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PHLY Philadelphia Flyers Podcast

PHLY Flyers Podcast | Matvei Michkov’s ceiling, Jamie Drysdale’s health and the Flyers 2024-25 Playoff Chances

We’ve spent a decent amount of time discussing what could be worse about the Philadelphia Flyers next season, which would result in the team having a higher draft pick. But there are a lot of things that have the possibility of going right that could potentially result in the few extra standings points they needed to make the playoffs. Charlie & Bill answer more mailbag questions about Matvei Michkov’s comparables, cap space in upcoming seasons, and get into the lone Flyers game discussed thus far in PHLY Rank Week: 2004 ECF Game 6 against the Lightning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duration:
1h 12m
Broadcast on:
16 Jul 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

We’ve spent a decent amount of time discussing what could be worse about the Philadelphia Flyers next season, which would result in the team having a higher draft pick.

But there are a lot of things that have the possibility of going right that could potentially result in the few extra standings points they needed to make the playoffs.

Charlie & Bill answer more mailbag questions about Matvei Michkov’s comparables, cap space in upcoming seasons, and get into the lone Flyers game discussed thus far in PHLY Rank Week: 2004 ECF Game 6 against the Lightning.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hey, everybody, how you doing? Well, that's good. You're listening to "PHL Flyers." My name is Bill Matts. I'm your director of fun and games for the afternoon. Joining me today is Philadelphia's number one hockey beat reporter, Charlie O'Connor. What's going on today, Chuck? - Good to be back. - I'm happy to have you back. - First time we've had the duo together, what? - Thursday. - Thursday, yeah. - So little, we give the audience a little switch room. It's good never to let it get stale. You and JP did a great job on F Around Friday. We did a mailbag with JP and Kelly yesterday, and now we are back today. And I did save some of the mailbag questions for you 'cause honestly, some of this stuff, I'm like, I don't know, man, Devin Kaplan, I don't know who he is. (laughing) I don't even know if that would actually even made the cut, but there are just certain questions I assume people wanna hear your answers on them. So I saved some of those, but a couple of things I wanna get to before we start today's, I don't really like the crux of today's show, but the first one, yeah, it's Belarusahki.com once again. So we'll see how it all works out. I just, I don't know if that, I just don't know if that's a useful source or not, but according to Belarusahki.com, Charlie, Alexi Kolosov, he was at the, was it, it's not Dynamo, it's like Denamo. - Sure, I don't know. - Denamo Minsk training facility, of course, in the article, it's like, he was wearing his flyer stuff. - I just say Minsk because I know how to pronounce that, at least. - There's a report that he asked his old franchise to terminate his contract with the flyers. - Well, I mean, they can't. But anyway, continue to help in the negotiations of terminating his contract with the Philadelphia flyers. I mean, Russia can just do whatever it wants. - Yeah, I mean, it's not-- - You're on our team and who's stopping them. - If we're gonna get into this report a little bit more, there's nothing that Dynamo, Denamo, whatever the fuck it's called, mince can do. I guess aside from do what Fototov's team did and basically like be willing to potentially take on IIHF sanctions if they just signed him to a contract while the flyers have him accordingly an entry-level deal. 'Cause like, that's what's going on here. What's going on here is that Colossoff is under contract with the Philadelphia flyers. Like, that is the crux of what's going on. Now is that he is on an ELC with the flyers. He was on an ELC with the flyers last year. They loaned him to Minsk. Now, he's on an ELC with the flyers and the flyers don't appear to have any interest in loaning him to Minsk. They wanted to come over here. They had him come over here. At the end of the season, he played a couple of games for the fannoms, then hung around for the playoffs and whatever. Minsk can't force the flyers to terminate the contract. They can't. The flyers would have to work on that with Colossoff's agent. That would have to be something like that. Now what Minsk could theoretically do is they could just say screw it. We don't really care what contract you signed. We're gonna sign Colossoff to another contract in the KHL and then he could stay over there. And if the IHF finds us or sanctions us or whatever, whatever, we'll deal with it because the KHL doesn't even really recognize the IHF right now any more anyway. - Yeah, they just kind of drop their affiliation then you give them shit. - They're just like, well, we don't care. So that would be the only thing that Minsk could do. Now, the key to this whole thing is just what is Colossoff gonna do. Now, as that report says, he apparently was practicing with Minsk, with the team, that could mean that he has no intention of coming back. It could also mean that he just wants to do some workouts with his old teammates while he's still in Belarus. Now, the reporter for Belarus hockey seems to believe that there's something going on here. I'm not in Belarus, so I don't know. In the end, my understanding is that the flyers still are still expecting. I mean, and obviously I think there's legitimate concern on the inside that he may just not come. But in the end, he's under contract. Like, he is required to show up for camp in September. And do I suspect that they have more concerns about this than they have led on publicly? Sure. I think back to Brent Flair at the end of development camp when Brent Flair had the Freudian slip of like, well, if he comes back and then he stops and he says, well, when he comes. So I'm sure there's concern. L.A. Freeman doesn't report things for no reason. He obviously heard something of the draft that makes him think that there is a chance to call us off may not come back for multiple reasons. But in the end, the flyers position is you're under contract. You are obligated to come over and be there for camp. We still have two months until he has to be over there for camp. Like, it's not weird yet that he's not here. Like, it is completely normal in the middle of July for him to still be in Belarus. It is really not that weird for him to be practicing with, you know, with his old team. Because we, hey, might want to practice somebody. I mean, I've seen like Matthias Samuelson practice with flyers players. It doesn't mean that the flyers were about to trade for his rights from Buffalo. But it is also abundantly clear that there is, there's smoke here. This isn't bullshit. Like, there's clearly something going on here that has the flyers wondering if this guy's actually going to come back over and has people in Belarus thinking that he might be considering saying over. But we just don't know. Like, that's, this is, it's the perfect Russian story. I really was hoping we were done with this shit. Now, Mitch got us back, but apparently not. Apparently, we are cursed to always have these Russian crazy stories. I guess this is just the new Russian crazy story of what is Alexi Colas I'm going to do. Do you think maybe all these outlets were hoping for that too? And they're like, we need those clicks from Philadelphia, baby. - We need those clicks from Philadelphia clicks. (laughing) No, but like, I'm just, apparently the report is, the thing about him not coming to dev camp, I guess is what really started to send up the, oh, all right. But then it was like, oh no, it's excused 'cause he really didn't. - Yeah, I don't buy that. I do not buy that it's excused. They want these guys to come to development camp. When a guy doesn't come to development camp, it obviously raises eyebrows. Perfect example being the Carter Goatee situation where he didn't show up to last year's development camp and the flyers poo pooed it publicly. But in reality, they knew that there was way more to it and they kept it quiet purposely. And they apologize afterwards. Like, sorry, we misled the fans, but this was meant to keep his value