UPDATE: The Flyers have announced that Danny Briere is out indefinitely with a concussion sustained in practice on Saturday. He can not be traded if he isn’t healthy.
Brenden Morrow was drafted by the Dallas Stars in 1997. His entire career has been spent in the great state of Texas, where he scored 243 goals and 528 points in 835 games. He did not join the team until the 1999-00 season, though, missing out on the Stars’ one and only Stanley Cup win since being relocated from Minnesota.
His chances of winning the Cup have just gone up dramatically. As of this afternoon, he has waived his “no trade clause” to join the Pittsburgh Penguins.
With so many teams fighting for playoff positioning in a shortened season, the number of trades made to date has been small. Depth moves like David Steckel to Anaheim, Matt D’agostini to New Jersey, and even Simon Gagne to Philadelphia have involved mid-to-late round picks.
Few teams really knew (and arguably still don’t know) if they had reached a point where hoping for their respective teams to “get hot” for the playoffs was realistic. With 18 games remaining in the regular season, though, the leaders of the pack have begun to pull away from the rest.
The Penguins, sitting atop the Eastern Conference with 48 points, are clearly “buyers.”
The Philadelphia Flyers, idling in 13th place, are five points out of 8th place. They have been fortunate that many of the teams immediately in front have not pulled away in the past week, but another week of losses heading to the April 3 trade deadline will all but kill those meek chances.
It’s time to realistically enter the seller’s market. Pittsburgh has already made their big move; big market teams like Boston, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles have yet to make their own.
If Morrow can waive his no-trade-clause to move to a contender without the Stars being considered shameful, there’s no reason for the Flyers to not be approaching Danny Briere with a similar question. I wrote over a month ago that it may be time for him to move on for his sake, but the Flyers also need to be looking to deal now from one of their few positions of strength- offense.
Another player with deep ties to the organization that drafted him- Jarome Iginla- has given Calgary Flames general manager a list of four teams that he would accept a trade to. That list, per Renaud Lavoie of RDS, included Pittsburgh, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.
Again- if Iginla can be moved, so can Briere.
Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported via twitter that his “sources” say the Flyers do not have plans to trade for veteran defensemen Jay Bouwmeester or Dan Boyle. This comes after CSNPhilly reported that Paul Holmgren and Chris Pryor were scouting Boyle during a recent San Jose Sharks-Minnesota Wild game.
Per Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun, the Sharks are looking for “a player who can help now and a meaningful draft pick.” The Sharks are currently one point out of playoff position and are ranked dead last in the NHL in goals-per-game. They are looking for offense badly.
I’m not going to spend time speculating on what deals could be made. Simply, the market is going to get more and more desperate with every day closer to the trade deadline. A team like the Sharks, asking for a “meaningful draft pick,” would likely reduce their demands to a late round pick (or no pick at all) if it improved their chances of earning a playoff berth.
Briere will not be playing tonight against the Penguins. The organization announced early this morning that he injured himself in practice on Saturday in the “upper body” area. This organization can not afford to lose him to injury before April 3 if it has any intentions of returning to a competitive team as quickly as possible.
There is no better time to enter the trade market, “no trade clause” be damned.
Blow this Team up and trade Veterans like Brierre, Talbot, Hatnell. Metzaros,Gagne
And get young Takent//Draft Picks in return. This 2013 Team is not going anywhere anytime soon.. Build for the Future, clean off some Deadwood $$$
And plan for the future. Team lacks Speed,Defensemen who can Skate and handle the pick, poor Special Teams and a fickle Goaltender
The Dhort-Term and Longer Term Prosoects don’t look very promising to me and you have to acknowledge and be realistic about it as an Organization.
