Flyers send Luchanko back to OHL; Zegras & Drysdale Impress Early

Flyers send Luchanko back to OHL; Zegras & Drysdale Impress Early

[Music] Hey everybody, how you doing? Well, that’s good. Welcome to PHLY Flyers. My name is Bill Matz. I’m your director of fun and games for the evening. Joining me live in the Xfinity studio. It is Philly’s number one hockey beat writer, Charlie O’ Connor. We of course brought to you by our friends at Bet 365. Whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary at Bet 365. What’s going on today, Chuck? There was actually some news today. We have something to talk about. It’s not just your average boring Monday. We have legitimate Flyers news. Jet Luchenko, we knew this was probably coming. We were reading the tea leaves here. You can see the writing on the wall. Jet Luchenko reassigned to his junior team, the G Storm. This morning was not at practice. That telegraphed it. And then we found out a couple minutes later that he is gone. Jet is back to the OHL for at least well not at least for one more season. Regardless, he’s not going back to the OHL for another season after this. This will be his last taste of the OL. He played in the OHL at 20 as a first round pick. That would really be something. But yeah, we we all kind of I can’t say we knew because there was part of me that was like, what if they just do this? It wouldn’t be conventional, but what if they what if he played 55 60 games, wasn’t in the lineup every night, but they gave him the quote unquote opportunity to earn more responsibility and maybe he moves up, maybe he doesn’t. We’ll see how it goes. But the the writing was seemingly on the wall like when he doesn’t get in for a few games, it’s like, all right, well, what are we doing here? He’s playing eight minutes when he is in there. He’s not playing every night. We know they wanted to kind of keep their hands on him, have him at practice, do the learn to be a pro thing. They think that’s important, but ultimately this was the decision to go and let him play as much as possible with GE who um I know we’ve talked a lot about how bad they were last year and the perception of that like hey if if he played for London you know would he have even made the team and things like that and I do think there is still like a difference simply because one London is it’s just one of those programs like they they’re semi-pro program basically and the Flyers have connections with the Hunters they know the Hunters Yeah. So, like they’d be much more comfortable with that. But G, they’re uh I think they’re 65 and two. 65 and one. Yeah. 65 and two. 538 points percentage. They’re right in the middle of the league like uh 10th or 11th 20 team OHL. Like they’re not as bad as last year. So, it’s not as if he will be complete with completely without help. It’s not as if it’s going to be kind of a waste of time for him. They’re at least a decent enough team. They’re not freaking terrible. Last year they finished second to last in the OHL. Only the Peter Petes were worse. So, it’s not like you’re sending him to a situation like, “All right, and now you’re uh now you’re on the Cleveland Browns. Good luck being their quarterback.” Like, yeah, that’s that’s not great for someone’s development. But I do think with the team being a little better, maybe this helps. But there’s a lot of discourse about Jet Luchenko, Charlie. There has It’s big news. there has been since his draft day uh when he was taken 13th overall in 2024. And trust me, we’ll get into that part of the thing. But Danny had uh some interesting comments about Jet and I saw like right before the show got started people even asking like why why even have him make the team if the idea was like you’re going to play eight minutes four times and then we’re going to send you back. And listen, the idea of roll and earning more role, the idea of what they liked so much about what he did in Lehi last year. All that kind of uh all that kind of came into uh came into the decision-making process. So, where do you want to start here? Because I think the why is important with the Lehigh Valley effect. Yeah. Well, the first question that Brier was asked today was basically why. Simple as that. Tell us why you made this decision. Tell me why. I’m not going to follow that up, but it’s it’s a banger. It’s a banger. Um his answer was this. Very simple. We want him to play high minutes. We’ve liked what we’ve seen. He could have stayed here. He showed that he can play, but we want more than that for him in the long run. At this point, it was time for him to start playing high minutes and more of an offensive role. Get back playing power play, killing penalties, facing the top opposition on the other team on a nightly basis. And that’s true. We all believed that Jet Luchenko playing six to eight minutes a night was not a long-term viable plan for his continued development. But of course, this does lead to the um you know the the hot dog thing of we’re all looking for the guy who did this. Like he needs more minutes. You could give him the minutes. Yeah, you could just give him the minutes. So, but you didn’t. So, again, we’re all looking for the guy who did this. Like, you guys decide who gets the minutes. Couldn’t you have given him more minutes? And that’s where I think things get interesting because Brier didn’t straight up say exactly why he couldn’t give him more minutes or why Britocket wouldn’t give him more minutes, but you can read between the lines here in terms of making sense of why this all went down. I then asked Danny, I asked him basically, um, did you see progression from Jet in these four games that he played at the NHL level as compared to the four games he played at the NHL level last season before he was sent out? And Breier, he didn’t dodge the question, but he basically just said, “Well, we saw more of a progression from Jet when he was in Lehigh Valley at the end of last year.” And then he raved about what Jet did because Jet got, I believe, I think he got uh like nine games with um let me take a look at these stats. He got nine games with the club at the end of the regular season, had three assists in those nine games, and then in the playoffs, he played in seven games, had six assists. So that’s nine points in 16 games at the pro level. Pretty impressive. And Briier today basically said when he came to play in Lehi, he was pretty impressive. Played really well, arguably our best player down the stretch and into the playoffs. That was really encouraging to see. It seems like in retrospect what happened here, and this is my read, I don’t know this for a fact, but it’s my read is Jet largely made the team out of camp this year. Not really based on what he did in camp and preseason this year because it wasn’t impressive. Because it wasn’t that impressive. Danny even said today, first week of camp this year, I wasn’t that impressed by Jet. Then I he thought he got better as camp went on, which I think we both agree with that he got better, but he made the team not because of what he did in camp this year, but because of what he did in Lehigh Valley at the end of last season, and they kept him, especially when he started trending upwards at the end of camp, they kept him with the hope that that version of Luchenko eventually would show up. And I guess they just don’t think he ever did because it’s a fair argument to make of like, well, what was he supposed to do six to eight minutes a night? How was he going to show that? And Danny’s answer basically was, look, if he would have started popping the way, even the way Gbankin’s popping or even when Gbankin only gets seven minutes, you’re watching, you’re like, man, he does stuff. This kid can play. You really never felt that way about Luchenko. Danny’s final explanation, which I think is the best explanation we’re going to get about this, is if Jed had come in and really forced our hand, forced us to find a way to get him into the top nine, it might be different. But we didn’t feel like he was quite ready for that role. They, I think, kept him largely because they were hoping that at some point in some game they were going to see the guy who they were so impressed by in Lehigh Valley at the end of last year. They just never did. And at some point they just decided they needed to make a decision because him playing six to eight minutes a night was not helping his development all that much. Yeah. And that’s the the Lehigh Valley thing. I know like all right, what was it? Um nine points in 16 games or something. Like that’s not the most impressive number, but you also have to remember it’s