
• 27:15
  whatever podcast platform you're on, we greatly appreciate that. Leave us a rate
• 27:18
  and review on Apple Podcasts, and if anything happens to your feed, you
• 27:21
  can always head on over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com. We've got all
• 27:25
  of our shows over there. Shoot us off an email. We'd love to
• 27:26
  hear from you. We've got some listener feedback that we're gonna be getting to
• 27:30
  in a bit. Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com. That's where you
• 27:33
  can shoot us off an email about anything in the world of Philly sports.
• 27:36
  We'd love to talk about it here, and also follow us on the social
• 27:40
  sites out there. We are on Instagram at Philadelphia Sports Table. You can
• 27:42
  follow us on Twitter, slash x at Len Hunsicker for Len at Jeffrey Underscore,
• 27:48
  Warren for me, and the show at Philadelphia PST. Let's take that
• 27:52
  break now, we'll be back in just a bit. All right, We're
• 27:55
  back, Len. We got to get into the Philadelphia Phillies. We got
• 27:59
  some listener feedback as well. But before we get to the listener feedback and
• 28:03
  talking more about this team, I have on the agenda here for us to
• 28:07
  get into the Howard Eskins situation, because you know, it's just it never
• 28:11
  ceases to amaze me just how certain personalities within the sports world get away with
• 28:18
  certain things, and certain individuals within the sports world don't get away with certain
• 28:25
  things at times. So as we all know Howard Eskin's a piece of garbage,
• 28:27
  and a recent story in the Philadelphia in Choir came out where he was
• 28:32
  banned from Citizens Bank Park for sexual advances on a female ar Mark employee.
• 28:37
  WIP they had a despicable way that they handled it in terms of their response
• 28:41
  to the situation. He's still in the air, still has his job,
• 28:44
  which whatever, fine. You know, you know, find no real repercussions
• 28:48
  at all, no accountability at all. But I look at a situation like
• 28:52
  this, we're I guarantee you too. And our friend John Barchard actually tweeted
• 28:59
  out something where you know, this isn't the first time, of course,
• 29:02
  that somebody this old has been engaging in acts like this during the course of
• 29:06
  his career. This certainly isn't the first time, even though it hasn't been
• 29:10
  reported. We know folks like this, it's not the first time. And
• 29:15
  yet we have situations in the sports world where you gotta and I don't care,
• 29:19
  I'm gonna bring it up. You got a Colin Kaepernick situation. Of
• 29:22
  course, a guy is never gonna play football again. We all know that,
• 29:26
  but from what he did, what guy like Howard Eskin has done and
• 29:30
  likely done to many women in the past, and for not a whole lot
• 29:34
  to happen to Howard Eskin yet, because Colin Kaepernick decided to take a knee
• 29:38
  during the national anthem, he was completely blackballed from a sport and not able
• 29:44
  to play it. I don't know when why it doesn't cease to amaze me
• 29:48
  anymore that the world is just unfair in certain ways. And I know I
• 29:52
  sound like a child saying that, but my gosh, I just the story
• 29:56
  sucks. And you know, I saw a lot of ladies, especially ladies
• 30:00
  that come on this show, who were discussing this online, and I give
• 30:04
  them all the credit for, you know, standing up for what's right.
• 30:08
  But you know, Howard asking your you're a real piece of garbage, always
• 30:12
  have been for many reasons outside of this as well. But I don't know
• 30:18
  what are your thoughts here, buddy. Well, it's just like, didn't
• 30:21
  he have a thing years ago where like he he was just talking to some
• 30:25
  lady that was married or something, and he sent her flowers and she got
• 30:29
  like killed. Yes, by her boyfriend or husbin or whatever like five days
• 30:33
  later. Like I I don't know, man like it. This guy doesn't
• 30:40
  really apparently brings it on himself the way he's talking to women and stuff like
• 30:45
  that. But maybe maybe being with somebody isn't for you at some point,
• 30:52
  maybe you just need to say, Okay, I'm good at sports talk,
• 30:56
  I'm good at building this career. I'm good at making my money from this
• 31:00
  way. I'm not good at relationships, right, not good? You know,
• 31:03
  maybe I just don't focus on that anymore, Yes, exactly, especially
• 31:10
  because he's he's not you know, he's not some you know guy in his
• 31:14
  twenties with all the you know, all the hormones of the world still still
• 31:18
  going for him. And you know what I mean, Like, at some
• 31:21
  point, you know, you're you're exactly, You're not the old, virile,
• 31:25
  sexy guy on the sideline wearing the fur coat anymore. Buddy, it's
• 31:30
  not also all right, I'm gonna say something that that could be please do
• 31:36
  I don't I don't mean offense to to anybody in this in this group by
• 31:40
  this, I'm going to say that probably isn't the best. But like I
• 31:47
  like, I've never seen a like acute concessions worker. Like I don't know,
• 31:52
  I just like I can't imagine, like, all right, I'm gonna
• 31:55
  go for that iroborn person right there, Like, I don't know, it's
• 31:59
  just a weird The fact that he tried to do that is just weird to
• 32:02
  me. Okay, I don't know why, Like a guy that that has
• 32:07
  I guess the reach he has and the notoriety he has, Like I don't
• 32:13
  know, shouldn't shouldn't he be trying for someone that's work, you know,
• 32:16
  I based on statue like you mean like kind of based on like a statue
• 32:21
  thing social Okay, okay, okay, I don't know, like shouldn't shouldn't
• 32:24
  you be doing that? It seems that there could be some room for him
• 32:30
  to maybe do that too, maybe kind of maybe How can I how can
• 32:36
  I say, like, like, you don't you don't have to hit on
• 32:39
  that when you shouldn't you know, be just be grossly hitting on and trying
• 32:44
  to kiss and armor uh staff person, you know, like maybe somebody within
• 32:51
  the industry that that that maybe a little older they I just I don't understand,
• 32:55
  I get it. I don't get what he's doing. I get it,
• 32:58
  and I don't get I don't get what his son is doing either.
• 33:00
  By the way, after this came out, there was a tweet. Did
• 33:04
  you read the tweet from from from dummy Spike Eskin? Did you like?
• 33:08
  Honestly? Like I I still I still his name trending yesterday and I was
• 33:15
  busy and I didn't really look into it. And then I saw it again
• 33:17
  today, so I decided to look into it. And then that's when I
• 33:21
  started to see what was going on. So I haven't heard anything about what
• 33:24
  what his son has said. But he's is. I know. At one
• 33:28
  point he was the program director for w IP. He's not that anymore.
• 33:31
  I think he's back now. I think he is. I don't know.
• 33:34
  I really I really try not to care about that. He was a he
• 33:37
  had a kind of like position of power. Yeah. I think he came
• 33:42
  back from w Yeah. I think he came back from w f a N.
