I touched upon this slightly on the new NCAA/Euro update article coming up (even though he's neither), but basically I think your theory about there being a lot of players in the organization with his skill set being somewhat correct.
Though I can't speak for the organization, there has got to be something to this. Lauridsen is a long-term project who is progressing nicely. The Flyers are likely going to try to hold onto him and develop him through the end of Grossmann's contract. At that point, he theoretically replaces Grossmann as the bottom pairing shut-down defenseman if all goes as planned (things rarely fall into place that perfectly for a front office as jittery and responsive as the Flyers' but that doesn't mean that they don't plan for patience; it just never ends up that way).
On top of that you have a physical two-way guy in Manning who, though being down this year, showed a lot of promise early. Bourdon also showed some great things, so they're going to wait and see if he can't rebound from concussion issues.
Then you have the real kicker that demonstrated to me that the Flyers weren't happy with Suellentrop's developmental pace: they drafted Willcox, Larsson, and Vasiliev in the last draft.
It also doesn't help him that Schenn, Coburn, and Grossmann are NHL players signed long-term at the position Suellentrop would hope to fill.
On top of that, he's been solid in his last year but not outstanding. We want outstanding CHL players, particularly older ones, because those are the ones with real NHL potential.
What's the point of throwing a contract Suellentrop's way at this point if you don't think there's a chance he could make the NHL. He'd have a ton of hurdles to jump.
That doesn't mean they won't go ahead and offer him a contract down the road, but I don't see it.
or anything other then a solid #4 max
