I have an idea: Let's organize a flash mob. We'll all gather at the Sunoco on Pattison Avenue Friday morning. We bring with us three things: pitchforks, drums, and trumpets. At high noon, we'll begin a march toward The Well, crossing over Broad in a festive and ironic fashion. If, by this point, Paul Holmgren has yet to sign Steven Stamkos or another suitable replacement for El Capitan, we'll hurl our pitchforks at the windows of The Well (to the sweat drop down our balls, to all these bitch… never mind). If luck is on our side, one of them will find the lap of Homer. However, should our hit-man sign an impact player, we'll bang our drums and blow our trumpets while a homeless guy we paid in free t-shirts holds up a stuffed-toy lion named Simba. This will be our offering to the man who turned Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, and Darroll Powe into Ilya Bryzgalov, Brayden Shenn, and Steven Stamkos.
It could happen, folks… at least according to Frank Seravalli: [Philly.com]
As it stands now, with negotiations in the works for Ville Leino and restricted free agents Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek, the Flyers have approximately $8.3 million in salary-cap space, with Michael Leighton stashed in the AHL.
That's enough to do some serious damage on the free-agent market. Or, if you're reading the tea leaves along with me, maybe even the restricted free-agent market.
Two different team sources reiterated last night that the Flyers would be very interested in Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos if he remains on the market on Friday morning.
As I mentioned last week, there has to be some reason why the Flyers are dumping so much salary. If Holmgren is somehow able to pull a rabbit out of his ass (is that how the saying goes?), all the anger – which I would say is prevalent in about half of you – over Judgement Day will disappear. Gone. Vanished. Mike who? Your morning what?
Seravalli is rather confident in his two sources, who tell him that the Flyers would love to land Stamkos, and the past week's moves were merely a way to do so.
Will it happen? Maybe.
Maybe not.
That's why we’ll bring both pitchforks and instruments of joy on Friday. See you at the pumps.
58 Responses
holmgren is not RAJ. he is a paul coffey/deNiro look a like.
“i killed a man with a trident”
Signing stamkos would be gigantic and epic all at the same time. Gm of the year worthy type move. It is, and will always be, unconsiable what homer did to Richards. While I’m ok with the moves, the more I think of it and settle with things, the more I’m not ok with the handeling of the situation. Signing stamkos would be be great. But “Mike Who?”. I don’t think so. He’s Mike Richards, #18.
it would be amazing and i am looking forward to Friday to see if anything like this will happen. Secondly i like the simba reference
Andrew. Act like Stamkos wouldnt change your mind about richards completely.. cmon now.
Forget Stamkos. It’s on the cover the EA Sports NHL12…isn’t that bad karma…LOL
Let’s not get crazy. There’s no way Tampa Bay lets Stamkos get away, so let’s just relax and turn all of this positive energy back into anger-flash-mob-like hatred.
no way they are getting stamkos.
If it happens, Holmgren can take his place in the annals of Philly Sports lore, right along side RAJ as the dudes who makes ballsy moves and run shit like bosses.
I get a tiny orgasm every time I think about Brayden Schenn on a line with Steven Stamkos in orange and black. You could put Angelo Cataldi as the third man on that line and I guarantee he would have 30+ goals.
Bad karma only comes with Madden. Patrick Kane was on the cover when the Hawks won last year…
God you people need to remove Mike Richards’ dick out of your mouths and use some common sense. If we get Stamkos, this team is going to the finals. No doubt.
And to say that Tampa won’t let him go is a bit shortsighted especially with all the money they have tied up and there are reports today that he and Tampa are far apart in negotiations.
I see no way at all that the Flyers sign Stamkos, none at all. It is just too drastic even for Homer…just too nuts, I dont want us to end up like the Devils, handicapped by one players incredible long term expensive contract….
I just dont see it guys, not even a little bit…
WE DON’T HAVE THAT MUCH CAP SPACE.
Half of what we cleared went to Ilya, the rest and then some went to Schenn and the yet to be established new contracts for Simmonds and Voracek. We’ll have like 4-5 million to either sign Leino and a D or get another forward. NOT 8-10 million for Stamkos unless we’re giving up a lot of salary the other way rather than a simple offer sheet.
I did more research and realized there is a slightly more real change TB loses Stamkos. Mostly the obscene amount of $ still owed to Vinny and St. Louis.
