Confirmed with Link: Flyers aquire Justin Bailey from Buffalo in exchange for Taylor Leier (Bailey recalled 2/10)

[Everlong]

I have no issue with Vorobyev, but the Flyers current roster lacks speed at the center position. I don't see a good fit with what is a need.

 

[Tripod]

Nice to see a prospect promoted based on merit. Rewarding him with his good play.

As it should be.

 

[baudib1]

This is already a good trade since Leier was never going to see daylight again.

 

[Larry44]

Exactly. Expecting a Russian kid who plays 7 mins a night to be perfect is crazy. He has the skill and smarts to be a good NHLer. Let him work through it

This is it. Let Vorobyev play. Varone has no NHL future. Misha needs some time to adjust, like, mmmm, Sanheim, Lindblom, Patrick, that is, EVERY rookie who comes up except the exceptional Provy and Konecny. Give him some time to find his pace and get used to the competition. He's been very good at every level as he's progressed. Big, strong, skates well, great hands and vision, and he plays D too. What is the problem with letting him work it out.

 

[HART2019]

I really want to see him in the lineup. Not that I think he's better than anyone or someone else shouldn't be playing. He's just the first one of Fletchers "guys." Schlemko and Froese are more or less AHL players. Maybe Fletcher liked Schlemko over Folin, but really everyone in that trade is much less exciting than Bailey.

 

[Larry44]

I really want to see him in the lineup. Not that I think he's better than anyone or someone else shouldn't be playing. He's just the first one of Fletchers "guys." Schlemko and Froese are more or less AHL players. Maybe Fletcher liked Schlemko over Folin, but really everyone in that trade is much less exciting than Bailey.

Bailey has been a promising prospect who hasn't figured it out yet. It seems Leier was never going to get a chance, so if Bailey can do it, that will help. And don't necessarily call him one of 'Fletcher's guys', he has said he owes a great debt of gratitude to Danny Briere, who he met in Buffalo, where Briere spends a lot of his time. I'm sure Danny put in a word.

 

[GKJ]

On the comments on Vorobyev, I don't think it has to do with skill or talent. I think they don't think he's working hard enough to get more chances to work through it. Whether that's because of frustration or something else, my sense is they feel he is trying to get by on talent which isn't going to work on this level. The Flyers prospect depth is deep enough that I think they'll move on from him pretty quickly if they don't think the light is ever going to turn on. It's a lot of prospects, not all of them can make it. There's a lot of guys on the Phantoms who have earned a chance, and he needs to figure out how to make sure it's not his opportunity they're going to take.

 

[DecadesofFutility]

I am a pro-Hextall GM.
Love Hexy's restocking of our system, but I agree with those who felt Hexy didn't do enough to fix the Flyers.
Hackstol needed to go and the goalie situation needed to be addressed.
We needed better goalies to compete and more center depth.

So far Fletcher is doing good job as our GM, he has moved out some deadwood.
I will reserve my condemation of his moves until he starts giving away our good prospects and picks for old retreads.

Does anyone think Fletcher wanted Bailey as a possible Simmonds replacement?
He is a big body and he skates good I think for a 200+ nhl player.
He doesnt fight as much as Simmonds but, how many enforcers are left in the NHL.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[FlyerNutter]

Regarding Fletcher, I think he’s done the logical things so far outside of continuing to play Mac as the obvious. He was the safe, and experienced choice - and has handled things in a predictable manner. I think his biggest test is obviously yet to come, and the trade deadline, the draft and FA are really going to be defining moments for this club moving forward. He needs to nail the HC hire after the last 3/4 have been pure failures in Stevens, Berube and Hak.

On Hextall, I think he was great in the initial stages - but you cannot ignore some of the things he did. Coaching, goaltending and the inability to successfully integrate more of his kids, it was the right call to let him go. I had hoped for better from him.

 

[Curufinwe]

Turns out another veteran goalie to block Hart was not what the team needed at all.

 

[BringBackHakstol]

There’s not much reason to move on from Vorobyev if they aren’t happy with his progress. Send him back to the AHL and let him play more there. He’s still pretty early in his development

 

[deadhead]

Turns out another veteran goalie to block Hart was not what the team needed at all.

Turns out if Lyon didn't get hurt in August, and played like he's been playing in the AHL in October, the Flyers would be a playoff team and Hextall and Hakstol would still be here.

Hextall made the right moves, just got snake bit, if Lyon buys time for Stolarz to get healthy and Hart to get ready, he looks like a genius.
Same with Rubtsov, if he doesn't get hurt, he replaces Lehtera by December.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Turns out if Lyon didn't get hurt in August, and played like he's been playing in the AHL in October, the Flyers would be a playoff team and Hextall and Hakstol would still be here.

Hextall made the right moves, just got snake bit, if Lyon buys time for Stolarz to get healthy and Hart to get ready, he looks like a genius.
Same with Rubtsov, if he doesn't get hurt, he replaces Lehtera by December.

Lyon's ceiling is NHL backup.


Not replacing Neuvirth at minimum was a clear error and he was called for it. We ended up being right.

 

[Tripod]

Turns out if Lyon didn't get hurt in August, and played like he's been playing in the AHL in October, the Flyers would be a playoff team and Hextall and Hakstol would still be here.

Hextall made the right moves, just got snake bit, if Lyon buys time for Stolarz to get healthy and Hart to get ready, he looks like a genius.
Same with Rubtsov, if he doesn't get hurt, he replaces Lehtera by December.

Nope...Hextall would still not look like a genius because he had a blind spot when it came to Hakstol and the entire coach staff. Gordon is no upgrade, but Hak needed to go.

 

[DecadesofFutility]

Regarding Fletcher, I think he’s done the logical things so far outside of continuing to play Mac as the obvious. He was the safe, and experienced choice - and has handled things in a predictable manner. I think his biggest test is obviously yet to come, and the trade deadline, the draft and FA are really going to be defining moments for this club moving forward. He needs to nail the HC hire after the last 3/4 have been pure failures in Stevens, Berube and Hak.

On Hextall, I think he was great in the initial stages - but you cannot ignore some of the things he did. Coaching, goaltending and the inability to successfully integrate more of his kids, it was the right call to let him go. I had hoped for better from him.

I think when Hextall reponded to our Goalie shortage with Petr Mrazek pickup rather than a move for a better goaltender, it was the wrong move.
He needed to do more, make a trade or callup Hart if he could not make a good goalie trade.
Flyers were a tirefire he needed to be more proactive.
I blame Hackstol and his assistants for the regression of the kids while playing for Flyers.
But I do blame Hextall for not firing Hackstol.

 

[kudymen]

289 games of if only I got a goalie and had options other than Lehterä, Weise, VdV, Manning in top4 ((

 

[Beef Invictus]

289 games of if only I got a goalie and had options other than Lehterä, Weise, VdV, Manning in top4 ((

Never mind that for a long stretch of those games he had acceptable goaltending and was still a clear failure.

 

[kudymen]

Never mind that for a long stretch of those games he had acceptable goaltending and was still a clear failure.

Good news is, 289 games is not enough to judge some of his work as bad, yet a hypothetical half year with different -expected noticeably better I guess- goaltending is enough to call a hypothetical success

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

I am a pro-Hextall GM.
Love Hexy's restocking of our system, but I agree with those who felt Hexy didn't do enough to fix the Flyers.
Hackstol needed to go and the goalie situation needed to be addressed.
We needed better goalies to compete and more center depth.

So far Fletcher is doing good job as our GM, he has moved out some deadwood.
I will reserve my condemation of his moves until he starts giving away our good prospects and picks for old retreads.

Does anyone think Fletcher wanted Bailey as a possible Simmonds replacement?
He is a big body and he skates good I think for a 200+ nhl player.
He doesnt fight as much as Simmonds but, how many enforcers are left in the NHL.
Just my 2 cents.

He’s just a flyer (no pun attended) with a likely best case scenario sticks on a fourth line at the NHL level.

 

[baudib1]

If Myers and Bailey get into games this week I will officially take back anything bad I said about Fletcher.

