The trade deadline has come and gone and the Flyers made some moves.

The first and biggest move was Peter Forsberg to the Nashville Predators.

While I would like to have seen Forsberg stay with the Flyers, the trade was pretty darn good. Nashville got Forsberg for the last 20 or so games of this season and the playoffs and thats it. He is a free agent after the season and Nasvhille is hoping he stays healthy. The Flyers got 3 first round and a third round draft picks. Two of those first rounders include Scottie Upshall and Ryan Parent. Upshall has had an immediate impact with 2 goals and 2 assists in 5 games. Parent is a really good young defensman prospect. I suspect he will be with the Phantoms next season. There is the possibility of Forsberg returning next season if he resigns in the summer. If Holmgren can pull that off that would be great.

Ten days later the Flyers send Alexei Zhitnick to the Atlanta Thrashers for defenceman prospect Braydon Coburn. Right now I really am not high on this trade. I like Zhitnik’s shot, his experience and most important his ability to carry the puck up the ice is something the Flyers need. In a few years when Coburn comes into his own I will probably change my mind. I really don’t have anything against Coburn, its just that it seems the Flyers are not building for next year, but for 08-09. To be successful the Flyers need to have a mix of young guys and veterans and I believe the Flyers are trading away the wrong veterans. But looking at talent the Flyers basically traded Freddy Meyer for Braydon Coburn, which is pretty decent.

No other trades until trade day today. The Flyers pick up a goalie from Buffalo, Martin Biron and giving the Sabres a 2nd round draft pick.
With Mike Leighton being put on waivers and being picked up by Montreal this leaves 3 goalies, Esche, Niittymaki and Biron. I predict next season the Flyer goalie conterversy will be Biron vs Niittymaki. I suspect they will split the work. As far as Robert Esche goes, I don’t see him coming back. He is a free agent after the season and his past attitude when it comes to not being the #1 guy has probably made the Flyers not interested in resigning him. I was a little surprised not to see him move.

The Flyers also traded Kyle Calder back to the Chicago Blackhawks who then traded him to Detroit. In return the Flyers get defenseman Lasse Kukkonen and a third round pick. Kukkonen is a Fin who I think will be a good partner with Pitkanen. Kukkonen is more defensive oriented then Pitkanen. I think they would compliment each other well. Our defense has the potential to be very Finnish next season with 2 Finns playing with the Phantoms and I see that as a very good thing.

While losing Michael Leighton on waivers the Flyers pick up Denis Hamel off waivers from the Thrashers. My guess on Hamel is a depth guy for the Phantoms that might be a callup when the injuries hit the Flyers again.

While I do think the Flyers did well, there are some moves I really would like to have seen them make.

It really would have been nice to see Robert Esche moved, even if it was for a late round draft pick. While his play or lack of it sitting on the bench is not hurting the Flyers it would have been nice to get something for him since he wont be back next season.

My biggest complaint though is not moving Hatcher. There were rumors that teams were interested in him, Holmgren should have jumped at the chance, quickly. While Hatcher’s place has been better lately particularly with the penalty kill he is still too horribly slow. Does not anyone remember the end of last season? How the Flyers lost to Buffalo? More speed was needed and still is. One way to get more speed is to drop the slowest guy on the team and that is Hatcher. While he can still throw some punishing hits and is decent on the penalty kill (cause he gets to stand in one spot) he has absolutely no offensive ability and flat out cant skate with any forward. What is worse is he costs the Flyers $3.5mil a year. And still will for the next 2 seasons after this one. The Flyers wont be going anywhere until he is gone.

Lastly, what was Holmgren thinking putting Nolan Baumgartner on waivers 3 days ago?
Was he doing Baumgartner a favor giving him away?
Holmgren admitted the Flyers made a mistake sending him down to the Phantoms since he would stuck there until after the season. After the first 6 games of the season Flyers management wanted to send a message to the players. So they sent Baumgartner along with Nedved and Dimitrakos down to the Phantoms. The message apparently was if your not part of the problem and not important in their eyes then you get waived, doesn’t matter how well you played. Baumgartner had the best numbers out of all the defensemen and the only fight sticking up for Kapanen in the first 6 games. Yet another verteran I would keep on defense instead of Hatcher.

Lets not also forget about Mike Rathje. He still has 3 more years on his contract after this season and if he ever finds a solution for his nerve, back, hip whatever injury he could be back.

The Philadelphia Flyers announced today that they have agreed to a two-year contract extension with forward Sami Kapanen, according to club General Manager Paul Holmgren. Kapanen is now signed through the 2008-09 season. Per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Paul Holmgren

“We are excited about having Sami around for a few more years. We feel that he brings a lot of qualities to our hockey team in terms of what he does both on and off the ice. He is a quality person and he’s a good utility player who can play anywhere in our lineup.”

Sami Kapanen

“I am very happy to stay here. It’s something that we were able to get done in a short period of time. I believe that this team is rebuilding in the right direction and we will be back contending next year. My family loves it here, so it was an easy decision to stay here.”

I guess retirement is a couple years off for Kapanen then. I haven’t heard what the financial details are yet, this year he makes 1.52 mill. He signed for 1.25 mill a year with a no trade clause, so he took a pay cut. Whatever it is I am glad to see him back for a couple more years. While he isn’t the 20 goal scorer he was when in Carolina he brings so much more to the team. He can play both PK and PP, foward and defense but more important is how he plays, all out. One of the problems this year was the Flyers lost/traded/let go guys that while didn’t put up the big numbers were team players and played with an energy that rubbed off on the rest of the team. Oh and lets not forget leadership, he would do anything for the team. Long losing streak, Kapanen came up with the idea of the team shaving their heads. Silly? sure. But to me it showed that he would do anything to get the team to start feeling like a team and start playing like a team again. The Flyers could use some more players with that much heart.