Simon Gagne Traded

Coming into today, Simon Gagne had the distinction of being the longest current tenured athlete in Philadelphia sports. That distinction currently belongs to Philadelphia Eagles kicker David Akers. An era has officially come to an end today with the announcement that the Philadelphia Flyers had traded Simon Gagne. The return is not exactly one that we should be jumping up and down about, though it is one we all could have and should have expected. For Simon Gagne, the Flyers received from Tampa Bay defender Mike Walker (and his $1.7M cap hit) and a 4th round draft pick. Yep. That's it. Why? Were you expecting something else? Bernier? Quick? Simmonds? Some other young stud?

To expect that at the start of the off-season the Flyers would be in line for one of the above players was certainly not unreasonable. The Flyers had some cap room, they had Mike Rathje FINALLY coming off the books after spending most of his time in Philadephia on long-term injury reserve, and let's face it, they had money to play with. But let's see where all of that went.

Overpaying Andrej Meszaros.
Overpaying Braydon Coburn.
Overpaying Jody Shelley.
Signing Nikolai Zherdev.

The signing of Zherdev was a good signing and not an overpay, but the timing of it was terrible and the signing is only good in a vaccum, something I will examine a little later. Paul Holmgren managed to create a situation where he had absolutely zero leverage and traded away the face of a franchise, a phenomenal 2-way forward, and a great guy off the ice for a hill of beans. That is not an indictment on what Homer did today, but the position he put himself in where he was literally backed into a salary cap corner and got out of it by bullying Simon Gagne into giving in into waiving his no-trade clause. The return is a complete joke. In addition to the draft pick, they managed to come up with their 8th defenseman. Matt Walker now joins Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen, Matt Carle, Braydon Coburn, Andrej Meszaros, Sean O'Donnell, and Oskars Bartulis. Homer now has 2 more D-men than the number that regularly appear in games. Now I understand the concept of keeping a 7th defender, but Homer has once again create himself another unnecessary hole in who is he going to cut? Carle? The recently signed O'Donnell? Bartulis? It is a never ending chain of stupidity and self-made holes. The Flyers and Homer had 10 million dollars to re-sign Carcillo and Powe, get a 3rd line winger, upgrade the 5th and 6th defenseman spot, and get a goalie. Let's analyze what Homer did and how this mess could have been avoided.

He needed a 3rd line winger: He massively overpaid Jody Shelley at 1.1M per year for 3 years and in addition signed Zherdev for 2M.
Upgrade the defense: He traded a 2nd round draft pick for Andrej Meszaros with a huge $4 million cap hit (when perhaps better free agent options were settling for that much or less), signed gritty veteran Sean O'Donnell, and re-signed Braydon Coburn at an expensive price.
Goalie: Re-signed Michael Leighton for 2 years at $1.55MM per year when better and cheaper options were going for less than Leighton (I am looking at you, Ellis and Mason).

Of these moves, the ones that stick out as the huge missteps are trading for a 2nd round draft pick for a 5th defender with a $4M cap hit when cheaper (and even better options) were available, signing Jody Shelley to a $1.1M cap hit (for my Shelley vs. Carcillo breakdown, see here), signing Zherdev when Homer did, and signing Michael Leigthon at a $1.55M cap hit when options like Ellis and Mason are better and were going for cheaper amounts.

The Flyers have young talent that will be a year older and (hopefully) a year better come this coming season (Giroux, JVR, Leino, etc.). Skill-wise, the 5th-6th defense pairing (however grossly overpaid Meszaros is) is improved from the disaster that was Krajicek/Parent. Nikolai Zherdev may be a bit of a head case, but his offensive potential is great, though his defense is a huge question mark. Are the Flyers a better now than they were in June during the Stanley Cup Finals? It is not a clear cut answer. Maybe they are, maybe they are not. Their goaltending (as always) is a major weakness. Chris Pronger may be great, but he can't cover Leighton's 5-hole, nor can he be a GM with a fucking clue on how to handle the NHL's salary cap. The Flyers paid the price for Homer's miscalculations when Gagne was traded. Everyone saw it coming, but it all could have been avoided.

We will never forget you, Simon.