The main effect of an “Olympic” year on an NHL schedule is that the league has to compact eight-two regulation games in six and a half months, sans two weeks in February that would normally help ease the “three in four” and back-to-back scheduling nightmares.
The other impact is that the league imposes an additional trade freeze prior to the start of the Olympics. For the 2013-14 NHL season, that falls on this Friday, February 7th, and doesn’t lift again until February 23rd.
Elliott Friedman of CBC spelled out the implications of an early trade freeze very intricately in his most recent “30 Thoughts” column, but there are two predominant reasons to move a player before this deadline- money and injuries.
It doesn’t matter that the league isn’t in session while the Winter Olympics are taking place in Sochi- the players continue earning salary regardless.
There is also the danger that players participating in the Olympics for their respective countries of origin can get hurt during these games. If there is a player that a team is looking to move anyway, waiting until the end of the month is a gamble.
The Philadelphia Flyers have two unrestricted free agents that are not guaranteed to return next season that could be traded prior to Friday’s deadline- defenseman Andrej Meszaros and forward Steve Downie. Just how likely are they to do so?
Meszaros is currently having his best season since his first with the Flyers in 2010-11. That isn’t saying much, unfortunately, as the 28 year-old defenseman has missed 23 games this season as a healthy scratch.
The organization couldn’t move Meszaros and his high-priced contract in October. Additional questions loomed about his overall health following back, shoulder and Achilles tendon injuries in the last two years.
His health and confidence appear to be at full strength these days. In his last ten games, he has tallied three goals and ten points. His “corsi for” rating, or the percentage of shots taken towards the opponents net while he’s on the ice over the total number of shots taken, is 49.5% in that span, per ExtraSkater.com.
He’s basically performing at break even at even strength. Teams looking for additional puck moving defensemen for their third pairing or for a second powerplay unit could look at Meszaros as a cheaper alternative than some of the other “name” defensemen that continue to circulate in rumors.
The biggest obstacles for moving Meszaros are the same reasons the Flyers would want to move him by Friday- his salary and his health. It would be advantageous for the Flyers to accrue some additional bankable salary cap space while moving Meszaros before he joins Team Slovakia in Sochi. It works to their trade partners’ advantage to wait until after.
Looking beyond this season, Erik Gustafsson is arguably a more reliable (and cheaper) third pairing puck-moving defenseman than Meszaros. The recent foot injury to Kimmo Timonen is perhaps the only reason to consider waiting to move Meszaros.
Downie appeared to be an excellent fit for the third line with Sean Couturier and Matt Read when he was acquired from the Colorado Avalanche, but recent weeks have revealed two key pieces of information here- that Couturier and Read are dominant regardless of who tags along for the ride, and that Michael Raffl may actually be a viable third/fourth line pairing for the foreseeable future.
There hasn’t really been anything wrong with Downie’s play as a Flyer. Unfortunately, like Meszaros, he just hasn’t found himself in head coach Craig Berube’s favor enough to remain consistently on a scoring line.
Berube’s reasoning for benching Downie has been a “lack of intensity” and has shuffled him in and out of the line-up along with fourth liners Chris VandeVelde and Adam Hall.
If you read the tea leaves closely, it’s fairly clear- Downie isn’t going to factor into the team’s long-term plans. I doubt he would want to stay next season either, considering how he’s been used.
All of these discussions aside, trade speculation is irrelevant if the Flyers organization is unwilling to consider the possibility that they might not win the Stanley Cup this season.
“Rebuild” doesn’t seem to have a place in owner Ed Snider’s dictionary. Snider famously responded to questions during Peter Laviolette’s firing press conference (framed and worded poorly by the reporter) about the culture of the organization.
“The culture is to win. Thirty teams are trying to win the Cup and we’re doing our damnedest to do it. That’s our culture.”
The Flyers, well out of playoff positioning in the lockout-shortened 2013 season, were rumored to have offers for Max Talbot and Ruslan Fedotenko for late draft picks as late as the trade deadline. Even though the team gained no immediate advantage at that time by keeping either player (especially with Fedotenko an unrestricted free agent), they steadfastly refused to alter the line-up rather than gain meager compensation.
It’s not that a fourth round draft pick is some wondrous gift upon which franchises are built. General manager Paul Holmgren was also able to acquire Downie by holding onto Talbot through this season.
It’s the principle of being so sentimental about individual players and the “culture of winning” that the organization can’t regroup properly when the current mix of players clearly isn’t working to its full potential.
As long as there’s a chance that the Flyers could make the playoffs, they often balk at the prospect of reducing their immediate depth to re-stock their farm system depth.
When the San Jose Sharks were in a similar position last season, they didn’t hesitate to move unrestricted free agents Ryan Clowe and Douglas Murray. In exchange for both players, they ultimately received:
- 2nd round draft pick in 2013 (Gabryel Paquin-Boudreau)
- Raffi Torres (traded to the Phoenix Coyotes for New York Ranger’s 3rd round pick)
- Mirco Muller (moved up two positions by trading their 1st round pick and the Pittsburgh Penguin’s 2nd round pick)
- 2nd round draft pick in 2014 (Pittsburgh Penguins)
- 5th round draft pick in 2014 (New York Rangers)
That’s an impressive haul for general manager Doug Wilson. Even more impressive, the Sharks blanked the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the playoffs and took the Los Angeles Kings to seven games before bowing out in the second round.
This season, the Sharks are currently 2nd in their division and 4th in the Western Conference with 76 points. That’s more than fifteen of sixteen Eastern Conference teams have earned in the same span, including the Flyers.
This is a long, roundabout way of saying that the Flyers can move their unrestricted free agents and still remain competitive if they plan accordingly.
Wilson told reporters last season, “This doesn’t take away our goal of trying to make the playoffs this year… We have high expectations for our group and we’re not going to diminish those even as we go into a reset and refresh mode.”
If “rebuild” isn’t in Ed Snider’s dictionary, then perhaps “refresh” should be.
I had hoped for more out of Downie but I guess that is why he always gets traded maybe the leafs or lighting will accept him again they have welcomed him back numerous times.
Why did they have to give Meszaros so much money? That contract was crazy, he is an anchor on the cap and their defensive pairings.
I don’t think Downie has been all that out of place on the third line. The Flyers didn’t feel comfortable with the options they had at the beginning for the season and went with Talbot. Raffl just seems to be their favored player, even though Downie has a bit more offensive upside at this point of his career.
As for Mesz, he signed his current contract (six-years, $24 million) with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Flyers simply traded a 2nd round pick for him and his contract with four years remaining.
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