I live near Philly too. Outside of straight-line Dupuis speed and the occasional big hit, I never saw that “pedigree skill†from Schenn.
I did, Flyer fans did. It was obvious that Schenn had considerable skill if you watched him play even a handful of games last season.
A fan base justifying a trade of their former captain? You can’t tell me you’re surprised. You should also quote the threads where these same posters were discussing Voracek and Read as being skilled enough to be the center pieces in a trade for Shea Weber. If Simmonds hadn’t made an immediate impact for the Flyers you would’ve had plenty of fans up in arms about their return for Richards.
Except Schenn is putting it together this season which justifies much of the praise that he got from Flyer fans a year ago. Also remember that I'm responding to a post that said Schenn had been labeled a bust. The vast majority of Flyer fans clearly did not feel that way. Who cares if a few idiots on the main board believed otherwise? They are the same people who probably thought we lost the Neal trade a few years ago when he couldn't score to save his life. The rest of us knew he was snakebitten and that the goals would come. Or, as you might describe it, we were just being homers to justify trading our highly coveted PMD.
You lived near Philly, right? Did you not hear the constant calls for Carter's head? The constant ragging about his under-performance in big games, foot injuries, and overall lack of "heart?" The same drums were starting to beat for Richards as well, but he still had some time to get to where Carter was at the time of their trades. Yes, the Richards trade was a shock, but ultimately the fan base was excited for the change, and on the shoulders of Giroux, they felt they were ready to do such. There was much praise for Holmgren for “doing something†after it became quite clear the Flyers weren’t going to win the cup with the Carter/Richards core. The main criticisms you’d hear of the trades was, “Carter had to go, but the Richards trade could bite us†which is the equivalent of straddling the fence so you can claim righteousness if the trade turns out in the favor of the Kings or Flyers.
Of course. Carter was the scapegoat for everything that ever went wrong with the Flyers even though he was arguably their best player for most of his tenure there. The part about the Flyers never winning with those two as part of their core is a Philly media narrative that couldn't be further from the truth. They were in the Cup Finals a year prior and might have won it all if Leighton didn't have a bad habit of being not good at goaltending. All of a sudden, a year later their window has now closed and they have to trade away their two best players? It's a laughable premise, and even more laughable to suggest that when Carter and Richards win a Cup the season following the trade, even if they weren't the main reason behind why LA won.
I believe the implications IcedCapp was getting to by bringing up Carter and Richards played exactly into what you said. Lavy and Holmgren traded away veteran proven scorers and they were a team that was in no position to “tank†or rebuild. If the Flyers could manage to make such difficult decisions to attempt to better their team without falling apart entirely, it shouldn’t be totally inconceivable for Bylsma to “do the same†with far lesser players like Kennedy and Adams.
It's a totally FUBAR comparison. You want Bylsma to do the same as what Philly did with Richards and Carter but with Kennedy and Adams? How on earth do you suggest he do that? Do we deal TK for a player who has his ceiling and a low draft pick? Do we trade Adams for two, maybe three bags of pucks? Maybe we can get a moche latte out of it too?
Come on man, they are not comparable situations under any light. But by all means share your solutions instead of demanding arbitrary change and we'll see if it's actually a possibility, and please don't tell me that putting Jeffrey or Boychuk in TK's spot is the answer.
Schenn hit a 20 game skid from Feb-March where he had around two points in 20 games. Threads popped up labelling him a bust.
What threads? I didn't see anything in the Flyers forum.
Schenn was routinely getting 14-16 minutes TOI a game and still struggling. He looked like garbage, not one of the best fwd prospects around.
An opinion not shared by most people who watched him play last season, including myself. Quite the opposite in fact. Flyer fans were very pleased with how he was developing. Your insistance to the contrary is based on a few alleged threads were somebody called him a bust, which I can't seem to find anywhere but if I did would probably have a bunch of responses telling the OP that he's an idiot.
Kadri had limited ice time, made mistakes, got benched and called out by Wilson, and he used him like a yo-yo between the NHL and the A. Threads popped up labelling him a bust.
Carlyle obviously saw a lot of talent in Kadri as many did and it paid off. Bylsma didn't have that belief with Tangradi, and neither did the vast majority here.
ET got even less ice time than those two and despite your insistence he played like an ECHL player, he played well enough to earn a fourth line spot.
If Tangradi 'earned' a fourth line spot with his play, then Boychuk earned a top 6 spot on account of looking halfway decent for a couple of games.
I just don't get what you saw out of Tangradi at the NHL level. He doesn't hit, he doesn't win battles, he doesn't create anything offensively, he doesn't have a scoring touch around the net. What in god's name did you see that I didn't?
So once again, I couldn't disagree with your original point anymore vehemently.
As you're entitled.
