March 03, 2016
In his “30 Thoughts” column, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman gave some updates on the slowly developing Jonathan Drouin situation. While Tampa Bay Lightning GM Steve Yzerman couldn’t strike a deal for the disgruntled winger, Friedman says that a certain hockey team “shouldn’t be discounted”:
Ottawa’s Bryan Murray admitted he tried to pry Drouin loose. Don’t know the potential return, but the Lightning spent a lot of time scouting Boston College centre Colin White, taken 21st overall in the 2015 Draft. A few sources said not to discount Philadelphia, even though the Flyers don’t get mentioned a lot. They’ve got a lot of good, young prospects. No question the uncertainty over Steven Stamkos factored into Yzerman’s decision.
That they do. The hypothetical question is how much a player like Drouin, whose career has gotten off to an extremely rocky start, would be worth in terms of the Flyers prospects. Regardless of whether or not Ron Hextall is “in” on Drouin, having a group of coveted prospects is a good position to be in.
Gostisbehere, Giroux not among World Cup rosters yet: Dave Isaac, Courier-Post
All of the World Cup teams announced the first 16 members of their rosters yesterday. Mark Streit (Team Europe), the Czech trio of Jake Voracek, Radko Gudas, and Michal Neuvirth, and Sean Couturier (Team North America, 23-and-under players) are all heading to Toronto next September. Along with Claude Giroux (Team Canada), Shayne Gostisbehere didn’t make the cut for the North American team:
“Gostisbehere, he's another one that has been bubbling up,” Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli, who is also GM of Team North America, said on a conference call. “(Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Noah) Hanifin showed a lot of promise. Some other D in Carolina that are bubbling up.”
Has Brayden Schenn really turned this corner this time? Charlie O’Connor, Broad Street Hockey
The Flyers' depth forwards have stepped up and kept them in the playoff race: Kurt R., Broad Street Hockey
The crew over at BSH submitted a couple of good articles that try to answer what we’re seeing on the ice with the help of both the eye test and #FancyStats. As O’Connor writes, Schenn’s recent shooting percentage is completely unsustainable… but he has become a much better possession player as of late, which bodes well for his future.
As Kurt’s post explains, the Flyers’ depth forwards picked up the slack in February in a major way after the team was an unmitigated disaster without Sean Couturier or Claude Giroux on the ice for the entire season up to that point.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
