It is pretty weird that we have 10 pages in a Michael Raffl thread. We need hobbies.
It is pretty weird that we have 10 pages in a Michael Raffl thread. We need hobbies.
That is just one team spending money because they had to. Not a good comparable, really.
Look at how long it took for Myers and Morin to get into the lineup.
Or how NAK and Vorobyev are still in the AHL.
The problem is that being the superior player isn't enough to get a spot. If it was, MacDonald and Hagg aren't even playing.
That is just one team spending money because they had to. Not a good comparable, really.
The problem is that there's a million other kids that have been in the lineup, just not the ones fans think are deserving.
My point is that young kids are everywhere, but if you ask(ed) Flyers fans recently, they'd say we don't play the kids. Just not the right kids.
Mind you: I don't disagree that some of those guys should've been up sooner/up now/playing more, but it's just the general groupthink that had me puzzled for the past year or so.
I am completely fine with the Raffl deal. 2 year deals are ideal for his age range.Komarov 4yr/$12M, Lou & Trotz.
I'd rather have Raffl, a year younger for $2yr/$3.2M.
It is, and it has a whole lot more to do with fans wanting to see something than it does proper player management.
That particularly applies to the defensemen. I wish Myers had played sooner, but it seems like they wanted him to play big minutes in the AHL for a couple seasons rather than small minutes in the NHL for a while. You want to turn Myers into the best player he possibly can be, regardless of whatever else is going on in the organization.
Likewise, I think Sanheim's brief dip back to the AHL last year did wonders. As much as it sucked to have to watch inferior talent, a lot won't admit that Travis was struggling and needed to settle/regain confidence for a few weeks. He looked great when he came back up and has been terrific this season.
If you're going to be mad at anything, be mad at Hextall for accepting cap dumps and signing mediocrity like Weise rather than seeking out real, useful depth. MacDonald wasn't playing to slight Sanheim and Myers: They were in the AHL for their own reasons, and Hextall hadn't given the team a better depth option to use while they were there. He tried to rectify that this time around with Folin, but he was just as bad.
Vorobyov had a chance and he played himself right out of it, had a goal and an assist in his first two and then didn't even record a shot for like the next three weeks while his line was repeatedly pushed over and clowned in its own end. NAK is a bigger name on here than he is on the ice at the PPL Center. Weise, Weal, and Lehtera being awful doesn't suddenly make Vorobyov and NAK better players than they actually are, and MacDonald sucking doesn't magically expedite the necessary development process for a young defenseman.
Raffl is good 4th line depth. As are Hartman and Laughton. If the team can competently fill out the third line, we're all set...but I feel like folks will still complain that Erik Gustafsson should be getting more minutes or something.
Not sure if it has already been mentioned here but he gave an interview at the IHHF worlds and when asked about his contract extension said that the Flyers specifically told him that he was re-signed for the 4th line, and that they value his ability to move up and down the lineup and fill every role, and he was okay with that and loves playing there.
He is a smart and humble guy who understands the business of hockey and knows that he is not the most talented player himself. National team is a whole different story: he tries to carry the whole team on his back.
Not sure if it has already been mentioned here but he gave an interview at the IHHF worlds and when asked about his contract extension said that the Flyers specifically told him that he was re-signed for the 4th line, and that they value his ability to move up and down the lineup and fill every role, and he was okay with that and loves playing there.
He is a smart and humble guy who understands the business of hockey and knows that he is not the most talented player himself. National team is a whole different story: he tries to carry the whole team on his back.
he's totally fine as a 4th liner. just don't want him in the top 9.
People complain about the 4th line, so Fletcher signs Raffl to an inexpensive deal and Pitlick to a cheap one year deal and even Stewart to the league minimum.
If you don't want to play Knight, Varone, Gordon, etc., you have to have affordable bodies.
And most teams end up playing about 14 forwards for 10+ games over the course of a season