Pool Outlook for Philadelphia

The Flyers can't really be disappointed with how far they made it in the 2010 playoffs, especially with how they finished in the regular season and how they actually made it into the playoffs, winning the shootout against the New York Rangers to eliminate them from the Spring Dance.  Still, the loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games in the Stanley Cup Finals will leave a bitter taste in their mouths for a while yet, but I'm sure they can look back at it one day and think it was a pretty good run that they should all be proud of.  You never know, it may only be another couple of tweaks to the line-up that could see them back in the Finals sooner rather than later.

In the regular season, which is what we are looking at here in the Outlook, the Flyers were led in pool points by their captain, Mike Richards, who finished the year with 62 points (31 goals and 31 assists) in all 82 games.  That isn't a fantastic total from Richards, nor is it a great total to have when you're leading the team, but that was the way the Flyers were made up in 2010, scoring a lot by committee and relying on their defense more often than not to save them in a number of games.  The Flyers were also dealt some tough hands with consistency issues in their line-up, which also hindered the overall scoring impact of Richards and the rest of the team.

The rest of the forwards were led by Jeff Carter, who finished with 61 points (33 goals and 28 assists) in 74 games with the Flyers.  Carter fell to injury for a few games, which was one wrinkle in the season for the team.  Daniel Briere had 53 points in 75 games, Claude Giroux had 47 points in 82 games, Scott Hartnell had 44 points in 81 games and Simon Gagne was good in his 58 games, picking up 40 points.  A lot of the team's big names had reasonable years, but they were not standing out among the crowd, which could very well hurt their draft positions for the 2011 season.  Richards, Carter and Briere were the only three to finish in the top 100 among the forwards in the league, where you might expect to see Gagne finish as well.

The team's defense was quite solid, having four blueliners among the top 100 at their position, led by Chris Pronger, who ranked 5th with 55 points in 82 games, followed by Kimmo Timonen (27th) with 39 points in 82 games, Matt Carle (36th) with 35 points in 80 games and Braydon Coburn (98th) with 19 points in 81 games.  Those four were absolute rocks for the Flyers throughout the season and the playoffs, which was a huge help to the goaltending nightmare the team had in 2010.  These four should be solid pick-ups in your pool draft next year and I would be looking at Coburn to be a bit of a sleeper, likely to move up in the ranks.

Speaking about the nightmare in net for the Flyers, they had three goalies all figure over 1,500 minutes in the crease during the 2010 season and none of those three finished in the top 30 in pool points among all goalies.  Ray Emery actually finished the season as the Flyers best goalie in pool points with 39, thanks to 16 wins, 3 shutouts and an assist during the year, but it was Michael Leighton who finished with the most wins (17), but finished with 37 points.   They actually finished 31st and 32nd, respectively, in the goalie rankings and both are due to become unrestricted free agents, so it will be interesting to see what kind of impression they left on management for the coming year.

2011 Season Outlook
Well, what can we expect from the 2011 Flyers that we didn't see in 2010?  Man, that's pretty tough to say right now, but at least they have a good group of core players to build from for next season, including the better part of the crop of forwards, half of their starting six defensemen and a back-up goalie, who might just figure into being a starter, but that might be a little too far-fetched.  The management team will have their work cut out for them to try and improve on a Cup finalist team, but there are gaps that need to be filled and it will be interesting to see how it all pans out.

Forwards	Defense	Goalies
Mike Richards	Chris Pronger	Brian Boucher
Jeff Carter	Kimmo Timonen
Daniel Briere	Matt Carle
Scott Hartnell
Simon Gagne
James Van Riemsdyk
Ian Laperriere
Blair Betts
Ville Leino
Riley Cote

As you can see, the Flyers do have a good bunch signed on for next season and their cap hit is actually very respectable for the talent that is on the list.  The 10 forwards, three defense and one goalie that are signed above come in at $47.2 million against the cap, which should leave about $10 million for nine players this Summer, in theory.  Some gaps should be filled with some youth, which could help and they might have to spend some space on a top end goaltender, but it's all possible at this point.

Free agency may be unkind to the Flyers though, especially on the restricted side of the ledger.  Claude Giroux, Dan Carcillo and Braydon Coburn head the list of RFAs this Summer and there could be a pretty penny given to each of them after its all said and done.  Ultimately, their roster spots on the team may be in jeopardy if their price tag becomes too high for the Flyers to bear or it could mean someone else out the door, just to fit everyone in.

The UFAs of the club may actually lessen the burden on the Flyers, as they don't have to be committed to the same way the RFAs do.  Ray Emery, Michael Leighton, Arron Asham and Lukas Krajicek don't carry a lot of weight when it comes to an argument to stay with the club or not.  They could just as easily be replaced by someone of equal or lesser value and will probably have to take bottom-level deals to stay and have everyone fit in.

The Flyers are not stocked up with blue chip players in the slightest going into this Summer, having all of their top prospects either already in the line-up or dealt away for players down the line.  For 2011, they may need some of the talent they do have to fill in as role players, like Jon Kalinski or David Laliberte on the wings, Kevin Marshall on defense and one of a few goalies that we had a look at during the year.   Obviously, this looks to be more of a planned position by the Flyers management and one that seemed to work in the end of 2010.

The Flyers are without a pick in the Entry Draft until the 4th round, so they may not even show up to the proceedings until the second day (only joking).  The team's 1st and 3rd round picks went to Anaheim in the deal tht brought Chris Pronger to Philadelphia, so they are pretty pleased with those results.

What I had said at this time last year: "The Flyers are going to be factory of good pool points in the coming years and next year should be especially good. Carter, Richards, Gagne, Hartnell, Lupul, Timonen, Carle and Coburn are all quality players who will likely be taken pretty early for their positions and rightly so. If you want to jump on the Flyers bandwagon next season, you may want to increase their value in your rankings for next season. If they wisely spend their money with the goaltending (either the same faces or a reasonable pair of substitutes), they should be able win a lot of games as well. How can you not like them?"

Well, I kind of look foolish from last year's statement, eh?  The Flyers were not a great source of points for the pool in 2010, falling well below some of their targets, especially those that I had picked for them.  Did they wisely spend their money on goaltending in 2010, yes I would say they did alright.  Especially since they only had to be good enough to make it to the sixth game of the Stanley Cup Finals, but fantasy-wise, they were not as good as I hoped for.

For 2011, it's going to be hard to top the 2010 season's result, since that would have to be a Cup win at the end of that yellow brick road, but I suppose it isn't impossible, when you look at the cast of characters in play already.  Depth and goaltending will be on top of the agenda for the Summer, I'm sure, which should bring around some good new talent and we can only hope for complimentary players to their cause.  I would like to think that the points for the pool will be better for 2011, but I don't think I'll jump too quickly on that bandwagon like I did last year.  I'll probably play it safe in my rankings for next season's draft.