Philadelphia Flyers: Why 2011-12 Is No Rebuilding Year

Imagine what would happen if the Pittsburgh Penguins traded away Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin within a matter of hours, a day before the draft and a week before free agency.

Imagine the Vancouver Canucks ridding themselves of the Sedins next year if the team fails to win a Stanley Cup.

Imagine the Philadelphia Flyers getting rid of their captain and top scorer a year after these players nearly hoisted Lord Stanley’s Cup.

These scenarios, two fictional and one real, would all intuitively bring to mind one word, a word dreaded by die-hard hockey fans.

Rebuilding.

Rebuilding is the process of getting rid of established players and bringing in fresh faces, draft picks and players whose positive attributes still fall largely under the “potential” category.  

The Flyers find themselves in a position, after jettisoning Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, where the team’s chemistry, confidence and capabilities may be called into question and they don’t know what kind of contributions they will get from players who have been used to Richards’ and Carter’s influence or have never played in Philadelphia before.

Goodbye proven players, hello hopeful stars? Check.

Rebuilding teams rely on new players or young players in their systems to fill the skates of departed contributors. The number of players on the Flyers roster expected to take the next step—or multiple steps—in their development is unnerving. The team’s success depends on everyone from James van Riemsdyk to Jakub Voracek to Brayden Schenn to Ilya Bryzgalov having better seasons than they ever have before.

In the case of Carter and Richards alone, the team lost 59 goals and 132 points. 

Hoping the new guys can make us forget about the old guys? Check.

Rebuilding is a long-term investment in the team’s future, even at the expense of the team’s short-term success.

Read the scouting reports of Schenn, Sean Couturier, Erik Gustafsson and Wayne Simmonds. Then look at the stats from goals scored to plus-minus to time on ice of Richards and Carter.

What do you find more impressive, the scouting reports or the statistics?

General manager Paul Holmgren was more enamored by the scouting reports, so we can put a check next to long-term investment as well.

These signs all point toward a rebuilding season for the Flyers. However, rebuilding teams are typically not competitive for a year or more after the roster overhaul occurs, nor do they expect to be.

Rebuilding teams that have an up-and-coming goaltender don’t invest nine years in an older, wiser netminder.

Rebuilding teams don’t turn to 36-year-old defensemen and 33-year-old centers to be team leaders.

Rebuilding teams don’t spend $3.3 million to acquire a right winger that hasn’t played in the NHL since 2008.

Clearly the Flyers are not a typical rebuilding team.

When Paul Holmgren became the team’s GM a month into the dismal 2006-07 season that saw the Flyers finish dead last in the league, he began the rebuilding process before the offseason. By the time free agency began, Holmgren had acquired Martin Biron, Scottie Upshall, Ryan Parent, Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell and Braydon Coburn at the price of two washed-up veterans and a second-round pick. He would also add coveted center Danny Briere days later.

The following postseason, the Flyers stormed back onto the scene, knocking off the Washington Capitals and top-seeded Montreal Canadiens to make it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Flyers rebuild on the fly and that is exactly what Holmgren has in mind this season.

Does this look like the best Flyers team of the last five years? No, it does not.

Will this team make the playoffs? Will they compete for the division crown? Will opponents have their hands full every time they come to the City of Brotherly Love? 

Absolutely.                                                                 

2011-12 will be a unique year for Flyers fans. We will question Schenn’s top prospect status when he doesn’t score ten goals in the month of October. We will bemoan Bryzgalov’s contract when he loses three games in a row and we will long for Richards and Carter every night that the Kings and Blue Jackets win and the Flyers lose.

But, we will also start telling our local Penguins fans that we would take Giroux, Briere and Schenn as our centermen over Crosby, Malkin and Staal any day of the week. We will bring up Bryzgalov’s name every time analysts talk about Lundqvist, Thomas and the Vezina Trophy and some of us may even buy an orange No. 68 jersey, just because we know Penguins fans will gag a little at the sight of it.

So, give this offseason and the impending regular season a new term, if you must.

A reorganizing year.

A restructuring year.

A reigniting year.

Just don’t say the Philadelphia Flyers are rebuilding.