Sergei Bobrovsky: How Do the Flyers Handle an Elite Backup Goalie?

Ilya Bryzgalov was the most important offseason acquisition the Philadelphia Flyers made, but his signing caused Flyers fans to begin asking questions about last season's starting netminder Sergei Bobrovsky: Where will Bob play next year?  Will he still have a role on the team?  What kind of trade value does he have?

With Bryzgalov under a nine-year contract, the Flyers cannot treat Bobrovsky as a future starter, so the front office needs to think of him in new terms: Does his trade market value have more positive impact on the team than his value as a backup goalie?

Realistically, there are three ways the Flyers can make the best of Bobrovsky's future.

Option 1: Acquire an Experienced Forward

 By trading away two of the Flyers’ four most prolific scorers from 2010-11 in exchange for players that were yet to prove themselves as forces in the NHL, Paul Holmgren made the move to invest in the long-term future for the Flyers. 

Richards and Carter today are better than Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds, Sean Couturier and Jakub Voracek today, but Flyers’ management hopes these players will soon develop into stars.

The loss of Richards and Carter makes the team weaker offensively for the upcoming season, and the new offense seems unlikely to compete for a Stanley Cup.  Nonetheless, the addition of an experienced player could result in a dangerous playoff run for this Flyers team if the pieces fall into place.

The Eastern Conference is not an easy place to play, but there is enough room for a capable team to make the playoffs.  Even a rebuilding Flyers team has a chance to make a statement.

If Danny Briere, Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk can control the offense during the season, with moderate contributions from Jaromir Jagr, Scott Hartnell and Schenn, the Flyers will find themselves in the playoff picture. 

When teams are faced with the win-now-or-build-up proposition of the trade deadline, the Flyers may find themselves in the playoff picture, a solid offensive addition away from being a true contender.

If this is the case, the Flyers may offer Bobrovsky to the Calgary Flames as part of a package that would bring Jarome Iginla to the City of Brotherly Love.  The 34-year-old winger has been a scoring force for Calgary since 1996, including two Rocket Richard Trophies.

Iginla is a free agent after this season, and unless the struggling Flames surprise the whole hockey world by competing for the Northwest Division, they will be looking to get some potential stars in exchange for the outgoing forward.

With 34-year-old goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff seeing declining GAA and SV% in three of the last four seasons, the Flames may be looking for a goalie of the future, and Bobrovsky might be just what the doctor ordered.

A straight Iginla-for-Bobrovsky trade is unlikely to outdo competing teams looking for a scorer, but the addition of a prospect and/or draft pick may sweeten the deal.  With such a young core of forwards and future cap space to play with, the Flyers can give away draft picks without worrying about the impact in upcoming seasons.

Most realistic fans would say that the Flyers are still a few years away from the Stanley Cup.  However, if the team has a good season and Iginla dons the Orange and Black, the Flyers’ time may be sooner than we think.

Option 2: Investing in a Defenseman

 The Flyers defense is a very solid group with little room for immediate improvement; during last season, Andrej Meszaros was the apparent fifth defenseman and he spent time atop the league in plus/minus.  Ahead of him skated Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn and Matt Carle.

Few teams in the league could compete with such a strong defense, when healthy.

The one weakness in that group is age; Coburn, Carle and Meszaros are coming into their prime, while Timonen and Pronger are approaching the twilight of their careers.  If the offense takes too long to develop, the Flyers may lose their defensive edge to age and free agency.

Bobrovsky can be turned into a long-term defensive investment by exploiting a team that is struggling to sign one of its own.  Both Los Angeles and Toronto have famously struggled to sign restricted free agents on defense this offseason, LA is trying to coax Drew Doughty into a deal and Toronto is trying to come to an agreement with Luke Schenn.

Trading for Doughty is likely a pipe dream, as the Kings already have two capable goaltenders at the helm.  However, adding Bobrovsky would allow them to trade either Jonathan Quick or Jonathan Bernier without sacrificing their goalie success, and perhaps the team could turn one of their netminders into a missing puzzle piece to become a force in the West.