up so he could get something back for him in a trade if it came to that. So by virtue of that precedent, them saying that, oh no, it's no big deal. It's an excused absence for Colas off. Like, you don't believe it because they showed the year before that they are willing for a reason to straight up lie to everyone and say that it's no big deal when it actually is a big deal. So yeah, that was a notable thing, but it wasn't just that. It was the Freeman report. And this has been percolating, basically, also. - Basically, since he left after the playoffs, like, this has been an ongoing, yeah, this has been an ongoing, oh, is there something going on here? They're telling us no, but then something else will pop up. And now the report is, like, for dev camp, he was scheduled to come over, overslept, missed his flight and stayed in Belarus. - Yeah, that's the-- - Well, and also, like, it's not like there's only one flight out of Belarus. - Just one flight? - Like, I'm pretty sure if you really wanted to come over, a flyer's gonna have booked him another flight. - I don't think-- - Maybe there's only one a month out of Belarus. - I just, I remember after the go TA trade got announced and we were interviewing players after that game, 'cause it happened during the Pittsburgh game. And then the next day, I forget if we interviewed Travis Sandheim that night or the morning after, but we interviewed him very soon after, and he specifically said, like, look, I obviously have not been getting all the details, but I knew that it was big when he didn't show up to development camp because it's such a big deal to show up to development camp, that you are, that is something that players do, because you want to make a good impression on your future employer, or your current employer, depending on where you are from a contractual standpoint, but it was notable to me that Sandheim was like, that was the thing that raised red flags for me, because he knows the pressure that they put on these kids to come to development camp, and if a guy still blows it off, that means something more than like, I just didn't feel like it. - Yeah, and I feel like that was that night. Like, I feel like-- - I think it was that night. I remember maybe you talking to us about a post-game, I could just, I don't know, but yeah, I remember that quote, and then that kind of informs, all right, so that is a big deal. - Yeah, it is a big deal. - That wasn't a one off, that would be a big deal for anyone to miss it, because you want to show up. You want to show up and look good in front of this organization. - It's worth-- - You want a contract one day. - It's worth remembering that, like, and obviously the rules are different for each league, but college kids have to pay their own way. - Yes, yeah. - And that was part of the GoTia thing. - And they still show up. - Yeah. - Because it's important to a Tanner Lazinsky or a Wade Allison or whatever, to make an impression on the people who he's ultimately going to have to convince, he deserves to make the NHL roster two, three years in the future. You want to make as good of an impression as possible. You don't want to give them any reason, you don't want to give them any reason to think poorly of you, given the fact that these are the people that are going to be making decisions about your future. And the fact that he didn't show, yeah, it's a thing. - So, yeah, I remember the, that was one of the excuses we got for the GoTia story. It was like, oh well, you know, they have to pay their own way. It's a pain in the ass, the whole thing. - In retrospect, we now know that it was a big deal, and that justifiably should have everyone raising their eyebrows just a bit higher when another player doesn't come to development. - So let's just say, for the sake of the conversation, maybe they figured this all out. - Maybe. - Let's just say, for the sake of this conversation, he ain't gonna be here. - Who's the fourth goalie in the organization? - Good question. - Well, I guess, I mean, if you're talking about depth chart-wise, or if you're talking about who would be the guy. - Yeah, I mean, last year they brought up some guys from the ECHL while Felix Santis is here. - Well, I guess what I'm saying is like, like the fourth goalie is like, Carson Bjarnus, or your Eagles of Reagan, but like they're obviously not in the organization. They're just in the depth chart. - In the professional level of this organization, right now, we have Harrison and Fadotov. They're in the NHL. We have Cal Peterson, we assume is gonna remain buried in the AHL. Alexi Kolosov was going to be his counterpart in the AHL. - As far as I can tell, they don't have a guy. - Yeah, that's not that big of a deal though. They could very easily just sign a guy to an AHL, only contract, an AHL vet who is past the point where he's getting NHL two-way contracts or whatever, and just go that route. Also, if they really are that worried about it, you can trade a future consideration seventh round pick for some AHL vet or whatever, or sign a guy. I'm sure there are still goalies out there that you could toss an NHL contract to if you want. So that's less of a concern to me than just the simple fact that this is a Colosov's a top 10 prospect in our organization. - Yeah, I mean, where you rank him, that's just a matter of opinion, I think we ranked him something like fifth or sixth or seventh in that range. Which is probably where I would still put him. We'll have our updated top 20 lists come out properly, sometime in August or September of me and Alex Appleyard. But he's a top 10 prospect in the organization. He's got a ton of talent. He's an intriguing young goalie. And my understanding of the Flyers goalie plan, and we talked about it on the show last week, I think, is that they wanna go into this season and they wanna look at Eerson, Fotov, and Colosov. And the plan is, is that Eerson and Fotov will be the two goalies at the NHL level. Colosov will get a ton of games in the NHL. And then after the season is done, they're gonna reassess everybody. And then they're gonna decide, okay, which two goalies are likely to have a leg up going to next year's camp? Is there one or two that don't look like they're gonna cut it? Do we need to go a different route? Do we need to spend a higher-ish pick on a goalie at next year's draft? But they were gonna use this year as a year to kind of decide, out of these three, who's, is there anyone that's heading shoulders above? Do they all look like boss? Do they all look like they're gonna be good? And they were gonna reassess next summer. If Colosov's no longer in the mix, then suddenly, I mean, yeah, you have Carson Bjarnsson, you have Evers Vragen in the pipeline, they're quality goalie prospects. They're years away. - But they're years away. Now you've got only two guys, and one of those two is in his late-20s. - He's 28 years old in November, yeah. - So it does it destroy your goal-attending plan? No, if Sam Harrison proves to be a legit number one, then there's, it's not as big of a deal if Colosov never comes back over. But it gives you one fewer shot to find that guy and they're very high on Colosov's potential. So it wouldn't be franchise crippling, but it certainly would be a disappointment. It would hurt them. - Was it Thursday? We did goalie day, and we just talked about, I thought maybe not weird this year because they have kind of this stockpile of goalies now. Maybe they're down one or two, but they have this group of goalies and you're thinking, all right, we don't need to draft one this year 'cause we're at a certain point, okay, they're all around the same age. Where do they play? And you get into, okay, we're gonna load 'em out and all this different stuff, so maybe you skip a year, but now, you know, I thought it was odd last year when they take two goalies. But we talked like, all right, you know, you have the Carter-Hart situation looming and ultimately we saw how that went. - The Hart situation, I think, grows that. - And Fidotov also, like, right before that, was arrested, you know? - He was out of the mix. - He was no longer in the mix, and eventually they figured that all out, but that was two guys right there. It was all right, so you kind of replace them, at least in terms of the numbers you have in the organization. But a lot of people online