I started writing this on New Year’s Day while clutching a bottle of electrolytes, well it was more like a jug of electrolytes but you get the word-picture. This final Flight Check has been written and discarded only to be re-written four times now because the goal of the Flight Check series was to preview the season and make determinations about what we should expect/ hope for… Then the team got hot for a week and the idea of playoffs wasn’t completely insane, then they’d fall apart and the tank drivers found their footing. Well, I have concluded, that we’re all nuts.
Seriously, we are all insane for getting on the roller coaster with ever-evolving expectations, and NO it’s not just me, I am a frequent lurker or r/Flyers and I know you’re out there too. The team as I publish this is 19-20-6 which is, for all you math majors out there, good for 44 points in 45 played, aka 6th in the Wild Card race when looking at Points Percentage (points percentage is what matters, not point total since teams play varying schedules). That is also good enough if the season were to end today, the Flyers would have the 10th overall pick in the draft, along with two picks in the twenties thanks to the Oilers and Avs. This leaves us at a crossroads because the boys are roughly 6 points away from a Wild Card berth in the ‘yoffs, and 5 points away from the 5th overall pick.
So we’re here again, 2-3 years away from being 2-3 years away from being a Cup contender.
So if I’m finally wrapping up this “preview” series of articles on what we should expect in the months ahead, particularly when there won’t be football to distract us from the mundane mediocrity that is this hockey team, with definitive conclusions on what the front office SHOULD do, what we should realistically expect, and what our goal should be to deem this, another lost season far removed from years past of constant playoff runs, somewhat successful…
What the Front Office Should Do: Sell anything that isn’t nailed down!
Listen, even if this team limped into the playoffs as the second wild card, what would that really accomplish?
“JJ it would give this young core playoff experience!”
Okay, that’s nice. Would it also give them a severe injection of pure talent? No?! Stop crying and go sit down.
Look the team is young and has pieces but there’s not enough top-end talent. By my count the team has 3 top-end pieces in TK, Sanheim, and our beautiful Comrade Calder MM39. Talent wins in the hardest playoffs in all of sports, so the best way to acquire talent is simply to sell at the deadline to acquire draft picks or reclamation projects (if available). So, with that being said, here’s the fire sale: Rasmus Ristolainen (1st rounder asking price); Scott Laughton (1st rounder); Morgan Frost (If I can get a 1st or 2nd for him then it’s time to sell high, Farabee would’ve been here if he was moveable), Noah Cates (Sell High! 2nd/3rd rounder); Any Goalie (A bucket of pucks and stocking our soda machine for a year, I don’t want my guys paying for soda)… Okay, the last one is a pipe dream and Frost/Cates makes sense from the perspective that you are selling high due to the influx of talent you expect next year in young forwards on ELC’s (Jett, Barkey, and maybe Berglund). Sell, amass picks. This year’s draft is considered deep, but acquiring picks also gives you a war chest to use in the lead-up to the draft to bring in pieces. I mean, if the Flyers end up with 4 or 5 firsts, you can move some of them and end up with talents that aren’t moved at the deadline (looking at you Mason McTavish). The byproduct of moving the pieces you can is that younger players will have to play more regular season minutes which benefits development, but it also probably moves you lower enough in the standings to garner a better draft pick. To quote Mayor Parker in that sham press conference earlier this week, “It’s win-win-win”.
So What’s the Point of Us Watching?
Easy, it’s the same answer that I’ve been shoving down your throats to this point that would make this season “successful”: Michkov Bay Bee! Let’s watch him develop and the only way this season is successful is with a Calder Trophy, which will be difficult to pull off as Lane Hutson is surging as a Defenceman in the city of saints, la metropole, la ville aux cent clochers (that’s Montreal for all my anglophones out there)…
So this season is turning into one similar to the last 10, so please, please Danny B, sell enough to lose our way to the top 5 just this once. Then make moves and for the love of God figure out what to do with the goalie position since the Cal Petersen contract expires, we can bury one of these three in the A and hopefully move another to bring in a league-average goalie. I firmly believe this is a playoff team with a league-average goalie and a few moves to bring in the top 6 pieces.
See you down at the barn.
What do you think the Flyers should do? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok.