Under Review: Analyzing The Carter And Richards Trades

After Wayne Simmonds' big game the other night in which he had 2 goals, I decided to run the stats and do a review of the block buster trades the Flyers made during the past summer.

When the Flyers traded away Jeff Carter and Mike Richards, it literally shook the hockey world.  The Flyers traded away two stars to clear cap space to sign Ilya Bryzgalov, and in doing so completely changed the entire foundation of their team.

For those of you who don't remember the exact specifics of the trades, I have posted below exactly who got traded and who the Flyers got in return.

Traded: Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Recieved: First round pick (Sean Couturier) and third round draft pick (Nick Cousins) in 2011 draft and Jakub Voracek.

Traded: Mike Richards to Los Angeles Kings.
Recieved: Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds and a second round draft pick in the 2012 draft.

I could make the case that with the departure of Richards and Carter the Flyers were then able to sign guys like Max Talbot and Jaromir Jagr. But I will keep my analysis of the trades strictly focused on the players directly involved.

The first trade under review will be the Jeff Carter trade.  To be perfectly fair, it's a little hard to fully evaluate the trade given the fact that Carter has only played in 31 games this year.  But even so, the statistics are very intriguing.  In 31 games this year Carter has just 11 goals and 7 assists totaling 18 points.  Voracek has played in 51 games this year tallying 9 goals and 21 assists.  And in his rookie season, the 19 year old Sean Couturier has 10 goals and 10 assists in the span of 47 games.  Again it's tough to make a full evalutation at this point given the difference of games played, but I think it's safe to say that the Flyers made out well on the Carter trade.

While it's tough to fully evaluate the Carter trade, we can easily and fully analyze the trade involving Mike Richards.  Richards has 14 goals and 12 assists on the year and has appeared in 44 games.  Meanwhile, Wayne Simmonds has 16 goals and 14 assists in somewhat of a surprise season.  Brayden Schenn was hurt during the early portion of the season, but he has still managed to tally 4 goals and 3 assists.  Also Schenn is beginning to play a lot more physical and is giving the Flyers a much needed tough identity.

Statistically it is definitely safe to say that the Flyers made out better in both trades.  And when you dig deeper and look at the players the Flyers were able to acquire due to the freed up cap space, you have to factor in players like Jaromir Jagr, Max Talbot, and also young stars like Matt Read.

The big trades were viewed by many hockey experts as extremely risky.  But so far they are paying off as the Flyers continue to play extremely good hockey and fight with the Rangers for the top spot in the Atlantic Division.  The ultimate deciding factor on the success of both trades hinges on whether or not the Flyers can go deep into the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup.  But thanks to the big trades, the Flyers have a very young nucleus with a very bright future.  Even if they don't get it done this year, I think we are in store for a very exciting era of Flyers hockey.