Paul Holmgren, whose birthday is today, will be honored with the Lester Patrick Award during the United States Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Thursday. You can read all about it in this state media piece, which speaks glowingly of Holmgren.
The award is given for “contributions to hockey in the United States,” which is just perfect, because Holmgren’s last major contribution was signing Vinny Lecavalier, a healthy scratch for the first time in his career tonight, to a five-year, $22.5 million contract with a full no-movement clause. And if we want to go back further: trading away two-time Stanley Cup champions Mike Richards and Jeff Carter and 2013 Vezina winner Sergei Bobrovsky, paying Ilya Bryzgalov to go away, and leaving the Flyers saddled with a mess of bad contracts and mismatching parts that may hamper them for half a decade. Thank you, Paul, for your contributions to hockey.
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He also constructed a team that has 18 centers and 2 wingers, signed Islanders castoff Andrew MacDonald (also a healthy scratch) to a 6 year, $30 million dollar contract, signed Matt Read for 4 years, 14.5 million, The JVR for Schenn trade, etc., etc.
Also.. did you know.. MacDonald was making $575k before he was resigned.. according to cap geek. You can also go there to see what a mess the Flyers are in.
can’t win with guys like matt read and the schenns
Homer set the flyers franchise back 5 years with his shit contracts & moves
Agreed. At least five years. The Carter and Richards trades and Jagr signings were the only good moves he made…and then he let Jagr leave.
I hope a ton of Flyers fans show up to boo his contributions to their team. Highest payroll, most sucky team, team using tinder the most, they just fvcking suck, etc…, etc…., etc….
We don’t need a fresh perspective!
WAIT! Did Kyle mention the Carter and Richards trade? And did he not note that the Flyers got Jake Voracheck and Sean Couturier for Carter and that Columbus gave him away to LA for Jack Johnson in order to reunite that mope with the love of his life?
Did he mention Sergei Bobrovsky who rode two whole good months of play to a Vezina award in a lockout shortened season, who hasn’t done squat since and who will almost assuredly be in the KHL next season?
He did? Good. I thought he’d write about the Flyers without bringing up that his man crushes and a homesick Russian were traded.
Why no mention of Holmgren fleecing Columbus and getting “TOP FIVE” NHL elite goalie Steve Mason for Michael Leighton and a third round pick? That was a Holmgren move and two months ago according to this blog it was a brilliant one at that.
DS….you MUST be on the Flyers payroll..perhaps an ex-coach maybe?
Mason a top 5 goalie? All of your other decent points are made irrelevant by that statement. Because you put Mason ahead of guys like Pekka Rinne, elliott, Anderson, Quick, Crawford, Luongo, Halak, Fleury, Price, Howard…who happen to dominate Mason in every goaltending stat this season…is funny.
It’s not the defenses fault Mason gives up too many rebounds.
Steve Mason is 21st in the league in save percentage, he wouldn’t be 1st with a good defense.
Steve Mason is also 46th out of 50 goalies in shootout save percentage. (Ray Emery is 19th)
You must be new here.
to be fair…
if he was being sarcastic then he would be saying that trading Leighton and a 3rd rd pick for Mason was a bad deal…but the deal has worked out pretty well for the Flyers (relatively).
I tend to think the Mason statement was not only sarcasm, but was also explained as such in the post you’re tearing up on.
I have to say though. It was stoooopid to dump Bob for Bryz and now we’re stuck with Mason and the salary of Bryz. One of the many mistakes made by Homie. He’s a FVCKING dolt.
If you want production from Vincent Lecavalier, put him on a line with two professional hockey players. He’s not going to produce anything with Rinaldo, Umberger, Bellemare, etc. By the way, the official Flyers roster shows SEVEN centers! Here are your lines, new head coach Gord Murphy:
1- Giroux/Voracek/Raffl
2- Lecavalier/Simmonds/Read
3- Couturier/Schenn/Bellemare
4- Rinaldo/Umberger/(insert random player here)
I’d like to see Simmonds-Bellemare-Schenn as the second line. They were really clicking when Lecavalier hurt his foot. I still don’t understand why Berube decided to split them up. I think I’d go:
12-28-93
17-78-10
24-14-49
18-40-36
“Simmonds-Bellemare-Schenn”
And we wonder why it’s been 40 some years.
How many times does mixing up the line up turn a turd of a team into a contender? Sure, it “could” help some, at the most. But that doesn’t change the fact that the team is a turd.
Totally agree. While he is past his prime, vinny could still be productive with talent around him. If he were still in Tampa, he’d be putting a ton of points. His confidence is obviously shot so why bury him? He should be okay top 6 forward on a good team (not Philly) and get power play burn. God the flyers brass has zero clue how to run a team. They are just lucky that the fan base is so loyal, or just as clueless as the brass
yep. lack of accountability from the fanbase and the media has perpetuated eddie the cryptkeeper’s old-boy culture. they reap what they sow.
You’re delusional dude.
TR is delusional, not stepfords.
right. stepfords aren’t delusional…they’re lobotomized.
I love how people talk s Couturier and Voracek as if they’re such a GIANT prize for Carter. Carter has developed into an absolute animal. Voracek is having a great season and continues to get better but Carter has literally dominated in the playoffs for LA. During BOTH of their cup runs. Couturier is absolutely useless. He shut down Malkin in a playoff series 3 years ago. Cool.
Is DS Eddie Snyder, come on Ed….? Or is DS your A typical loser Flyers fan from South Jersey?