a 20 and over league and he was three or four months away from turning 19. Like that does make it impressive. And it is like in the playoffs. Yeah, he did struggle against Hershey because Hershey is basically the 33rd NHL team and that’s what’s going to happen. But overall, like everyone struggled against Hershey and and I thought Lucheno might have been the most impressive guy against her. He was much more impressive than Bump was against Hershey. Certainly. Yeah, that’s he seemed to be trending up as the playoffs went on as they went from the regular season to the playoffs and then into the second playoff series. I still see a lot there with Jet. Ultimately, this probably is the right call right now. I do have a question about the whole Well, we wanted him to earn the minutes and he couldn’t get them. I I see the uh the David St. Louis from the Elite Prospects quoted you and we can show that in a minute, but like I kind of agree, especially when we’re talking about a 19-year-old fourthliner. like yes, Gbankin, Hathaway, these are good hockey players. They are NHL ready hockey players. You would take them on your team. The 19-year-old center who’s getting eight minutes a night is not going to be able to pop with those two as his linemates. Like that’s not a thing that’s realistically going to happen unless you’re 19-year-old center Crosby. And no one’s under the impression that Jet Luchenko is a generational player. He might be a nice middle six center. Like that’s what we’re looking at here. He you’re not going to show us that if you’re playing with a rookie who might be the same thing but on the wing. And Haway who is a certified fourthliner, a good one, but that’s what he freaking is. We talked like if this was always the plan to send him back at some point and just kind of extend his stay, give him a look and hey, maybe he gets lucky and we keep him longer. If this was always the plan, give him one game. Give him one game with Tippet or Mishkov or Kknne or something just to see how it goes. You’re looking at this playmaking ability like I don’t know what if he dished a few to Tippet. What if he dished a few to Mishkov and suddenly like he’s got four assists and we’re thinking totally differently about him. And ultimately, I don’t think this is like bad for his long-term development. I don’t think this hurts anything. It’s only a few weeks, but I just feel like it could have been handled a little better in the now. It would have been fun if they would have given him at least a brief look. But this is where you get into the difference to your coach. And you know what? You hired Rick Tocket because you believe he is a really, really good NHL coach and you trust his judgment when it comes to players. Now, from our perspective, we’re looking at this number one more from like a long-term perspective. Number two, we’re looking at this because we want to see the fun things. Okay. It’s more fun to see what Jet Luchenko can do. Yeah. Given 18 minutes in one game watching Christian D’vorak. But if you’re looking at it from the Flyers perspective and from Rick Tak’s perspective, Taka’s perspective number one is I’m going to put the lineup on the ice that I think gives me the best chance to win a game because that’s my focus. My focus is winning games in the here and now. If you want to overrule me and say like now we got to do this for development, fine. We’ll do a hybrid wing center approach with Trevor Seager. If you leave me to my own devices, I’m going to do what I think gives us the best chance to win a game. So, that’s number one. The Flyers obviously believe that Rick Tocket is good at his job and they believe that he is good at identifying who is ready and who is not. And if you have the coach that you just signed to a big deal who you just chose as your guy telling you, “No, I can’t play this guy in the top nine. He’s not ready for it.” I guess you could overrule him and you could say, “Rick, sorry, tough tough apples. you’re doing it for one game because we’re not sending him back until we see it with our own with our own two eyes that he’s not ready for this role. Or you could say, well, we hire this guy to make these determinations. This is the determination he’s made. We’re going to trust him. We’re not going to try to force a square peg into a round hole, or at least what he tells us is a square peg into a round hole, and we’re going to make the decision based on that. So, it’s tough because we’re obviously coming at it from a different perspective. We are looking at it as we just want to see the fun thing. The Flyers are looking at it with with different factors, different determinations in mind. One of those being Rick Take clearly watched at Luchenko and decided I am not comfortable giving this guy a longer look up in the top nine because I don’t think he’s quite ready to make an impact and succeed in that role. And the other part of this is which I know we’ve been saying for a while, like they just don’t have that much talent. The Flyers have nine forwards clearly better than Jet Luchenko. It seems like it. I mean I again I would have liked to have seen what Luchenko could have done. Oh 100%. With more scoring type guys. By the same token, Haway is a darn good fourth liner and Gbankin were spending a lot of these shows saying he should be pushed further up the lineup. So, it’s not like he was playing, you know, with it’s and and I’m not saying this as like a slight against these guys, but it’s not like he had Rodrigo Ables who was like still trying to prove himself to be an NHL caliber player and on one wing and Nick Deloreier who is a specialist. He’s an enforcer. It’s not like those were his wingers. He had decent enough players and Tak probably looks at it as, hey, I’m watching Gbankin find ways to pop even on a fourth line and Luchenko is not finding nearly as many ways to pop. If I’m gonna get anybody more minutes, it’s gonna be Gbankin, not Luchenko. And we’ve seen that where Gbankin gets a few shifts with uh with Zegris and Mishkov because we saw Mishkov and Gbankin have good uh have good chemistry in the preseason. And that just goes back to like Jet just doesn’t have enough reps. Like that’s part of it is listen, he missed rookie camp this year, started main camp slow. Like he just needs more time. And I know we all wish he was ready. And we’re going to talk on the other side about, you know, the uh the Zeve elephant in the room. We’ll talk about Bou in a second, but it really just seems like he needs a little bit more seasoning. And then, yeah, I would have liked to see him get a little more in the NHL. Like, you do have nine games to play with. Why not just give him a little bit more of a chance? If the idea of him moving up in the lineup is, well, we needed to see him pop. I don’t know, man. Four games. Is that really like we haven’t seen Matt Veay Mishkov pop in four games really yet. I we’re expecting that out of a 19-year-old who doesn’t have near the same ceiling as Mattfe Mishkov. Like I don’t know. I just I would have liked to see a little more, but ultimately this isn’t like a hanging offense to me with Danny. No, I mean it’s it’s a way to disagree and we we can show that uh you know that that David St. Louis tweet um where he makes the point and again it’s it’s a reasonable thing to disagree on. I feel like David St. Louie, who does really good work for Elite Prospect, quote quote tweeted my tweet. He said, “It rarely works like that. If you want players to shine, give them bigger roles to prove themselves. I keep repeating this, but outperforming minor roles is very hard to do at the NHL level. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.” And then I saw a couple people making the comparison to what Pittsburgh’s doing with Ben Kindle where Ben Kindle, surprisingly, he was just drafted this year, made their team out of camp, and they’re using him on the third line, and he’s apparently impressing. I haven’t watched a Penguins game this year. Obviously, we’ll see them tomorrow when they play the Flyers, but I’ve heard Kindle’s been impressive. And the argument is, well, he’s impressive in no small part because he’s getting minutes. He’s getting used in a scoring role with some talent on his wings. And I think it’s it’s a reasonable point to make. It’s just clear that the Flyers look at it more as the player has to earn it rather than we’re giving the guy the spot. I think reasonable minds can disagree on whether this was the right way to do it, but it’s the way they did it. Yeah. No, and that’s that’s kind of that’s kind of what it comes down to. All right, on the other side, we are gonna talk about the Jet and Zeve comparisons. But first, I got to tell you about our presenting sponsor. Whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary at Bet 365. From their 90 million users worldwide to their almost 800,000 live stream events each year, they’re one of the pioneers of live in-game betting. But what I got to tell you about today, it’s that NHL early payout offer. Because with the Bet 365 early payout offer, you’re a winner if your team gains a threegoal lead with an instant payout on straight bets and parlay selections marked as winners. 