EHM:Philadelphia Flyers

[condors]

Ed Snyder finally woke up and smelled the coffee grounds burning and decieded it was time his favorite son Bob Clarke was replaced by a more fan friendly guy.

I am still not sure how i got an interview after sending in my resume as a joke and after "interviewing" several times in many cirumstances an unkown has been hired. The press seem to think that Ed has just plain lost it.

The first thing i need to do is get on the same page with Ken Hitchcock. I have nothing but respest for him as one of the best coaches in the game.

I do a meet and greet with the rest of the staff and get introduced to the media. Where i matter of factly state we are winning the stanley cup this year(what was i thinking). I later try to say that i will expect to win the cup every season as every team i am sure does. Getting about 12 questions in a row on the same statement means i definatly said something i should not have.

Hitch and I sit down and go over the roster....

[sachmo71]

Cut JR loose!

[condors]

for goalies:

sean burke 36 years old can still get the job done but for how much longer?

robert esche 25 years old and looks like he could be the guy for a long time

Defensemen:

Eric Desjardins 34 years old and are only natural right defender probally our best but how much longer can he go before he is a liability

Kim Johnsson 27 years old and will be on the left side with desjardin hoping he will have a breakout year not very aggressive but he has all the tools

Daniel Markov 27 years old not quite as good as johnsson but can also play on the right side(although he is a lefty). Still a solid defensiveman and one i want to keep around

Joni Pitkanen 19 years old and is in the same class as johnsson and markov
will be on the 2nd line with markov hoping he can still get better. Can't see him doing anything but being a regular for us for the next 15 years or so.

After these 4 we have 3 guys Malakhov 35 years old, Timmander 29 years old and Ragnarsson 32 years old

Malakhov looks to be the best of these guys but they are a step below Ragnarsson is right handed so i will try him on the right side of the 3rd line none of these guys are in my plans so if i get any offers for them i will take them. I have a few guys i could call up and i wouldn't lose sleep over losing all 3 of these guys

Forwards:

John Leclair(LW/RW) 34 year old and the walking embodiment of a power forward should score 30+ goals but camping in front of the net.

Jeremy Roenick 33 years old (C/RW) but a ton of talent and the best leader on the team. I am giving JR the C to wear on his chest. I expect him to lead the team in points.

Mark Recchi (rw) 35 years old lead the team in goals.

Simon Gagne lw 23 years old first guy is isn't on the wrong side of 30. I love the kid will be on the 2nd line just waiting for LeClair to slip up to move up to the first line.

Keith Primeau-31 years old, C, a very solid #2 center in fact he has all the tools to be a #1 center and i would have no problem with that on my team.

Tony Amonte 33 years old RW, not in his prime but still a very good player (seems phila is where old forwards go to finish their career)

They should be our top 2 lines

I like our 3rd and 4th line centers 32 year old alexi zhamov on the 3rd line probally gives us the best 3rd line center in the league and Michal Handzus at 26 is going to be our 2nd line center before long (i sure hope he doesn't mind being a the 4th line a couple years)

Sami Kapanen 30 years old, this guy is a fan favorite will be our 3rd line right wing and has all the skill to be on the first or second line just is in a log jam of talent here.

The left side 3rd and 4th line guys Todd Fedoruk (24 years old) and Donald Brasher 31 years old are enforcers but they can both have talent of 3rd line players without the fighting ability.

We have 2 other players on the roster Branko Radivojevic 22 year old right wing (is going to be the 4th line right winger by default) and Radovan Somik who is 26 year old left wing. Neither of these guys do anything for me and would love to trade either or both for a draft pick and play patrick sharp who is 21 years old but hurt for 2 weeks will replace Radivojevic as soon as he is healthy.

I also have claude lapointe who recieved a 6 month suspension for illegal substance. He is already 34 and this will probally make him exposed in the wavier draft as i won't even think to expose him if i see someone who may be able to help as a 5th or 6th defenseman or on the 4th line.

[sachmo71]

Jeremy Roenick 33 years old (C/RW) but a ton of talent and the best leader on the team. I am giving JR the C to wear on his chest. I expect him to lead the team in points.



:(

[condors]

I look at my unsigned draft picks and there are 2 international players who could will come into the team in the off season(if they accept our contracts)

They are Roman Malik he will be replacing Sean Burke and be the #2 although he will be a solid#2.

Tomi Kallio Lw 26 years old, If he were on my team right now i would slap him on the 3rd line at the very least. (he is downgraded from earlier versions of the game where i would slap him right on the top line and he would be the man)

I am very distressed by the fact we lack a first round draft pick and don't have any top 4 defenseman coming into the system. I look at that area as a need but then i look at the ages of my forwards and say my goodness we are old up front.

I am a big believer of making the most of the draft and signing a unrestricted free agent if the money is there. Trades for the sake of trades do nothing for me. I may make a move here or there but i doubt i will be making wholesale changes of my team.

[condors]

thank you for reading Sachmo even if we have very different thoughts on JR ;)

[sachmo71]

thank you for reading Sachmo even if we have very different thoughts on JR ;)

I'll be around. I'm a fan of the fat man.

[condors]

we go with a line matching, hard pressing forchecking and hitting lines, using power for board play. We have some big boys so we are putting them to use.

I really wish i had Tomi Kallio could really do things with him and Kappanen and Primeu shutting down the oppenents #1 line...oh well there is next year.

Zhamnov kappanen and Brasher will match up with the other team's #1 i am a little worried about this and changes may be forthcoming. They will be test in our first preseason game vs Detroit.

[condors]

at the end of the 1st period the score is 2-2 as alot of up and down action

they took 16 shots 13 on net while we had 13 shots 10 of them on net.

Shanahan got a pp goal at 4:48

Recchi answered with a pp goal at 12:01

we take a 2-1 lead 16 seconds later by Recchi

while Ryan Barnes(this guy is a goon with little skill) ties it up at 14:15.

Barnes and Fedurok drop the gloves (not sure who won)

Gagne scores at 28:02

Shanahan scores another PP goal to tie it up 3-3

The 3rd period Lindstrom gets the game winner for detroit

and drapper adds insult to injury for a 5-3 final

they out shot us 31-29 and i am not happy

[condors]

i go with a neutral zone trap for the next game. i also make an offer for Brad Flaishans 19 year old right defenseman (which i seem to lack) he is about on par with 6th defensemen but i tell him he is a fringe player. He has a good workrate, good physcial skills and 16 hitting 15 pokecheck and 17 posioning so he should be able to play and not hurt us at all.

[condors]

I play the rangers we win 4-1 31 shots for us verus 27 for them. Esche had a great game. JR and Leclair both got 10 ratings both having 3 point nights 2 goals 1 assist for JR and Leclair gets 1 goal and 2 assists.
Malakov had the other goal playing with Markov hoping the 2 russians have some chemistry (both put up 7's for there rating) Pitkanen and Desjardins put up 8's along with Recchi and Primeau. Zhamnov and Fedoruk put up 6's. Brasher and McCarthy dropped the gloves McCarthy got in more punches and pulled Brasher's jersey over his head (that don't sound good).

I think i will be sticking with a neutral zone trap (although i hate watching it) as my high forecheck left alot of players out of postion on the defensive end.

[condors]

Our third preseaon game is against Toronto

We outshot them 28-24 getting a 3-2 win

put Burke in goal for this game we go 6/6 on penalty kills which is nice to see. They went 2/2 so it was a wash.

No fights.

We get goals from Recchi, Roenick and Brasher

We had some more 6's Timmander, Fedurok, Handzus and Radivojevic

If it holds true from past versions 4th line players can get 6's because of lack of ice time more than ability. Timmander is a slight concern though.

If someone not on the 4th line starts getting 6's pretty steadily its a sign that they just aren't a good fit or i overvalued them and changes need to happen. Usually move down a line or give another player a look and see what happens.

