Being Bob Clarke an ehm2005 dynasty

[condors]

Being Bob Clarke an ehm2005 dynasty

Success is remembered by winning it all. Nobody outside the team remembers losing to Tampa Bay in a game 7 decieded by 1 goal but Tampa Bay is remembered as a champion.

For years the team has tried everything to win it now and has come up short each and every time. It has been far too long since the Flyers have won Lord Stanley's Cup.

In the middle of the 2005 season a decsion was made. We were at the salary cap. We could either try to win (although Jersery was running away with the division) and forgo resigning the core young players of our team Simon Gagne, Joni Pitakanen and Antero Nittamaki to name a few, or move older players with high contracts and aquire draft picks. I decided to keep a couple core players and aquired some others and ended up with 14 draft picks to build a core for the future.

June 2006- what is left after the wheeling and dealing (on a team that was ranked 3rd overall in the nhl) I think the team is worse off than last season in terms of winning this season. On the plus side we have 10 million in cap space to bring in players to fill up our holes.

The departed (some for salary reasons others for age and alot just to get the deal done)
Almost all of unsigned prospects were dealt (my fellow gms were alot more inclined to depart with draft picks for an aging vet if a prospect or two were thrown in).
defenseman-Eric Desjardins, Kevin Hatcher, Mike Rathje, Chris Terian 4 of our top 6 from last season
as well as Alexander Picard and Joey Hope from the Phantoms.

Forwards-Keith Primeau, Mike Knuble, Turner Stevenson, Donald Brasher, Brian Savage, Jon Sim, as well as Phantoms RJ Umberger, Eric Chouinard, Eric Meloche, Josh Gratton and Steffan Ruzika.

That is an awful lot of talent to let go of. We did aquire one of my favorite NHL players who i think is a cornerstone for a team in Erik Cole. We also traded for Daniel Sedin who is giving us a contract issues so may be a restricted free agent. Along with free agent signings Ivan Nosoletvsev a 27 year old skater and scorer and Bates Battaglia a 30 year old checker who can chip in a few goals. Mix in Simon Gagne and we are super solid on the left wing side. We also have several guys on the Phantoms who may make the team this season in Ben Eager and Triston Grant both are tough guys who can play of on either side so they may be on the fourth line.

Down the center i am also very happy with, Peter Foresberg was kept as he is seen as a leader by many of the players (and i honestly couldn't get what i wanted for him) Mikel Hanzeus is a fan favorite and a very good two way player. Throw in 2 ahl all stars from last season Jeff Carter and Mike Richards who look to be more than ready for the NHL and i feel blessed with our top 4. Patrick Sharp is also ready to chip in on the 4th line if needed.

On the right side Sammi Kappanen and Branko Radviojevic are 2 players retained from last season, looking to add a couple free agents to fill out the right side and have the 3 phantoms Grant, Eager and Gino Pisellini he was a 5th round pick in 2004 who looks like nothing much more than a fill in guy at best. I also drafted a goalie 4 defensemen 3 right wingers 4 centers and 3 left wingers and all but 3 were in the first 3 rounds of the draft so i expect them to step in at some point.

[condors]

The defensemen pairings are Johnsson and Pitakanen (no worries both these guys are studs)
the 2nd pairing is Dennis Seidenberg and Carl Huse nothing earth shattering here
the third pairing is Freddy Meyer and Francis Beauchemin
the backup guys are untested phantoms Rossario Ruggeri (who i like the look of) and Markus Bell who has the mental and technical skills but doesn't skate well which isn't something i am comfertable with.

I am in the market for some defenders and some right wingers. I find 2 29 year old right wingers who are excellent hitters checkers and pokecheckers exactly what i am looking for so i offer contracts to Nathan Perrott and Craig Adams. I wouldn't mind getting a guy who is an all around stud either so i offer a contract to Mark Parrish coming off an injured season but he had 20 goals and 25 assists in 37 games and was a +14. I did sign my drafted goalie 21 year old Miika Wiikman but he is finish and won't join the team until the 2007 off season. I want a guy on the phantoms in case of injury I sign Imrich Petrik from Slovakia Kosice my scouts liked him and i signed him last year but he joins in time for this season looking at him now he looks to have some holes in his game but may be a better shot stopper than i had thought at first.

