Flyers Silent On Deadline Day

Today was the day of the trade deadline.  A day that perhaps some Flyers fans had been looking forward to in anticipation of another big blockbuster move.  Maybe the Flyers would bring in defenseman Rick Nash.  Or maybe the Flyers would part ways with one of their young guns like JVR or Brayden Schenn.  Surely the Flyers were going to make a lot of noise right?

Surprisingly, the Flyers were completely silent on deadline day, satisfied with the moves they made over the past two weeks for defenders Niklas Grossman and Pavel Kubina.  Flyers GM Paul Holmgren spoke to the media today addressing the team's silence at the deadline,

"We received some calls about a few of our players with some scenarios that we talked about, but nothing really made sense for us either in the short term or the long term.  I think we stated all along that anything we do needed to make sense both ways for us and nothing really came up."

Overall I'm fairly happy that the Flyers didn't trade away guys like Sergie Bobrovsky, JVR, or Brayden Schenn.  While a defender like Rick Nash would certainly help to solidify this defense, right now the Flyers' main defensive problem is Ilya Bryzgalov.  Bringing in all of the best defenders in the world isn't going to help if Bryzgalov continues to allow easy nonsense goals night after night.

Over the course of the next few weeks, hopefully the new defenders will begin to gel in the Flyers' scheme, and maybe Bryzgalov's first shootout win as a Flyer will help spark the defense.  But the key thing to remember about the trade deadline is that the Flyers were able to bolster their defense without giving up any of their young guns.  Holmgren also stated today,

“A couple weeks ago, we felt we lacked some things on our back end because of the absence of Chris [Pronger]. We addressed those issues without giving up anyone off our team."

The Flyers will have to make do with this current team.  Offensively, the Flyers certainly have all the weapons in the world.  They currently lead the NHL in total goals scored with 201, ahead of Vancouver, Boston, and Ottawa.  But on the defensive end, they are 25th in the league in goals against surrendering 182 goals as opposed to the Rangers and Blues who have both surrendered just 119 goals and are ranked first and second in the league respectively.

We will just have to wait patiently through this final month as the defense attempts to find its game.  But even if the Flyers are unable to make a Stanley Cup run this year, by not trading away any of the major pieces, the Flyers will definitely be potent in the years to come.