But either way, if the front office doesn’t hop off Leino, we might end up paying him the 4 mil he wants. That could mean serious trouble in Operation: Stamkos
It could happen. He wants out of Tampa. They are so far off on money. Why do you think he tanked at the end of last year? He’s pissed and wants out. Their gonna make him an offer Tampa CAN’T match.
If we get stamkos i will attend this rally friday electric guitar in hand & play some crazy solo and hop around on one leg like angus young from acdc :):):):)
FOUR 1st Round picks if we sign Stamkos to an offer sheet if his salary is over 7 mil. Is he really worth that? Is he really that complete of a player? I don’t think it’s worth it.
Would be cool but not practical at all..
1. Per the RFA Rules of the NHL:
– Signing a restricted free agent to a contract worth over $6,539,062 per year costs a team four first-round draft picks.
Isnt this what this whole offseason was about for the Flyers? not going for the big name FA and trading the farm and building through the draft for once?
2. The cap is misleading they still need to sign a winger or resign leino(who wants 3.5mil to 4mil) and vorack, simmons being RFA technically have not signed contracts and are not on the cap yet. Also Lappy can not be put on LTIR until the season starts so thats roughly 1mil in room not available.
3. We have no 3rd line center and still need to sign one. Assuming Briere, G, and betts we have no 3rd line shutdown center and if Schenn fills that role he comes with a 3mil+ cap hit because of bonuses. AKA no room for stamkos
@Eric- you can’t blame people for being upset their favorite team traded a top 25 player in the NHL for a player who is supposed to be come the exact player he was traded for (read up on him- all the comparisons are that he will be the next Mike Richards).
Like I’ve said before, though, IF they get Stamkos, it’s worth it. The ONLY other free agent that would have been worth it would have been Shea Weber, but the Preds offered him arbitration so that is off the table. It has to be Stamkos or the trade of Richards just was not worth it.
it would be quite stunning if they could get stamkos, who is one the best young scorers in the NHL, but i don’t see it happening. Would we sign him to a 10 year deal and then trade him 3 years in.
It would be awesome to see him in Orange and Black though
Carter & Richards were both underachieving. They became too co-dependent with one another and didn’t play as hard as they should. I look at both trades as long term steals. Voracek has 25-30 goal potential, Simmonds has 20-25 potential and Schenn could be another Giroux. Plus, having the ability to keep Leino and add Bryzgalov, people need to look at the whole picture. We’ve never been a team who’s relied on a few players for scoring, so they won’t be missed as much as people think.
If they sign brad richards, make him captain, and he wears #18, well then, I guess we could move on…. 🙂
I have this to say also…
I’m betting these Flyers fans that are pissed about Carts and Richie are the same Eagles fans that felt it was okay how Kolb was treated when Vick was handed the starting gig after Kolb suffered a concussion right?
Because all that matters is winning right? If that’s the case Carts & Richie didn’t bring us a Cup either. Richie was my favorite Flyer, but something wasn’t right with him all year long. Not just an injury either. He didn’t seem to care if they won or lost. I don’t know why. Plus all the talk about him having problems with the team? Where there’s that much smoke there has to be some kind of fire.
Carts – who cares. He was lazy. Comparing his 1st 3 years in the league to Voracek’s – their point production is practically identical. PLus of goal scorers who scored as much as Carts – he only scored on 10% of his shots. He was shooting wide of the net the other 90%. Only thing he had was a quick release. He wasn’t physical, had no moves and lacked guts.
I personally don’t think we will get Stamkos however that doesn’t mean I’m not hoping it will happen either. I’d much rather see Bryzgalov and Stamkos on this team than Richards and Carter. Both Richards & Carter took steps back this past season whereas Bryzgalov & Stamkos got better. Bryzgalov is a top 5 if not top 3 goalie in the NHL and Stamkos is going to be a 40-50 goal scorer for the next 10+ years (health not withstanding). Richards is a really good player and Carter is a really good scorer. But they’re not studs. They both stink on faceoffs. Carter disappears for the playoffs and Richards disappeared for this year’s playoffs. And I don’t want to hear about injuries. Everyone has injuries come playoff time so that’s no excuse. Bryzgalov instantly makes this team better defensively for around the same cost as either Carter or Richards and Stamkos is worth much more than either of them so paying him $7-$9mm per year is justified. I say go get him if we can and if we can’t get him, go get Brad Richards. Playmaker would look really good on the 2nd line behind Giroux.
Shouldnt giroux be due an extension on the 3 year contract he signed this fall? If he’s the new face of the franchise
@John
Lappy and Leighton do count against the cap in the offseason, but you can be 10% over in the off-season. They’ll be out of the picture when we actually need to be under $64.3 mill.
