Philadelphia News

The Philadelphia Flyers weren’t expected to be a strong Cup contender this season. As of right now, they aren’t that.

After the All-Star break passes, the February 27 trade deadline will be squarely within everyone’s vision.

With captain Chris Pronger out for the season with concussion issues, general manager Paul Holmgren needs to precede carefully as the trade deadline approaches. While every playoff contender has a chance at the Stanley Cup, realistic expectations need to be maintained so that the future isn’t unnecessarily mortgaged.

Unrelenting hunger

Anyone who is a Flyers fan, or who is aware of the team’s history, understands that Philadelphia hasn’t won the Cup since it wore ‘The Bullies’ nickname in the 1970s.

Their back-to-back championship seasons in 1973-74 and 1974-75 weren’t witnessed by many of the current faithful. Most fans had never seen many of the players who took to the ice at Citizens Bank Park in the Winter Classic Alumni game against the New York Rangers.

The Flyers organization has generally fielded a competitive team since 1975, reaching hockey’s final playoff round six times. But, the unrelenting hunger to actually take possession of the Cup has sometimes caused risky paths to be pursued over the years.

This season

It can’t be claimed that the Flyers have their goaltending issues squared away.

Former Anaheim Ducks and Phoenix Coyotes goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov may learn how to play consistently in an orange and black jersey. Sophomore Sergei Bobrovsky may develop into the type of netminder who can carry his team all the way to June. But, no one would honestly gamble that either of those two men are going to do that this season. Would they?

Taking a leap of faith by offering a heavy trade package for a defenseman, regardless of who he is, wouldn’t be smart.

Trade considerations

The Flyers have many strong forwards, which is an area of strength to build upon.

They have one great defenseman in Kimmo Timonen and three decent one’s in Matt Carle, Braydon Coburn and Andrej Meszaros. They also have some promising blue line prospects in Marc-Andre Bourdon and Erik Gustafsson.

It would seem that a team such as the Nashville Predators or Toronto Maple Leafs, who could be potential trade partners, would want at least one young defensive prospect in return for whatever defenseman they would send to the Flyers.

The Flyers don’t have Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas, Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, Predators goalie Pekka Rinne or someone of that caliber between their pipes. If they did, then defense would be the only hole in the roster and a big trade would be advisable.

Acquiring a core defenseman, who would remain with the team beyond this season, could make sense. But, shaving too much talent from the current roster to obtain that player in the hopes of making a Cup run this season just doesn’t make sense.

Sean O’Brien is based in the Philadelphia region. He has written professionally for over two decades and is currently a Featured Contributor for Yahoo! You can follow him on Twitter @SeanyOB and also read his daily Sports Blog: Insight

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Article source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=ycn-10895133

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