are always saying, always be drafting goalies 'cause you just want as many darts as possible. They have fewer darts now. - Oh, they do, maybe. - Potentially, this is a situation where they have fewer darts. - I am definitely not at the point where I'm gonna criticize Breyer for not taking a goalie in the first three rounds here, especially after he took two the previous year. It's just, it's a bummer because, again, maybe he shows up. If the Colosov thing falls through, it's a bummer because he's a quality goalie prospect. He's a quality goalie prospect who, at a young age, showed he can be at least good-ish for a KHL team that isn't the best. And he has the athleticism that makes you think that, hey, this guy could be a really good NHL goaltender. Doesn't mean he's going to be. Maybe he never even takes a shot at going to the NHL. Who knows? But you never wanna lose. You never wanna lose the opportunity to find out for yourself whether a guy's gonna make it. And my guess is that Breyer and his team are trying their best to finagle this and make sure that Colosov will indeed come over. They have two months to convince him. We'll see if they can convince him. And that's the, like when I asked about who's the fourth goalie in the organization, it's not so much about the organizational depth chart right now as it is. I'm big on let's not waste a bunch of time. Like let's make every game mean something. Like we're gonna be, we're gonna be evaluating the two goal tenders. We're gonna be evaluating Maffet Michkoff, Tyson Forster, all the dudes who are gonna be here, hopefully long-term, figuring out what they're gonna be and if they're gonna be a part of this. If they have a goalie injury now, you have to believe Cal Peterson is getting the call. If again, we're assuming the Alexi Colosov stuff, he ain't coming for these point of this conversation where assuming he's not coming. That's a waste of time to me. Playing Cal Peterson for one minute in the NHL is a wasted minute. Any minutes beyond that is wasted. Like we know he's not good. We know he's not gonna be here. This is pointless other than you have to have a goalie. And I don't wanna play Sam Harrison 28 out of 34 again. That's bad. I guess maybe that's the point of it. So the only way to properly evaluate Sam Harrison is to have a viable backup, but then those games are a waste of time. And that bothers me. And with Colosov at least there was the option, we could call him up and see. Maybe not right away, but in the second half of the season, if he's done well in the NHL. Yeah, and Fido Tov needs a week off, let's see. I mean, I wouldn't go so far and say there are waste of time. It's just that you, you know, there's a reason why you have a third goalie. There's a reason why you have a crappy vet. Yeah, and basically every team has a crappy AHL vet. It's just the flier's crappy AHL that happens to be making $5 million a year because it's the fliers. But you have him so that if somebody gets hurt, you just have a body to throw in there. And look, we know Cal Peterson is a very good. That's abundantly clear. But as you said, if Fido Tov were to get injured or Eerson were to get injured, I don't want them to be running whoever isn't injured into the ground. And that's why you have Cal Peterson. You have Cal Peterson so you can bring him up and he can just take some starts and probably get shelled and quite a few of them. And is it a bummer for us that we would have to watch Cal Peterson? Yeah, because we're paid to watch these games. It's our job and fans watch them because they're fanatics. But, like, this is a problem. It's not like, it's not like an organization needs every single player in the organization to be future relevant. Like, that's just not a reasonable ask. I understand that. And we have plenty of those guys already who aren't future relevant. Like, that's the thing is I'm good on those guys. They have a lot of guys in the AHL or a future LL. Or at least plausibly could be future LL. No, I just, like, in terms of a call up, I don't want to, I don't want a victim to take call up. That's my thing. I get why you do it. I just think that that's a waste of resources. But I don't, I guess I disagree with a guy, David, being a waste of resources. In an ideal world, you have an intriguing prospect to call up at every circumstance. But, for example, like last year, the reason why Louisville PDO got called up instead of Adam Jennings or Ronnie Adder or any of those guys is because, and you could disagree with him if you want, I wasn't down there, so I can't speak, I can't speak confidently that, that Inlet-Perrier was right. But the reason why Bell PDO got the call up was because they called Lappy and said, "Who's ready?" And Lappy said, "The two prospects that you're interested "in, neither of them are playing well, "you gotta call up the vet." These guys are gonna get crushed at the NHL level if they're playing at this level, at the NHL level. So, a month, I don't go so far as day, it's a waste. If you've got a 26, 27-year-old dude popping in for a few starts, I would much, I'd be much more intrigued if that call up was a prospect. But there are circumstances where I don't think it's wrong if they call up a dude who isn't, you know, who is just a Quatte guy, you know. I don't think it's wrong, especially in the first half of the season for guys just getting their feet wet, but I just think ice time is a resource and to spend it a certain way during this time period is a mistake. A winning team who just needs a body who's like, "Okay, I'm gonna ask him to stand at a certain place "and do a certain thing and he's, "I know he's gonna do it, 'cause he's a veteran." Yeah, that's fine. If, like, yeah, this young dude, we like his potential, but like, he has no fucking clue what our system is. Yeah, you're trying to win every game, so that makes sense. Yeah, sure. This is just different to me, and the resource that is ice time, I would like to see be allocated to players who are future-relevant. Not to say that they can't find another one that there won't be plenty of those guys, it's just like, "I'm gonna have to watch fucking Cal Peterson "waste every one's time this year. "That's what I'm gonna have to do." Oh, hopefully not. And again, I think that-- The chances of the Flyers not needing a third goalie this year are slip. Yeah, and there was, I think there was always, it was always most likely, even if Colosseau ultimately does come over, and none of this happens, none of this happens, none of this happens, whatever way you wanna look at it, in the first three, four months of the year, if one of the two starting goalies, the NHL level goes down, you were always gonna see Cal Peterson. That's probably fair. Unless Colosseau just went insane and had like a 9.30%, then yeah, they might toss the kid a bone because he's earned. I guess given the fact that he's not, like a college or junior's goalie, that he's been in the KHL, just kind of raised my expectation that, like, he might be able to keep his head above water for a starter too, but I do fit in the first half. You probably don't see him in the NHL. I mean, Bill, the entire Flyers fan base before they knew if it was coming over, was screaming to bring Colosseau over and throw him right in the middle of a playoff race. So everyone just wants the shiny new toy and the most fun thing at all times. - I know that that's what some people think. That's not what I'm saying. I'm trying to, like, the logical way that this could go. I think there's reasons for, like, all right, this kid kept his head above water in the KHL a year ago to throw him in for a start or even, all right, if we need you as a backup or something, maybe it won't be a disaster, whereas, like, Colosseau coming over, like, he just got off the plane, he's jet-lagged. You know, like, that's probably not the way to go. I'm just, you know, that's a little different. I have one more thing on this, but first, we gotta take a quick second to tell you about our friends at Rite Aid, and most specifically, they're refreshary products. It's, they got a lot of really good branded stuff at Rite Aid to keep you hydrated in these summer months, 'cause that is an incredibly important thing. 