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And these guys are in the store every single day working to make sure they have a huge lineup of Chevys at the best price and providing honking good service. There’s no missed shots, no drama, just real brothers running a local business and backing every deal like it’s the championship game. So, if you’re in the market for a new Chevy, make your next move to Elen Chevrolet. Real brothers, real deals, and a whole lot of honking good service. Shop now at elen Chevrolet.com. Together, let’s drive. I I’m I’m loving the the reference to Honking because I literally still this is a complete tangent, but I found out about 30 minutes before we started this show and unfortunately it’s because the guy is apparently now out for the season, but I found out 30 minutes before the show that the Miami Dolphins have a player and his name is Storm Duck. That’s so funny. It’s a honking good name. I can’t believe he’s out for the season. We just disappointed. We just learned he existed. The a great name and it’s now been ripped away from me for the rest of this year. I can’t get excited about Storm Duck until next season. What a an incredible name. Life truly unfair, Charlie. It is really. All right, so let’s go back to the 2024 draft. The Flyers are sitting at number 12 and Zeve Bou, the guy we were all kind of clamoring for, the uh defense NCAA defenseman, big scoring numbers in college. Charlie, what was he your number two or number three ranked guy? I believe he was my number three ranked guy. The third guy on Charlie’s big board sitting there at 12. And then suddenly, ladies and gentlemen, we have a trade. Bill Garren’s Minnesota Wild get that pick. The Flyers are now picking 13. Zeve goes 12. The Flyers who wanted Booam all along or who wanted Luchenko all along get their guy plus I think what like a fourth round pick or something. Um yeah, I believe I think they got I think it might have been a second. Was it a second? I think it would have been a second. I think they I think if I remember correctly, they would not have gotten Spencer Gil if they hadn’t made the trade down. Speaking of unfortunate injuries, but that’s another story for another day. Uh but then the Flyers end up with Luchenko, who we were told, um they were afraid while they were scouting him because they liked him heading into the year and then they watched the year he had and they were like, “Crap, we’re winning too much and he’s playing too well. We’re never going to get a chance to draft this guy.” and then they felt lucky that he was available to them uh by trading down for that 13th pick. I’ve seen a lot of man they just really overthought that pick and they were doing Here’s the thing. They liked the player. They liked him better and they took him. That’s what happened. It comes down to one simple thing. They really liked Jet Lucenko, so they drafted him. It’s not anything else. like they could have just taken Zeve, but they liked him better. Yeah. Well, the big reason why, look, this has always been a a big part of the discourse ever since draft day because Boo was part of that clear second tier and Luchenko was not, at least in the public sphere. And Bouam was the guy who was left out of that tier, him and I guess Constellaneous if you wanted to put him in there. And the Flyers were the first team to reach and take a guy who wasn’t in that generally accepted 2B second tier. They took Luchenko over Buou. So obviously there’s going to be a lot of comparisons. Then you add in the fact that Bouam is scoring a lot of points in his rookie year. Believe he has eight points in his first 10 games. Two goals. Two goals, six assists in 10 games. Uh one goal, four assists or are on the power play. So you’re seeing a lot of people who already thought that Bouam was the guy the Flyers should have taken are now really expressing that they think Boo was the guy they should have taken. And that’s only going to get louder today because William’s still there and Luchenko is now going back to juniors for a second straight year. The one point I will make though, and I want to make this clear because sometimes I get the like, oh, you’re just defending the Flyers. You’re a shill. All this. Look, Zoo was my number three pick in that draft. He was third on your board. I really like this guy and I really do think he’s going to be very good. I would have rushed to the podium to take Zeve Boo if I was Danny Breier. Obviously not, but if I was, he absolutely would have been my pick. So, this is not me trying to denigrate Zeve Boo. But I want to say that I do think the point totals for Zeve Bou so far in the NHL a little bit misleading as it comes to evaluating his overall play. Yes, point totals look real good. And if you just go on Hockey Reference or Hockey DB or Elite Prospects, if you’re like, “Oh man, Flyers, look how stupid they look. They just sent this guy back and boom’s racking up the points. You know those charts you see on social media all the time, those uh those bar charts, the ones I don’t understand, the ones you don’t understand, but people will just be like, “Look how good this guy is or look how bad this guy is. I see red, that’s bad. I see blue, that’s good.” What those charts are is they are RAPM charts. They are charts used trying to determine the quality of play from a guy at even strength to this point in his season or his career or whatever. And they get used as ways to show whether a guy is real good or real bad. The unspoken secret about Zoo’s start to the season is yeah, he’s racking up the points, but he’s not doing good at even strength. And this chart will show you it’s a lot of red. What’s the big blue part? Power play. He’s killing it on the power play. Minnesota has, I think, they’re like 35% effectiveness. Yeah, they were at like 50% when we played and and and don’t let me just dismiss the importance of the power play. It’d be great if the Flyers had a real good power play, but I just want to make it clear that it’s not like Zeve Boo has hit the NHL as a fully formed stud. He is seriously struggling at even strength to start his career, which again, no big deal. I still think he’s going to be real good, but let’s not act like he’s awesome at everything. He’s been real good on the power play. If that power play, and look, he’s part of it, but I’m going to guess that like Caril Capri off probably is driving that power play more than Ze Buy. One would think if they were not racking up a ridiculous amount of goals to start the year on the power play, Zeve’s year probably doesn’t look nearly as good and people aren’t complaining as loudly. Um, yeah. Like, and again, to Charlie’s point, this isn’t to denigrate like we both like Zeve. Yeah. Like him a lot very much. Was in the Zeve camp. Was very disappointed on draft day when we were like, really? the guy who was the only list he showed up here on was the name list. Uh the cool names list, you know, like, oh, he’s fast and his name’s Jet. Great name. This is amazing. Fantastic. It’s no Storm Duck, but it’s pretty good. Um Zeve being a He’s 19. He doesn’t turn 20 till December 7th. Like a 19-year-old defenseman, no matter where they were drafted, struggling at five on five. Not shocking. Like there’s a reason everyone’s going like, “Have you seen Matthew Schaefer?” It’s because a defenseman at that age is almost unbelievable. If they’re having success, especially at five on five, but the scoring numbers, the one thing about like, yeah, he’s just kind of taking advantage of the power play. This would be a much more like this would make it be a much easier argument to make if it wasn’t like what are we the worst at you know they had two goals in one game and we’re like they’re at 15.8%. Look at them they’re killing it. Like the Flyers power play has been historically bad for half a decade now. And uh it would be nice to have a little help. It would now again Yeah. I I assume Carrill Capriovv has probably more to do with it than the 19-year-old defenseman. Yeah, I I I don’t I don’t think if