• 33:45
  I think he did. I think he came back from w F a
• 33:47
  N because he wanted to be here in Philly from what I understand. But
• 33:51
  he actually made the situation about himself, the stuff with his dad, because
• 33:54
  just I think a couple of days prior he and his dad were like arguing
• 33:58
  on the air about about sports, about I think the Sixers in general.
• 34:04
  But here's what Spike said. He goes, he made it about him.
• 34:06
  Here, he goes, I do my best to be a good person.
• 34:09
  Whether you like me some or dislike me some as well. I hope and
• 34:15
  expect it's based on what I do and say and how I act. I
• 34:20
  will see you on the radio today and the podcast late tonight. I appreciate
• 34:23
  the support as always. What yeah, what the situation with your dad?
• 34:30
  Like? Yeah? First off, exactly why do you Why does he have
• 34:37
  to make a statement. Secondly, why is the statement just about himself?
• 34:42
  Three why couldn't he, if he felt like he had to make some sort
• 34:45
  of statement, actually address his dirtbag dad and what he did. I don't
• 34:51
  know why I wanted to bring this up on the show, probably because I've
• 34:52
  had this his statement should have been, I don't know he did ask him
• 34:55
  about it, Yeah, exactly, Yeah, my disdain for w IP.
• 35:02
  I think that's why I wanted to bring it up on the show, because,
• 35:06
  especially during the Eagles off season every year, they try to create,
• 35:09
  and they do with their host drama within the Eagles organization every single off season
• 35:15
  where they get ship going and I'm going to make this explicit now who cares,
• 35:20
  But they get ship going within the locker room with players and trying to
• 35:22
  play folks off of each other with their sources and shit like that. Where
• 35:28
  it's it. It drives me crazy just to simply get people to listen to
• 35:31
  them when there are tons of content creators out there, as we know,
• 35:37
  who are good at what they do, provide valuable information, who are entertaining
• 35:40
  as well. Stop listening to these freaking radio stations, folks. My gosh,
• 35:45
  it drives me crazy. Well, it's funny because that it's that you
• 35:50
  you seem to take more of a like, you know, an act to
• 35:54
  grind against the WIP and like to me, love my My overriding thought is,
• 36:00
  man, this would be a lot interesting if I was still in my
• 36:02
  teens or in early to mid twenties, which was when I was listening to
• 36:07
  w IP a lot. Now I feel I've not listening to w IP and
• 36:10
  so long, so I just feel so far removed from from that world that
• 36:15
  I just like it. It kind of like it's like, okay, you
• 36:21
  know those are people I don't know and really have no tie to, so
• 36:25
  I don't care as much Twitter. You've talked about the same team that I
• 36:30
  that I root for, Like, there's just nothing there. They come through
• 36:35
  my feed on Twitter, which is like the and it's like how do I
• 36:37
  get that aside from blocking them, which I don't necessarily. It's like,
• 36:42
  I don't know, maybe I should actually maybe I should just block w Ip's
• 36:45
  Twitter. Yeah, I don't. I don't know. I'llow like I don't
• 36:49
  follow it. I mean, I see it just be and that's the thing.
• 36:52
  You're you're going to see that. So you're you're involved in this whole
• 36:54
  Philadelphia sports fan community, being being a part of a podcast talks about it.
• 37:00
  So you're going to follow people, and those people the more people you
• 37:02
  follow, those people if they're following WP, if they're into it, you're
• 37:07
  even though even if you don't follow WIP, you're gonna get sucked into that
• 37:10
  whole thing. You're seeing what they're talking about. Now, Yeah, I
• 37:15
  don't. I don't know. I think it's because I'm not as engaged on
• 37:19
  social media. I just I feel outside of it. And it's one of
• 37:22
  those times where I look at it and I'm like, yeah, I'm glad.
• 37:24
  I don't really get my toe in that way. Now I gotta do
• 37:28
  something about it because I don't want to talk about it anymore on our show.
• 37:31
  It's our show. Why are we letting WP? I just take car?
• 37:37
  I don't know, like again, like if I was like still twenty
• 37:39
  two, it'd be like, oh man, I gotta listen every day,
• 37:42
  yeah to do just like I don't know these people. I don't care exactly.
• 37:47
  Well, let's get into some let's get into some phillies talking, some
• 37:50
  listener feedback, some baseball talk here as well. Len Uh, it's good
• 37:54
  to shift into some some actual thought process of the world of baseball and not
• 38:00
  Howard esk and being banned from Citizens Bank Park. So our our listener of
• 38:06
  the show, April, sent us a email, I should say, an
• 38:09
  email which was really interesting, something I had not thought about at all.
• 38:14
  We're going to give our thoughts now about the catcher position in baseball and whether
• 38:19
  or not they have a slight advantage when they are at bat. So she
• 38:22
  says, I've always pondered this, and while I've not gone down the statistical
• 38:25
  rabbit hole to test the theory, I have also noticed that none of the
• 38:29
  announcers talk about it either, so it's likely nothing. But do catchers have
• 38:32
  a slight advantage when at bat? They seemingly have the most knowledge of each
• 38:37
  position the picture even more so, is it fair to say they might have
• 38:43
  the slightest advantage when at bat even if watching and opposing players pictures come at
• 38:49
  them. April. That's a great, great question, and again something I
• 38:52
  had not really thought of, And after thinking about it, Lenn I was
• 38:55
  like, you know what, I think the picture could have an advantage in
• 39:00
  this situation because a catcher is going to know what arms, slots, and
• 39:05
  pitches that a pitcher will throw. He's also going to know what a pitcher
• 39:08
  is comfortable throwing in certain counts and to certain players as well, So why
• 39:14
  not I think there could be the potential that a catcher would have some advantage
• 39:20
  while at Baton Look, I know a lot of guys when they're in the
• 39:22
  clubhouse or when they're you know, at their practices as part of there's a
• 39:28
  lot of film that is watched. Players watch pitchers all the time. So
• 39:32
  I don't know what the degree of any advantage would be, but I do
• 39:36
  think that a catcher could have an advantage in this type of situation. What
• 39:39
  are your thoughts on this? In theory, I would think that they could,
• 39:45
  but like, it doesn't seem like it bears it out in the numbers.
• 39:49
  Like, you know, it's not like there's like oh man man on
• 39:52
  the top thirty guys in the league and hitting, you know, twelve of
• 39:54
  them were catchers. Like you don't see that kind of thing. That's a
• 39:58
  good point, Yeah, the top three guys. But on the other on
• 40:00
  the on the flip side, see where I think their advantage is different than
• 40:05
  what you and April are talking about. To me, I would think the
• 40:08
  advantage comes from, Okay, you're you're right there in front of the yump
• 40:13
  all game long, even on defense. So as the game goes on,
• 40:16
  you as a catcher are getting a sense of what the strike zone is,
• 40:21
  what that ump is calling for a strike. You're lobbying that umpire saying,
• 40:24
  hey, my pitcher's got to have that pitch right there. Yeah, so
• 40:29
  you're getting a sense of what that you because you're talking to this guy all
• 40:31
  game long. Is that a strike? Why is that not a strike?
