Philadelphia Flyers: Is It Time to Cut Bait With Jeff Carter?

Written By: Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter

When faced with adversity, there is often that split second when you are forced to make a decision, fight or flight? For the Philadelphia Flyers it may be time to flight, at least where a few players are concerned.

The off-season experiments of adding Chris Pronger to the fold are up for debate. That said, given the amount of chatter about Pronger and his on again off again feud with teammates (including Captain Mike Richards) and the current position of the Flyers in the standings (27th overall), it’s safe to say that Pronger has not had the impact the Flyers expected.

To be fair, when it comes to the Flyers’ failures, there is plenty of blame to go around. Jeff Carter, a player that was seemingly untouchable after hi 46 goal campaign in 2008-09, has heard his name mentioned often in trade rumors. Thus far, there has been little substance to the rumors, but as the saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Mike Richards has had his leadership abilities questioned by his teammates, fans and, most likely, the coaching staff. For the most part, the news of Richards leadership being questioned came as a surprise. Richards has always been highly regarded in NHL circles and to think he forgot how to lead over the summer is preposterous.

While the Flyers “Gucci” players have had a huge negative impact on the Flyers fortune, or lack-thereof, the thrid and fourth line players must also assume some of the blame. Mika Pyorala, Daniel Carcillo, James Van Riemsdyk, Claude Giroux and Daniel Briere have all been abysmal of late and are key reasons for the Flyers failures.

Briere has not scored since December 7th, Van Riemsdyk has scored just once in his past 15 games, Carcillo has been busy getting suspended, Pyorala has just two goals on the entire season and Giroux, who was expected to make a big contribution this year, has registered scoring droughts that have lasted 12 games, eight games and six games respectively.

Defensively the Flyers have been tentative, unorganized and have given up more odd man rushes than I can count. Pronger is a minus-5 in his past ten games, Matt Carle has four points in his past five games, but is also a minus-3 over that same time span. While the rest of the defensive crew has been consistently inconsistent. Where are the big hits? Where is the accountability?

I will resist throwing Brian Boucher under the bus. Boucher was not brought into Philadelphia to be a starter and, from what I have observed, has been hung out to dry by his teammates. Sure, he could be better, but Boucher is in a tough spot right now and, for the most part, has kept his team in the game on most nights.

Given all the Flyers struggles, the teams poor response to the coaching change and the apparent lack of effort from so many players it looks as if the Flyers will have to look at changing up the roster.

Picking up a third line player or adding yet another sub-par goaltender isn’t going to cut it. What the Flyers need is a good old fashioned shake-up and it may very well start and stop with struggling centre Jeff Carter.

Carter, has registered 26 points in 32 games. Trouble is, he has only scored twelve goals on the season and just once in his past five games and just five goals in his past 17 games. At this rate, Carter will be lucky to hit the 30 goal mark, not bad, but way off his career high 46 goals in 2008-09.

Another troubling statistic for Carter is his plus/minus, which has dipped from +23 last season to -4 this season. That’s a huge drop and says volumes about Carter’s compete level this season. Simply put, Carter is struggling in all facets of the game, not just lighting the lamp, which may even cost the young forward a chance to represent Canada at the Olympic’s.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Philadelphia Flyers once discussed a trade involving Carter for Tomas Kaberle. In the end, Toronto was unable to convince Kaberle to move to Philly so the deal died off quickly.

Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke has said repeatedly that he has no intention of asking Kaberle to waive his no-trade clause and, in all likelihood, would not want to move Kaberle.

That’s bad news for Philly, as I believe Kaberle is exactly the kind of player the Flyers need; a veteran defensman that is a great skater with the ability to make a crisp first pass and run your power play.

Let’s face it, there are not too many defensemen in the NHL that brings the skill set of Tomas Kaberle, but there may be a team or two willing to talk about moving a player with similar qualities, especially if Carter was coming back the other way.

The Montreal Canadiens recently offered up goaltender Jaroslav Halak to the Flyers. Thus far, there has been little to no speculation what the Canadiens are looking for in return, but given the Canadiens recent struggles and inconsistency all season, they too could befit from a shakeup.

Montreal has a number of young defensemen in their system, so in the long run they could deal away a veteran with confidence. The trouble is, outside of Andrei Markov, the Canadiens do not have a defenseman that suits the Flyers needs and there is no way Montreal would be willing to move him.

Thankfully, there are other options for the Flyers to consider. Simon Gagne is expected to suit up for the Flyers tomorrow when they face off against the New York Rangers, which should give the Flyers some much needed offense.  Blair Betts, the Flyers best penalty killer, looks to have recovered from his injuries and, by all accounts, should have a huge impact on the Flyers fortunes going forward.

Roster tweaks, coaching changes and implementing a new system can only mask things for so long, sooner or later players are going to be moved, for Carter and other’s sake, let’s hope Flyers GM Paul Holmgren is not forced to make the rumors a reality.

Until next time,

Peace!