you put Zoom on the Flyers power play, it miraculously is operating at 35% effectiveness. But like he at Denver, like this was his thing, too. It’s not a shock that it’s carried over. Maybe at the rate it has so early, but like this is kind of what his thing is. And one of the reasons, we’re going to talk about Jamie Dale later. We were told that they prioritized Lucenko over Zeve was well we have Jamie Ddale and to this point now spoiler for later in the show. We’re both really impressed with Jamie Dale things this year but um the scoring hasn’t been there the way we might have been hoping it would be for a guy that like I don’t know it just kind of seemed like he was going to be a scoring defenseman. Maybe he still will be, but to this point like, oh, so we just kind of passed on him because we just wanted Luchenko better. And the answer to that is yes. And it’s just something we have to wrap our heads around because that’s why they drafted him. They liked him better. Yeah, they they clearly really like Jet Luchenko. And Danny made that clear today when we talked to him that look, this does not mean that we do not see Jet Luchenko as a major part of our future. We do. We want him to develop a bit more offensively. I think Ricktotake doesn’t have any hair, but any little bits that were going to pop out of his head were going to be torn out by watching Jet Luchenko refuse to shoot ever. He was driving him up the wall. They want him to develop more offensively. They want him to have a little bit more assertiveness with the puck. However, they still think that Jet Luchenko is going to be a big part of this three, four years down the road when he is a more developed player and the Flyers are aiming to not just make the playoffs, but win playoff series and hopefully compete for Stanley Cups. I don’t think it’s going to take Jet Lucheno four years to make the NHL roster. I think there’s a good chance he makes a team next year and sticks, even if it’s in a bottom six role, but he’s a ways away from being what they believe he ultimately will become. Did we discuss the possibility of a conditioning stint? Uh, we did not, but I asked I can’t remember. We didn’t discuss that, but I I asked Danny about it because it is it was an option. You saw we’re 27 minutes and I don’t remember the first 15. Well, you saw Seattle do it a couple years back with Shane Wright. They found a way basically like the reason why he’s not allowed to send Jet to the AHL is because this is the final year that the old NHL CHL agreement remains in effect. And per that agreement, guys in their draft plus one or draft plus two seasons, if they’re not over 20, are not allowed to play in the AHL. That rule is going to change, but it starts next year. So the Flyers can’t benefit from it. But there is one little loophole, and the loophole is if you if any player, including Jet in the NHL, is sits as a healthy scratch for at least five consecutive games, you are allowed, if the player agrees to send them down to the AHL for a conditioning stint. the conditioning stint would last, I believe, two weeks. So, he could have found a way. Danny could have found a way to get Jed at least sometime in the AHL and maybe drag this out a little bit longer even then. But I asked Danny about it and Danny said, “Look, we did consider it. We thought about it and we do think that Jet is better served in the AHL than the NHL. Honestly, that that’s the right spot for him.” But we looked at it ultimately and it just became a well, we’d have to sit him out for another three games in the NHL before we could do it. That would be another week. then he only gets two weeks down in the AHL, but we have to keep him on the NHL roster, so there’s potential complications if guys get hurt. Let’s just rip the band-aid off now and send him back and let him get the minutes rather than dragging this out for another three weeks and then ending up, you know, in the middle of November having to make the exact same decision after he gets, you know, six minutes in two consecutive games in mid November. I think they were just like, we could do it and maybe there’s some value, but let’s just make the decision now. Yeah. And listen, I would have liked to see him. It just this freaking agreement with the CHL is very annoying. And the fact that it’s ending next year is even more annoying if it was just haunting them. If this was just like, yeah, this is just the way it is and suck it. Too bad. I’d be like, all right, this is dumb, but whatever. I don’t understand why the NHL has to listen to anything the CHL says, but whatever. We need feeder leagues, I suppose. However, the fact that it’s ending next year and we have the exact guy that you need like that you’d want to skirt with this uh like basically exceptional status rule. It’s it’s a pain in the ass quite honestly. I I find it annoying and I wish it wasn’t the case, but it is. All right. Uh is there really anything else to uh talk about in terms of the uh Luchenko situation? Because if not, we’re going to talk on the other side. Uh, we have some injury updates and then we got to get into Jamie Ddale. I I think we’ve we’ve run the gamut of every um every angle, let’s say, of the Jet Luchenko situation. I’ll have an article up on all phely.com though later tonight breaking it down even further. All right, with that, let’s take our second break. Listen, we’ve all been there. You’re over at a friend’s house. They want to make their spot the spot for game day, but then that day arrives and they’ve got buffering, lagging, got to switch between a million different apps and it’s just not an ideal situation. It’s because they don’t have Xfinity. If you call yourself a sports fan, well, there’s only one way to watch the games and it’s on Xfinity, the ultimate sports destination. It’s the perfect fan flex. You get all the action right in your living room in one place. So you don’t have to switch between a million different apps. And you get the enhanced picture and sound with 4K. So your everything is so clear. It feels like you’re in the arena. And if it’s a big game day, a lot going on. You’ve got the multiv- view. You can watch up to four games at once while getting real-time notifications and stats right on your television so you can keep up with all your parlays and fantasy teams. Next game day, make sure you’re a big fan and not a big fail. Learn more at xfinity.com. Xfinity. Imagine that. Restrictions apply. Multiv- view requires Xfinity 4K capable TV box. Now, it’s time to tell you about our friends at Monarch Money. That’s right. Monarch Money has taught me so much about how to handle my money and how to best use uh and how to best use it so I can ultimately get the most out of my money because Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you’ve put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you because they do the heavy lifting. They link all your accounts in minutes and get clear. You get clear data visuals, smart categorization of your money, and real control over that money. And we promise you’ll never need to touch a spreadsheet again. 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Look at that thing. Dope. Yeah, we It’s still what? Four more days till the Halloween. Feels like that’s a great shirt to be wearing on Halloween. Go get that shirt. All right, we did get some injury updates, Charlie. Um, Rasmus wrist the line in uh, four to six weeks. It seems like there’s a pretty solid timeline here. Seems seems like he could be on the ice with his teammates soonish. I would guess in the next couple weeks is when he starts skating with his teammates. Probably wearing a non-cont jersey to start, but at least getting the conditioning back going because look, he didn’t have a he didn’t have a training camp. So, even when he’s technically cleared, he won’t really be cleared until they feel comfortable throwing him out there for 16, 17, 18 minutes a night. But it does seem like he is at least on the road back looking like early December probably for uh for Risto Bonk. It sounds like they have a handle on now, but it’s a little I I use the word murkier in terms in terms of like their actual timeline for him because at first they didn’t think it was that big a deal. Then it just kept not getting better. And now here we are where he’s progressing well, but they’re still ultimately moving forward with some caution on his uh they called it an upper body injury. Um this is one of those, well, we thought it wasn’t a big deal and now it’s almost November and he still hasn’t touched the ice. Uh he didn’t play in rookie camp, right? Uh he played in the very first day of rookie camp, right? Yeah. And then disappeared from that point on. Um, a little concerning, but it does sound like they’re getting a handle on the situation with Bon and then and then once he’s healthy, he’ll in all likelihood be sent to the fans. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, he’s not he’s not joining the team. I don’t know, man. I mean, you might put him on the team. They got Zamula and Yining and Jules out there playing 10 minutes. Why not let the rookie play 10 minutes? But I don’t know. Anyway, the lack of a concrete timeline, it is a bit concerning. Yeah, that I I asked this question. I asked him asked Andy Breer for updates on both players. He was willing to give a concrete timeline on Risto. The fact that he’s not willing to give a concrete timeline on Bon, it’s a bit concerning. It seems like they’re happy with how it’s progressing now, but there’s enough uncertainty that they’re not willing to be like, “Yeah, in about a month we think he’d be good to go.” It just worries me because it’s like, “Well, what if it’s longer? You know, what if it’s, you know, the beginning of December and we still don’t have a timeline?” And then you’re talking about a lost year development because if he misses the entire first half of the season, then how much did this his his big first pro year, how much it really help him develop as a player. It’s not an ideal situation. I like to hear that they’re they’re getting a better handle on it. I don’t like the fact that we don’t yet have a timeline. And listen, it’s an injury. Um I guess whenever it’s oh yeah, it was worse than we thought. Now we think we’re getting our hands around it. It’s like never going to see this guy again. And that’s just one of those things that they have to work their way out of. Like they have to diagnose an injury and give me a timeline and have players meet that meet or beat that timeline on a consistent basis before I believe anything they say about injuries. And this is one of those, yes, you are paying for the sins of people who came before you situations, but also like this has happened with Risto a couple times under your watch as well where you’re like, “Yeah, I don’t know. He’s dayto-day.” And then it’s, well, I haven’t seen him since March. Um, it’s the new season. It’s a month into the new season. Haven’t seen him. I mean, we’ve actually seen him. He’s not like disappeared uh the way like Ryan Ellis just did. But he’s not playing, and that’s a concern. But at least we have an actual timeline for him. And uh Sanheim had a maintenance day. He may have tweaked something, but he’s fine. And he just didn’t skate at practice today. Yeah. I mean, I’m not terribly concerned about Sanheim. It does seem like he’s playing 29 minutes a It does seem like it’s more than your average maintenance day. And it’s always a little bit concerning because they were off yesterday, not on the ice. Always a little bit concerning when the day after a day off, a guy still isn’t out there. But it doesn’t seem like Rick Tocket is overly concerned. I was uh I was watching this clip of Allen Iverson on the New Heights podcast. Okay. And he was talking like they were asking him about load management because he was like, you know, he would be hurt and they’d have to hide his jersey. He’d be like, “No, f you. I’m playing.” And he was like, “Yo, we have practice tomorrow. Rest me then.” If I’m Travis San, like if I’m the Flyers and I need Travis Sanheim for like 24 minutes a night at minimum, he’s going to practice very little. Like that’s just especially now that he’s off of the power play for the foreseeable future, I would guess, with with Cam York back. Like that’s a specialty thing where you need the chemistry of like everyone your unit out there together. If he’s not doing that, I’m not like overly concerned about him ever practicing. He’s been in the league like 10 years. I’m good. Like I’m I’m okay with this in practice. It’s important given the fact that they are learning a new system. Yeah. Yeah. So there is more importance than usual. But I do agree that if there’s a guy there’s two guys in the team that I’m not terribly concerned about missing some practice, it’s probably Sanheim and Couturier. Yeah. like they I think they have a ain’t their first rodeo. I think they have a handle on what they’re supposed to be doing out there. All right. Uh were there any other news or notes pressing issues because Danny was available today. Obviously the coach spoke after practice. Anything else or should we move to dry state? Let’s move to uh to Jamie. The the the co the the press availability with Danny was very laser focused on Luchenko and we got a couple in injury updates but I feel like we’ve we’ve we’ve evaluated those about as uh you know thoroughly as possible. Let’s move towards a little bit more conceptual things like Jamie D. It’s time for Dry Guy the Fly Guy. Guy the Fly Guy. We still sell those shirts, right? Yeah, we we still have them on phy.com. Maybe get yourself one of those in the new cool one. Uh Jamie Dale, I read an article up on the Liberty Yell. That was honestly it was a lot of numbers to what we’ve been talking about o the last few games where it’s really seemed like man he’s making a difference out there. Even though you just look at the stat line and go, “Oh, no goals, three assists in eight games, huh? Well, glad they passed on Zeve because they had him and different different argument altogether.” But you watch him play like you actually see what he’s got going on out there and it’s hard not to like what you’re seeing from him, especially in the defensive zone, especially in orchestrating breakouts, things of that nature. But even in rush defense, getting a stick in lane, stuff like that, he’s been really good. Uh, and the numbers, at least some of the advanced stats, uh, back it up. This is, uh, from that Liberty Yellow article, Charlie says, “Among defensemen with 140 minutes played at five on five, Dale ranks third in expected goal share, uh, that overall territorial dominance is driven primarily by his defense where he’s surrendered the second fewest expected goals per hour.” That seems pretty good. Uh, he’s It’s the defensive play that’s really driving this. is he says it’s he’s succeeding in these top pair minutes like when you and I talked about Ddale after was it the last game or two games ago where it was yeah it seems like you know the ice time’s kind of getting spread around and then you look at like the actual distribution minutes go oh Dale actually got more time than Sanheim and York at five on five they just get a ton of special teams time uh so that changes the numbers a little but the coach is seeing it too Jamie Dale is making a uh is making a difference for this team and he’s actually at five on five they’re number defenseman right now. Yeah. And it’s, you know, it’s interesting because this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen a a guy of his ilk in terms of his frame and his size turn into a pretty darn good defensive defenseman. Same thing has kind of happened to Cam York. And I know you’ve struggled to accept that like maybe Cam York and hey, Cam York’s got four points in five games. Maybe the offense is finally coming around for him. But it’s been a little bit hard for you to accept that Cam York might be better defensively than he is offensively. I don’t like it. Yeah, not a fan. Well, so far Jamie Dryale is kind of following that same MO where the the points haven’t been there yet. And a lot of that is the power play that that top unit, if you want to call it, really hasn’t looked like a top unit at all. Drizzale hasn’t been able to do much really. No one on that unit’s been able to do all that much except for allow short-handed goals apparently. But at five on five, especially defensively, Dale’s killing it. And I think for me I was I was concerned going in this year about Dale not because I didn’t see something in him because my view was after if you remember back in November December of last year they kind of sat him out where it was like it was an injury but it got hurt it really was like yeah he got a little banged up and we’re going to use this as an opportunity to basically do like some remedial work with him and Brad Shaw behind closed doors. It was easier to put him on It was easier to put him on IR than it was to be like, “Yeah, he’s scratched for a month for three weeks.” Yeah. Three weeks. Whatever. But ever since he came back, I thought he showed real progress. I did an article on all phy.com. I think it was I guess it was March. It was like right