I put in a bid for Zenda Charra i highly doubt he will be taking it though in fact i withdraw it better to try and focus on a couple guys that i can actually hope to bring into the fold without killing our budget completly.

First is Ossi Vaananen 25 year old who could be described as a very good but not superb or star player which is what i am looking for. Also 27 year old Derrick Morris if these two guys come into the fold we will be have our defense issues resolved.

[condors]

Then the names start signing. Adams and Perrott give me the couple of grinders on the right side and depth i want. Ossi Vaananen also signs with us pretty quick and i think i am close to something here. Next Parrish signs (don't think i need him like i did earlier but nothing wrong with some depth as long as i can get the guys thru waviers) Derek Morris signs with Ottawa. Time to go to plan B. Plan B is Daniel Markov who was with the Flyers a couple seasons ago. Hopefully he enjoyed his time here. Markov agrees to the contract a few days later. That gives us depth all over and i am very confident we can compete with anyone this coming season.

[condors]

the problem i have now is i am going to have to get several of these guys through waviers as my roster is too large as it stands right now. I also would like to sign a few young guys for the Phantoms to round out their roster. I sign a left and right defenseman, a left winger, center and right winger who hopefully are carreer minor leaguers. They are all rated good at least and don't look too bad maybe some of them can have a good camp, they are all getting 450k a year so it isn't costing me much for the depth.

[condors]

i frigiging lost the post does anyone else get logged out of fofc every 5 minutes or i am just lucky? course it keeps my posts down

[condors]

Ed Synder retired and the current faceless ownership has slashed my budget it is now less than the salary cap for Titans,Phantoms, and Flyers. If that isn't bad enough they won't let extend contracts for several key players (my entire first line of Gagne, Foresberg and Kapanen, Nitty and Esche, Erick Cole also included in the mix). I am now faced with the situation i will have to dump salary at the deadline Foresberg,Kapanen, and Esche will be available and while i think it will severly hurt our cup chances with thier age and salaries it should allow us to resign the others. I did extend a few playes (but the game is not in front of me right now) but the key guys are not done.

The Flyers are no longer big spenders in the NHL.

[condors]

What is Peter Foresberg worth?

He is 34 years old and making 5.75 million on the last year of his contract. Ownership doesn’t allow for an extension that he is willing to sign. He is our team captin and our best player. He was rated as the 2nd best center in the preseason rankings in the league.
He has 93 points in 79 games last season and was +25.

I can’t just trade him for nothing while Carter, Richards, Handzus and Sharp gives us enough quality centerman to get thru the season we try to work out a deal that gives us Crosby in return but it is not happening. I decided to look at this past draft and make an offer for a centerman Brian Little who was the #1 rated player and work out a deal. With our highest pick #2 overall we got Michael Frolick a right winger who our scouts think is a 1st liner. Our scouts think Little has 1st line potential as well. If we can keep Gagne around we could have one of the best lines in the entire league in a couple seasons.

And several of our players are unhappy with the deal

[condors]

Now that we have some room to work with

We sign Gagne, and Cole so at least we have our top 2 left wingers around also get Freddy Meyer signed so out top 6 defensmen will be returning.
Robert Esche we were able to work out a deal with so now Nitty may go with Kappanen is also a possibility. I can't agree to the contracts that they want

[condors]

We finish the season with 105 points good enough to be the 4th seed in the east. Carter and Richards have moved into the 1st and 2nd line centers.
Gagne Carter Kapanen is a very effective 1st line. Gagne is 7th in the league with 120 points while Kapanen is 15th with 101 Carter finished the season
with only 58 but did most of that down the stretch. Heatly lead the league with 145 points. Cole Richards and Parrish are a solid 2nd line. Sedin Handzus and Radivojevic manning the third line and Eager Sharp and Adams on the fourth line. Johnsson and Pitakanen are a solid pairing Johnnson had 65 points and While Pitakanen only had 22 he has been battling injuries and has only played in 28 games. Currently Parrish Eager and Meyer are injuried hopefully we can get through the 1st round of the playoffs and they can return to the team. I did manage to resign almost everyone except Kapanen he simply isn't going to fit in under the cap and wants a much longer contract than i am willing to give at this stage. I was going to trade him but i need him for the playoff run. Frolick did sign with us so he may get a chance to step right into the 1st line next season.

