Philadelphia Flyers: 6 Positional Battles to Watch for This Season

The 2011-12 Philadelphia Flyers roster has more new faces than the team has seen in years. With these new faces comes many question marks about the make up of Peter Laviolette’s squad in the coming year.

Writers and fans have speculated for months about the new line combinations, defensive pairings and special teams units that the Flyers may use to compete for a second consecutive Atlantic Division title.  But all the speculation in the world will not solidify the team’s appearance before the season begins.

Positional battles will be a major story, not just in the preseason but throughout the year as players and chemistry develop on the team.  Here’s a look at six positional battles that will intrigue fans all season long.

Shelley vs. Sestito

The Battle: Fourth Line Wing/Enforcer

No hockey team takes its tough guys for granted, but few teams love a good fighter more than the Flyers.  This makes the Orange and Black’s enforcer role one of the most important and coveted in the NHL.

Jody Shelley is in the second year of a three year deal that pays him $1.1 million per season, a price that seems a little steep given his skill level. 

Shelley was unafraid to drop the gloves in 2010-11, but Flyers fans recognized that the 35-year-old winger is having an increasingly difficult time going toe-to-toe with younger opponents.  The Philly faithful have seen the likes of Todd Fedoruk and Riley Cote begin to decline, a sign that it might be time to make room for the next No. 1 contender.

Enter Tom Sestito, an American boy who towers over opponents at 6’5” without skates and has 228 pounds to throw around. 

The concept of ending a season with fewer than 100 PIMs has been foreign to Sestito since 2004-05, and while the soon-to-be 24-year-old has never played more than nine NHL games in a season, he may find himself perfectly suited to don the Orange and Black on the team’s fourth line.

Expect Sestito to see ice time in the preseason and expect the gloves to come off on more than one occasion.  If Sestito can put a few opponents on the ice, he may find himself with a permanent spot on the Flyers bench this year and an equally familiar spot in the team’s penalty box.

The Edge: It may not happen right away, but by season’s end Sestito will have overtaken Shelley’s role on the fourth line.

Talbot vs. Schenn

The Battle: Third Line Center

The role of third line center will likely go to a player who has never worn the Flying P before in his career. The two most likely candidates were names that became a major part of water cooler conversations this past offseason.

Brayden Schenn was the main compensation in the Mike Richards trade and the 20-year-old center is expected to break into the NHL any day now. 

The Flyers are enthusiastic to give him the chance after he impressed scouts and coaches in rookie camp and scored three goals in a scrimmage.  Schenn is considered such a versatile player that his scouting report would be easier to read if it listed the things he can't do on the ice.

Schenn is a long-term investment for the Flyers, but the sooner he becomes a force in the league, the better chance the team has of being a contender.

However, rushing a player’s development is a touchy subject and the Flyers have been good about allowing players to grow in recent years (think James van Riemsdyk). 

Therefore, Pittsburgh’s second most infamous defector Max Talbot may be the man for the job of third line center. 

Talbot is a center by nature and will be making $1.8 million next season.  With Blair Betts the likely fourth line center, Talbot will either find himself anchoring a scoring line or playing on the wing.  But with Andreas Nodl and Wayne Simmonds on this wings, it’s difficult to picture a TSN line being even a fraction as threatening as the team’s third line from last season.

The Edge: Laviolette and Holmgren will put their faith in Brayden Schenn, but if he does not produce he may find himself continuing his development in Adirondack.

Lilja vs. Bartulis vs. Gustafsson

The Battle: Sixth Defenseman

At the beginning of 2010, the Flyers saw themselves with a three-way battle for the sixth defensive position on the roster.  Sean O’Donnell would beat out Matt Walker and Oskars Bartulis for the starting role.

With O’Donnell gone, Andreas Lilja seems like the obvious replacement.  Like O’Donnell, Lilja has age and experience under his belt and the demands of the sixth defensive role would not put too much strain on his aging body.

However, two young up-and-comers in the Flyers system will be challenging Lilja for the role. 

Oskars Bartulis has been a familiar face on the Flyers roster for two full seasons, playing 53 games in 2009-10 and 13 more behind O’Donnell the following season.  Bartulis likely would have seen more time last year had he not been injured by Scottie Upshall.

Bartulis has the lowest cap hit of the three defensemen competing for the spot, meaning that he will likely remain on the roster as a healthy scratch if he does not win the starting role.

The third contender is Erik Gustafsson, a 23-year-old Swede who has been one of the most talked-about Flyers prospects in recent memory. 

