Nolan.

Let’s hit it!

 

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The roundup:

The Flyers traded Brayden Schenn on Friday:

The Philadelphia Flyers acquired the 27th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft along with center Jori Lehtera and a conditional 1st round pick in 2018 from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for forward Brayden Schenn.

The conditions of the 2018 1st round pick are as follows:

If St. Louis’ 2018 1st round pick is in the Top 10, they have the option to defer to their 2019 1st round pick. If they defer to 2019, then the Flyers also receive St. Louis’ 3rd round pick in 2020.

With the 27th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, the Flyers selected forward Morgan Frost, from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League.

I’ve got to be honest– I don’t fully understand the deal. I know you never go full Brookover, but allow me to weigh in while not totally grasping the point of this.

I understand Brayden Schenn is oft-maligned as a two-way player and that his CORSI 5-on-5 is not good. He was second on the team with 25 goals last season. His 17 power play goals led the league! He had three years left on his deal with a $5.1 million cap hit. Setting aside the two first round picks the Flyers got in return (WE’LL GET TO THEM IN A SECOND!), he will be replaced on the roster by Lehtera, who scored a total of seven – SEVEN! – goals last season (0 on the power play). He has a similar cap hit of $4.7 million and has two years left on his deal.

Granted, trading Schenn makes room for Nolan Patrick since the Flyers have a glut of centers, and getting back two first round picks for Schenn is, in theory, quite the haul. But I just fail to see the Flyers’ aim here. Unlike basketball, where there is much more of a direct line from high first round draft picks to success, grabbing a couple of late-first round draft picks in hockey hardly guarantees landing a star player or even someone of Schenn’s caliber, and that’s before you consider the short-term impact.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with trading Brayden Schenn – at all – but this feels like a poor way to have done it. I would’ve rather gotten one first round pick back and a player who can more adequately fill Schenn’s roster spot now or provide cap relief. With their core of Giroux, Simmonds, Voracek, Couturier and Schenn, the Flyers have one won playoff series in six seasons. Clearly they are lacking in talent. And while no one would confuse the them with legit Cup contenders, in hockey you don’t need to undertake the same sort of tanking process in order to build a contender. A team like the Flyers, with its deep pockets, clout, fan base and so on should be able to more easily put a competitive team on the ice while still rebuilding (this is what many claim the Phillies should be doing now). Trading Schenn and his 17 power play goals is a hit on near-term production, without question. A Schenn for Lehtera swap, even to make room for Patrick, makes the Flyers worse in the near-term and hardly guarantees that they’re better in the long-term with two late first round picks, one of which (Frost) came in a relatively down draft year.

Charlie O’Connor of Broad Street Hockey distills the essence of the trade:

And this is where the Flyers’ current situation comes into play. The heart of this deal is an assumption from Hextall that the short term downgrade from Schenn to Lehtera is outweighed by the long-term value of two additional first round picks. If the Flyers were in the hunt for a Stanley Cup title, this wouldn’t be a smart move to make, as maximizing on-ice value in the here and now wins out in those situations. But no one is realistically expecting a team that missed the playoffs last season and will be breaking in between three and six rookies to be a title contender in 2017-18.

Still, what is their plan? Giroux, Simmons and Voracek will essentially have their primes wasted if they remain the core of a mediocre team. This trade would’ve made more sense had it brought with it some cap relief, which would’ve given the Flyers the flexibility to build a team a bit more conventionally for the next few seasons. Rather, they got quite honestly a pretty shitty player who is at best comparable to Schenn 5-on-5 with none of the power play upside and a nearly identical cap hit. People who laud the trade are the same type of people who care very much about the cap, and if I were to have told them before Friday that the Flyers’ fourth-highest cap hit would be on a guy who had 7 goals, 15 assists and was a -6 playing alongside Vladimir Tarasenko on a playoff team last year, they would’ve positively lost their shit. There’s nothing sound or reasonable about that. The two first round picks help alleviate the stale taste from the player swap, but I am still having a hard time justifying this, or seeing the vision here.

 

Kevin Durant does not like the FEDS and with him I concur:

https://twitter.com/SInow/status/879072119887458306

 

Allen Iverson, who is playing in the Big 3, WHOSE GAMES ARE TAPED, is on the cover of Sports Illustrated and you can read the article here.

 

Speaking of covers…

 

Andrew Brandt writes about tanking in business.

 

Jordan Spieth:

 

Jillian Mele golfed in front of Phil Mickelson:

https://twitter.com/MickelsonHat/status/879314861095878660

 

Keep in mind, Lonzo will get a lot of action solely for being Lonzo:

 

The Phillies lost their last five games.

 

How the American diet has changed over the last 52 years.

 

DOCUMENTARY RECOMMENDATION: I am not becoming a vegan anytime soon, but What The Health on Netflix is absolutely tremendous and one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. You should watch.

 

The case for Joel Embiid to be Rookie of the Year:

 

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