We have 5th seed Washington in the first round. Thier 1st line is pretty impressive Ovechkin (117 pts) Kozlov (89 pts) and Nolen (102 pts) with Chris Pronger and Brian Berard both having good years and Kolzig in the net we should have our hands full.

[condors]

The 2nd season sees the Flyers defeat the Washington Capitals in 6 games
The next series sees the Flyers defeat Ottawa Senators in 6 games
The Eastern conferance finals the Flyers beating Tampa Bay in 6 games.

With our best defensemen Pitkanen going on the shelf and 2nd line right winger Radviojevic joining him. We have a tough battle for the Stanley Cup.

The Nashville Predators led by Paul Kariya, Steve Sullivan and David Legwand while they look pretty solid a team all over i honestly think we can take these
guys.

The series opens with a 4-2 win for the Flyers.
The next game is an overtime 6-5 win for the Flyers to go up 2-0 in the series.
With Pitkanen's injury Daniel Markov had been put in the top slot for right defenseman and he suffers a 4 month injury.(not a good thing)

The series comes to Philadelphia and we lose game 3 4-3 giving up 2 third period goals to blow the lead.
Game 4 is similar to game 3 as we give up 2 late goals in the third period but still win 5-4
We blow a chance to lift the cup in game 5 losing 3-2.
With game 6 at home a loss here may cost up the cup but we go up 2-0 after the first period and go on to win 3-1.

The Flyers have won the Stanley Cup!!!

while winning the cup is nice we were not the best team in the playoffs. While its nice a team can get hot and be the 4th seed and win that isn't my goal.
The goal is to have the best team in hockey on the ice. There is work to be done.

Michael Frolick had less than stellar numbers averaging a 6.82 with 21 points in 45 games being a -12. I think he may spend a season with the Phantoms at
least to start and go with Parrish Radviojevic Adams and Perrot as my starters. He doesn't look better than he did last year at this time while Gino Pisellini
looked to be a no hoper he looks to have improved but i don't think he is an nhler either. Triston Grant currently looks to be the best of the 3 but may be
lost on waviers if he gets the call up due to injury.

I see Sammi Kapenan has come down a little in his salary request but he is still looking for a 4 year deal at 2.6 million per season at 33 that is a tough
extension to give. I really like Sammi i think he is a perfect 3rd liner but was asked to play 1st line duties this season and came up with a career year
playing with Gagne, Foresberg/Carter combo. If i do sign him it would be better for this coming season but will hurt us trying to keep other players around
next season we are still close to the cap. Someone is going to get a very good player maybe no other team will give him what he wants and he can come back
for about 1.5 million a season which is what he turns down from me.

[condors]

When our turn to draft came most of the players i wanted were gone. There was only 1 player left my scouts felt could become a key player for the Flyers in the future 18 year old left winger Matt Kang. We have 3 picks in the 2nd and 3rd round with our next pick we get a fast right winger Brett Leffler. We draft 4 defenseman as the forwards don't look to be as good in quality and lastly was debating between a tough guy and a goalie and went with 21 year old goalie Alexis Ahlqvist who i don't know much about he was unranked but my the guys in the war room thought he was the guy to go with.

Overall i am happy with the draft outside of Kang and Leffler i don't think we got anything but depth defsemen but that is all we need at this point.

[condors]

Ossi Vaananen is looking at 4+ million a season to extend his contract. That is not something i am willing to pay. Most other players seem amicable to extending at least one season. While Ossi played pretty well for us being our 2nd line defenseman behind Kim Johnnson. We move him for a 1st round pick and sign Ryan Wilson who was the 1st pick in the 2nd round 2 years ago but Siedenberg will move up to #2 and Freddy Meyers will be starting on the 3rd line. (they look a little improved and don't have any concerns about them as other teams seem interested in both of them but they are not going anywhere).

The ownership thinks Simon Gagne is an invaluable member of the team (thanks for pointing that out Sherlock).

Gagne who is ranked 6th among left forwards is the only player on the list i guess the injuries hurt Pitakenan and Johnsson just isn't getting the respect he deserves.

I don't know how we will finish this season but if Frolick can step it up (got the message he is turning heads in camp) we may be able to win the division