• 40:35
  You know, my guy's got to have this pitch so I think, to
• 40:37
  me, if there's the advantage for the catcher, it's the fact that he's
• 40:40
  back there all game long and he's kind of probably more in tune to what
• 40:45
  the what that particular umpire strike zone is, say the right field or something
• 40:51
  like that, you know what I mean. Absolutely, No, I think
• 40:52
  that's a great that's a great way to look at it, for sure.
• 40:55
  And it was a great email, April. Thanks so much again, folks.
• 41:00
  If you want to get in touch with us Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail
• 41:01
  dot com, we'll read your email here on the show and respond to it
• 41:06
  as we're moving along with the conversation here, Len though, I mean,
• 41:08
  Bryce Harper has been out of the lineup as we are recording this, Kyle
• 41:12
  Schwarber out of the lineup. Just injuries have been happening with this team.
• 41:16
  They're still seeing success there beating. Look, they did drop one to the
• 41:21
  Marlins, which was which was a bit ridiculous, but the team is still
• 41:24
  basically winning at this point. They're playing the Cubs right now as we are
• 41:29
  recording this. I know the Cubs were winning two to one at one point.
• 41:32
  Right now, Oh they are okay, fantastic, all right, there
• 41:36
  we go, Zach Wheeler was pitching, so I'm gonna have to take a
• 41:38
  look at some of his stats. But even though the injuries are starting to
• 41:42
  mount, the All Star break is right around the corner. It's going to
• 41:45
  be a good time for this team to get recendered, get healthy. And
• 41:50
  I think this team still has very high hopes and prospects the second half of
• 41:53
  the season. Pitchers have to stay healthy because they've been the bread and butter
• 41:58
  so far, Lynn, So I think All Star breaks are really coming at
• 42:00
  at a perfect time for this team. Yeah, and we got some news
• 42:05
  today and the fact that the Phillies are going to have three starters, at
• 42:08
  least three starters, and I mean, I don't know what what's gonna happen
• 42:12
  with the who's going to start the game on the mound, but you know
• 42:16
  Harper is going to be starting as our bowman turner yep. So so that's
• 42:22
  some you know, interesting news for the Phillies. There. You're gonna have
• 42:23
  three guys on the infield, three three out of the four infield positions are
• 42:28
  going to be Phillies. That's awesome, which which is pretty cool. So
• 42:31
  you know you've got that you listen you do have the injuries right now,
• 42:35
  You've got Harper, you've got Real, Mudo and Schwarver, but you still
• 42:37
  have guys like Turner came back, Alex Bowm is having a phenomenal year after
• 42:44
  a super super slow start, Cassianos is starting to come around a little bit.
• 42:50
  So you know, you've still got some guys that are doing things.
• 42:53
  This is a very deep lineup to be missing Harper, Real, Mudo and
• 42:58
  Schwarber, and to say that you've still got some guys in there that can
• 43:01
  they can hit the ball, well, uh, even a guy off the
• 43:05
  you know that that filled in for Turner and Lundo Sosa has been you know,
• 43:09
  has hit great well yeah, yeah, so yeah, I mean it's
• 43:14
  a testament to the depth. You know, we talked about the lack of
• 43:16
  depth with the Union. Phillies are the opposite. They they they are deep
• 43:21
  offensively. Yeah, so it's been huge for them. Uh. And then
• 43:24
  the pitching has been just beyond I think what any of us could have expected.
• 43:29
  So far. It's been fun. It's been a fun season watching this
• 43:31
  team. Absolutely. Yeah. All right, Lenn, Well, before we
• 43:36
  get to our next break, and before I let you go, buddy,
• 43:37
  just wanted to get into some quick thoughts with regard to the Philadelphia Flyers,
• 43:43
  the draft, and just let's give a grade for Danny Brier and this organization
• 43:50
  after the draft and the fact that quit frankly, and we're going to talk
• 43:53
  to Ryan Quigley from broad Street Hockey dot com about this. Just the way
• 43:58
  that they've handled the mitchkalv situation, the way that they've actually handled it.
• 44:04
  The previous regime would not have handled it. I think this smoothly and professionally.
• 44:08
  This organization seems a professional hockey organization at this point here. I thought
• 44:16
  it was interesting. Well, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say the name
• 44:21
  that you came up with, Jet Luchenko. Who is the new I'll tell
• 44:24
  you off the air because the name that you gave him. My daughter's absolutely
• 44:29
  laughed. They laughed theirs off. Yes, yeah, they laughed so hard.
• 44:34
  When we were on vacation last week, I was like, I was
• 44:37
  like, everybody, you gotta hear Uncle Lenn's test on this one. It
• 44:40
  was great. But look, this is a team that is changing as well,
• 44:45
  of course, with Matt Fei, Mitchkalff him signing this past week look,
• 44:51
  they're losing some guys Sean Walker, cam Atkinson, they found some new
• 44:54
  homes and free agency, Bobby Brink he signed a new two year deal with
• 45:00
  the team. But Jett Luchenko, I think with regard to him, everything
• 45:04
  I've been reading, everything I've been seeing about him, even leading up to
• 45:07
  the draft, just a lot, just a very high ceiling. He had
• 45:12
  a breakout year in his second year in the HL, and he scored twenty
• 45:16
  goals in seventy four points through sixty eight games. And one of those guys
• 45:22
  that is able to cut straight through the neutral zone and to the net,
• 45:28
  just causing a lot of chaos near the crease. Or he's just really really
• 45:32
  a pinpoint passer and he's able to get the puck right on teammates stick and
• 45:37
  it's gonna be fun to watch him. He turns eighteen years old this August
• 45:42
  here, So overall, I think this, I think the grade that I'm
• 45:45
  gonna be given Danny Brier and the Flyers right now at this point is a
• 45:49
  straight up A. I think this rebuild is going as planned. Philosophically speaking,
• 45:54
  They're where they want to be. Lenn, I'm giving them an a
• 45:57
  what do you give them. Well, it's a multifaceted thing, and I'm
• 46:01
  going to go off on a bit of a tangenty Okay, so you have
• 46:06
  to to me, I split up into different segments. We'll start off with
• 46:08
  the Mitch cough thing. Absolutely asis you couldn't have you couldn't have done that
• 46:14
  better. I mean, to this is a guy that we thought, Okay,
• 46:15
  we'll see him in three years, right one near and he's here.