[condors]

I signed the young right Defenseman which i am happy about and assigned him to the Gulls(minor league team). I also agreed to contracts with the two other players but will not be able to join the team till the next offseason(i really would like Kallio now).

I made alot of guys available and offered other guys contracts who are on the last year of their current deal. Nothing earth shattering as most of the guys will probally just be free agents and can go wherever they want(they look to be career minor leaguers).

[condors]

our next preseason game is washington

they out shot us 25-19 but we get the 2-0 win

minor flare up 2 seconds into the 2nd period see 2 fights break out Fedurok and Semin go at it and Sharp and Peat go for it

Fedurok beat the tar out of Semin but Peat in turn beat up Sharp

Not a single player with a 6 rating i am happy(although being outshot is not good i think they didn't have as many quality shots(wish there was a scoring chances stat))

[condors]

We get New Jersey in our next game I put Esche back in the net.

no fights

we outshot them 33-19 in a 5-2 win and Brodeur was in the net

Fedurok Esche and Timmander got 6's we won 61% of the board play which was nice to see.

a very good result from a very good team hopefully its a sign of things to come.

Columbus claimed Lapoint when i tried to get him through waviers not really worried about that

[condors]

It looks like we will be unable to resign zhamnov 3.6 million a year is not enough for him.

And looking at the budget with are currently 8 million dollars over budget.

That is not good

I notice we rattled off 4 straight wins using the neutral zone trap tactic. Looks like we will be a trapping team this season. :(

[condors]

our last preseason game is against colorado(this team is stacked)

Barnaby gets the crap kicked out of him by Brasher

Worrell gets revenage by getting the better of JR(Sachmo is happy right now)

they outshot us 33-25 and outplayed us on the boards for a 4-3 win

nobody got a 6 so its not like our guys didn't play is just Tanguay was playing at another level with 2 goals and 2 assists in the game.

so with end with a 4-2 preseason. Hoping we can start off the season on a good run.

[condors]

In the wavier draft i resist the urge to try to dump salary as i want to win whatever i can this season.

we don't lose anyone and we don't sign anyone.

[condors]

we open the season on the road in toronto

brasher gave gary roberts a butt whipping

the goals came fast and furious in this game they outshot us 30-29

the final score was 7-6 in toronto's favor

esche and desjardins both had 6's(that is not good for either of them)

this is not the way i planned to start the season, giving up 7 goals is a huge concern

[condors]

we get a much needed 3-2 win against tampa bay


Kim Johnsson wins defensive player of the week. 2 games 4 asssists a 10 and an 8 for game ratings(very glad to see this)

Our third game is a 4-2 win over Ottawa

we follow that up with a 1-1 tie with atlanta

we get an interesting trade offer for jeff carter who was one of our 2 #1 picks last draft(he was the higher pick). I decide that this guy is currently going to step in for zhamnov after this season so i can't let him go. If i had cap room to sign a free agent center in the off season he would have been gone though.

[condors]

Minnesota offers us a trade they want a 31 year old minor league defenseman john slaney who is one of the players who i made available because he isn't in my plans.

Pascal Dupuis is now a flyer. Problem is he is 24 asking for a 3 year contract worth 4.7 million and to put him in the minors he has to go through waviers.

i don't think he is really worth the money but he is a third line guy problem is leclair gagne brasher and fedoruk aren't pretty well entrenched in their current roles. So he will be waiting for an injury like timmander on defense to step in.

I send somik and sharp to the gulls so they can play every game.

[condors]

we get a needed 2-0 win against Washington nice to see Esche get a shutout

[sachmo71]

Twins!

http://msn.espn.go.com/media/pg2/2004/0213/photo/roenick_m.jpg http://msn.espn.go.com/media/pg2/2004/0213/photo/hall_m.jpg

[condors]

I sit here looking at the 8 million over the salary budget and no 1st round picks. Recchi has a no trade clause. I am seriously considering what leclair, roenick, zhamnov, and amonte would have in trade value...(i know i wasn't planning on this but i really would like to have some flexibility in the free agent market and be able to resign players like gagne,esche etc without having salary limitations because i am already overbudget)

[Qwikshot]

Trade them while they still have value man...and get rid of Burke. Nittimaki should be a capable backup (or start him in AHL) and bring up the other goalie prospect who is older.

