2004 flyers, after the trade deadline.
desjardins out for the year and they traded away chris therien so their d was all-european: kim johnsson, marcus ragnarsson, vlad malakhov, matthias timander, rookie joni pitkanen, rookie dennis seidenberg getting a few games, deadline pickup danny markov. sami kapanen played a bit at d too when they were short.
up front, an entire line of americans (leclair, roenick, amonte), and three slovakians who may or may not have played together (radovan somik, handzus, and branko radivojevic). add the russian zhamnov, the american brashear, and the finnish kapanen and you’re left with just primeau, recchi, gagne, and rookie patrick sharp, who didn’t play all the games.
the other canadian was backup sean burke. american robert esche was the starter.
i did a little digging and the story of this team's non-canadianness is deeper.
checking center claude lapointe checked himself into the substance abuse program two months into the season. after two months in the program, he returned to the lineup but ended up relapsing after the first game of the playoffs, ending his career. -1 canadian
after a long audition, youngster eric chouinard wasn't ready (he would never be) and was sent down to the AHL. he was soon traded to minnesota for a draft pick. -1 canadian / tally: -2
their first major transaction actually added a canadian. down two centers, they traded prospects and picks to add mike comrie, who was -- you guessed it -- holding out. +1 canadian / tally: -1
the big thing is their best defenseman, and arguably their best player, eric desjardins, was out for the playoffs. desjardins broke his arm in january and missed three months, then came back right before the playoffs but apparently broke it again playing catch with his son. -1 canadian / tally: -2
the original desjardins injury, combined with an injury to marcus ragnarsson, pushed the flyers to get deeper on d. they traded the young, promising justin williams, who was stuck behind mark recchi, sami kapanen, and tony amonte at RW, to carolina for danny markov. they also sent a draft pick to the islanders for matthias timander. -1 canadian / tally: -3
with primeau and roenick both out with longterm head injuries, bobby clarke picked another center, alex zhamnov, who had proven chemistry with tony amonte from chicago. they had to give up young defenseman jim vandermeer in a package that also included prospect colin fraser and the pick that became bryan bickell. -1 canadian / tally: -4
starting goalie jeff hackett mysteriously stops being able to play goalie, or even stand up straight, like charles barkley in space jam. it turns out he has vertigo and he retires from the game. they trade comrie, whom hitchcock predictably hated, to phoenix to pick up sean burke, as well as a third big slovakian in branko radivojvic, and prospect ben eager, who was a couple of years away. +1, -2 canadians / tally: -5
they added a third russian at the deadline, vlad malakhov. due partially to salary concerns and partially to give veteran soldiers nearing the end of their careers an opportunity to play on playoff teams, they then shipped out eric weinrich and the longest-serving flyer, chris therien. (weinrich is american, but the all-european defense corp they had in the playoffs is a bizarre thing, so i wanted to point it out.) -1 canadian / tally: -6
the lines were all over the place, partially due to injuries and kapanen having to play defense, partially because this was a really versatile team, but the final roster, after lapointe departed after game one of the playoffs:
leclair (LW, usa),
gagne (LW, can), handzus (C/LW, svk), zhamnov (C/LW, rus), brashear (LW, usa), somik (LW, svk),
primeau (C, can), roenick (C, usa),
sharp (C, can),
recchi (RW, can), kapanen (RW/D, fin), amonte (RW, usa), radivojevic (RW, svk), johnsson (D, swe), malakhov (D, rus), markov (D, rus), ragnarsson (D, swe), timander (D, swe), pitkanen (D, fin), seidenberg (D, deu), esche (G, usa),
burke (G, can).
seidenberg only got into the lineup for three games, dressed as the 7th defenseman in case another d went down or kapanen was having trouble.
ironically, nik antropov of all people talked about exploiting the flyers' defense physically because it was too european. that series was, of course, a bloodbath.
and speaking of the team being really euro but capably bloodthirsty, let us not forget about the bloodbath against ottawa during the regular season to avenge havlat sticking recchi in the face.
i suppose i should also mention canadian goon todd fedoruk here, who got into one single playoff game against the leafs and didn't fight anyone (though he did get a boarding penalty). he also finished a team worst -2 in less than seven minutes of the 4-1 loss. he didn't play in the ottawa game either, so i guess the flyers didn't need him to be the big and bad.
and a random sidenote: a lot of guys on that team went on to win multiple cups with the kings and blackhawks. justin williams, simon gagne, patrick sharp, colin fraser (won cups on both teams), bryan bickell. other than gagne, they all were unceremoniously dumped. and right before the '03-'04 season started, philly also drafted two more guys who would win multiple cups with the kings: jeff carter and mike richards.
EDIT: oh and i forgot that handzus also played on both the kings and the blackhawks (twice), winning a cup with the blackhawks in 2013. weird.