Enough of these shirt-Trem band-aids they keep overpaying and trading too much to obtain.. Time to rebuild for the future
Agreed! This team is un-watchable! DF is horrid & have no offensive prowess! No scoring! No leadership! Goalie who gives up too many soft goals! The kids have taken a couple steps back, & Giroux should have never benn given the “C” You don’t give the “C” to your best player, you give it to the best leader, or best Veteran on the team. He is still fairly green in the leadership department. This team is horrid! The entire team, coaching staff & FO should be axed! But, Snyder will only bring Clarke back,! God forbid!!!! This team has been clueless for decades now, & I’m not making any excuses for them anymore! Snyder needs to sell & retire, because until then, things won’t change. He’s blindly loyal to a fault, & the organizational way of things, have to cease! I’m tired of F^#@ING goons, muckers, grinders, retreads, not being able to draft a good goalie, nor defense-men, & them overrating, & over-evaluating their talent!!!! The last 2-3 years, with ALL our local teams, is giving me nightmarish flashbacks of the late 90’s!!! WTF!!!!
I think you’re right – we will have to wait until the Snyder family is completely out of the Flyers before there will be any serious changes in the upper echelons of the front office. Every team needs a few muckers and grinders – I’m fine with that. But the inability to develop a goalie or a defenseman through draft is a disgrace.
Giroux should have never been given the C – you are 100% right on that, too. It’s routinely a failure when the player is a top scorer. Pronger was good. Timmonen would have been a great choice. Older, proven, unflashy players tend to do well with the C. It tends to crush kids who haven’t fully developed and that helps no one.
Briere and talbot to Montreal for white, Diaz, and a first. Mezaros to the highest bidder for pick or prospect
Not sure why everyone wants to dismiss Meszaros. Of the rostered defensemen, he’s one of the top 3 serviceable players that they have (plus he’s 27)! He’s playing back into game shape, which isn’t the best way to get back after a long injury break.
I’d unload Gervais and Foster before I’d even think of getting rid of Meszaros. Boyd is not an answer, either – unless the goal is to burn up salary space and add slowing, aging people to the team.
Time to finally stop doing the trade path and sell for draft choices. Get some kids in here who want to play. And give them a coach whose system can beat teams other than just Pittsburgh [on occasion].
The reason I say mezaros is his contract, i like the guy but he could bring a decent return. They need to move him for a top bidder deal. As for gervais, foster, lija, drop them on anyone who wants them. I expect Bryz to be bought out too.
OK, I can see that, but I’m not convinced it’s a critical burden right now.
Plus, I’m not sure what kind of return you could get. We know he’s a solid player (when healthy). He doesn’t take stupid penalties and he rarely gets caught out of position. He has demonstrated that he has some scoring ability. Defensemen with that profile get good money when they are free agents. So if you get someone with his skill set, you will eventually have to pay them – or you would have gotten poor return.
In other words, you have a known, proven commodity at value $x. How sure can anyone be that whoever you get for him is going to as good or better and at value $x / 2 or $x / 3? Dan Boyle makes $6.6 million next year at age 36. Meszaros will make $5.5 million next year at age 28. Maybe it’s too much, but I don’t think it’s outrageous at this point and Timonen isn’t getting any younger.
If you think we can get a player of Meszaros’s caliber for a fraction of the cost, then I’d go all in with you on selling the guy… I just don’t know who would take an equivalent player making less money and send him our way in return for a bigger salary. I don’t think the person making that deal for Meszaros is gonna be up for “executive of the year” honors….
The Flyer once again gave up a 5-3 power play which blew a lead. I love the Pittsburgh rivalry so the loss stung last night. Can’t be a rivalry when one team is a non contender and pretender.
Can’t believe the Flyers will be sellers at the deadline. With the amount of money the Flyers invested on their roster compared to other clubs, it is inexcusable. Start with trading Peter Luuko and Paul Holmgren not before Laviolette and the players.( let the new regime make those changes)
I’d unload Luuko, Holmgren, AND Laviolette in one shot. That change on its own will add more wins to the next season. Players are done with Laviolette – and the league has him figured out.
Agreed. Would love a front office overhaul. New set of eyes never hurt no one.
They have to sell if they are smart (which I am not sure that they are), because they are not going to contend this year and with their current structure not next year either.
I agree with the Mesz trade along with Briere and Talbot. Those guys are still valuable and could get something solid in return. This team needs to be remade, but they do have some nice offensive pieces in place.