TRUTH AND RUMOURS: Flyers for Sale?

[HFaceOff]

Denials from Ed Snider abound, but the Philadelphia Flyers are in serious financial trouble, and rumours have it that the HFNHL have been contacted to approve the sale of the Flyers to a new group. Claudio Mannarino was apparently called into an emergency meeting last week and told to shed salary from the present playing staff. Expect to see unrestricted free agent Dominic Hasek leave at seasons end, along with several other high profile, high salary players such as Simon Gagne.
-- Al Dia

Herniated disks. Get to know the phrase. Two high profile HFNHL players have suffered the injury, Ben Clymer of the Preds and now our very own Kyle McLaren. Both players could miss the remainder of the season.
-- Edmonton Sun

There will be many critics of the deal that bought Shane Doan to the Panthers this week, but fans are excited by the push that the Panthers have made to secure a playoff spot
-- Miami Herald

Don't look now but the BlueJackets are rounding into form, going 8-2 in their last ten and rookie defenceman Jani Pitkanen is starting to be mentioned in the same breath as fellow rookies Henrik Zetterberg, Michael Ryder and Rafi Torres when the media talks Calder Trophy, the award given to the best newcomer to the HFNHL.
-- Dispatch

Despite an improvement in form, Calgary continues to have trouble re-signing players. Add defenceman Toni Lydman to the collection that already includes Jason Williams, PJ Axelsson & Scott Thornton. Calgary is aggressively trying to move RFA Lydman prior to the trade deadline.
-- Okotoks Weekender

Joe Sakic and Alexei Kovalev are not the only potential UFA's that Chicago is intent on signing. Dryden Lewis says that the team will still have money under the cap during free agency to add another player or two.
-- Suburban Chicago News

Peter Forsberg credits defenseman Ed Jovanovski and Scott Niedermeyer for his high plus-minus. "Can you tell me if there are a better one-two combination in the entire league than those two defenseman" the Swede commented prior to the 3-3 tie with the Rangers. Ironically, both defensemen were -1 in the game.
-- SF Gate

Jussi Markkanen's behind the scenes campaign to Wings management, including threats to return to the Finish Elite League for the remainder of his career, is the reason that Olaf Kolzig is now a member of the Capitals according to Reggie Swingstein, agent for the netminder. "Detroit was in a good position, with three great goaltenders there, but what happened was ridiculous. The Wings made a serious mistake, since Olie is the best of those three goalies. He will be a great success in Washington."
-- Washington Post

Anton Volchenkov has received good news regarding his broken neck. Doctors have confirmed that there is no injury outside of the fracture to the C-3 vertebra and that that pain bothering Volchenkov was an unrelated muscle problem. Volchenkov has been told that he can resume skating in two months.
-- hfnhl.com

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[Dryden]

well done

 

[Mandaou]

Flyers Announce Press Conference

(APF) Flyers GM Claudio Mannarino will be holding a press conference tonight to respond to rumours regarding firesales and the future of the franchise.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Don't look now but the BlueJackets are rounding into form, going 8-2 in their last ten and rookie defenceman Jani Pitkanen is starting to be mentioned in the same breath as fellow rookies Henrik Zetterberg, Michael Ryder and Rafi Torres when the media talks Calder Trophy, the award given to the best newcomer to the HFNHL.

.....who goes by the name of Vesa Toskala, and he plays in Minnesota.

 

[Mandaou]

Flyers Call Report Irresponsible Journalism

(APF) Flyers GM Claudio Mannarino responded tonight to the rumours swirling around his team about a "secret" meeting and potential "fire-sale".

"The Philadelphia Flyers would like to apologize to their fans and players after false statements have been circulating in the media. First, the Flyers had a meeting with an HF GM who is also high up in the league hierarchy, however, that meeting was regarding the Flyers acquiring a player for their playoff run. Second, our team is not in a financial crisis and we project cash flow to be over $10,000,000 dollars if we make the playoffs. Details of our cash position is as follows:

$4.3mil in current cash
$2.5mil projected from poweraide – Gagne only needs 3 more goals to achieve target.
$3.0mil for 2 playoff games
$ .5mil for possible opt out of Radio Deal
$ .75K for possible opt out of Ford Deal
$ .5mil for possible opt out of Nextel Deal
$2.0mil in operating losses for the remainder of the year.

All these figures are projected in worst-case scenarios, despite that we project fiscal year end cash to come in around $9.5 million. However, we feel very confident our team can win a few playoff rounds and hopefully reach the final. This would significantly increase our cash funds. We also feel that the Ford and Nextel deals are still achievable, which would create a win/lose situation. If don’t opt out, we could stand to lose another million but if we opt in the Nextel and Ford deals, the reward could be $5.5 million or $4.5 million more than the $9.5 we projected. With one playoff round win, we could be in the mid to high teens at the end of the season.â€

Flyers GM went on to say that they fully intend to sign Dominik Hasek to an extension and are very close to a deal with the veteran goalie who has expressed his desire to stay in Philadelphia. This would seem to back up Hasek’s views from the summer where he told the media that at this age he does not want to move to another city and start again. “I’m too old for that,†expressed a jokingly Hasek.

The Flyers are also in negotiation for a veteran defenseman and feel that a deal is immanent. “We will not let this opportunity escape us. We have a club who is as good as any in this league,†explained the GM.

“The Flyers and their fans should be proud of this organization. We have a well balanced pro-roster with a lot of young players ready for bigger roles and others in our farm system ready for their chance. We’ve never been deeper as an organization and our rebuilding plan that started 2 years ago is ahead of schedule with this year’s team accelerating the process which we hope will end up in a Stanley Cup Fina appearance.â€

 

[Dr.Sens(e)]

Looks like you will indeed hit the black at some point...that is, if cash flows allow it...

Keep in mind none of your endorsements or playoff game revenue will appear until the season is actually over. So you need to make sure your revenue per game doesn't drop even a bit, otherwise you will be in the red which leads to expulsion from the league.

The good news is even if you are booted as the GM of the Flyers, given your track record as an active GM (if not altogether financial competent one), you will likely be in line for the next available franchise that comes available in the league.

Should be interesting to see how this turns out!

 

[Mandaou]

Flyers Update

Thanks for the info Nick. Didn't know about the automatic. Yikes. I would be devastated after all the time I put in.

Luckily my team rebounded from a poor start. After tonight's sellout I would need to average less than 12,250 fans a game to get in the red. With my team playing well that seems attainable especially since my average attendance is now near 13,700.

At this point not too concerned unless Dominik gets hurt, but it could happen. I may a have to opt out of one of the deals just to give myself a little padding, but right now the only deal I'm a little behind on is the Radio deal but since I traded for Bertuzzi my attendance has averaged over 16,500 so I think I should be in good shape and with a little luck my shady financial history will be a thing of the past.

If I hit all my endorsements that would be $10,000,000 bonus before playoffs. Go Flyers.

Mr. C.
Flyers GM

 

[Ohio Jones]

I'm not worried about going into the red, but I'm in tough against my attendance target. Right now I'm averaging about 15,350, or 82.5% of capacity, and my target is 85% with 22 home games left. But I checked it out, and 12 of those 22 games are against sub-500 teams, which is where I find the attendance tends to slip... so I'm not sure it's possible (unless I drop my ticket price, which I'm considering...).