Flyers off season report
Kyle Dubas took a moment to address his off-season moves with us and shared his thoughts on the coming year.
Before we do that, here's a look back at the Flyers off-season:
Re-signings
M.Ferland 1yr 715k
A.Johnson 1yr 630k
J.Ortio 3yr 1M
R.Gudas 1yr 2.3M
K.Gravel 1yr 800k
S.Couturier 4yr 3.1M
B.Schenn 4yr 5.75M
M.Brown 1yr 800k
J.Voracek 6yrs 7M
I.Provorov 3yr 900k
J.Morrisey 3yr 700k
Players leaving
M.Raffl
C.Terry
L.Schenn
R.Diaz
M.Lamarche
During Free Agency the Flyers added forwards Jaromir Jagr (1yr 4.8M) and Sean Bergenheim (2yrs 3.3M).
Kyle gave us an in depth interview:
Reporter: Kyle, your team is coming off a season where you guys swept the trophy scene, were dominant during the regular season, but fell in 7 come playoffs, how do you feel about this ?
Kyle: Well look, anytime you lose in the first round it's really ****ing bitter. We have Giroux who won the Art Ross, the Rocket Richard, the ****ing Selke and the Lindsay, then Andy Mac who wins the Norris and Jakey who won the Lady Byng. It was ******, and to make it worse we lose to the ****ing Rangers. It hurt like hell.
Reporter: You said last year the team wasn't ready, and at the deadline this year you were quiet, why ? Is the team ready ?
Kyle: We took a look at our roster at the deadline and we wanted to make a move but the price wasn't right and again we felt we had to know what we had at the back. in the off-season, and we felt we had to replace the production we were losing in Briere, Raffl and Lecavalier. We bring in 2 guys who have been around the block, they've got experience and they're upgrades quite frankly. We've looked at tweaking our D but the price is steep. We have some young D coming up and we have to see just how good they are. If they can play we gotta play them, maybe the soloution is here. If not we'll go and find it.
Reporter: Is the window open ? Is there a hesitation to give up some players ?
Kyle: I would say we've got a 5-6 year window now where we could win a few. The team need a push over the hump. You're always hesitant to give up assests, but if I feel the deal is right, we're going to pull the trigger on it.
Reporter: Tell us a bit about the Jake Voracek negotiations, and the Luke Schenn situation.
Kyle: When it came to Jake, we asked him in September just before training camp to let us know by Decemeber what his intentions were, ownership and I decided money wouldn't be a contract and neither was term. He's 26, he's a tremendous player, you don't let those guys walk because you want to be cheap. Quality costs money. He told us a week later he wanted to stay, then in June after the draft he says: "I can win here, I like it here, I going to ask for less because we need room for guys to play here. I want to be here as long as Claude". At that point is was a done deal, he always had a blank check, he's earned it. When it came to Luke, we would of liked to keep him, but at the day's end it turned out that he didn't see a long term fit. These things happen all the time.
Reporter: Thanks for doing this Kyle, Good luck this year.
Kyle: You're welcome.
The Flyers head into the season with big expectations, offence will once again be a strength, defence will be a point of concern, and the goal will be safe in the hands of Steve Mason.
2016-2017 Flyer
Simmonds(89)-Giroux(91)-Voracek(91)
Jagr(84)-Schenn(88)-Williams(85)
Bergenheim(83)-Couturier(84)-Raymond(82)
Rinaldo(78)-Laughton-(82)-Brown(78)
MacDonald(85)-Del Zotto(84)
Hagg(84)-Gothisbhere(83)
Gudas(82)-Gravel(81)
Mason(84)
Ortio(82)