OK, first of all– let’s talk about Marcus Hayes being welcomed back to the vaunted Newhouse School of Communications, which has somehow convinced the world that learning how to talk on TV and write about sports requires you spend a premium to live in upstate New York for four years and embrace a snake in human form, Jim Boeheim. I wonder if the moderator will introduce Hayes as a sportswriter, or a tenured dolt with poop for a head who actively damages his dying publication with needlessly angry missives that massage his own ego? Whatever. Marcus is speaking in Syracuse tomorrow about what it’s like to work in a town like Philly, conveniently the day after his latest ostensible troll piece:

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But.

I agree with him.

Full sentences:

At this stage of the Flyers’ rebuild they have to at least consider trading their captain. They don’t have to shop him, and they don’t have to kick him out of that door he opened, but they do have to listen if their phones ring.

Look, no one wants this to happen. Giroux has wonderful hands and great feet. He’s got eyes in the back of his head, and on both sides, too. When he’s 80 percent healthy he is a joy to watch; at 100 percent, he’s a genius.

Why waste genius?

Next season the Flyers will have five or six players with three years’ experience or less. Why watch Giroux’s skills erode while the kids learn how to play? He’s a magician on skates, but he isn’t doing anything but card tricks until the cavalry arrives, if it ever does. And, frankly, he’s never carried the team anywhere on his own. They haven’t won a playoff series since he became captain, which was five seasons and three coaches ago.

The organization has a ready-made replacement as captain in Wayne Simmonds, an ascending All-Star who will cost them less than $10 million, total, for the next twoseasons. Wouldn’t it be nice to have cap room ready when the Wayne Train pulls its boxcars up to the vault?

Few things:

  1. Any sane Flyers fan will admit that trading beloved Giroux may be the best-case scenario for the team. As Marcus said (oh God I’m agreeing with him), G is a good if not great player, but Peter Laviolette ruined him by calling him the “best player in the world.” He’s not. Not close. Don’t get me wrong, I love G, but he’d be a really good second or third scoring option, and a power play sniper, on a great team (similar to how Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were good pieces on those Kings teams). It’s unfair to ask Giroux to be the captain, leader, and best player on any team, let alone one with massive holes and continuing goaltending problems. The Flyers might not be able to get enough value to justify trading him, but they should absolutely listen.
  2. Just when I thought Marcus flushed the fecal matter off his cranium, he goes and calls Wayne Simmons an “ascending All-Star” and argues that the Flyers should make him their captain and open the vault to him at age the 31, the same age that Hayes argues Giroux will begin his decline. First of all, Simmonds is a good scorer, but he’s hardly “ascending.” His last four seasons have been virtually identical. Second, most of Hayes’ points about Giroux apply to Simmonds: He would be a really good second or third option on a great team. He’s not a premium talent, perhaps not the best choice to be a captain, and when his contract is up in two years, he, too, will have his best years behind him. I suspect I know why Hayes favors Simmonds over Giroux, but that’s a discussion for another day.
  3. Giroux has a no-movement clause, and like Hayes pointed out, he said he won’t waive it. So this may all be for naught. But I imagine there is a landing spot that would appeal to him.

The bottom line is: You can remove Giroux and Simmonds entirely from this discussion and just point out that the Flyers have two really good players – not great ones – that they count on to be their leaders. And until they get two full scoring lines, and figure out a sustainable goaltending situation, they aren’t going to contend for anything.