In 72 games with Adirondack last year, Gustafsson managed 44 assists and 49 points.  His cap hit is the highest of the three, but Gustafsson is also the player most likely to remain with the Flyers long-term.

The Edge: Bartulis will remain on the roster all year, but Lilja will play the majority of games as a starter.

Pronger vs. Meszaros

The Battle: Power Play Quarterback

One of the primary reasons that Chris Pronger was acquired was to put a threatening slapshot and intense leadership on a Flyers power play that seems to struggle every season.

When healthy, Pronger is expected to be on the ice for at least the first minute of every power play and the unit is designed to get the powerful defenseman an open shot at the net.

However, Pronger is nearly 37 years old and injuries have been an issue for him recently. For a team looking to remain competitive for years to come, less pressure on Pronger may mean more success for the Flyers.

Andrej Meszaros proved to be one of Paul Holmgren’s greatest acquisitions when he eclipsed the 30 point plateau for the first time since his Ottawa days and finished the season +30. 

25-year-old Meszaros is capable of playing an offensive role that is similar to Pronger’s—if not better.  He may never match Pronger’s career highs in goals and points, but Meszaros is defensively solid and offensively opportunistic.

A fantastic puck-mover with a big body, Meszaros could be a force on the top power play unit by putting pucks on net for deflections and rebounds or stepping up in the play behind the opposing defense.

The Flyers may find themselves wanting to limit Pronger’s ice time to keep him healthy, and Meszaros affords the team that luxury.

The Edge: Pronger is still the man on the PP and if he stays healthy Meszaros will likely remain on the second unit.

Bryzgalov vs. Bobrovsky

The Battle: Starting Goaltender

When Ilya Bryzgalov signed his nine-year deal, he became the clear starting goaltender on the team’s roster.

However, Bryzgalov has spent his starting years in Phoenix and he will be expected to make the adjustment to a city that not only takes an interest in hockey, but is desperate for a Stanley Cup and sees him as the missing piece of the puzzle.

With a solid defense in front of him, Bryzgalov will have no excuses for poor performance. While he may not compete for a Vezina, he is expected to make the Flyers one of the toughest teams to score on. 

If Bryzgalov stumbles even a bit, the team’s most recent “savior” is waiting in the wings for his second shot.

Sergei Bobrovsky was out of his element last season, thrown into a situation where he played in 54 games despite never having played in more than 35 while in Europe.  Nonetheless, Bob won 28 games and was a major reason for the Flyers’ success in the first half of the season—before the expectations and pressure became too much for him.

Bobrovsky will see fewer games this year, and that schedule may make him look all the more impressive.  Barring a trade, Bobrovsky will be one of the most capable backups in the entire NHL and a capable backup is only a hot streak away from becoming a starter.

Bryzgalov’s role is very clearly defined as the season’s start approaches, but with Bobrovsky poised to assume a role that is better suited for his development, it is not impossible to think that Bryzgalov may feel his countryman breathing down his neck all season.

The Edge: Clearly Bryzgalov, but don’t count Bobrovsky out.

Jagr vs. Van Riemsdyk

The Battle: First Line Forward

Scott Hartnell has had chemistry with Danny Briere since both players joined the team in 2007 and with each passing season the two seem to develop a stronger and stronger connection. 

Projections this season show Jaromir Jagr joining Briere and Hartnell on the top line, which leaves fans and coaches wondering what kind of production the top line can muster.  If Jagr still has a scoring touch, all three players will benefit. 

If he turns out to be a bust, Jagr's contributions would be limited to being a big front-of-the-net presence who scores primarily garbage goals; in other words, his game would mirror Hartnell's.  Briere and Hartnell may find themselves searching for a new partner in crime.

James van Riemsdyk, having recently signed a six-year extension with the team, is expected to be the biggest scoring threat on the Flyers in the coming years.

JVR possesses a 100 mph slapshot, an accurate wrist shot, size and speed to crash the net and surprisingly soft hands for a big man.  In other words, he could be a younger Jaromir Jagr.

While Jagr is a right winger and JVR a left winger, Laviolette would not be above shuffling positions in order to make all his players more effective.  JVR or Hartnell could find themselves playing on the right side if the line's chemistry benefits from it.

JVR will produce no matter what line he is on, but if the first line looks like it needs more skill than Jagr can offer in order to be threatening, JVR will be the answer.

The Edge: JVR will be on the top line before the season is over, while Jagr will be crashing the net with Giroux and Voracek on the second line.