Many changes coming into this year from last for the Flyers. A new captain, Peter Forsberg (you know the guy who should have been here in ’94 anyway) replacing Keith Primeau who retired after suffering from post concussion symptoms for almost a whole year.
Other plays not back this year include….
Turner Stevenson – bought out, probably retired
Eric Desjardins – retired
Brian Savage – retired
Chris Therien – not resigned, probably retired
Branko Radivojevic – signed with the Minnesota Wild
Donald Brashear – signed with the Washington Capitals
Michal Handzus – traded to the Chicago Blackhawks
Jon Sim and Patrick Sharp also played about half of last season before being traded in December and January.

New faces for the Flyers include
Nolan Baumgartner on defense. Interesting that Baumgartner was drafted in the first round in 1994 by the Washington Capitals. The first round pick was traded to the Caps from the Maple Leafs. The pick was traded to the Leafs from the Quebec Nordiques. The Nordiques picked up that pick in the Eric Lindros/Peter Forsberg-Ron Hextall-Steve Duchensne-Kerry Huffman-Mike Ricci-Chris-Simon trade from the Flyers.
Lars Jonsson also on defense.
Forwards Geoff Sanderson, Kyle Calder, Randy Robitaille, Boyd Kane and Riley Cote the last two being call ups from the Phantoms expected to see limited action. Marty Murray, Brad Tapper, Mark Cullen and I think a few others were also added but were sent down to the Phantoms.

Is this team better than last seasons? A little bit I think. The forwards are a bit improved with Calder, Sanderson and Robitaille over Brashear, Handzus, Savage and Radivojevic.
The biggest criticism is on defense with the loss of Johnsson and Desjardins. Johnsson only played 47 games and Desjardins played 45 because of injuries last season which equals a loss of 1 decent d-man and the Flyers have done little to remedy the situation. At least it’s perceived that way. We will have to see how Baumgartner and Jonsson do this year. More bad news on the d front with Rathje continuing to suffer back pains even after taking cortisone shots. Although if he does end up on the shelf for long term injury that would free up 3.5M to get a decent d-man. Someone worth the 3.5M.

In net it’s still the same as last year with Robert Esche and Antero Niittymaki. With Niitty injured even with him cleared to practice, Esche will have to carry the load for the time being. I really think there won’t be much of a goalie controversy this year unless Esche starts to falter. At least there shouldn’t be. Frank should get the surgery now and be 100% healthy for the second half of the season instead of just trying to ride out the injury.

While I do think the Flyers will definitely make the post season I think their health will determine on how far they go. Too many things can happen between now and April for me to really predict which team will finish where.