It’s Not Sunny In Philadelphia

Philadelphia is off to another rough start.  GM Ron Hextall has options to try and spark the team.  Could one involve his captain?

The Philadelphia Flyers seems to be stuck in NHL purgatory. One quarter through the season the Broad Street Bullies are sitting one game under .500 and only five points out of the bottom of the league. They have a -4 goal differential, are great at home and terrible on the road. Combined with last seasons first round exit to the New York Rangers and missing the playoffs two years ago, the Flyers seem to be spinning their wheels and finding quicksand.

They are the definition of mediocrity.

The longer the Flyers remain in hot pursuit of 7th place the longer they are going to languish in the middle of the league. The question is how to get out of the middle of nowhere. Do you hold on to your elite players and attempt to fill in the holes with deadline deals and young players within your system? Or do you burn it to the ground, trade away your best players and accumulate all the top draft picks you can, forsaking two complete seasons like the Buffalo Sabres have done?

First year general manager Ron Hextall certainly has his work cut out for him. According to hockeysfuture.com he is working with the 21st ranked prospect pool, which isn’t an overall position of strength. There do appear to be plenty of talented defensemen coming up led by Shayne Gostisbehere, and Steve Mason is quietly having good season. Though his record doesn’t indicate such, the .923 save percentage is quite good. Assuming Hextall stays with Mason, it seems the back end of the Flyers could be in good shape for the near future.

It’s the present that’s maddening. How much longer will the team wait on Braydon Coburn and Luke Schenn? At 29 Coburn is what he is but Schenn still may have some upside to him at 25. And up front it would be impossible to count on Jakub Voracek continuing his blistering pace. Is he a player you can sell high on and get a good return? If he stays anywhere close to this pace he could make a good acquisition at the deadline for a team looking for additional scoring punch.

So would Claude Giroux. Remember Hextall was on the other end of the trade that sent Mike Richards to the LA Kings: he was the assistant GM at the time. So he has seen the Flyers trade a captain before. Now that he has the controls in Philadelphia will he feel pressure to do it again in order to spark the franchise?

I’m not saying there are rumors swirling around the Flyers captain. Quite the opposite. But regardless of Voracek and his hot start, Giroux is the Flyers best player and would fetch the most in return. That could include roster players, a pick in the 2015 Entry Draft which is extremely deep, and/or picks in 2016. And Giroux certainly knows how to score goals. His playmaking ability would be a welcome addition to any top six group expecting to make a deep playoff run. And top centers are nearly impossible to come by. Hextall would certainly consider that fact before setting a price or making a deal for Giroux.

It’s going to take a bold approach to steer Philadelphia out of the middle of the pack and on to a new course. That could involve some losing in the short term which seems to be the vogue approach to turning a franchise around. But Hextall in his career was both bold and unpredictable. He is exactly the kind of GM you could see making a move with his best player.

How bold does Hextall feel he needs to be? He has to know the status quo is not going to be good enough for anyone in Philadelphia.