@andrew mc
Then I could keep my jersey too!
@John, Tampa has to extend Stamkos an official offer sheet by 12:01 Friday morning or he instantly becomes unrestricted and as far as I know they have yet to do so.
Also as the Flyers continue to demonstrate on a consistent basis, you can mickey mouse the NHL cap so much to your favor that you can make things work if you’re creative enough (even after the shit the Devils pulled. Just look at how Bryz’ contract is structured).
@JT I liked Richie up til the end of this passed season when he just started playing lazy (just like the rest of the team) and then decided to act like a petulant child towards the media, his coach and anyone else that wouldn’t let him have his way. You just can’t get away with that here and I for one am glad that the Flyers actually fired the players for their poor effort instead of the coach for once.
I really enjoy your posts, but can you please learn to spell “judgment” correctly? This is the second time I’ve seen it this week and it really grinds my gears. Thanks.
@Joe He DID spell it correctly. Actually, both spellings are acceptable.
This FA pool is looking great. Stamkos is a total longshot but we really should make a move on a big named player and we’ll be set.
@Eric you are out of your mind if you think Tampa will let stamkos walk for nothing. He’s a restricted free agent so they technically can tenure him with a low ball offer just to make sure they have something before the deadline so he wont walk for free. Perfect example of this is the flyers offering simmonds 500k and vorack 800k RFA deals just so they’re on the book before the deadline.
@olo567 I understand this but LTIR cant happen until the second day of the season. I believe the deadline for the 10% over is September 30th or so? At the point when the season starts they will have to be cap compliant and his salary would not be able to come off the books.
Tampa HAS qualified Stamkos.
Just did this on cap geek. Stamkos is possible, but there has to be some crazy stuff happening in the next couple of days. We need to get rid of Versteeg or Hartnell, and somehow manage to get the Stamkos cap hit under 7 mill. Here’s what I came up with:
CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR
FORWARDS
James Van Riemsdyk ($1.654m) / Steven Stamkos ($6.500m) / Daniel Briere ($6.500m)
Scott Hartnell ($4.200m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / Jakob Voracek ($2.500m)
Wayne Simmonds ($2.100m) / Brayden Schenn ($3.110m) / Andreas Nodl ($0.845m)
Jody Shelley ($1.100m) / Blair Betts ($0.700m) / Someone shitty ($0.900m)
DEFENSEMEN
Kimmo Timonen ($6.333m) / Chris Pronger ($4.921m)
Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m) / Matt Carle ($3.437m)
Braydon Coburn ($3.200m) / Oskars Bartulis ($0.600m)
GOALTENDERS
Ilya Bryzgalov ($5.666m) / Sergei Bobrovsky ($1.750m)
That would leave us with 531,905 cap space. Possible yes. Plausible, likely not. We would also not be drafting in the first round for a couple of years, but, considering the young players we just got, do we need to?? (note: Voracek and Simmonds may be making more than I stated, so I’m not sure if this will work anyway)
has anyone considered that its a lot more likely for us to afford to get Brad Richards? this whole thing is about Stamkos who we have a very slim chance of getting but Brad Richards is much cheaper and one of the best playmakers in the game.
John- You say this whole offseason has been about draft picks. Did you ever think, for a second, that perhaps they want them so they could use them to give up should they land a guy like Stamkos? I think any person in their right mind would rather have Stamkos than four unknowns. He’s the leading scorer in the NHL over the last two seasons. I’d take that.
Personally though, Brad Richards would be the MUCH better option. Again, it would cost us either Versteeg or Hartnell. Reason its better is because we just got rid of a congestion at center. We’re gonna have an even worse situation if this goes through. W/ Stamkos, 3 years from now we’re gonna have Stamkos, Giroux, Schenn, and Courtier all fighting for 1st line minutes…unless Homer wants to unload Stamkos in 3 years for a HUGE return. Brad Richards seems like the better option because we can get a lower cap hit, and his career would be winding down just as the young guys are about to take over.
It does seem like homer is gearing up for something. Why else would we go SO young on the wing.
So apparently what $23,500+/year tuition at Malvern Prep gets you is the inability to use the word “ironic” effectively.
By the way Kyle, who won the Flyers’ Cup again?
LOL
Is Brad Richards really a better option than Mike Richards? That’s my question. I feel like you needed to make a much bigger splash than B. Richards to get rid of the face of the next decade for the franchise. That’s why I keep thinking they are somehow getting Stamkos.
My thing is- maybe Tampa realizes tomorrow they absolutely can’t sign Stamkos- and they want to trade his rights. They get Schenn/Couterier/Bob, we get Stamkos and the cap room ($3M from Scheen, $1.7M from Bob) to sign Stamkos. Then if we CAN’T sign him (which they absolutely would do), WE get the 4 first round draft picks, and we’d probably be getting them from a team like Toronto who still will possibly be a lottery pick. It makes sense.
@JT Who says Richards was going to be the face of the franchise for the next ten years. That title would belong to Giroux even if Richie still WAS here. Thats what management saw, which is why they got rid of him. I don’t buy into this locker room crap. Conflict happens ALL the time in professional locker rooms. They got rid of Richie and Carter because they realized JVR and Giroux would be BETTER, and Carter/Richard’s returns would never be higher.
I understand the home-bias, but Carter & Richards were NOT elite players in the league. They were tied for 30th in points, and they were making more than a lot of players above them (Like Patrick Sharp…quietly turning into the worst Flyers trade in the last 20 years…where’s Matt Ellison now?)
We have the most balanced scoring in the league, we don’t need them to carry our offense…we’ll be fine.
For those saying Stamkos is NOT worth 4 1st rounders, please go away. Stamokos has 96..let me retype that 96 goals in the past TWO years. Other than Ovechkin, there is no better goal scorer in the league right now(Don’t say Perry, he had one great year, I want to see him do it again, although I like Perry).
Stamkos would absolutely would be worth it but there’s no way you’re fitting him under the cap. Its funny because everyone has us signing Stamkos for 7million here but Tampa already has an offer averaging 7 million a year and Stamkos wont sign it. Crosby and Ovechkin both get 9mil a year. Stamkos wants somewhere around 9 to 10mil a year please tell me how you plan to fill a roster and fit that cap hit in.
Crosby – 8.7 mil Age – 23 (24 in August)
Malkin – 8.7 mil Age – 24 (25 in July)
Ovechkin – 9.5 mil Age – 25 (26 in Sept)
Stamkos – ??? Age – 21 (22 in February)
Safe to say Stamkos is in the same class as these guys. So if im Stamkos theres no way im taking 7mil a year like so many people are suggesting here
@John
Maybe he doesn’t want to play in Tampa Bay? The franchise does have financial issues after all and you can’t deny how great of a hockey city Philadelphia is.
After all, just look at Cliff Lee.
@Everybody even if Stamkos doesnt want to play in Tampa and hits the open market you don’t think every team in the league including the Flyers is going to bid on him?
Especially when you consider teams (Colorado, Florida, etc) that are 20+ million dollars under the salary cap FLOOR and have money to waste.
I get a funny feeling in my pants when I think about stamkos as a flyer.
just imagine him on a line with JVR and Giroux, can you say nasty sauce?
I really don’t see a problem with giving up 4 1st rounders to land Stamkos (although I still don’t see that happening as noted above) because it looks like the flyers wanna go young, now. Stamkos, G, JVR, Schenn… That’s not a terrible core. We held onto Carle, so that could also be a very good thing. But with guys like that in place, we could still flip a forward (i dunno maybe Ville) for a defenseman and sure up the D long enough til we lose the contracts of older guys like Prongs and Kimmo then trade one of our nasty forwards for another defenseman. And since Homer doesn’t care about feelings, we will get rid of Briere.
P.S. Also, in retrospect, I’m not too too too surprised at the Richards and Carter deals. Snider willed it, it would be done. He’s the guy who fired Bobby Clarke. Twice.
Hopefully JVR keeps it up. I hope we aren’t expecting too much from him immediately…
Cole, giroux already got an extention. he’s making 3+ million this year i think
Maybe we waive Versteeg and his $3M cap down to the AHL.
@Still mad Leino is a UFA so we have no rights or ability to trade him. Also no one would ever want Briere’s contract its way too much money and years left for anyone to take on.
Also JVR, carle, and coburn contracts all run out next year so if we get stamkos there’s no way that you are keeping all or possibly even 2 of them on the roster.
I want to fuck Stamkos in the asshole
“‘i killed a man with a trident'” Posted by: c.j. | June 28, 2011 at 10:31 AM
Wuss.
i went to the same school as patrick. i remeber those girls from my school who wrote in. they were white trash…i always felt so bad for them.
This helps provide some warmth to people who lie on it, especially on cold weather.
Nice topic and post, as we were just talking about what things can happen in the medicine industry.
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