before Brad Shaw got the job. Uh got the the interim head coaching job. And I interviewed Dale and I interviewed Shaw and we broke down some really good plays that Dale had made. I sort of did it like an oral history sort of fashion. Um, and it was clear watching those plays like the flashes were there. He was starting to turn the corner both defensively and in terms of his assertiveness with the puck, he was making real progress. I was worried that losing Brad Shaw would would halt that momentum that then it would be like, well, I’m learning a new system. I’ve got to get to know a new coach. Maybe the progress he made in the second half of last year, it would kind of get rewound a little bit and he’d sort of have to start from scratch. So far this year does not look like that progress, that momentum was halted. If anything, he’s taking further strides to start the year. He’s looking even better defensively. Now they just got to work on getting the offense back in. And that’s uh they they pointed out in this article on the Liberty Yell like it did start last year when he came back. Um if you look at data starting December 1st of last season, Dale ranks 14th with a 55% expected goal share. He’s got results nearly identical to Gustav Forsling and superior to players like Devon Taves and Jake Sanderson. It’s been going well for him just in terms of getting play going the other way, stopping play on his end and making it go down the other way. It’s since yeah, last December really when he came back, it’s been going very well for for Dale. the fact that he hasn’t lost momentum, the fact that he hasn’t lost anything with the new coach, it’s all very very uh it’s all very exciting to see what this player is actually turning into. I know that we don’t have the scoring numbers we want and when you give up at the time your second best prospect for a guy, you kind of want him to be a star level player. But there are stars who do more than score. And it appears that Dale might be turning into them one or at least has the makings of one right now. Yeah. I I mean it’s just it’s worth remembering and and this is why my view of Dao was was always going to take a couple years for us to figure out whether they were right or wrong on what they could make him into because he’s just had such a weird career. Very it was a very choppy developmental path. His first year he makes the NHL roster in no small part because it was such a weird season overall. there wasn’t like junior hockey really hadn’t started because of all the COVID stuff. So, he plays 24 games with the big club at age 18 in 2021. Then the following year, 81 games, plays well as a 19-year-old. You know, yeah, he’s got he’s got issues. He’s got flaws in his game. He’s not all the all the way there defensively, but they gave him a lot of minutes. He scores 32 points. That’s great. Following year, gets hurt, plays eight games. Then he comes back after missing a full year and has a new coach. So, he’s having to learn an entirely new system. And that new coach is, for lack of a better term, a hard ass. I mean, Greg Cronin is Greg Cronin. So, he’s not going to be able to like ease his way into learning a new system. He also, I believe, had the um the the contract disputes. He and Ziggress both had the contract disputes at the same time. Both missed camp. Yep. You got you had a new a new front office coming in that didn’t draft him. You know, it’s got Verbique coming in and Verbique likes to likes to ruffle feathers. Then he gets traded, then he gets injured again. Then he’s dealing with new coaches again. He’s dealt with so many new coaches, so many injuries. It just felt like you’re going to need to give him some runway to figure this hockey thing out, this playing defense at the NHL level thing. And over the last near year, he’s finally getting consistent time to work on his game at the pro level, at the NHL level, and you’re seeing some real dividends. I don’t know what he’s ultimately going to become, but there’s the upside there for him to be a really, really exciting defenseman. And so far this year, he’s been a darn effective one. Yeah. Uh Jamie Ddale, listen, only time will tell what what he could ultimately become, but as of right now, he is on the right trajectory, and that’s all we can ask for, especially in, you know, as a player who came over in as high a profile trade as he was in, expectations were sky-high. It was a little weird, but there are reasons why it was weird like Charlie just laid out and now it seems to finally be clicking and it’s all right. Let’s see. Let’s see what when and if he takes yet another step. All right, I want to talk about Trevor Zaggress on the other side and shootouts cuz shootouts are great. Uh but you like shootouts now. I’ve always liked shootouts. I’m pro shootout. You’re the contrarian who always enjoyed shootouts. Shootouts are good if your team isn’t the worst ever at them and maybe the Flyers won’t be. All right, but first we got to take our final break. Are you ready for the ultimate Flyers getaway? Well, PHLY and Philly sports trips are taking all of their friends and fans out west for the California Takeover along with Flyers legend John along with Flyers legend Johnlair. From March 17th to the 22nd, we’re hitting the West Coast for two huge games. First, we’re going to see the Ducks at the Honda Center. Then we’re going to see the Kings at Crypto.com Arena. Your package includes optional roundtrip direct flights from Philly, a five night stay at the beautiful Sanborn Santa Monica, group tickets to both games, a Flyers watch party for the Sharks game on that trip, and an exclusive meet and greet with Johnlair, plus the Philly Sports Trips crew will be there to handle every detail, so you can just enjoy the sun, the sights, and the hockey. This is the California vacation every Flyers fan dreams of, but spots are limited. So, book your trip today at allphy.comvents. Now, I got to tell you about the Ashley fan cave because you got to picture this. A fan cave that actually feels like your dream setup. Well, thanks to Ashley, that could be real. We’re giving away a $2500 Ashley furniture gift card. You can go big on a sectional. Add some stylish peaches pieces. add some stylish pieces or trick out your space for game day. It’s all up to you. Just visit ashleyfancave.com, see if you’re eligible, fill out the form, and you’re entered. It’s that simple. Enter now, and you might be watching the next big game in a fan cave built by you, courtesy of our friends at Ashley. All right, Chuck. Uh, I want like Trevor Zaggress just been impressive for the most part. We I think both see there’s another level he can get to, but he has made a lot of the team splash plays this season. He’s leading the team in points, two goals, six assists, uh eight points in eight games along with Shan Couttori tied at the top. Uh but listen, point a game player. Again, we’re only, you know, tiny bit under 10% of the season here. But I have no complaints. It’s not as if he’s come in, it’s like, h, yep, Crona was right. This ain’t going to work. Like, yeah, we want him to work out at center. It might not. Or it might be a slow process to get him there. He may never be a superstar player, but damn, man. I’ll I’ll take 80 points out of this guy. And right now, that’s uh that’s the kind of player we’re getting. It’s hard to it’s hard to not like the trade at this point in time. I I just think if anything, I’m relieved that no long that I’m relieved at what like isn’t happening. It’s not like he’s coming out of the gate struggling. It’s not like he’s clashing with the coach. It’s not like you’re hearing, oh, his teammates think he’s soft and he won’t take contact. Instead, you’re hearing everybody being like, “Yeah, this dude’s the funniest guy in the world. We love having him in the locker room. He’s fit in perfectly.” Like, there was a world where this could have gone bad. where this could have gone bad from the jump and then it’s like, “Oh, we got to salvage the Trevor Zager situation.” I said on a show last week, I was like, “Look, one of the reasons why I think they uh they kept Lucenko was because there were a few guys on this team where you’re like, I don’t know how this is going to work. I don’t know how the Ziggress thing is going to work.” Like, would it have would it have shocked me if you know four games into the year under Rick Taken if Ziggress is getting eight minutes a night because Taka was infuriated with him? No. Like, I wasn’t expecting it, but I didn’t think it was out of the realm of plausible outcomes. No. And instead, Zager is point per game. The