Get Your Shades, Flyers Future is Bright

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Breath. Step back from that ledge. Smile Flyers fans. All is well. Yes, they looked totally outmatched against the stinkin’ Penguins, but trust me, the Flyers future is so bright you better get some shades. It may not feel like it, but the Flyers are ahead of schedule on the rebuild after the rubble that GM Paul Holmgren left behind and good things are a-coming. Don’t believe me?

What did Vegas predict the Flyers point total would be entering this past season? Here’s VegasInsider.com’s win total over/unders before the season began:

38 wins? Flyers beat that with 42 wins and 98 points.

How about USA Today? What did they think of this Flyers team heading into the season?

USA Today predicted the Flyers would tie the Devils as the worst teams in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers proved them wrong and even made the Playoffs, which few people thought was going to happen.

CBS Sports? They predicted which NHL teams would make the Playoffs. Think they had the Flyers?

Nope. How about Sporting News Canada? Those Canadians know hockey. They must’ve predicted the Flyers would make the Playoffs. Wrong.

Before the season began, NHL.com had a panel of 17 hockey writers and analysts predict who would make the Playoffs. You know how many of these hockey “experts” predicted the Flyguys in the Playoffs? 1–hockey writer Rob Vollman. 1 out of 17. That’s 5.9%.

Let’s keep this in perspective. Holmgren left the Flyers in shambles with zero salary cap room. Hextall has loaded up the franchise with promising youth and the Hakstol has them developing and performing better and quicker than most experts thought.

If you’re part of the FIRE HEXTALL or FIRE HAKSTOL mindset, you’re just not seeing the larger picture. Giroux had his best year, although he disappeared in the Playoffs. He’s just not going to THE guy when the Flyers make their run. Players like Gostisbehere, Couturier, Konecny, Provorov, Patrick, and Hagg continue to develop on an upwards trajectory. The 2017-18 Flyers are like the 2006 Phillies who finished second to the Mets. Give them a couple more years and they’ll be competing with the best of them.

The Flyers should have almost $16M in cap space this year. They lose Filppulla, Read, Manning, Oduya, and Mrazek. They may have double that cap space after the 2018-19 season as they lose the contracts of: Lethera, Simmonds, Raffl, Weal, Elliott, and Neuvirth.

All while creating space for players like Morgan Frost, Philippe Myers, Oskar Lindblom, Wade Allison, Sam Morin, and of course Carter Hart, the top goaltending prospect in the world.

The Penguins series was about as ugly as Sidney Crosby as a baby, but don’t let that get you down. The Flyers will be better next years, and a force in two years. If we’ve learned anything from Hinkie and the tank it is to not panic, stay the course, and good things will come.

ONE FINAL THOUGHT…the Flyers need to, have to, must retire Kate Smith. Let the lady rest in peace. What was once a magical tale from yore about a mystical goddess who brought abundance and victory to an underdog franchise has been decimated by overuse and far too many losses. At this point, she’s become more of a joke than the deity who was once revered. Please stop.