Certainly adding Bobrovsky would give the team more options than losing Doughty to restricted free agency would.  It also might solve an impending goalie battle, by allowing one of their premier netminders to move on while Bobrovsky plays backup.

Nonetheless, LA still intends to sign Doughty or find a better suitor without exploring the “middleman” option of acquiring Bob and flipping another goalie.  With LA’s interests and the Flyers’ salary cap considered, a more realistic option appears to be Luke Schenn.

Schenn is currently in negotiations with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and with his brother Brayden recently joining the Flyers and poised to become a fan favorite, the Flyers must have some attraction for Luke.  Schenn is a stay-at-home defenseman modeling his game after Chris Pronger, making him a viable candidate to fill in for Pronger’s role down the line.

While Pronger’s contract with the Flyers lasts for five more years, injuries and age compel the Flyers to find a defenseman who can play a similar role when needed, and Schenn may be that player. 

Luke Schenn is likely to make between three and four million per season, and by trading Bobrovsky alone, the Flyers would have about $5 million in cap space to fit Schenn.  Toronto may be motivated to accept a smaller contract with the trade, so either Andreas Lilja or Oskars Bartulis could be moved to gain some extra cap space and make room for Schenn on defense.

With defensemen like Shea Weber and Drew Doughty raising the market value for defensemen, Toronto may be inclined to send Schenn elsewhere in order to bolster a questionable crease.  James Reimer has been impressive in his 37 games for the Maple Leafs, but the addition of Bobrovsky may provide the contingency plan that Canada’s darlings need to return to the playoffs.

Look for the Flyers to seek offers for defensemen this offseason, but if the big names re-sign, the Flyers might keep Bobrovsky until the deadline or next season.

Option 3: Keep Bob in the System

 If the post-Hextall years have taught the Flyers anything, it’s that having two goalies can give the team options that will make or break the season.  One year, the backup Roman Cechmanek outshines starter Brian Boucher; the next, it’s Robert Esche out-dueling Cechmanek, and Antero Niittymaki replacing Esche.

Sergei Bobrovsky has starting goaltender talent, but the Flyers may be more anxious to win than Bobrovsky’s development allows.

By singing Ilya Bryzgalov, GM Paul Holmgren declared that the Flyers would no longer tolerate guessing games in net.  After years of investing time in draft picks, troubled goalies and questionable backups, Holmgren made Vezina Trophy nominee Bryzgalov the answer in net for the Flyers.

During the offseason, some fans speculated that the Flyers would sign an experienced goalie for two to four years to support Bobrovsky’s development.  By signing Bryzgalov for nine years, Holmgren made it clear that Bobrovsky is not the future in net for Philadelphia.

While many would consider Bob to have lost the starting job, there is an equally strong case that he never should have had it in the first place.  Bobrovsky had never played more than 35 games in a season before coming to North America, and the long NHL season clearly showed wear and tear on the Russian netminder.

Perhaps only the reputation of backup Brian Boucher and the injury of former starter Michael Leighton put Bob in the starting role, where he played very well, but by season’s end most fans agreed that Bobrovsky was not ready to bear the weight of a whole team’s hopes and dreams.

Ilya Bryzgalov is capable of playing more than 65 games per season, but if the Flyers keep Bobrovsky as his backup, Bryzgalov can play 50-55 games and stay fresh for the playoffs.  With no real answer in the minors (Michael Leighton, Johan Backlund and Niko Hovinen are all questionable at best), a backup goalie may be what the Flyers need to prepare themselves for a big playoff run. 

The defense is capable, the offense has potential, and the starting goalie should be reliable; could having a stellar backup take the Flyers deep into the playoffs?

For Paul Holmgren, the coming weeks and months will be about weighing options.  Bobrovsky is undoubtedly a bargaining chip, but can the Flyers get a good price for him?  An experienced goalscorer?  A defenseman with a bright future?

If not, then Bobrovsky is most valuable to the Flyers on the bench, ready to fill in when needed. 

Despite a dramatic offseason, this Philadelphia team is close to being a real contender.  In one way or another, whether as a trade commodity or a contingency plan, Sergei Bobrovsky is the MVP—Most Valuable Piece—of this Flyers’ plan.