He's basically done all of the logical things that we wanted Hextall to do, and it's becoming a long list:

- Fired Hakstol
- Brought up Hart
- Brought up Vorobyev
- Cleaned up most of the trash off the roster -- Weise, Lehtera gone. (If he buys out or trades AMac and Hagg or demotes them to No. 7 the cleaning of the trash will basically be complete)
- He's made the roster the youngest in the NHL
- Bailey looks like a nice upgrade on a guy who had virtually no value

 

[GKJ]

There’s not much reason to move on from Vorobyev if they aren’t happy with his progress. Send him back to the AHL and let him play more there. He’s still pretty early in his development

With clear directives you can send him back to the AHL, but he's getting by fairly easily at the AHL level on his skills. Age 22 is young but it isn't early, within a year you're anticipating his prime years, so he needs to figure out what's going to keep him in the NHL here pretty soon. He'll still get AHL playoff games as well.

 

[Striiker]

Turns out another veteran goalie to block Hart was not what the team needed at all.

Exactly why I was against adding a goalie for our first round pick last year.

I didn't expect Hart immediately to be this good, but a bridge goalie was all we needed because the last thing we wanted was another Bobrovsky situation, especially for a large cost.

Same reason I'm against giving up assets for a vet top 4 D or making a trade for a forward. We have no glaring holes right now and we have great prospects that need a chance in the very near future. Make a trade for someone IF the prospects don't pan out but making an unnecessary trade before giving them a chance has the potential to screw us.

 

[He Is Knocking]

Turns out if Lyon didn't get hurt in August, and played like he's been playing in the AHL in October, the Flyers would be a playoff team and Hextall and Hakstol would still be here.

Hextall made the right moves, just got snake bit, if Lyon buys time for Stolarz to get healthy and Hart to get ready, he looks like a genius.
Same with Rubtsov, if he doesn't get hurt, he replaces Lehtera by December.

The silver lining in the mess that was the first half of the season was Holmgren and the powers that be stepped in and got rid of Hakstol who was in over his head and his message had gotten stale. We are witnesses how this team has played with Gordon at the helm who is head and shoulders a better coach than Hakstol, not that I endorse Gordon next season.

In sports you make your own luck with how hard you practice, the detail of your planning and the decisions you make or fail to make. Hextall not Firing the whole staff doomed him.

 

[Ghosts Beer]

The silver lining in the mess that was the first half of the season was Holmgren and the powers that be stepped in and got rid of Hakstol who was in over his head and his message had gotten stale. We are witnesses how this team has played with Gordon at the helm who is head and shoulders a better coach than Hakstol, not that I endorse Gordon next season.

In sports you make your own luck with how hard you practice, the detail of your planning and the decisions you make or fail to make. Hextall not Firing the whole staff doomed him.

Have Gordon coach Hakstol’s games this season, & Hakstol coach after the Hart call-up, & the team’s record is probably the same.

Gordon may be a better coach than Hakstol (I at least like his personnel decisions better & think he’s probably a better motivator), but the difference in record under the two is almost entirely due to goaltending.

 

[deadhead]

If Myers and Bailey get into games this week I will officially take back anything bad I said about Fletcher.

He's basically done all of the logical things that we wanted Hextall to do, and it's becoming a long list:

- Fired Hakstol
- Brought up Hart
- Brought up Vorobyev
- Cleaned up most of the trash off the roster -- Weise, Lehtera gone. (If he buys out or trades AMac and Hagg or demotes them to No. 7 the cleaning of the trash will basically be complete)
- He's made the roster the youngest in the NHL
- Bailey looks like a nice upgrade on a guy who had virtually no value

And most would have happened in any case;

Hart came up due to injury, not because they wanted to promote him that quickly, he had just turned the corner in the AHL. Lyon was clearly less than 100%, Elliott, Neuvirth and Stolarz weren't available, Pickard stunk, McKenna was the other option.

Weise, Lehtera weren't supposed to play, then Knight got hurt, Weal was ineffective, Vorobyev wasn't ready for prime time.
Vorobyev was brought back and still hasn't shown he's NHL ready, playing a bit better the last few games but still meh.
If Rubtsov doesn't get hurt he gets the callup and probably out plays Vorobyev b/c he's simply more talented.

Basically, Fletcher's big move was Leier for Bailey, the Weise, Folin deal just shifted AHL bodies.
Calling up Myers was inevitable, Bailey instead of NAK because he's injured.
The team is young b/c Hextall didn't sign veterans to long-term deals in the bottom six, loading up on prospects, it was always a matter of "when," not "if" they'd replace the scrubs. Whatever happened this season, next year was going to be the youngest team in the NHL.