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The last thing on the Colossov stuff, and listen, it's not, we just don't have the information. Like, yes, we have the report from Belarus Hockey.com. The last time Belarus Hockey reported something, something the flyers basically said, we've talked the Colossov and it's fine. Now, now, Belarus Hockey's coming out with another thing, so we will see how-- There's clearly, look, there's-- There's clearly smoke around this. There's something going on. Yeah, yeah. There's something going on. Now, whether, again, whether that results in him not showing up for camp in September, we shall see, I don't think the flyers are inclined to just terminate his deal, though. Like, why would they? Unless Colossov really pleads me like, I realize that I hate North America. I just don't wanna be an American at all. And I just wanna be home. Like, maybe they come to-- They raise like, all right, fine kid, you can stay home. But the flyers, look at this as-- You made a commitment to us, kid. Like, you committed to playing for our team and giving the NHL game a shot and we are gonna hold you to your contract. I think they're justified in having that stance. And like, this is kind of a loaded question, but because without the cutter-go-gauchier situation, I don't think anyone's like, "This is very much a one-off, weird thing that happens." But we mentioned last week, it's understandable why people are on edge about these sorts of things. Since now you have the possibility of both, is it a blemish on Danny's record if Colossov never comes over? I mean, it doesn't look great. I think the two would be very different in terms of the reasons, but the optics ain't good. I don't think that it would, look, it's impossible to know if, you know, what's Danny Brier, like spit in front of a Lexi Colossov, and that's why, like, who the fuck knows? But I highly doubt that Brier said something or somebody did something or whatever that would be the reason why Colossov is like, I don't want to be part of the flyers. It would seem to me it would be more that if Colossov doesn't come over, it doesn't have anything to do with the flyers, it has more to do with the fact that it just doesn't want to play in North America, which I guess could have happened to anybody. But it's undeniable that it happened, if it happens, it would happen so soon after go TA, that it doesn't look good for the flyers, that, you know, you lose go TA, one of your two top prospects and a legitimate blue chipper, and then you lose maybe your best goalie prospect the year after, yeah, it wouldn't look good. And I would understand why people make the connection. I don't think that it is as apples to apples as it will be presented, but also in the end, this is a business of results. And if the result is, is that in, you know, over the course of one calendar year, two of your better prospects that we don't want to play for you, the results aren't good, and maybe there should be some, you know, at the very least some soul searching as to like, are we doing something wrong here? - All right, this last thing before we get to some of the mailbag questions, it was something that came up on the flyers daily interview with Martinez, with Dana Brier last week that I mentioned. And I meant to bring this up on the show, never quite got to it, and then I got a DM about it. It was like, oh shit, I do need to talk about that when me and Charlie are back together. He mentioned, Martinez asked Brier, what are the benefits of Mishkov coming over early? He said one of the big benefits is he gets to play for the head coach, John Torrell. And it just kind of struck me as like, oh, so if he had been on the original timeframe, we don't think John Torrell would be the head coach. And I know we've talked about that a lot since the hiring of John Torrell. We've been like, since that day, we've been like, yeah, I don't see him being under the head coach of this team for 10 years. I see him having another role in the organization in some way because of the way he talks about, okay, if you're gonna restore the flyers to respectability, and if this is a rebuild, it's gonna take longer than the contract you signed to do that, so you would think. But the fact is, when you hire a coach, typically one of two things happens. They get fired before their contract is up where they signed an extension. A lot of coaches recently have signed extensions and been fired before they kick in. (laughing) - Got a lot of DNA show. - It's tremendous, and now, like, oh man, no block takes over, goes to game seven. It's gonna happen even more now. But it's just, I realized the length of his contract, the Mitch Gove timeline, it was like, okay, well, those two things are at odds. But, like, usually, when you hire a coach, it's okay, we wanna keep him for as long as we can until he gives us a reason not to. I don't think Tour de Relle has given him that reason yet, but there's kind of the illusion to, oh, he gets to play for Tour de Relle, which we weren't really counting on when we drafted him. Does that strike you at all? - It's funny because it didn't strike me even a little bit as weird when I heard it, 'cause he said it on multiple occasions. He said it on Flyers daily. He said it to us on July 1st, I believe, that, you know, he's really excited that Mitch Gove is gonna get coached by John Tour de Relle, you know, potentially for two years at the very least for one, depending upon what decisions Tour de Relle makes at the end of the season. It didn't strike me as weird because, like, the way that Tour de Relle's contract is set up, it was a four-year contract, so this is year three. He has one more year, the 2025, 2026 season, and the way Mitch Gove's original deal with his KHL club was set up, he would be coming over in 2026, 2027. So after the Tour de Relle's contract expired, so for me, it was less like we know for a fact that Tour de Relle's gonna last pass as contract, and more that we just don't know. You know, we just don't know if he would have still, there was a scenario where he would have still been the coach. In 2026, 2027, we would have had to, he would have had to decide he wants to keep coaching at age 68, which, like, that's a stretch. He would, the fliers would have had to decide that we want him to keep coaching, that he's doing a good enough job. There couldn't have been some sort of internal blow-up. Like, there are a lot of variables that would have been not necessarily a way to make sure it's not possible, but ways where the contract just isn't extended, or he gets fired, or whatever. Whereas now you know, now you know that he's getting coached by John Turd for at least for a year, because he's still under contract. He's obviously coming back. Look, there's always gonna be speculation around John Turdirella that at the end of a season, he's just gonna decide that's it, I'm done. Like, there's people you talk to who are convinced, like, people I talk to who are convinced that, like, this is gonna be his last year. Well, he has one more contract. Yeah, he won't do it that past this year. But there are people I talked to in the last summer that were convinced that he wasn't going to go into this year. So, there's always gonna be those theories, those scuttle butts, whatever, that, you know, oh, well, Turd's is gonna hang him up, and Turd's keeps saying he's not going to, but presumably at some day in the future, he's going to decide, I'm done with this shit, I wanna relax and, you know, take my talents upstairs a little bit. I didn't see it as that big of a deal, but it is notable that Breyer's implication is that maybe they don't envision towards lasting past the fourth year, that that is the hard stop, and that's when they're gonna be looking for another option. It's interesting. It's just, it's not something that jumped out of me because I guess I never, I've never viewed it as highly likely he's going to get a fifth year, because on body convinced, he's gonna get to year four. Yeah, like, it's just, I've always figured that was the way it was going to go, but it seemed like a direct indication for the first time. 