coach seems to get a kick out of him. I mean, he he literally like he named Rick Tocket Taco. And Tocket’s like, “Yeah, this kid’s great. Great, man.” Yeah. And that’s the It does seem like there is a good relationship there because you do need guys like that. Yeah. You need the funny, fun guys who kind of keep everything light. You need the elder statesmen like the Shawn Couttori as well. the guys who just are know how to come in and be a professional and like listen they’re Sean Couttori is in his 30s now like he’s just older than so many of these guys like you need a little bit of everything and he does bring some great personality to the team but my favorite thing he brings is this shootout prowess Charlie and listen I know everybody hates shootouts I don’t know why uh because when you’re actually good at them they’re fun one they’re dramatic shooter v goalie coming down What’s going to happen? There’s two possible outcomes. That’s how the game is going to end. What the hell’s the difference between this and a tie? Who cares? Like, I don’t know. You get to see Trevor Zaggress do something cool. That sounds like better than 3-3. Game’s over. He’ll still go home. Like, sounds good to me. But he isn’t just like the best we’ve had at this. He’s the best there’s ever been at this. It’s wild. I don’t think I realized this until JJ put it up on they had it on the uh on the game, right, the broadcast and now people are like, “Oh my god, he really is this good.” It’s you have to look at guys with at least 20 uh 20 attempts. He is 14 for 22 in his career, though. Uh that is freaking insane. 63.6%. Best ever for any player with at least 20 shootout attempts. And you see this graphic. My first question was, “Oh my god, in the top 10, Taves and Oshi aren’t in there.” Jonathan Taves is 12th, 47.3. Uh, he went 52 for 110. Like, yeah, 110 attempts, way more. And Oshi right behind him in 13th, 49 for 104. Uh, so like, all right, they’re both over 47%, but they’ve gone a 100 times. Yeah, we’ll see where Ziggris is at when he’s done it 100 times. Yeah, he still has 80 more to go. He might still be at 60%. Who knows? Who the hell knows? cuz he is so good at it. When he went up to the puck, I thought he was just effing around. I was like, does he know like as soon as he touches it, it starts? It looks like he’s just joking right now. And then all of a sudden, it was like, no, he’s going. I was like, oh my god, this is something different. Uh, and then scores. It was really fun. And it made me want to take a look at the Flyers history as well because we have been so bad. So, so bad. And I I made it I made the minimum eight attempts because I wanted to get Matt Vishkov in there. He’s four for eight. Uh he’s the all-time leader with at least eight attempts for the Flyers. Um Jordan Wheel number 45.5% 5 for 11. Interesting. Yeah, Wheel was good. It was one of those things he was good at. Uh omitted is Claude Jaru. He was 11th and I couldn’t fit it in the screenshot. 29.4% 30 for 102. felt like he started really well and then it kind of tailed off as it was like he’s got three moves and uh the goalies know them now because he had to go every single time we had a shootout. It’s funny like and I guess now that I’m thinking about it he was pretty good at shootouts. I didn’t remember Jake Vorich being that good and byent but he was decent. He was like 30%. Yeah. Yeah, like 30 is good, 40 is really good. And like you see like, oh yeah, Oshi at 47 and then freaking Z is over 60. Like he’s almost 64%. This is something we’ve never seen before here. And you just look at you see Mishkov, you see Zegris, they like using Brink. Uh TK’s gotten better at them. Coots is in like I think he’s like 12th or 13th in team history. Uh I think it’s G Simmons and then Coots. Okay. Couttori has been better. He just started really bad, but like the last few years he’s been better. They could win some, especially the one thing I consistently believe that Sam Harrison could do is stop stop breakaways. He’s a good shootout goal. He’s really good at stopping breakaways. It’s everything else I’m worried about with him with, but he’s like nine and three in his career in shootouts. I wonder if you at what point and maybe Rick Tocket is not the coach to do this. At what point do coaches start pulling the Gordon Bombay and bringing in the cold goalie to face the leading scorer in the tournament, Gunnar Stall? I just can’t imagine a goalie being like, yeah, let me go tear my groin for this for this December 3rd shootout. Like, oh yeah, now I’m out six months in a contract year. Like, it just seems like a bad idea. Even though if it was a video game, you’d be like, yes, absolutely. Put in the better shootout. Put the shootout goalie in. It just it seems like an actually bad idea and I don’t think a goalie would sign up for it. Like I don’t think so. You need to what you need to do is you need to do what they do in baseball where you have a bullpen to warm up. You’d have to have like like a like a lane an ice lane for the goalie to warm up to be the shootout specialist. Game goes to overtime, your backup goes to the locker room and warms up. Like that’s that’s if he’s the if he’s like the designated shootout guy, it’s like you have five minutes plus however long it takes to shovel the middle of the ice. Hockey bullpen. Yeah. Just figure it out. Hey, they’re building a new arena. Maybe we get one of those in there. This is this is one of the I think if they can turn some onegoal losses into games they get to overtime and then go to the shootout like this is the formula for them to get into the playoffs because they have actual talent to win these games now which they never have before. Like Jordan Wheel given a certain sample size is their all-time best shootout guy. Maybe now they actually have the talent to win someone. We can all like them along with me. All right, let’s get to today’s super chats before we wrap up the show. Before we start with the super chats, we’re at 175 likes. That’s close. We’re almost there. We have quite a few super chats. So, let’s get to 200 by the time we’re done the super chats. You’ve got about three minutes. Let’s get it going here. All right. The first one we have is from JM91. Says, “Will Risto’s eventual comeback be bigger and more impactful than Dean Portman’s in D3?” It got the I don’t even like D3, but I do like the fact that we’ve now had multiple Mighty Ducks references on this show on this particular show and the scene when Dean Portman gets the late scholarship at D3. That is a great scene. He found it laying around his apartment because this 18-year-old just or not even they’re freshman, right? Yes. Aren’t they freshman? He’s just like, “Yeah, the apartment that I have, he’s 13 years old.” Incredible. I found this scholarship and my parents were like, well, when I visited them in jail, they’re like, you should go to this. Like the implications of what Dean Portman was just very funny to me. Anyway, uh from Adam S. Adam says, I’ve been trolling in Flyers Facebook groups saying Mishkov should be traded and TK bought out. It has been very entertaining. People took me serious. Adam, you can you can do what you want. I I will say as long as it’s not here, that’s fine. I will say this is PHLY Flyers is a noted anti-trolling show. We we do not endorse or advocate for it, but you know what? If it makes you happy, do what you want. Yeah. Do do it elsewhere. As long as it’s not If I can’t see it, I don’t care. That’s funny to me. All right. From Da Power Play Man. Uh YouTube won’t let me change my name anymore fashion. Oh, so is he stuck in stuck at Power Play Man? He did change it like three times in three shows and now it’s uh And now it’s over. Yeah. Oh, sorry, bud. From Will Wadssworth. Uh, since he’s doing very well right out of the gate and it and he fits perfectly fine with the team, what do we think of a potential Zegris extension could look like? I think it’s way too early to be to It’s just way too early to know what his comparables are because we’re only eight games into the season. Now, if he finishes a point per game guy, it’s going probably going to make bank. Now, maybe less than you might think because of the way the previous couple years went for him. But he’ll make he’ll he’ll get a raise to be sure. I just I’m not ready to give a guess on that because so much of it is going to depend upon how his season goes and we’re so early that I don’t even know who his comps would be at this point. And I think like for both ways uh and we have to trigger overtime. Make sure you go to allphy.com to keep watching today’s show. Yeah. And