Nick Piccone
For hockey fans out there, yesterday was a roller coaster of emotions. Flyers Twitter went nuts, and the Flyers didn’t even make any moves.
It began when the Edmonton Oilers sent Taylor Hall, a former 2010 first overall draft pick, to the New Jersey Devils in return for defenseman Adam Larsson. Larsson was the fourth overall pick of the 2011 NHL Draft, so I guess people in the Edmonton front office thought this was an even trade.
But hockey fans and experts were dumbfounded alike when the news was confirmed. Hall addressed the media after the trade, and it doesn’t sound like he was happy about it. [CBC]
It’s tough,” the 24-year-old Hall said in a conference call. “I have a pretty deep connection to the city of Edmonton. I felt I did everything I could there so it’s pretty hard not to feel slighted, not to feel a little disappointed with the way everything shook out. That’s hockey.”
What seemed to bother Hall most was that he felt that the trade focused the blame on him for the team’s losing seasons.
“I don’t want to sound like I am not excited to join New Jersey,” Hall said. “That’s not the case. I’m a proud person and I take this as an indictment of me as a hockey player. I don’t think there is any other way to treat it. I think it’s safe to say I am a very motivated player right now.”
Unfortunately, the Devils are a division foe and Hall’s newfound motivation – as if he needed any – might spell trouble for the Flyers regardless of who’s on the blue line. Might.
…
Moments after Hall and Larsson were swapped, another one-for-one swap occurred, this one even more mind-boggling than the first. The Montreal Canadiens sent defenseman P.K. Subban, who we hated but respected, to the Nashville Predators to join our former coach Peter Laviolette in exchange for Shea Weber. Yep, that same Shea Weber that agreed to an offer sheet of $110 million over 14 years with the Flyers four years ago that the Predators matched. It didn’t cripple the franchise, but Weber’s play hasn’t been the same since. With the Predators letting Ryan Suter walk and trading Seth Jones, many thought they’d never get rid of Weber since he was valuable enough for them to match the Flyers’ offer sheet. But now he’s a Canadien.
Subban is averaging $9 million per season on the five years left on his contract, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Nashville extends him to try and decrease the cap hit a little bit. Weber’s $7.8 million cap hit may look better, but there are some experts out there who think he’s already played his prime years and is already on the downswing.
I don’t watch enough Predators games to make that statement, but Weber is a big physical presence who can quarterback the power play. It remains to be seen how the Canadiens use him, but one thing’s for sure – he won’t be better than P.K. Subban.
There has been some allegations that the Canadiens didn’t like Subban’s “character issues” off the ice. That’s interesting, because according to mostly everyone, Subban was a model citizen, helping the city in as many ways as he could. On his own. And that apparently rubbed the Canadiens the wrong way.
Stuart Ashton, 44, one of the owners of McLean’s Pub, said Subban wore out his welcome with Habs management.
“In all honestly, I think the fans still love P.K. I don’t think he’s burned any bridges that way. But with management it didn’t work.
“P.K. was doing his own thing in a lot of ways. When it came to the basketball event (with Snoop Dogg) he was trying to organize, or when it came to the hospital donation, he wasn’t working with the team. He was working on his own. For a lot of the Montreal Canadiens brass, that was burning bridges.”
Canadien fans aren’t happy. Some might be trying to justify it to make themselves feel better, kind of like how I did when Jeff Carter and Mike Richards were traded. Except those trades landed integral parts of the core of the Flyers right now. So I at least could see a light at the end of the long tunnel. Canadiens and Oilers fans can’t see much right now.
With both of yesterday’s trades being almost completely lopsided, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall was nowhere to be found. I mean, I’m sure people saw him, but he wasn’t wheelin’ and dealin’ during one of the craziest few hours in NHL history. Free agency begins tomorrow and it doesn’t look like the Flyers are going to make huge moves. They shouldn’t. They’re in a great spot. They had a very good draft and have some young guys coming up next season to join an already exciting young core.
Could they use star power? Sure. But Hextall’s smart enough not to overpay for it. The Flyers have almost $12 million in cap space right now, but still will probably re-sign Brayden Schenn, Nick Cousins, Jordan Weal, Brandon Manning and Petr Straka, who are all restricted free agents and who the Flyers have already made qualifying offers to. They’ll make a few other moves, too. Steven Stamkos is staying in Tampa Bay, so that pipe dream is over. And that’s probably a blessing in disguise, because he won’t be coming to the Metro.
So what will the Flyers do? Will they target a big free agent? Are there any real big free agents?
I’m not so sure. But that doesn’t mean Hextall isn’t doing his homework. He knows they need scoring help to go with a healthy Claude Giroux, a healthy Jakub Voracek and a beast in Wayne Simmonds.
I’m excited for next season.