'Cause when John Torrello's been asked about it, like publicly, and listen, he could say anything to the, we know, he just says whatever the fuck he feels like to the media, whether it's true or not, and then people behind the scenes, yeah, he'll have a different story if need be, but like every time it's come up to him, he's like, I have no plans on any of that. I'm a coach, and it's just odd that this is like a public acknowledgement of what we thought. That's all. Yeah, I don't think it's the craziest thing in the world. Again, he just turned 66, like-- The contract expires when he's six years. And he expires at that point when he's 68. Yeah, I'm not saying it is impossible that a 68-year-old John Torrello comes to the Flyers, or I guess he would probably do it next summer and say, I want to keep coaching. Let's work on an extension. 'Cause very few coaches like to be a lame dog. Yeah. It just saw something coaches like to do. It's like I either want the extension, or I want to know that this is probably my last year. I guess it's possible that 67, 68-year-old Torrets is like, no, I want a coach to love 80, that I want to be the loo of coaching. It's possible. I just have never viewed it as terribly likely. And it's, I guess, and these are all, I mean, he's except for Columbus much younger at these times. But I know we think of John Torrello is a guy who's like, messaged where he's thin with players, but six and a half years in Tampa came on at the end of '08, '09 with the Rangers that did four more seasons after that, obviously the one year in Vancouver. But that's the aberration here. Yeah. What, five-- We've shown this multiple times. Five, six years in Columbus, like, he actually, if he only lasts four years here, that's his shortest stint anywhere. Except for Van Goone, four years is pretty long. For Van Goone, Coach. Oh, Jesus, yeah. It's really long. Yeah. It's just funny to think that, I don't know, like this is year three and it could be over already. That's just odd, I don't know. At the very least, he's gonna get the start of this year. He's getting this, yeah. We've talked about it how, you know, if this is an AV situation where after a month, it's clear that the team didn't forgive him for all the shit he pulled at the end of the season, who knows? But the Flyers are certainly planning at the very least for him to be the coach for this season. And I think the Flyers have every expectation he coaches out the contract. After the contract expires, who knows? All right, let's get to some mailbag questions left over from yesterday. I saved these. And the first one is from Frank V. He says, "I just became a die-hard today." Congratulations, Frank. Thank you for joining us. I just became a die-hard today. Is Danny selling us a bill of goods in regards to cap space next year? With the Mishkov bonus, the TK extension, Cam York extension, I don't see it. And we talked yesterday about some other guys who might be due extensions, Frost Forster. There's a couple of guys coming up on RFA deals they're in contract years this year. So what do you think about the cap space might not be quite as open as we think it will after this season? Well, there's a couple things I want to respond to with this. Number one, let's start with the very beginning. Is Danny selling us a bill of goods? I don't think he's selling anybody a bill of goods because I think he's actually been fairly straightforward and honest about the fact that the cap situation gets a little bit better next summer and it doesn't really get better until 2026. So I don't think Breyer has ever come out and said that like, "Don't worry, guys. We're gonna go all in." I'm going to shout with him. In 2025, he's openly said that 2026 is really the summer when our books get cleared up. So I don't think it's fair to say he's sold a bill of goods. Now, maybe there are people online who have speculated that the flyers are going to go heavy into 2025. Maybe some insiders have said they're going to move up the timeline, but if we're talking about what Danny has said, he's always been clear that 2026, not 2025, is the summer in which the books really get cleared up. So kick off with that. Second thing, though, is I don't think the books will be fixed by next summer, but I do think you are overstating a little bit the degree to which they're going to be in trouble because they are going to lose a decent amount of money. So number one, they're going to lose the Ryan Johansson contract. That's $4 million off the book. So that's one significant piece of cap that's going off. They're going to lose the Cal-Peterson contract, which is another near $4 million off the book. If we're assuming he's going to be buried, which obviously is going to be buried. So really, you're losing $5,000, but in functional cast space. - It's 3.8 or whatever. - You're going to lose it about four. So now you've got almost eight off the books, and you're going to be losing the $1.66 million buyout for Tony D'Angelo. So what's coming off the books next season? - $10 million. - A little under $10 million. - Yeah, like nine to 10 in that range. That's not an insignificant amount of money. We're expecting the cap to go up probably another three, four million. So now we're talking about somewhere in the $13 to $14 million for the cap space cleared up just by letting contracts expire. Now, connect me. Yeah, connect me is going to be doing a raise to be sure, but he's already making 5.5 mil. So like, if he gets 8.5, let's say, yeah, it's a raise, but it's not like you're saying, take 8.5 mil out of that 13. You're saying, take 3 mil out of that 13 because we're already paying him 5.5. So now we're down to 10-ish. How much is Cam York going to get? Look, if Cam York has an amazing year and he goes in and negotiations coming off of a 60-point campaign where he's a 25 minute of night defense, and he's asking for a massive contract, like, yeah, that will complicate their cap situation. It's also a good problem. - It's also you have a number one defense. - Exactly. Like, we don't need that cap space that was allocated for that guy. It's going to that guy. We just didn't have to go get another one. - Exactly, exactly. And same thing with like a Tyson Forester. So if guys like that who are up for contracts end up, you end up having to pay more than you thought. Like, you're, don't brush over the fact that like, that's a good thing because it means that, oh man, maybe we don't need to go shopping for stars because we developed our stars internally. I'm not saying that buyers are going to have a ton of cap space next summer. They're obviously going to have to sign these guys back. If they resign connect me, then that's another bit of cash. But I don't think that they are going to be nearly as crunched as they were this summer because they are losing some pieces. And then as I said, 2026 is the big one because that's when you lose the Kevin Hayes. - The Hayes and the acting stuff. - Yes, the Mitch Koff bonuses will probably hurt, especially if they never get below the cap ceiling if they're always using LTIR allowance to be sure. But I don't think they're in a situation where they're going to be in cap hell. I don't think they're going to be in a situation where they're ready to spend a ton of money, but I don't think Danny sold you a bill of goods because he never said they're going to be going, jumping into the deep end of the UFA pool. If they're going to do that, that's going to happen in 2026, not 2025. - Playing off of that question was a question we got yesterday. Would you think about extending any of these RFA's early? The next year's RFA's, so it's Kate's Frost Forster and York. Just 'cause like you said, if they have huge years and you pay them what they're worth, awesome. But maybe you can save yourself a bit of money if you lock them up now. - I mean, the only one who I would even think about it would be Forster because like, do I think it's plausible that Frost has a monster year centering mish-coff, sure. It's equally plausible that he's scratched for 30 games. So like, I don't want to give him that much money because I still have no idea how his roster's fly screw is going to play out. So he's off the books. Kate's I like, I think he's a good player. I also think that-- - What's he going to do to cause money, yeah? - Well, it's just like what he's good at isn't what gets players paid. So I don't think there's any benefits assigning him early when he's probably never going to cause that much anyway unless he starts scoring points and last year he progressed in that area. So Kate's is out of it. It's basically just York and Forster. And while I like Cam York a lot, I am less, I think there are a lot of people in the fan base that are higher on Cam York than I am. I like Cam York. I don't watch Cam York and see a guy who's ever going to put up a ton of points. Nor do I see a guy who I think is ever going to be a huge minute to hear. I think he is going to be a quality top four defenseman. Personally, I don't see a like locked and loaded 50 point a year first pair of defenseman as his upside. I just don't see it. I can be wrong, but for me, if you're asking me would I sign York early, not probably not because I don't think York has super high an upside. I think he has good top four defenseman upside. I don't see a star, but I could be wrong. - That was basically our answer yesterday. Like the two guys I think you might be able to save some money on are York and Forrester. And probably Forrester makes the most sense just because like, oh, yeah, if he really is going to be Mitch Cobb's left wing, let's sign him before he has a 75 point. - I don't think it's likely that Tyson Forrester scores 40 goals next year, but I could see it. - Yeah, if it happened, I wouldn't be like, oh my God, where did that come from? I'd be like, oh, so he just put it all together. Earlier than I thought he was going to, cool. And the fact that I see that as well, unlikely, it could happen, that would mean that signing him early would have upside for you because you get him before he does. - Like if you could sign him to the Farraby contract and it's like, oh shit. - The Farraby contract is a good compare. - Like, and it's like, oh shit, good. We don't have to give him like what we're planning on giving TK. - Yeah. - Like that is a decent amount of savings. I can see that making sense. But like as of right now, I bet he can probably get there like with games played throughout this season. But as of right now, Forster's not even arbitration eligible. You know, like, he's, he has few rights. But if you can save yourself some money, it makes sense. - He'd be the only guy I would even consider it, but again, I'm totally fine with them waiting it out. - Sure. All right, before we get to the rest of these questions, I gotta tell you about True Mark Financial Credit Union. 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But like if nothing major is going to change and the NHL business, which is very strong right now, like the NHL for the first time in a long time, we can point at them and go like, shit's going well. You're doing well. Like I don't foresee there being only. They just got out of Phoenix. They got rid of one of their worst, if not their worst daughter. One of their 32 teams isn't like, they're actually going to have gate revenue to report. Like, you know, like that is absolutely huge for them. They basically just added a new team. Pretty much. On top of all the expansion teams they've brought in, you got to believe there's two more coming. I do. It's, things are going well. So that should mean there isn't a lockout, there isn't a strike. And with those things there shouldn't be like, compliance buyouts, major issues that affect what you're able to do with your team. Like the cap dropping 8% or something like that, where all of a sudden like, yeah, you have a legal contract, you need to get whatever it might be. That shit doesn't seem like it's going to be a factor now. It's the NHL. Who knows, they can go out of business tomorrow. But right now it doesn't seem like there are going to be major issues that are like, Danny needs to circle. Okay, we shouldn't do this until we know for a fact, because as of right now, it seems as if everything's going to be business as you do. - It doesn't seem like they're going to be substantial changes to the rules of team building. - Yes. - It doesn't like, I haven't heard anything where it's like, okay, well, we're changing the RFA structure, we're changing arbitration or, you know, you're going to become free agent sooner. Like there's nothing that I've heard brought up in terms of what's rumored that's going to like dramatically change the way you build a team. Now, maybe the cap ceiling, cap floor, maybe that stuff will be a little bit tweaked in terms of, you know, tying it to which revenues and maybe that affects how much you can theoretically expect a cap ceiling to go up year over year. Like that's the kind of stuff, well, yeah, he's going to have to account for it. But I'm not expecting dramatic changes to the rules of team building the same way that there was when they instituted a salary cap in the first place. Or even the second time when they had compliance buyouts, you were able to get out from under the bridge deal. Like I don't think that anyone is going into this assuming that after the CBA negotiation that every team is going to be able to get out from under their worst contract. - All right. - I don't, that is, I've never heard that even once. - I wonder if they just do that 'cause it's like, this is tradition now. - Like after 2013, yeah, man, we get CBOs again. Good luck. Go buy some guys out. All right, let's go to Paul with the great car ideas, always has some good questions for us. Let's say Mitch Cobb hits his absolute ceiling. What's the comparison, pure talent-wise, between him and the next best player, Travis Connectney, and then maybe G and Jake. And how good is our current support and cast in comparison to those teams? He believes 13, 14 was their best team and man, it might be true. And it's like the number one defense one on those teams was Andrew McDonald. Like he played, teaming in was still there, Coburn was still there, who led them in ice minutes, who led them in ice time against the Rangers. It was Andrew McDonald. Anyway, so let's start at the top here. What's the talent comparison between TK, G, Jake, and Mitch Cobb? So the idea, if I'm interpreting this quiz question correctly, basically what Paul with the great car ideas is asking for is, Mitch Cobb, if he hits a ceiling-- - Is he better than you're real? - And TK, or is that duo better than G and Jake? So what I will say is that I think Jake at his prime was better than TK at his prime. So Jake is better than TK. I am confident of that, better overall player. So for the Mitch Cobb TK duo to be better than G and Jake, Mitch Cobb would have to be better than Jake. Now, is that possible sure? I mean, I think Mitch Cobb's ceiling is a no doubt about a Hall of Famer and the Nikita Kucharoff realm. That would be better than Claude Drew, who as much as I respect the hell out of his talent, like he is probably in that borderline Hall of Famer realm. I think he should make it, but it's not a slam dunk the way that I suspect Kucharoff will be when his career is done. So do I think that Mitch Cobb's ceiling is higher enough than Drew's prime to account for the fact that Jake is better than TK is? Honestly, yeah, yeah, I think Mitch Cobb could his absolute best case scenario ceiling, best case scenario. Drew didn't even hit his best case scenario ceiling. Like truthfully, Drew was great, but like you could watch Drew and be like, yeah, he had the talent to be a 100-point-a-year guy every year. So like, do not take this as me saying that I think Mitch Cobb is destined to hit his ceiling. Like his ceiling is real friggin' high, that's why he's so exciting. But yeah, if Mitch Cobb hits his ceiling, I think he could be better, better enough than Drew to make up for the fact that I think Jake is better than TK. I'm trying to come up with a scenario in which TK and Jake are maybe equals or connect these better. We're just like, you know, the penalty kill stuff and put like-- - The penalty kill, yeah. TK provide value of the penalty kill, Jake, never did. - They're just so, they're really hard to compare. - Jake was just a much, to me, number one, Jake was a much better five-on-five player. Jake was at his peak for like five or six years, a legitimate play driver in a way that TK is not. Now, I do not think that Jake ever gave a shit about defense. It was just, he was so good offensively that it was play driving by possession. If TK is not as good at possession, so there's more opportunities for him to screw up defensively because he just don't have to puck as much, he's more of a rush-based transition attacker. - That's, you went with the five-on-five and the entries and like, that's, the possession was very much a big part of Jake's game. Where I wanted to go with it is, if TK could do on the power play, what Jake did, I think I would take TK. - Yeah, but they are so far apart at that regard. - Jake is so much better in the power play. - So far apart in that regard. - And listen, he did have Drew to play off. And, but like, those two were so good together. And TK, man, maybe with Mitch Koff, he can do that. But to this point, he has shown us nothing along those lines. - I think the implication of Paul's question is-- - You actually interpreted it better than I did, I think. - It is, it is essentially that like, 'cause the underlying implication here is, TK, at least this is the way I'm reading it, is that TK doesn't strike him as the ideal number two. And if G and Jake couldn't get it done and TK's worse than Jake, then how good does Mitch Koff have to be for this duo to be better than the duo that we didn't win anything with? And my answer is, I think Mitch Koff's absolute ceiling is high enough to make up for that. Now, that would be the pie in the sky best case scenario, but that's how high I think of Mitch Koff's ceiling. And this is coming from someone who thinks Claude Drew should be in the Hall of Fame. I think Mitch Koff could be, could be not significantly, but measurably better than a guy who I view to be a, should be a lock for the Hall of Fame. That's how highly I view Mitch Koff's ceiling. Again, doesn't mean he's gonna get there. But the reason why we're also excited about him is because Mitch Koff's ceiling is that high. - Also, the hope is you build a better supporting cast than the one Jake and G had, which was-- - Yeah, I went Shonkatoria, I was Shonkatoria at his peak. Yes, but that like maybe the 16 playoffs, but he got hurt there. And then after that, and that's really, when Drew started to break down until they moved him to wing to play with Koots. And then that's a totally different team. But like those supporting guests were garbage. Like I just said, 13, 14, Andrew McDonald led the team in ice time against the Rangers. That's a bad team. - I would agree. So I think you make a strong case truthfully. And obviously it was a different kind of team because you could argue that they weren't the guys anymore. I think the best team that they were ever on was 2019, 2020. - Probably. - I think that was the best team. - They were maybe not the best players anymore. But I think that was the best team that both Drew and Jake were on. - That's probably true. Like 16, 'cause a ghost and like you had Koots oria coming into his own. You had Shen still maybe, Simmons still. But yeah, it's probably 19, 20. - You could make a case for 17, 18 just because all of the top end guys were at their best. - Okay. - Like you had Drew squirt over 100. - And that's a ghost. - Jake was point per game. Ghost and Pro, you would have gathered. - It's Ghost and Pro, you would have together. - Yeah, TK had a really strong second half. You still had Simmons. Like, and he was not what he used to be but he was still Wayne Simmons. You had a couturier, had took the big leap. And then he was a Selkie contender. That might have been, you could make a case, but that supporting cast was so bad. That team was like one of the most top heavy teams I've ever watched in my life. The top five or six guys were great. Everyone else fucking stunk. (laughing) - All right. - Want to teach your kids financial literacy, but not sure where to start. Green light can help with green light. Parents can keep an eye on kids spending and saving. While kids and teens use a card of their own to build money confidence. As a parent, you can send instant money transfers, set up chores, automated allowance, and more. It's a convenient way to run your household. Customize to your family's needs. And the easy way to raise financially smart kids. Get started with green light today and get your first month free at greenlight.com/spotify. - Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile unlimited, premium wireless. Have it to get 30, 30, 30, get 30, get 30, get 20, 20, get 20, 20, get 20, get 20, get 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month. So. - Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. - $45 up front for three months plus taxes and fees from all eight for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month. Slow's, full turns at mintmobile.com. - Let's get to this final question I saved from yesterday from PHL Flyers. And there's an interesting graphic that goes along with this. If we're in essence running it back, plus Mitch Cobb next year, should the Flyers try an in-house center option in his opinion, Forster is the only one who makes sense in terms of skillset, size, upside, et cetera. And there's a graphic that compares Forster and Quentin Byfield that I just found interesting that he included it. But we've seen them, you know, they moved case. - Quentin Byfield's a lot better of a skater. - Well, yeah. - A lot better. - We've seen them giving no okay to shot at center because they didn't believe in any of the centers. They have, they've had Lawton go back and forth as needed throughout the years. Do you think there's any appetite to try Forster at center or anyone who isn't currently like slotted in on the depth chart as a center? - I mean, what I can say is that I specifically asked John Tortorella this question near the end of the season. And Tortorella, he was as dismissive of a question as I've ever asked him in his time as coach where he basically ended it with like, Charlie, stop trying to be the coach on the coach. He's not a center. So at the very, at the very least, John Tortorella does not look at Tyson Forres. He's like, now, Tyson Forres was a wing. He could play both wings. That's enough. Don't try to turn him into center and let me do my job. He doesn't view him as a center yet. I've always been intrigued by the possibility because of the hockey sense, because of the puck skills, because of his ability to win battles along the boards and deal with contact well. And the fact that having less than great foot speed isn't as big of a deal at center because you can be a couturier, and still be a real good center if you have the hockey IQ to make up for it. I'm intrigued by the idea. I just don't get the sense that the flyers are, at least not at this stage. I know they try Joel Farribby there. They try Joel Farribby there. What was it in? - It was gonna stay nice. - 2021-2022. - Towards his first year? - No, it was the year before. - The year before? - Like it was the year before. - I think it was 2021. - And thanks to our die hearts for joining us today, much appreciated as we wrap up the rest of this show. - So I, so yeah, so yeah, so they tried that. It didn't work. Are they willing to try it again with Forrester? I don't know. I would, I would be intrigued by it, but I do not think that it is in the cards. Also, just wanted to respond to a couple of things I've seen in the chat. First off, we have Jim G saying about Cludger's bad playoff performances. Gonna say this, Cludger's point-per-game rate in the regular season is 0.90. His point-per-game rate in the playoffs, 0.86. Basically identical. It's an absolute myth that Cludger was bad in the playoffs. He wasn't great at the tail end of his player's career in the playoffs. He was freaking amazing in the first part of his career in the playoffs. And in aggregate, he's a pretty darn good playoff performer. So that is an incorrect assertion. And I will argue that to the death. Another question that popped up in here was about defining what a play driver is. So my definition of a play driver, 'cause I said I did not consider TK to be one. The concept of being a play driver is essentially, when a guy is on the ice, does he help the team to outshoot, out chance, and outscore the opposition? Now, a lot of really good players help the team to outscore. I think TK, TK does that because TK is so deadly in transition, off-op-man rushes, off of turnovers that he's able to score off of. But the Flyers don't, in my mind, when I watch TK, they don't control play with him on the ice. They're not set up shop in the offensive zone, seven out of 10 shifts the way they were with Jake. Jake, if you looked at his numbers at the end of the year, the Flyers would collect 55% of the shots on goal. At 