• 46:17
  I mean, that's just that's phenomenal. It's incredible. I'm super pumped to
• 46:22
  watch him play, like I can't wait to watch him every night, you
• 46:28
  know. And if he is everything that he was advertised as being, then
• 46:31
  the Flyers finally have like a bona fide star that they can hang their hat
• 46:37
  on, which is which is great, So that that, you know,
• 46:39
  no complaints about that at all. The Leacheniko situation, to me is just
• 46:45
  it's interesting on a number of levels. Because so with regard to to the
• 46:51
  Hockey Draft, you know, so I'm going to compare him to this to
• 46:54
  Jared McCain, the Sixers pick. So at any point during the winner,
• 47:00
  you can go on the ESPN family networks and find Duke, you know,
• 47:04
  probably out of If they play forty games a year, you can probably catch
• 47:07
  twenty five of them on TV. So you had the opportunity to see that
• 47:12
  kid all year long. Now, a guy like Muchenko who's playing you know,
• 47:15
  Canadian juniors, those games are televised nowhere, so you have no sense
• 47:21
  of who this person is and so. And that's the case with a lot
• 47:23
  of the draftees. So you know you're wishing and hoping on players that you've
• 47:28
  never seen, and you're you're basically replying on you you know, relying on
• 47:31
  hockey scouting reports to tell you who these guys are, who you should want
• 47:36
  the Flyers to draft, right, So you know you're hearing all these names
• 47:38
  and it's like, okay, the Flyers are at twelve. Hey, that
• 47:40
  guy z Ev Booiam, I've been hearing about him. He's a top ten
• 47:45
  talent and he's there for the Flyers and then they trade downently don't get him.
• 47:49
  Okay, Well, the constat Helenius is a guy I've been hearing about
• 47:52
  him the whole time. This center from Finland. He's a center that's a
• 47:55
  position they need. He's a guy that you know, physical, he's not
• 48:00
  like a you know, super great, but apparently he thinks of the game
• 48:02
  and process of the game really well. Man, that would work well with
• 48:06
  a guy like Mitchikov. I guess they'll take him at thirteen because they traded
• 48:10
  down the spot. And then they take somebody that you have not been seeing
• 48:15
  in the mock drafts, because Luchenka was a guy that was projected to go
• 48:17
  in the early twenties. So you're not you you haven't been thinking about that
• 48:22
  guy at all. You probably don't even really know that name because all the
• 48:27
  all the picks that you've been looking at and all these mock drafts have been
• 48:30
  telling you it's going to be one of these other guys that you've actually heard
• 48:34
  of because you've been reading about him. So that, to me was was
• 48:37
  the initial like this guy, okay, it's a reach, you know.
• 48:43
  So that aspect of it to me was disappointing. Then you kind of you
• 48:46
  kind of dig in a little bit more and you find out who this guy
• 48:49
  is. Sorry, I'm taking a sip of water, and so okay,
• 48:55
  then you find out, all right, he was basically as young as you
• 48:59
  could be for that draft draft class, So you know, you're getting an
• 49:00
  early birthday in that year, so there's still a lot of chance for development.
• 49:05
  He's going to spend one or two more years in Canadian juniors. Maybe
• 49:07
  there's a leap or two in there that you can get excited about him.
• 49:10
  Also, he plays on a team golf I think is how you pronounce it.
• 49:15
  I don't know. I'm not up on my Canadian juniors teams, but
• 49:20
  apparently he was like the only guy worth a damn on that team. So
• 49:23
  he's not surrounded by talent, which is going to help him inflate his stats.
• 49:28
  So that's like, okay, maybe once he gets around talented players,
• 49:31
  it'll bump him up. So you're just kind of at this point, you're
• 49:36
  kind of just trying to grasp onto straws in terms of who this kid is
• 49:39
  and maybe maybe he will be something. So to me, it's just interesting
• 49:45
  because you hear the name at first and your first reaction is disappointment because I've
• 49:51
  never i haven't been reading about this guy. They reached for this kid,
• 49:53
  and then you dig down a little bit more than you see what it is.
• 49:58
  So I'm you know, I'm I'm interested, I'm intrigued. Well,
• 50:00
  we'll see what happens with him. Last thing with the Flyers that I want
• 50:05
  to mention is the fact that you know, it's been pretty slow going free
• 50:09
  agency wise, and I was reading an article before free agency started, and
• 50:15
  it went down each team is like, Okay, this is how much cap
• 50:20
  space they have to spend this year, and all these teams I'm seeing,
• 50:22
  Okay, this team's got eleven million in cap spaces, this team's got thirty
• 50:27
  two thousand, this team's got twenty nine I'm sorry, not thousand million,
• 50:30
  eleven million, twenty nine million, thirty two million. Then I get to
• 50:35
  the Flyers eight hundred thousand. This is before they they got rid of Cam
• 50:38
  Atkinson. That probably freed up some money, but they were the only team
• 50:44
  in professional hockey that didn't have at least a million dollars in cap space.
• 50:47
  So that right there, you're looking at that, you're like, unless they
• 50:51
  trade people, they're not going to be able to sign anybody because they just
• 50:53
  don't have the money. So like, that's the third aspect of the Flyers
• 50:59
  offseas and I just wanted to talk about was really kind of raining things in
• 51:02
  with free agency this year because there's not the space there. There's not the
• 51:07
  cap base there that there's going to be in the coming year here. So
• 51:13
  I just wanted to mention that because like in case you're following NHL free agency
• 51:16
  and you're like, why aren't they signing guys? Oh this sucks, blah
• 51:19
  blah blah, you're just gonna have to Grant and barrin for a year or
• 51:22
  two. And with regard to Flyers free agents, absolutely, So that's I
• 51:24
  just wanted to make sure I, you know, I wanted to articulate that
• 51:28
  it's a great point. It's a really great point. And I think it's
• 51:30
  also important to note that some of the contracts that were signed which really have
• 51:37
  hampered them moving forward in certain aspects of this team. Dead money exactly dead
• 51:44
  money, and a lot, a lot some of that came in terms of
• 51:47
  just some not great contracts from the previous regime too, and they're still trying
• 51:52
  to bounce back from poorer decisions that Chuck Fletcher made. Yeah, Chuck Flesher
• 51:58
  and before so many I've read something and I don't know if it's true or
• 52:01
  not. There's a part of me that thinks that it can't be true,
• 52:04
  and I wish I had researched it more before we started the show. But
• 52:07
  are they still paying Brizzy Alov a couple of million dollars a year? Yeah?
• 52:13
  I don't know if I think so. I don't, Okay, I
• 52:15
  think so, because that's like hockey Bobby Benia contract. Then Bass the case.
