What Do You Think of the Flyers Now?

I didn't take two and two to figure out what happened to the Philadelphia Flyers at this point in time. At one point, they were one step away from hoisting the Stanley Cup. The next, they fall completely off the face of the earth by trading away their two biggest players.

In what is considered a big shocker, the Philadelphia Flyers traded Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets and traded Mike Richards to the LA Kings for Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn, both players of which didn't really have that much of an impact in LA last year.

The Flyers made these trades in order to save some cap room in order to sign Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year contract, possibly solving their goaltending problems. However, with Jeff Carter and Mike Richards both gone, there are now going to be bigger concerns at the forward positions. Who is their new captain going to be? How is the offense going to cope with the new and sudden changes?

I think the Flyers are going to have a harder time getting back to the postseason next season. Yes, they have Bryzgalov, one of the best goaltenders in the league, but with the high-flying offensive pieces gone, it looks like Bryzgalov is going to have to do his fair share of making sure the Flyers win. I know, it seems bad, but the truth of the matter is is that the Flyers will need to find their offensive pieces. Where will they look?

I'd say look at Brad Richards this offseason. The Stars are probably not going to bring him back and you've got one of the best offensive players on the market. But the real question is: Can he provide a spark? Can he give them the offense? I'm not sure that offense can cope with Brad Richards, so where else do you turn? Do you go out and try to make a trade, maybe like Jamal Mayers or Scott Nichol, whom San Jose released. They may not be the best offense but they certainly can help a team that will struggle to find the back of the net next season.

Here is the video from ESPN about the two trades as well as the Bryzgalov signing. Pierre LeBrun provides some background Unfortunately, ESPN Youtube has disabled the embedding so the link is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZzhVPksaK8



The work has been cut out for the Flyers. They might not look as great as the start of the season, but then again, I could only be wrong. One thing's for sure, the goaltending situation's shaped up, but now it looks like there'll be other ways to turn and it won't surprise me if the Flyers already struggle out of the gate.

Hey Flyer fans, make sure to support your Flyers next season with this primary logo Flyers T-Shirt. The best way to support the Flyers, even if they already seem out of it. The Flyers T-Shirt, get it today.