I'd clean house.

[condors]

the trade front is not working well i tried to get my 1st round pick from edmonton offered zhamnov and burke and a couple unsigned prospects and they rejected it :(

[Qwikshot]

It seems very difficult to get a first rounder.

[condors]

carolina is shopping erik cole a player i had shortlisted as i think he would be a great fit on this team, so i see if i have enough to get the job done

[condors]

at 25 games into the season we are sitting 4th in the east with 31 points

i managed to pick up a 3rd round pick for a 28 year old minor league guy i set as available(he don't look good enough now i doubt he will at the end of the year when his contract is up)

I am getting no offers for zhamnov or burke who i made available as i can't resign them (i tried i don't have enough to give them what they want)

[condors]

i didn't get what i wanted but i did unload 5 million in salary for 3rd round pick

zhamnov and burke go to chicago in exchange for their 3rd round pick

i call up patrick sharp to be our 4th line center

i bring up niittimyaki to get some time as the goalkeeper

the other guys will be old and overpaid but at least i won't lose them for nothing yet.

[condors]

JR won an offensive player award and the board keeps telling me how great he is.

I have managed to climb up to 1st place after 50 games. Although there are still 10 teams within 10 points so alot can happen in the remaining games

I am really looking forward to the draft although i wish i had some first round picks.

[condors]

we end the regular season with 116 points best overall team.

Kappenan and Gagne are currently on IR Kappenan is out for a month and Gagne is now only day to day hopefully nobody else gets hurt.

My goalie tandan has me worried as antero has 12 stamina and esche only 13.

[condors]

hope this comes out ok here are the players stats
************************************************************************************************
Philadelphia Flyers_ - Wednesday April 7th 2004
************************************************************************************************


================================================================================================
2003-04 Season Total Stats
================================================================================================

No Name GP G A P +/- PIM SOG ShAv R
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
11 Amonte, Tony 82 35 35 70 10 10 230 15.2 7.51
87 Brashear, Donald 81 15 15 30 24 308 115 13.0 7.43
37 Desjardins, Eric 73 10 33 43 21 38 85 11.8 7.68
9 Dupuis, Pascal 67 14 17 31 13 14 87 16.1 7.00
42 Esche, Robert 54 0 3 3 0 0 0 - 7.30
29 Fedoruk, Todd 39 6 4 10 0 106 53 11.3 7.21
14 Gagne, Simon 76 24 36 60 16 6 205 11.7 7.53
26 Handzus, Michal 79 7 18 25 8 24 87 8.0 7.01
5 Johnsson, Kim 82 5 39 44 27 2 118 4.2 7.54
24 Kapanen, Sami 67 14 15 29 17 12 103 13.6 7.13
75 LeClair, John 81 28 29 57 5 26 215 13.0 7.51
55 Markov, Danil 82 4 34 38 27 91 87 4.6 7.66
1 Niittymaki, Antero 23 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 7.26
17 Peluso, Mike 2 1 0 1 1 0 3 33.3 7.50
44 Pitkanen, Joni 81 3 22 25 9 18 64 4.7 7.36
25 Primeau, Keith 82 26 25 51 3 64 224 11.6 7.45
19 Radivojevic, Branko 81 15 22 37 11 16 123 12.2 7.19
28 Ragnarsson, Marcus 66 1 18 19 13 10 40 2.5 7.26
8 Recchi, Mark 82 38 37 75 18 20 256 14.8 7.59
97 Roenick, Jeremy 79 38 49 87 21 132 262 14.5 7.82
36 Seidenberg, Dennis 33 1 4 5 8 4 11 9.1 7.42
10 Sharp, Patrick 54 6 11 17 19 22 64 9.4 7.31
2 Timander, Mattias 36 1 17 18 7 0 29 3.4 7.56

[condors]

The playoffs bring hope and excitement unless your a Flyers fan, then you expect to be dissapointed. This year is no different. We play the Rangers in the first round and they beat us 4-1. We lose 2 overtime games but it should never have come to this. Dupruis and Sharp added to our injury list forcing us to make a couple call up in order to have 12 forwards. Veteran right winger Mike Peluso sees action along with BJ Abel a 24 year old hard working center who is a good physcial guy that can hit and check but lacks the scoring touch to play anywhere but the 3rd or 4th line.