• 52:22
  I thought I had seen that somewhere and maybe maybe I just read something
• 52:27
  that was that was false, and I really hope that that would be the
• 52:31
  case. Yeah, so I don't know, we'll see. I remember when
• 52:37
  he signed that contract, I mean, boy back back then. It was
• 52:40
  in twenty eleven. I remember it was like nine years, and it was
• 52:44
  like fifty million or something like that, and he had a cap hit of
• 52:49
  like I don't know, I think it was like five million, or of
• 52:52
  course, like five millions. Anyway, I'm just trying to remember that.
• 52:55
  But I don't think there was any sort of I don't know. I don't
• 53:00
  don't think they're still paying them at this point. I could be mistaken.
• 53:01
  I don't know. Hold on, I'm on cap friendly. That would be
• 53:06
  interesting if they if they are still paying brids Golf's contract for the two thousand,
• 53:10
  are you kidding? Twenty five, twenty six and twenty twenty six,
• 53:14
  twenty seven, they're still paying them one million, six hundred and forty fifty
• 53:20
  dollars a year. Oh my god, Oh my god. Yeah, three
• 53:28
  more seasons. So yeah, that was only hell no, yes, I'm
• 53:31
  actually looking at it on CBS Sports right now. Yeah. It's one point
• 53:36
  six four to three million dollars per year pay out the next fourteen years.
• 53:39
  And that was back in twenty thirteen. So there. Yeah, you're right,
• 53:43
  Yeah, they're gonna be there's gonna be paying them next year too,
• 53:46
  and the year after that. Oh my gosh, this is I'm discussing.
• 53:52
  Yeah, when you're when you're thinking about cap space, there's part of it
• 53:57
  right there. Oh my gosh. Well lend buddy. I'm gonna let you
• 54:00
  go. That was a great way to end our segment there. Geez,
• 54:04
  you got anything else, buddy before before you head out this week. No,
• 54:07
  nothing that's going to top that. Right, sounds good? All right,
• 54:12
  folks, we are gonna take a quick break, and when we get
• 54:14
  back, we got more Flyers talk coming your way. We're gonna get in
• 54:16
  depth with Ryan Quiggly from broad Street Hockey dot Com dive into the flyers a
• 54:22
  little bit more. Let's take that break. We'll be right back. All
• 54:25
  right, we are back. Let's get into more Flyers talk here. We've
• 54:29
  got a great guest coming your way. It's what we're thrown down on the
• 54:31
  table and now on the table, joining us this week from broad Street Hockey
• 54:39
  dot Com. We've had him on before. Wanted to get him back on
• 54:42
  after the draft and what has been happening with this team. I know Lennon
• 54:45
  and I just got done talking briefly about where this Flyers organization is going to
• 54:49
  be going. But it is great to have on the podcast. You can
• 54:52
  follow him on Twitter slash x at Ryanquiggs again from broad Street Hockey dot Com.
• 54:55
  Ryan Quiggly, Buddy, buddy, it's great to see you. Thank
• 54:59
  you so much for taking the time to jump on this week. Thank you
• 55:01
  so much for having me four score and seven years ago. Yes, our
• 55:06
  fathers butt for a new nation. Happy fourth of July July. Yes,
• 55:12
  oh boy, I don't know when this is coming on. I don't know
• 55:14
  when this is being relieved today on Independence Day? Yes, excellent, yes,
• 55:17
  yeah, just so you know, full disclosure before jumping on with you.
• 55:21
  I I did watch the Independence Day speech from the movie Independence Day.
• 55:28
  There you go. It just fires me up, nice, nice, very
• 55:30
  excited. Well, let's get fired up about this Flyers team, this organization
• 55:35
  where they are heading here, because it's been fun. I mean, that's
• 55:37
  what lenn and I were just talking about. It was fun to really just
• 55:43
  dive into the ins and outs of where this off season has been going and
• 55:46
  the overall philosophy with this team, Ryan and the organization where they have actual
• 55:52
  direction I think now at this point. So let's get into what they did
• 55:55
  at the draft this past week. Jet Luchenko was the Flyers for pick of
• 56:00
  this year's draft, and they traded down one spot to the thirteenth overall pick,
• 56:04
  picked up some future assets and some folks, you know, kind of
• 56:07
  scratching their heads a little bit. You know, Lennon and I were just
• 56:09
  talking. He was kind of scratching his head a little bit as well with
• 56:13
  regard to some other talent that was on the board at the time of the
• 56:15
  pick. But at the end of the day, Luchenko is a player who,
• 56:19
  you know, he increases the pace of the game, He's incredibly aggressive,
• 56:22
  and he seems to be potentially that future center that the team is going
• 56:27
  to end up needing. So I wanted to get started on what your thoughts
• 56:30
  are on jet Luchenko and you know, as you reflect on this pick and
• 56:35
  what this pick means for the future of the Flyers, what are your thoughts
• 56:37
  here? Yeah, so I have a little bit of a conflicted opinion here.
• 56:42
  That's how Len was. Yeah, yeah, Like on one hand,
• 56:44
  I think jet Luchenko is a really, really good player, and then on
• 56:47
  the other hand, I don't think I would have taken him there, right,
• 56:51
  because I do think it was a bit of a reach, just because
• 56:54
  you know, you look at some of the players who were available to the
• 56:57
  Flyers, like, of course everyone's going to be comparing jet Luchenko and Zev
• 57:00
  Buuyam, Like that's that's what's going to happen, because Zev was for the
• 57:06
  most part, a consensus top five pick, like some people thought he was
• 57:09
  the best defenseman in the entire draft. So like a lot of people were
• 57:14
  really confused about like why did they not take Zev? Why did they trade
• 57:19
  back? And I mean the return they got was, you know, a
• 57:22
  third round pick from Minnesota in next year's draft, but then they traded that
• 57:25
  away the next day, So like it was. You know, I think
• 57:30
  a lot of people are a little confused about it, but clearly there was
• 57:34
  something about Zev that they just you know, they weren't crazy about. And
• 57:37
  Danny Briere came out I believe it was after night day one of the draft,
• 57:39
  and he basically said, like, listen, a lot of our like
• 57:43
  young blue liners that we have in the pipeline, they're smaller guys like Zev
• 57:46
  Buoyam. He's a smaller guy. Like we want to add a little more
• 57:50
  size to the back end. But like I do think Zeev Buuyam is the
• 57:53
  kind of player where you take that swing, I think he's worth it.
• 57:59
  So yeah, just I mean there's always going to be that comparison, kind
• 58:02
  of like how there's that comparison between Cam York and Cold cough Field. Everyone
• 58:07
  thought the Flyers are gonna draft caw Field and then they even said, you
• 58:09
  know, from the US national development team, and people got all excited at
• 58:14
  the draft party, and then it's like Cam York and everyone was very disappointed.
