As we all know this season is lost and with the comments made by both Chuck Fletcher and Dave Scott it sounds like we can prepare for a full blown shake up of the roster with all intentions looking towards building for a cup run next season. with that being said I will be giving you a full blown road map from today all the way to the start of next pre-season.

Between Now and The Trade Deadline:

There will be a hand full of moves between now and the deadline. As stated in a previous post that I believe that Ristolianen would be on the trade block, but I do not think that he will be anymore and that he will most likely have a contract extension by the end of the season, but with that being said I believe that the rest of the trade chips remain the same. Those names are Jones, Braun, Yandle, and yes Giroux. The Flyers have already received offers for Jones with the return being a late round pick, with that being said it sounds like it will probably be a 4th round pick in return at some point with the trade being with the Oilers. Braun’s trade value may be a bit higher but not by much, at most i think we are looking at a 3rd round pick with a couple of suiters such as the Leafs or possibly even the Panthers who are both looking for defensive help for deep playoff runs. Yandle is one that I don’t necessarily believe that he will be traded but he is an expiring contract that could be a rental for any team who could use a powerplay specialist such as the Maple Leafs, Wild, Preds, and even the Ducks who are all sitting in a playoff spot right now. at most all these teams I couldn’t see giving up more than a 3rd round pick at most if there happens to be a bidding war. Now the most valuable piece of them all is Claude Giroux who will most definitely a bidding war will ensue between the Wild, Avs, Rangers and Bruins. At the end of the day Giroux will have to wave his no trade clause for anything to happen. One thing for certain i believe that the Flyers will hold off on trading Giroux until he eclipses his thousandth game as a Flyer and for his career. His 1000th career game will be on March 18th with the deadline being on March 21st everything will line up perfectly for this scenario to happen. Now as far as return i think we are looking at a 1st round pick a medium to high level prospect and possibly even a 3rd and depending on what else is offered could possibly mean more especially if we are looking at offers from teams like the Rangers and Bruins.

Between March 21st and June 30th:

So, this timeline encompasses the rest of the regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Within this timeline the Flyers should be playing a lot of the young kids such as: Isaac Ratcliffe, Morgan Frost, Linus Sandin, Maxim Suchko, Yegor Zamula, Wade Allison, and hopefully Tyson Foerster and Samu Tuomaala. It is going to end up looking like it did last season at the end with young players in and out of the lineup every night, but if a couple of players like Frost or Ratcliffe or Allison get hot I could see them playing their way on to next season’s opening night lineup. But the period of playoffs is the area in which I could see the Flyers doing interviews to fill out their coaching staff. With my top candidates being Rick Tocchet, Jason Smith, Rocky Thompson. The way I constructed this list is by taking a coaching candidate from each level, one prior NHL coach, one internal coach and one current NHL assistant. Rick Tocchet is obviously having NHL experience and his resume speaks for himself especially with all of it being done as the coach of the rebuilding Arizona Coyotes Tampa Bay Lighting. With a career record of 178-200-60 with a career .475 PTS%. Jason Smith is a former Flyer who played one season with the Flyers but was also the captain for that one season. He is currently the Assistant coach to Lappy in the AHL but has experience at the NHL level as an assistant as well as head coaching experience in the WHL. I do not see him as a strong candidate but a possible on at a cheap cost if the team was looking to save some money while waiting for AV to fall of the books. The last of my three major candidates is Rocky Thompson who is the assistant coach for the San Jose Sharks, has had experience at multiple levels as an assistant at the WHL AHL and the NHL while being the head coach of the Windsor Spitfires and the Chicago Wolves. He has worked his way through the gauntlet of coaching has earned a shot at trying to lead his own team. I do have one black horse option who is currently employed by the St. Louis Blues and that is Craig Berube who is up for a new contract in the offseason. I could see a reunion with the Flyers under the right circumstances. Regardless of the coach hiring I really want to see a Jukka Jalonen as an assistant coach to see what he can bring from the Finnish game to bring a new flavor to the offense. He has recently won the World Championship in 2019 and has been considered a highly touted coaching prospect for a few years now and his dream is to coach in the NHL and has said he was willing to come over as an assistant to get his foot in the door.

Between June 30th To The Draft:

I do not see too much happening in this period but if there was, I could see the Flyers trying to part ways with JVR via trade to free up 7 million in cap space. I do not see that happening unless the flyers are willing to Retain some salary for the last year that is left on his deal. If the flyers are willing to do so I could see them receiving a second-round pick from a team like the Red Wings who would be looking to retool to make push for playoff contention or the L.A. Kings who look to be in a good spot to make a push next season, but we shall see come the offseason. One more trade I think I could see happening is including Travis Konecny to the Ducks for prospect Jacob Perreault a second round pick this year and third round pick next season.

Resign Period:

I would imagine the Flyers will Resign Risto for right around 5.5 MIL a year over roughly 5 years and that would be really the only big resigning they would have to make if everything goes right at the trade deadline. The only other thing that could happen is if the Flyers cannot get a deal done to trade JVR I could see them buying out his last year to free up 3.5 million to add cap room for free agency. If all these things go as planned, they Flyers would be looking at 17.5 million dollars in cap space going into free agency which would allow for plenty of play in the open market.

Free-Agency:

Now here is the fun part filling in all the wholes to make this team a Stanley Cup contender. Let us start with goal scoring first. My first choice is going to be from the Nashville Predators, and it is Filip Forsberg. Forsberg has consistently put up twenty plus goals a season and is already over that mark this year on pace for at least 40 this season. Forsberg plays both center and Left Wing and could be real boost to the top line making it look like: Forsberg Coots and Farabee. The ideal price would be right around 7.5 mil a year over 5 years and that would bring the cap space to right around ten mil. Next move I would look to make is to bring Giroux back to play as second line Left Wing for a reasonable price that he would hopefully take a hometown discount of 4.5 mil a year. Making that second line look like Giroux Frost and Atkinson. From there it looks like the third line is already made up with Lindblom Hayes and Laughton. Leaving the fourth line to be made up of Allison MacEwen and Ratcliffe. The defensive pairings would all just remain the same needing to only fill one hole on the bottom pairing which would be a Nick Leddy or an Anton Stralman. I would look to bring them in on reasonable deals for around 2-3 mil over 2 years. thus, allowing Zumula to be able to play his way in if he plays well enough. Last hole left would be backup goalie with roughly 2-3 mil in cap space to get it done, I would be looking at a player like Jaroslav Halak or a Thomas Griess for roughly around 2-3 Mil on a one-year deal.

LWCRW
ForesbergCoutereirFarabee
GirouxFrostAtkinson
LindblomHayesLaughton
AllisonMacEwenRatcliffe
LDRD
ProvorovYork
RistoEllis
SanheimStralman/ Leddy

In a perfect world and this all goes as planned the Flyers will be looking at about 1.447mil in cap space for wiggle room with injuries and what not. This is all dependent on if these deals can get done for the right prices and bring in the right returns. The other parts that i left out are personally I do not see Lindblom still being her next season as well as Sanheim as they are not bad players it just may be their time to go and could open up another 7.5 million in cap space for other options and also make way for young talent.

As always please like share comment and follow for more have a great day and I will have NHL Draft preview post up on wednesday.