5 on 5, when he was on the ice, they would collect 54% of the expected goals with him on the ice. That, to me, is a play driver, whereas TK is the kind of guy where at the end of the year, he might be at 51 and 50 for shots on goal and expected goals. And then maybe you get 53% of the goals because you get higher quality chances and he's really good at finishing on the rush because he's a shooter. But he's not a play driver because you're not controlling play with him on the ice to the degree that you did with Jake because Jake just lugged the puck around and had it constantly. That, to me, is the distinction. - Yeah, it just, I always try to explain it as it's plus minus on a bigger scale. Like goals are mostly flukes, opportunities are not. Does a guy create more opportunities than he allows? That's a play driver. Are you on the ice creating opportunities being a part of opportunities? - Yes, yeah. I look at it as the idea as like, you know, not time on ice, like possession in a football game. How often do you have the ball? You know, when we look at it, it's like, well, one team had the ball for 40 minutes, one team had the ball for 20 minutes. Now, it doesn't mean you can't win if you only had the ball for 20 minutes because maybe you scored on an 80 yard bomb and you did that three times and you were efficient. And that's TK. TK is going to score on the Hail Mary's, whereas Jake was going to make sure you had the ball for 38 minutes out of 60. - Best defense, great offense. There we go. - Just because that question, we have some other stuff. We're going to talk about rank week, probably tomorrow, once there's, there's only been one-flyers game. - We only love flyers, yeah. - One of my favorite flyers game of all time. - Honestly, that being at number 25 on the top 25 list, I was like, shit, what did like two flyers games take this list in at number 25? Like, there's very few, that was a few more comments. - There's a few more comments. But this was a really, really good one. But since that question was kind of about the running it back plus Mishkov next year, I think in terms of running it back, like, we got a question about them the other day, like finishing in the bottom five. And like, I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility, I'd say, even though I expect other teams to be better, bottom five just seems low. Like, we ran through the standings yesterday, like. - All right, yeah, I do think some of these teams are gonna be better, but if Columbus is 20 points better, they're still not ahead of the flyers, yeah, like, there are just some absolute dog shit teams out there. But we have talked, I think, spent some time talking about like, okay, there's some question marks, there's a way for this thing to be worse. I believe they're gonna have a top 10 pick. But I thought there were gonna be a bottom five team last year. A lot of these things could go the other way. If Kootz isn't injured for the whole second half, if Drysdale is good, Forster, Frost, Brank, York, Tippett are all better/more consistent, say, Fethotov is at least decent enough that Ersin gets to play a normal schedule and he shows us what he showed us when he was playing a normal schedule. There's a chance this team could also make the play. - Oh, to be sure, no, they're in that realm where I think the general, at least based on what I've seen in like the athletic and places that are doing their early predictions, the general consensus, the flyers aren't gonna make the playoffs. But I do not think they come in, like I don't think anyone would be surprised. Whereas last year, when they got off to the good start and they sustained it through February, I think everyone was generally, and by everyone, I'm not just talking about me and you. I'm talking about the hockey world at large, was surprised that the flyers were in the playoff mix and looked like they were gonna make it. If the flyers are sitting in third place in the Metro, come January 15th, I don't think anybody in the hockey world is gonna be shocked. It's gonna be like, yeah, that makes sense. Like maybe they're a little bit better than I personally thought, but they smell like a playoff bubble team and they very well could end up being a playoff bubble team again, a playoff bubble team that maybe gets a little bit better luck down the stretch, it gets a little bit better goal-tending, it gets in. It's possible. I'm personally not expecting it, but it's not, it's not like it would shock me. I don't think it would shock anyone in the hockey world. If the flyers even take another mile step forward under Tortorile. Would it be, I know a lot of people watching would be like, oh my God, if they made the playoffs, it's a fucking disaster. I get it. But if all these things I just mentioned come to fruition, Drizdale is at least good, you know? I'm not, maybe not a number one, but fucking good. He's good. Forster, Frost, Brink, York and Tippett are all better and more consistent. I just named like 2/3 of the top nine, yeah. But you're set, like I know we want the draft picks, we want all the shiny new shit and it's supposed to go a certain way, but it's possible. And again, I don't think likely. It's possible they have a lot more in-house solutions than we're giving them credit for. And if they have the in-house solutions, then that makes it less integral for them to draft high. Because if it turns out that Owen Tippett is a 35 goal, 80 point player. And Tyson Forrester is a 40 goal guy. And Cam York is a top hair defense spin. And I mean, literally just run through the names. Morgan Frost is a point per game guy. Then suddenly you're like, okay, yeah, maybe they could use one more Drizdale type, but they have a ton of the second tier connect me types that can support Mitch Call. Maybe that's enough. Right now, they don't. They have Connectee, who they have to make a decision on with his contract, and that's it. But like, if Frost and Fairby and York and Forrester and all those guys are now Connectee level players and that's what pushes the flyers into clear cut playoff team levels, suddenly you don't have nearly as much work you have to do. - Yeah, it's, I'm just don't be downtrodden if they're better than you think. - Like that's the thing. - If they're better than you think for sustainable reasons. - For yes, no, then it's good. - If the goal tending is just silly or they're winning a bunch of games and shoot outs or something. - Yeah, well, and even if the goal tending is great, like, well, then you think to yourself, well, shit. Maybe Sam Harrison is just a really good goalie. And that's one less thing they have to worry about. But if it's like, you're, if they're getting a ton of loser points or everyone else thinks and that's why they're up. - If the doubles are bad. - If the doubles are bad again, then that's why they're third in the metro. Like that's unsustainable. But if these things go right, that stuff going right in the rebuild. Like all of a sudden like, yeah, we can trade Joel Faraby for one of those other things we need. And we didn't actually lose anything. And we have a bunch of other really good players. - That's it. If the doubles are bad again for the second straight year, maybe they're just bad. - Maybe they're just bad. - And that would be cool. And then we can just trade for jack users. - Yeah, there we go, probably. - All right. And with that, we will close out today's show. That is all the time we have for you on PHLY Flyer today. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for hanging out. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button. I got lost and you brought up the image before I said it. I was reading the No Super Chats. I was like, okay, great. Oh, yes. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button. Follow us right here on YouTube. Make sure you're subscribed. Everyone hit that thumbs up too, do that. But as said, your reminders never miss a live show. We'll be back tomorrow and the rest of the week at 1 p.m. Follow us on Twitter @PHLY_Flyers and follow the podcast wherever you find those. PHLY Flyers, hit that subscribe button. All right, that's it for us. My name is Bill Matz. That's Charlie O'Connor. Till tomorrow, you stay loose and sexy, Philly. (upbeat music) ♪ Y'all sitting like the mayor ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]