| Back To The Future |
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| Writers Article Archive | |||||
| Written by Michael Bergen | |||||
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If the Philadelphia Flyers hierarchy is still undecided as to whether or not general manager Paul Holmgren would be back in the same role next season, they sure could have fooled me. Holmgren, yesterday, concluded the flurry of transactions throughout the month of February that have left his team younger, faster and with a much brighter future than they had, say, 20 days ago. And make no mistake; this is Holmgren’s team now. There is no way that the Flyers, as an organization, would allow someone, anyone, to make the moves that Holmgren has made over the last month without giving him the chance to see this play out. In the month of February, the Flyers have said goodbye to the captain and face of the franchise, 33 year old Peter Forsberg, 34 year old defenseman Alexei Zhitnik, seldom used goaltender Michael Leighton, and the two most identifiable busts of last year’s off-season, 30 year old defenseman Nolan Baumgartner and 27 year old winger Kyle Calder. In their place have arrived a slew of fresh faced youngsters, winger Scottie Upshall, defensemen Braydon Coburn, Lasse Kukkonen and Ryan Parent all of whom are 25 or younger. Also arriving in town is perhaps the biggest coup of the month, 29 year old goaltender Martin Biron.  Goaltending has been one of the biggest problems plaguing this team this season. Say what you will about Antero Niittymaki, and most fans do, but he has been sub par at best this year. There’s no solace in the fact that he can make 30 unbelievable saves in a game when he lets one shot a night go through his glove or trickle between his pads into the back of the net, then you look up at the scoreboard and the team has lost by one goal yet again.Biron, 12-4-1 in 19 games with the Buffalo Sabres this season, is set to become an unrestricted free agent this off season but, as Holmgren stated yesterday, the Flyers were very interested in signing him anyway so why not bring him in now and see if there is a fit. This was a very calculated move on Holmgren’s part and one that should pay off big in the end. Biron is a big time #1 goalie in this league and will re-sign here, possibly before the season is over. Bringing in Biron has signified the end of Robert Esche’s tumultuous stay in Philadelphia. Esche never really emerged as the goaltender the Flyers expected him to be and as a result they tried all day Tuesday to trade him to no avail. Ironically, the Flyers may have been their own worst enemy in trying to land a deal for Esche, who will also be an unrestricted free agent after the season. The one team who had interest in Esche was the Montreal Canadiens, but after the Flyers waived Leighton, the Canadiens figured they could pick him up without having to give anything in return and thus ended their interest in Esche. Unless the team decides to shut Niittymaki down for the season to repair his left hip, don’t expect to see Robert Esche in orange and black ever again. I hate to tell folks this but the future, all of the sudden, looks much brighter with the Flyers. They are still a few free agent signings away from being where they need to be, most notably a center to play with Mike Knuble and Simon Gagne, however they are in much better shape than they were at the start of February. For a franchise that refuses, at least publicly, to acknowledge that they are in a rebuilding stage, they sure have made moves that would contradict that statement. However, making their defense corps younger and quicker and adding a bonafide #1 goaltender are definitely moves that will make this rebuilding process as quick and painless as possible. With players such as Kimmo Timonen, Chris Drury and possibly a guy named Forsberg on their radar this summer, I can’t wait to see what happens when free agency begins July 1st.
vik
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hey i just wanna say that biron has been my favourite goalie for ever! i have to cards of him playin in buffalo! trade biron for kipprusoff!! so biron plays on a better team!! |
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