We have 5 minor league guys contracts expiring this year. They are all 25 years old or older and show no signs of being able to contribute.
We do have 18 draft picks

0 1st round
1 2nd round
3 3rd round
2 4th round
3 5th round
4 6th round
1 7th round
2 8th round
2 9th round

I don't expect to find a ton of sleepers but i hope to get enough to at least remain competitive, i understand full well that the players i have shortlisted from my scouts will be all gone halfway through the 1st round.

[condors]

I bring in 3 of my unsigned prospects 1 guy i just drafted and expect them to be on the roster which i believe is going to cause some wavier draft decsions

i see a bunch of free agents i want but i am unable to offer them any kind of salary as i lost money and i am still over my wage budget.

[condors]

adding insult to injury i look at the contracts of players who will be up after this season and kappanen wants 3 million a year and i can only offer him 1 million something is going to have to change.

[condors]

we recieve a cash injection in order to avoid falling into recievership

basically our salaries are a mess and good but overpaid players will be available in the wavier draft.

JR will not be one of them because Synder loves him and keeps telling me how valueable he is to the team. Desjardins, Recchi, Leclair, Amonte are all prime canidates to be available along with ragnarsson(who has 0 chance of remaining with the team). I don't want to lose kappanen who is a sparkplug and penalty killer and younger then the guys other guys who make more money but aren't any better.

[condors]

leclair, desjardins, amonte and ragnarsson are put on the block, i don't expect much if anything in return but if i can get something i will take it.

[condors]

we get a 5th round pick for ragnarsson 3.4 million off the budget

now we are 6 million over budget i want to get seriously under the budget and be able to sign a free agent in the next offseason or have the flexability to keep my players.

[condors]

in the offseason i am going to try a new high pressure tactic which should result in more exciting hockey (i tried a similar tactic to start last preseason and saw it gave up too many goals hopefully my new version will work better)

most of my team is playing in the world cup but i have preseason games to play so the results won't mean much but i may get a good look at the young guys to replace players i should lose in the wavier draft.

[condors]

we get 6 straight wins in the preseason very good sign.

brasher, fedurok and dupuis are all injured though.

i am eager to see get to the wavier draft to see what unfolds

[condors]

we lose JR (which causes unrest among the players), Recchi and Amonte in the wavier draft. We do pick up 22 year old defenseman nicholas kromwell from detroit he averaged a 7.34 rating in 70 games last season for detroit, with his age and abilities he looks to be able to step right into our defense.

[condors]

we look over our roster tough decsions on lines

we go with
1st line leclair primeau lindstrom(26 year old swedish sniper we drafted 20 slapshot 19 wristshot)

2nd line of gagne handzus radivojevic

3rd line kallio sharp kappenan(this guys will be matching up with the other teams 1st line they are good defensive players) (kallio is a highly rated unsigned player of the flyers when the game starts but doesn't join the team till this season if you sign him)

4th line brasher bj abel dupuis nothing much to see here abel is hard working hitting no scoring touch guy i brought up for the playoffs when the injuries hit.

fedurok is our 13 forward to start the season

defense we go with

johnnson and markov as the first pairing
kromwell (fresh from waviers) with timmander
pittakon and sidenberg will make the third pariring
randy jones (guy i like from the minors) will be our 7th defenseman
will also have quintal with the team but only because it will cost me 1.3 million to release the guy.

goalie possed a problem I like Antero(thought about making him #1 after he showing last season but he is able to go to the gulls without having to go through waviers so i send him down Esche will be our #1 and 27 year old rookie roman malek who i signed at the start of last season from our unisigned prospects list will be the backup his 10 stamina works against him here.

