FlyersTalk

Bryan McCabe anyone? 

While perusing the annals of the Daily News Flyers Forums this morning, I found it amazing the names being thrown around there.  It seems a lot of fans (myself NOT included) are vastly disappointed with the moves made by Paul Holmgren to solidify the team’s formerly suspect defense.  But don’t forget the Flyers are handcuffed by the salary cap right now, and any move is going to involve trading off a current asset.  Popular opinion right now is Knuble.  It also assumes that Derian Hatcher goes on long term injured reserve, a la Mike Rathje. 

Anyway, bringing in guys like Bryan McCabe, Mathieu Schneider or Jay Bouwmeester is just not going to solve anything.  The Flyers defense right now is pretty good…Coburn and Timonen are top-class defensemen, Randy Jones is developing into a very good defender (just check his postseason plus/minus), Ryan Parent will develop into a top stay-at-home guy, and Ossi Vaananen and Steve Eminger are a capable 5/6 pairing.  From my point of view, the defense is faster and more mobile than last year’s squad, with more ability to move the puck and generate offense off the rush.   And dumping Knuble is not a good way to go about getting a stronger defense.

I understand that a lot of people may be upset that the Flyers didn’t pursue a high-profile free agent defensemen of elite status.  But do they need to?  They already have perrenial all-star Timonen and Coburn is maturing into an elite player himself.  And with Ryan Parent on the horizon (this guy’s going to be very good), there is simply no need for a dramatic free agent signing. 

Again, Holmgren did it right, and hopefully all of these rumors are just that.  Rumors.

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