The Flyers made headlines the day before the draft, trading two of their top forwards away in order to have salary cap space to make moves and sign Ilya Bryzgalov. On the way out are center/right winger Jeff Carter and their captain, center Mike Richards. Carter was traded to Columbus for young winger Jakub Voracek, the eight overall pick and a third rounder, while Richards was sent to Los Angeles for prospect Brayden Schenn, robust winger Wayne Simmonds and a second round pick. By sending out the two forwards, the Flyers shed $11.023M (www.nhlnumbers.com) off of next year's cap and that, combined with the rise of the salary cap to $64.3M allowed them to sign goaltender Bryzgalov to a 9-year/$51M contract ($5.67M cap hit). All three of these teams made positive strides towards the future, but which ones came out ahead?
Let's start with the Flyers, who received the most assets in these deals. In Voracek, there's the potential for a top-6 winger that now makes Ville Leino expendable. Leino's productive season means that he will probably land a big payday come July 1st and the Flyers could not afford a $3.5M, multi-year contract for the Finnish winger. Voracek is coming off of a season in which his production dipped by four points and he faced a lot of inconsistency. With a fresh start, a new contract and a new coaching staff to work with, Voracek can fill in the top-6 hole that is there. Wayne Simmonds comes from LA and he will instantly be a fan favorite in Philly. The agitating winger plays an aggressive and physical style that will be welcome among the Flyers team. After breaking out with 16 goals, 40 points and a +22 +/- rating in 09-10, Simmonds struggled last season with only 30 points and a -2. He may have been asked to calm his play, as when his production dipped his PIMs did as well. Playing the grinding game that the Flyers do, look for Simmonds to break out in 2011-12. The other forward acquired in the LA deal is Brayden Schenn, who was impressive enough to initially stick with the Kings for the first few games in the season before being sent back to Juniors where he would receive prime playing time. He registered 21 goals and 32 assists for 53 points in only 27 games, showing that he has nothing left to prove in the WHL. The Flyers could very well expect Schenn to step into the lineup as their third line center behind Claude Giroux and Danny Briere next season. In addition to players, the Flyers also ended up with a 1st round pick, a 2nd rounder and a 3rd round draft selection. Before tonight, the Flyers had shipped out their 1st rounder in a trade with Toronto for Kris Versteeg, but now sit with the 8th overall pick. The Flyers do not have a lot of strong offensive prospects, so I feel that they may target a forward such as Ryan Strome or Mika Zibanejad. With all of the extra cap space, GM Paul Holmgren invested a nine-year deal in Ilya Bryzgalov. This is a boom or bust deal for the Russian netminder who has been dominated in the past two post-seasons by the Detroit Red Wings. This move will prove its worth in the next few years while Bryzgalov is still in his prime.
The Columbus Blue Jackets come out of this trade with a very strong scoring forward in Jeff Carter. The Jackets lacked goal scorers last season and Jeff Carter is among the elite in that category, tallying 115 goals over the past three seasons. Columbus has struggled to develop their offensive talents, with players like Nik Zherdev, Nikita Filatov, Stefan Legein and Gilbert Brule failing to succeed after high draft selections. This may have been a smart move because the Jackets get a proven goal scorer who knows how to put the puck in the back of the net. While Jake Voracek is a good, young and talented winger with the upside of a top-6 forward, he more than likely will not be as good as Jeff Carter is. The 8th overall pick was going to land Columbus a good prospect, but this draft is not deep with game-breaking talent and while adding another prospect to the pool is always good for teams, Columbus desperately needs to win now as opposed to in the future, having only been to the playoffs once in their existence.
It was rumored that the Los Angeles Kings were going to pursue Brad Richards because they needed depth with skilled centers. Well, Rangers fans, you can breathe a sigh of relief because the Kings have found their center and it isn't the Richards you want. In what came as somewhat of a surprise, the Flyers shipped out captain Mike Richards to Hollywood. This solves the Kings most glaring need down the middle, as having a platoon of Jarret Stoll and Michal Handzus is not going to solve the need for a second line center. With Richards now in the fold, the Kings have a dangerous and gritty second line with him and Dustin Brown. Factor in Dustin Penner and that is one of the best second lines in the NHL. The Kings payed a heavy price with Schenn and Simmonds on the way out, but LA is poised to make a run at the Stanley Cup as soon as next season with the addition of Richards' skill set. The only repercussions of this trade may be when Ryan Smyth is traded to a team in Alberta, more than likely the Oilers. They simply cannot afford Smyth's $6.25M cap hit, though his actual salary is lower. Trading Smyth to Edmonton may bring back a higher pick than the one they sent to Philadelphia, leaving them in a strong spot to continue to develop talent through the farm.
In the end, every team got what they wanted. Philadelphia got the cap space it needed to sign a reliable starting goaltender, Columbus got the scoring forward that the team so desperately needed and LA got the second line center that they have been coveting. In the end, each GM can be happy with what they did through these trades, as all of these moves will have major effects on the teams in the 2011-12 season.
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