[condors]

fedurok hurts his ankle for a month with dupuis still injured we call up ben eager who has been unwilling to sign but is also our top performer with the gulls at only 20 years old i am interested to see what he can do (he has workrate of 15 and 17 aggression) looks like a ready made 3rd or 4th line player right now and can play left or right wing.

[condors]

Eager signed a 3 year contract at 625k/95k a year and he believes i will help his career flourish, i hope so too

[condors]

last season i expected to win the cup

this season i expect to make the playoffs

losing recchi roenick and amonte and getting nothing in return may not be the best move by a gm but i sure didn't want to let our younger players leave because i couldn't resign them

30 games in we are not in the playoff picture

tomi kallio and jimmy lindstrom who i brought into the nhl have lost confidence in me.

branko radivojevic also has lost confidence in me

not the start i had in mind

[condors]

toronto tries to put karel pilar through waviers a natural right defesneman who i only have 1 on my current roster(markov and siedenberg are lefties but i have been playing them on the right side) I bring him aboard and sign him to 4 year deal. I try to put timmander through waviers but Toronto takes him so we ended up swapping defesemen which i would have done in a trade.

For some strange reason we manage to win 4 games in a row moving up to 10th spot still out of the playoffs but 3 spots up from our postion 4 games ago.

anyone know if those guys are going to be unhappy forever ? i have never had players lose confidence in me before.

[condors]

well it seems those guys still don't like me so i make them available

lindstrom who has been playing very well gets us an offer ottawa offers us a 22 year old center who we like in his rookie season and their 2nd round pick from last year (lindstrom was a 3rd round pick so it got value)

Antoine Vermont moves right in to our 2nd line in his debut he get 1 goal and 2 assits hopefully there will be more of that coming

[condors]

unable to work deals for radivo or kallio we put them on waviers and the ingreats are gone, we did pick up zdenek blatny 24 year old leftwing/center who has some tecnical and physical skills but is lacking in the mental skills.

we are also trying an experiment of playing joni pitkanen at left wing he has good skills and when injuries hit on gagne primeu and handzus Hitchcock suggested it and he has remained there.

[condors]

i sign 24 year old winger mario stevens to replace kallio (san jose was interested in him and he was on one of my scouts lists) he doesn't cost anything we will see what he can do

[sachmo71]

I'm having a hard time following your dynasty!

[condors]

We beat washington in 6
we beat jersey in 7
we beat ottowa in 6
we beat vancouver in 6

last season i thought we were the best team in the league and got bounced out in the first round. This year i thought we could miss the playoffs (we were a 6th seed and 2 more losses durning the season we would have missed the playoffs) and we bring the stanley cup to philadelphia. Sami Kappenan won the Conn Smyth trophy(see i knew i should keep him around). Sami put in 15 goals and 9 assists during the playoffs. Antoine Vermette is the center for the all star rookie team.

If there is something i can help you out with let me know Sachmo.

[condors]

we take a look out our roster

mike richards and jeff carter 1st round picks from 2003 are signed to retain their rights. Both of them are centers. John LeClair is traded to detroit for a 3rd round pick his contract is up and i was not able to reach his demands. Mikel Handzus was looking for a big paycheck i like him but wasn't going to pay him 1st line center money so he is traded to Florida for a 4th round pick.

I do bring in Stefan Lundquist 27 year old swedish left winger has a 19 passing and 20 wristshot. He isn't John Leclair but his salary is 250k instead of 9 million. On the right side i sign Peter Ferraro 32 year old right winger with a 15 slapshot and 15 wristshot. I like him as a depth guy he will get 775k this season and 875k next season.

I have all the players on the Flyers signed thru next season. There are 12 players on the Gulls who have contracts up at the end of the season. Some of which i want to keep.