• 58:17
  Yes, it turns out that he could end up being a better player
• 58:20
  than Cole Coffin. Absolutely absolutely. Yeah. So to answer your question,
• 58:24
  Jet Lachenko is a good player. I would not have taken him where they
• 58:30
  took him, but I do think he's a good player because and you mentioned
• 58:34
  it, he's very insanely fast. He's one of the best skaters in the
• 58:37
  entire draft. With a name like jet, I don't think you have a
• 58:40
  choice, right. So, Like, he's a very very fast skater,
• 58:45
  excellent skating. He is dynamic in the offensive zone, especially in terms of
• 58:52
  playmaking. He's very very good playmaker. And I think with him, you
• 58:58
  know, it's funny that so many people are already just going after this kid
• 59:01
  because because they're mad that he's not zeb. He turns eighteen in August.
• 59:07
  He's not even thirteen years old. Yet he's seventeen. He's literally seventeen years
• 59:10
  old and averaged over point per game on a absolutely dreadful Guelph storm, right.
• 59:15
  So, like that's very impressive, right, And you know, I
• 59:20
  think one of the things that is ironic about this is he plays the type
• 59:23
  of game that Flyers fans are going to absolutely love exactly because he's he's this
• 59:29
  quick, dynamic guy. But he also is just he has the heart of
• 59:32
  a lion kind of he's he's been compared to Travis like a center version of
• 59:37
  Travis connecting right, and that is an exciting, you know idea. I
• 59:43
  love the idea of a player like that being on the Flyers. So will
• 59:45
  he stick at center long term? That I don't know. I mean,
• 59:50
  you see a lot of players get drafted as centers and then they get shifted
• 59:52
  to wing and then they have a whole career at wings. So I don't
• 59:54
  know if he's like a career center, but like, at the very least,
• 59:59
  the Flyer's clear, have you know, hope that he could be a
• 1:00:02
  long term fixture down the middle of the ice for them. The folks in
• 1:00:07
  Flyers Nation that are always down on everything this organization does. It's like,
• 1:00:10
  why are you a Flyers fan? The rebuild is still happening. And that
• 1:00:15
  brings us to the next topic with Jack Bergland. I mean, he was
• 1:00:19
  the flyer second pick of this draft here fifty first overall, he's another center
• 1:00:23
  too, and it really seemed obvious Ryan what the Flyer's front office was trying
• 1:00:28
  to do with this pick. In fact, the first two picks prioritized talent
• 1:00:32
  down the middle for future years. What were your thoughts on the Bergland pick
• 1:00:37
  as well? As it pertains to, you know, just focusing on the
• 1:00:40
  center position and what this team needs to do in the middle of the ice.
• 1:00:45
  Yeah, I will say that Jack Bergland pick was one pick where I
• 1:00:49
  was like, oh, okay, you know, like that one I wasn't
• 1:00:53
  completely sure about. I'll be honest, I didn't know a ton about him
• 1:00:57
  going in and that, you know, towards the second third round, that's
• 1:01:00
  where I start like hearing guys names or I'm just like, huh, I
• 1:01:02
  don't really know too much about this dude. But you know, he played
• 1:01:07
  a little bit in the SHL last season, played eight games, only had
• 1:01:10
  one point, it was a goal. But like you know, in the
• 1:01:15
  for the U twenty team in Sweden he had thirty four points forty one games.
• 1:01:21
  So like he has produced, I would like to see a little bit
• 1:01:24
  more production. It's not like, you know, this mind blowing production that
• 1:01:28
  he's had over in Sweden against players essentially his age. So I think the
• 1:01:34
  scouts believe that he may have a higher ceiling for whatever reason. Do you
• 1:01:37
  know what I mean that that? Yeah, the scouts are le I think
• 1:01:39
  we need to rely on the scouts a little bit more here with this pick.
• 1:01:43
  Because they're seeing something I think some of us probably are not seeing at
• 1:01:45
  this point. They really like his two way play. That's one thing.
• 1:01:50
  And that's something that like, of course, like historically the Flyers have loved
• 1:01:53
  a good two way center. I mean, you look at Travis or nutrimps
• 1:01:57
  connecting, you look at Sean Couturier. Yeah, and of course, like
• 1:02:00
  and he's an excellent player, He's phenomenal. You can see what you want
• 1:02:02
  about last season, but he was coming off basically a two year hiatus.
• 1:02:06
  So whatever, I don't care. But like, you know, I'll give
• 1:02:08
  it to him as like a mulligan. But yeah, like they love a
• 1:02:13
  good two way center, and it seems like Jack Bergland could be that.
• 1:02:16
  Now does he have the potential to be, like, you know, a
• 1:02:20
  franchise center. I don't think so, right, I don't think he could
• 1:02:23
  ever be. I don't think he'll develop into a one C. But you
• 1:02:29
  know, I mean, well, clearly they see something in him. They
• 1:02:31
  seem to like his size. You know, he's a little bit bigger at
• 1:02:35
  six foot three, so they seem to want a little bit more size down
• 1:02:38
  the middle too. So yeah, that was an interesting pick that I wasn't
• 1:02:43
  totally crazy about, but you know, I think there were some worst picks
• 1:02:47
  during the draft. I'm not going to absolutely kill the Flyers for this one,
• 1:02:52
  but yeah, just because you know, I look around and I see
• 1:02:54
  Jesse pulkin In's there, I see Lucas Fisher's there, and those guys are
• 1:02:58
  both you know, I think they have a ton of upside as defensemen.
• 1:03:02
  They're not centers, but their defenseman with size, which of course is something
• 1:03:06
  that the Flyers are prioritizing. So I think they had other options. They
• 1:03:09
  want the Bergland route and we'll see how it turns out. I feel like
• 1:03:14
  coming out of this draft Ryan that I'm feeling a sense of positivity for whatever
• 1:03:21
  reason. And I don't know if it's a sense of positivity where Danny Brier
• 1:03:24
  hasn't truly screwed anything up yet, something that we've been used to over so
• 1:03:29
  many years within this Flyers organization, and quite frankly like I think this could
• 1:03:34
  be a good draft in the years to come with certain contributors coming up to
• 1:03:38
  coming up to Philly. I like the philosophy that Danny Brier is brought to
• 1:03:42
  the organization in terms of team building, culture, building as well. So
• 1:03:45
  I guess to wrap up our draft talk here, are there any other players
• 1:03:49
  that were drafted that kind of stood out to you as potentially being contributors in
• 1:03:52
  the future and part of that team and culture build. Yeah, I think
• 1:03:58
  one guy that I really joy or one pick that I really have, you
• 1:04:02
  know, some high hopes for Spencer Gill. I think he has the potential
• 1:04:08
  to turn out to be a pretty solid NHL defenseman. So, of course
• 1:04:12
  there's the glaring thing. He's big. He's six foot four. Yes,
• 1:04:16
  he needs to put on considerable weight. He's only one hundred and eighty five
• 1:04:20
  pounds, so he's quite literally a stick figure. He's away from Yes,
• 1:04:25
  yes he's very very thin, but you know, much like jet Luchenko,
• 1:04:30
  he's really really young. He's still seventeen as well. He doesn't turn eight.