I think both ways, like Zegris, all right, he’s got eight points in eight games. What happens when he’s at 70 and 60 for him? I’m not signing a contract until like, yeah, man, if they come with to me with like some ridiculous offer, but I don’t think they’re going to do that because why? And for the Flyers, it’s like, yeah, all right. He’s off to a nice start. The one thing like he might have to prove more than anything because we know he’s good, right? Like we know he’s a good player. put in the right situation, he’ll rack up 60 points or way more like he’s on pace for now. He’s got to stay healthy. Like that is the one thing. Like I’m not giving a guy who’s missed a lot of the last two years, basically like 50% of the games. Not giving a guy a long-term contract if it’s Yeah. and now three years in a row he’s missed a bunch of games. Like I want to see him at least stay relatively healthy before I make a long-term commitment in him. Even if I am impressed with what I have seen thus far, I would have to guess that the earliest they consider signing him to a deal, it’s kind of like what they did with Owen Tippet. Didn’t he get he got his contract in like February? February late January, early February is when he got his extension. So, we’re still a ways away from that point. But he, you’re right, he does fit in well so far. He has fit in with a team. It seems like he’s working well underocket. Yeah, I’m sure they’re at least thinking about what it might cost. Yeah, I I am sure it’s come up in internal discussions like you know as soon as they acquired him. I’m sure it was coming up right now. They’re planning long term with the cap. I am vamping to find Okay, so our trip to Anaheim March 17th to 22nd. The game against the Ducks is the 18th. My prediction 18th he signs his extension. That would be very dramatic. Yeah, respect that. Yeah, why not? All right. From Obi-Wan, he says, “Y, what’s going on, Obie? Good to hear from you.” Sure. Uh, with a from Adam S with a history of contract disputes, do we worry about Dale Zagris bending the front office over come contract time? I feel like that’s more of an Anaheim thing than a Zale thing. Pat Verbique just did this with Mason McTavish after choosing to get rid of Zegris partially because he had Mason McTavish. That’s just it seems to be Anaheim wants to squeeze every nickel even if they have unlimited cap space right now. They just seem interested in going that way. Whereas it feels like Danny hasn’t. Now maybe as more and more contracts come up, he’ll start to be a little more frugal. But it kind of seems like he’s been like, “Yeah, sure.” with a few of these. Yeah. I don’t know. Which ones are you referring to? the connecting one. Not I think TK was about right. That seemed normal to me. Um Sealer I would say at the time Owen Tippet it just felt a little early to be like here you go. Yeah it was it was a it was an early risk on a guy who hadn’t quite yet proven what exactly he was going to be. Listen you got to take some sort of risk at some point like even like yeah maybe it works out maybe it doesn’t. We want to lock this guy up because we don’t want to pay him 10 million bucks in a couple years. It was just I felt okay. Yeah. He like, “Yeah, you’ve done this like a year and a half. You extended eight times eight now or eight times six, whatever he was.” All right. But I feel like overall, Brier, I mean, even even the contracts that he signed this past summer, like the Cam York deal, the Noah Cades deal, like these are contracts where no one believes they were overpaced. No. And we have context for things like the D’vorak deal, for things like the uh the Fedotav deal. Like there were reasons for this and long term, they don’t really matter. Exactly. That’s I don’t think Brier’s been bad. I don’t think he’s handed out a McDonald contract. I wouldn’t like if you’re talking about guys who I would worry like the players just get or the agent I guess is the better way to put it. Just get one over regularly on the GM. Like Chuck Fletcher to me was that guy. And honestly, I think it may have just stem from the fact that he’s just a really nice guy. He wasn’t willing to play a hard ball enough with the agents. Agent like they do that player poll. Yeah. And every year it was like they they do the agent poll and Fletcher was always number one as like the guy that agents most want to work with. And it’s like, well, that’s bad. Yeah. Like you probably don’t want to be like, I’m fine if you’re like number 10, but you probably don’t want to be number one. Yeah. Like I don’t want to be verb, but I also don’t want to be Fletcher. Yeah. Like some you find a medium here. Like that’s that’s really tough, but fair to deal with. Not like I can’t wait to do this contract negotiation with Chuck Fletcher. Like the agents all hate being on I think DGB does a list of like the best bargain deals. Like the agents don’t want to be on that. It’s fair. The GM should not want to be on the favorite, you know, the agent’s favorite freaking Oh, when I see them, I pick up. Like, yeah, of course. But, um, no, I don’t think it’s going to be that big of an issue with Dale Seag. First of all, they haven’t done that much yet. Like, let’s all slow down here. Like, are they going to get 10 million bucks? Like, are they going to get six? Let’s let’s, you know, relax. Hopefully, they play well enough. Hopefully, they’re working that they put themselves in that bracket. Hopefully it’s just like what uh like the like um Edmonton’s GM said about McDavid. Like I mean this isn’t a negotiation. Whatever he comes in and asks for is kind of what we got to give him. Now Ziggger said to Dale, not that. I’d rather a player be closer to that end. And it’s like, yeah, even if we have to pay him a lot, it’s cuz he’s good. Like that’s kind of the trade-off. All right, last two from JH and let’s get out of here. uh looking to looking forward to October’s jettison after he makes the team out of camp three years in a row. He’ll probably make the team next year, I would think. We’ll see. I just don’t think it’s like that big a deal to get some NHL time as long as they communicate with him. Yeah. Like I don’t think he was shocked like he found a red tag in his uh locker today and then went in and you know cursed out the GM and the and the coach like Rick Vaughn in Major League. Yeah. I mean I don’t think that’s what happened. I don’t think so. No. I mean, I also Jet Luchenko doesn’t seem to be much of a talker, so I don’t know if he like said a word after he found out, but one one guy who did get brought up, I forget if this was in my Twitter mentions or if it was in the uh the YouTube chat, but somebody brought up the fact that Winnipeg and Mark Shley, first year for Winnipeg with Mark Shley, they gave him seven games and sent him back. Second year, they gave him four games and then sent him back. And Mark Shley’s had a pretty darn good career. It didn’t seem to hurt him. It’s worked out. Yeah, I’d say it’s worked out. All right, finally, last one here from JH. Pat Matt Fay is a bust and TK and Sanheim need to be traded. Beautiful. I love it. I like that. That’s like someone’s gonna clip just my last sentence on the show and that’s it. All right, that is all the time we have for you on PHLY Flyers today. Thank you all for uh thank you all for tuning in. Thank you for checking us out. Uh make sure you’re following us right here on YouTube and hit that like button. We are well over 50,000 followers. We are way well well on our way to 100,000. Make sure you are one of them. Follow us on all the socials. We’re phy_flyers on Twitter and follow the podcast wherever you get those. Just search PHLY Flyers. That’s it for us. I’m Bill Matz. That’s Charlie O’ Conor. Thank you to Brief for producing. Till next time, be excellent to each other. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Danny Briere and the Philadelphia Flyers front office has made the decision to send Jett Luchanko, the 13th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, back to the OHL to play for the Guelph Storm (and potentially Team Canada in the World Junior Championship), rather than remain a fixture on the 4th line in Philly.

Charlie & Bill discuss the decision, as well as Jamie Drysdale & Trevor Zegras’ success through the first 8 games. Plus, updates on injuries to defensemen Rasmus Ristolainen and Oliver Bonk.

0:00 Intro
2:00 Jett Luchanko sent back to OHL
19:04 When the Flyers drafted Luchanko
33:30 Injury Updates
38:45 Jamie Drysdale
48:50 Trevor Zegras & shootout success
56:35 Superchats

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