• 1:04:33
  He's not a legal adult in the United States until August seventeenth, so
• 1:04:39
  he's you know, there's gonna be quite a bit of a growth spurt,
• 1:04:43
  I would think weight wise from him, and possibly even height wise. But
• 1:04:46
  what's interesting about him they took him in the second round. What's interesting about
• 1:04:50
  him is he has legitimate offensive tools that could make him quite an exciting player
• 1:04:58
  on the NHL. Now, not one that's gonna be I don't want to
• 1:05:01
  say he'll be like a cal mccarr or something like that, but you know,
• 1:05:04
  forty six points in sixty five games in the QMGHL, which is very
• 1:05:08
  impressive. Yah. Yeah, especially as a defenseman, and especially as a
• 1:05:13
  seventeen year old defenseman who's clearly his body's going through all sorts of crazy things
• 1:05:17
  just because his weight hasn't caught up to his height yet. Right. But
• 1:05:23
  I think he has a player. I think he has a chance to be
• 1:05:26
  a legitimately good NHL player one day, assuming he does fill out, and
• 1:05:30
  assuming he does just kind of further hone in on his his skills and kind
• 1:05:33
  of build on what he already has. So yeah, I think he's a
• 1:05:38
  really, really exciting player. I don't want to say like, oh,
• 1:05:41
  he'll be in the NHL in two years, because I don't think he will.
• 1:05:44
  I think he's a long term investment. I think he's someone you see
• 1:05:45
  like three, four or five years down the road, yep. But I
• 1:05:49
  think he has some serious potential and I think, you know, aside from
• 1:05:54
  the jet Lachenko pick, which I want to reemphasize, I like the pick,
• 1:05:58
  right right. I like that. I think Spencer Gill, second to
• 1:06:03
  Lichenko, has the highest upside here. I think I think he really has
• 1:06:08
  a chance here. So that's exciting for me. Again, folks, we're
• 1:06:11
  talking to Ryan Quigley from Broadstreet Hockey dot Com. I'm a subscriber over there
• 1:06:15
  and you should as well if you enjoy some great hockey content. Broadstreet Hockey
• 1:06:19
  dot com. They got a lot of great stuff going on, a lot
• 1:06:21
  of great content as well, and you can follow Ryan on the Twitter slash
• 1:06:28
  x at Ryan Quiggs. He is a great, great follow And again going
• 1:06:32
  back to Ryan, the direction that this organization is going in at this point,
• 1:06:38
  and the greatest news I think that any of US Flyers fans could have
• 1:06:42
  heard is the fact that matt Vey Metchkov is now officially signed with this Flyers
• 1:06:47
  team and organization. It's incredibly exciting to see this aspect of the Flyers process
• 1:06:54
  kind of sped up by about two years here. I mean, from an
• 1:06:57
  overall perspective, I think it has to be really noted that Danny Brier in
• 1:07:01
  the front office, how they handle this situation. I mentioned it with Lynn
• 1:07:04
  before bringing you on how they've handled this situation in a very professional and focused
• 1:07:10
  way. Had it been the previous front office and general manager, I'm not
• 1:07:14
  sure if things would have gone so smoothly, quite frankly, but I mean,
• 1:07:17
  how should we be looking at this situation as it pertains to Mitchikoff and
• 1:07:21
  the Flyer's future. We're excited as fans, I know, all fans are
• 1:07:25
  excited to see him sooner rather than later. Last time your colleague Kelly Hinkel
• 1:07:30
  was on, we were talking about the prospects of when he would be coming
• 1:07:32
  over and what those expectations should be. I mean, he's not gonna be
• 1:07:35
  dominant right off the bat, folks, Like, let's let's understand that he's
• 1:07:39
  not going to be mister dominant, winning, you know, player of the
• 1:07:42
  Year and all that you know in the NHL. But it's exciting, It
• 1:07:45
  really is exciting. So excuse me, how should we be looking at this
• 1:07:48
  situation as it pertains to the Flyer's future here? I mean, to me,
• 1:07:53
  there's no other ways to look at it other than this is one of
• 1:07:57
  the most exciting developments in Flyers' history over the last twenty five years. Yeah,
• 1:08:03
  I mean, I really can't. Yeah, I really can't, because,
• 1:08:06
  like everyone, you know, I've heard a lot of people saying,
• 1:08:10
  like, this is the most excited I've been about the Flyers since Eric Lindross,
• 1:08:15
  like since they've brought since they traded for Lindraws. So like it's it's
• 1:08:18
  huge, and it does speed up this rebuild. Now, one thing I
• 1:08:21
  do want to emphasize is this is still a rebuild. This is still half.
• 1:08:28
  To emphasize that, we have to tell people it's still a rebuild.
• 1:08:30
  I mean, you know, whenever Mitchkalf does start playing, like I said,
• 1:08:32
  it's not going to be pure dominance right off the bat. There's going
• 1:08:35
  to need to be chemistry. There's going to need to establish that chemistry,
• 1:08:39
  establish the culture. You know, a lot of things need to come into
• 1:08:43
  place in terms of this puzzle piece. But it's exciting. Yeah, No,
• 1:08:46
  I mean, you know, you just kind of said it. He's
• 1:08:48
  not going to come in and immediately be like a Heart Trophy candidate r exactly.
• 1:08:53
  It's literally not gonna happen. But like there is a chance that he
• 1:08:56
  comes in and like you know, I think reasonably he could maybe put up
• 1:09:00
  forty fifty if he's you know, if he's just going berserk, maybe he
• 1:09:03
  could throw you know, sixty points out there, but like, you know,
• 1:09:08
  I think realistically he would probably be like a forty to fifty point player.
• 1:09:11
  And he's The thing is is like it's just the idea that the Flyers
• 1:09:16
  finally have this high end, skilled, dynamic offensive talent. Like we've seen
• 1:09:21
  what he's done, We've seen his Michigan goals. He's creative, he's exciting.
• 1:09:26
  He does something that no Flyer that I can think of, is like
• 1:09:30
  I haven't seen that kind of creativity before at Flyer. So like it's a
• 1:09:33
  really really exciting development here. I was not expecting him to come over early,
• 1:09:39
  Like if you ask me, I think on my podcast Play Purbole with
• 1:09:43
  Steve Jaco, we discussed, you know, is he going to come over
• 1:09:46
  a couple months back before all the you know, rumors started coming out.
• 1:09:49
  I was like, no, he's not come over early, just like,
• 1:09:54
  you know, don't fall for the bait or whatever. And then I'm happy
• 1:09:58
  to be proven wrong. I'm I'm very happy to be proven wrong because like
• 1:10:01
  listen covering the team you want to see if you want to cover a fun
• 1:10:04
  team to watch, right and lately, there hasn't been much fun to you
• 1:10:10
  know, be had watching the Philadelphia Flyers. It seems last season that started
• 1:10:15
  to change. They were even though they didn't make the playoffs and they had
• 1:10:18
  that horrible collapse late in the season, they were fun to watch. Like
• 1:10:23
  I enjoyed watching the Flyers last season, and now, you know, all
• 1:10:27
  things considered, it does seem like for the most part, who's to say
• 1:10:30
  what they could do between now and the start of the season, it does
• 1:10:31
  seem like they're running it back with most of the team, just with Mitchikov
• 1:10:38
  in the fold. Yes, so, and I'm that's exciting. So I
• 1:10:41
  guess long story short, don't expect the Flyers to all of a sudden become
• 1:10:45
  like this, you know, this juggernaut team. Because they have this Russian
• 1:10:47
  superstar player, They're going to I think be roughly where they were last season.
• 1:10:56
  And well, we'll see what happens. But the main thing that don't
• 1:11:00
  even think about the Flyers this year. If like, be excited about the
• 1:11:02
  Flyers, but be more excited just the fact that mitchgov is here. You
• 1:11:06
  get to watch a player who is the future of this franchise blossom into what
• 1:11:11
  he will be for his entire career, and that's just it's so exciting to
• 1:11:15
  be able to see that. It's a great segue into the last topic I
• 1:11:17
  wanted to dive into with you, Ryan, which is that you know,
• 1:11:21
  even though the Flyers I signed a couple more deals over this past weekend,
• 1:11:25
  you know, lower base contracts, guys like Eric Johnson, Garrett Hathaway,
• 1:11:29
  you know, they're not making any huge splashes. Lenn and I were talking
• 1:11:30
  about the salary cap limits that they have. They had something like eight hundred
• 1:11:34
  thousand left with regard to the cap that they could spend. I mean,
• 1:11:38
  this is a team that has some pretty bad contracts that have been signed in
• 1:11:42
  previous regimes that you know, there's still dead cap money that's being paid out.
• 1:11:46
  I couldn't believe it. Lenn and I are talking about the fact that
• 1:11:48
  Brisgolov is still getting money from this organization. I didn't realized. I didn't
• 1:11:53
  even realize it still, I mean, at least for another couple of years
• 1:11:57
  as well. But regardless of that, I just feel good as a fan
• 1:12:00
  where this team and this organization is heading. Where this team's gonna head in
• 1:12:04
  twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five, Like you said, from a blossoming
• 1:12:08
  standpoint, whether mitchkov is going to be on the ice, how long he's
• 1:12:11
  going to be on the ice, type of impact he's gonna have, but
• 1:12:13
  how other members of this team are also going to continue to develop and blossom
• 1:12:16
  during this rebuild. I'm really feeling good about it. Are you feeling the
• 1:12:20
  same way? Why are I not here? Yeah? No, I mean
• 1:12:25
  I think you absolutely have to feel good about it because, like we kind
• 1:12:29
  of talked about it earlier, like the Flyers are very much still in their
• 1:12:31
  rebuild, and all their actions are kind of confirming that. Like if they
• 1:12:35
  were actually going for it and actually trying to, you know, compete right
• 1:12:41
  now, they would have gone out and they would have been in the running
• 1:12:44
  for a Steven Stamkos or like a Jonathan Marciuso or something like that. And
• 1:12:48
  the fact that they have just kind of stood pat and they're like, listen,
• 1:12:51
  we're going to bring back these lower level guys like you mentioned, like
• 1:12:56
  Eric Johnson's back. It's like he's making a sense no money, right,
• 1:13:00
  who care? Honestly, Honestly, people are up in arms about that.
• 1:13:03
  They really are, Like, truly, what does this change. He wasn't
• 1:13:06
  given a multi year, multimillion dollar contract. That's the I'm down. Yeah.
• 1:13:12
  And then the same thing with Garnet Hathaway. I saw a lot of
• 1:13:15
  people like kind of losing their minds about like why did you resign halfway?
• 1:13:17
  And it's just listen, Garnet Hathaway. I can tell you why. He's
• 1:13:21
  a good player. Like he's good. He's not like going to put up
• 1:13:25
  thirty goals every year, but like he's a really good fourth line player.
• 1:13:29
  I think he's very I think his contract that he got it's an extension.
• 1:13:32
  Yeah, Like could it teeter off toward the end when he's in his like
• 1:13:36
  mid to late thirties, Like yeah, maybe, But like for the most
• 1:13:40
  part, he's a good player. Why not keep a good player around?
• 1:13:45
  If you have a good player, why lose him, you know what I
• 1:13:46
  mean, especially if you can get him at a pretty low price point like
• 1:13:48
  he's at. So I feel like some of Flyer's Nation before I let you
• 1:13:51
  go, Ryan, like, I feel like some in Flyer's Nation are kind
• 1:13:54
  of like some in Phillies Nation who are just looking for things to complain about
• 1:13:58
  it at this point are fun, exciting and it's great to be a fan
• 1:14:02
  of the team. This is what we see with certain people. They're just
• 1:14:05
  complaining and looking for things to complain about. Yeah, like it seems like
• 1:14:09
  things have just been so positive. Yes, liars fan base. Recently they're
• 1:14:13
  like, wait a minute, like this isn't right exactly. It's it's like
• 1:14:17
  some PTSD or something like that. Yeah, coming to life. So again,
• 1:14:21
  folks, Ryan Quigley, Broadstreet Hockey dot Com again, listen to them
• 1:14:26
  on the Fly Purble podcast as well. Buddy, it was great talking to
• 1:14:30
  you. Thank you so much for taking the time to jump on our podcast
• 1:14:33
  here, and I hope to talk to you down the road, my friend,
• 1:14:36
  of course. Thank you, Jeff. It's been a pleasure and that's
• 1:14:40
  gonna do it for us this week. Make sure to share the Philadelphia Sports
• 1:14:44
  Table podcast show with your friends and family members who may be Philly sports fans.
• 1:14:46
  You can always head on over to Philadelphia Sports Table dot com to access
• 1:14:50
  all of our podcasts or any major podcast platform on your device. We appreciate
• 1:14:56
  our guests taking the time to join us every week to help make this podcast
• 1:15:00
  happen and to give us great content, and ultimately we appreciate you, take
• 1:15:04
  care and have a great week, and we'll catch you next time.