Wow.
That is all that needs to be said about what the Flyers did yesterday in trading 26 year old team captain Mike Richards and Leading scorer and fellow 26 year old Jeff Carter.
The question is why. Flyers GM Paul Holmgren can wax poetic about how he needed the cash to sign Ilya Bryzgalov.
Way to make your new number one goaltender the franchise villain.
Bryzgalov needs to play well or the Flyers fans will destroy him.
I as an Islander fan am ecstatic the Flyers have chosen to essentially trade their two best players bringing them back down to earth in the Eastern Conference. Say what you want, the Flyers are not even close to being the team they were last year.
What team trades two 26 year old cornerstones that are locked up to reasonable long term deals?
Something is rotten in Philly, and the rest of the Eastern Conference has got to be happy about it.
Enough about the deconstruction of the Flyers.
The Islanders are set to pick at number 5 in the draft this year and where will the team go? A lot of that depends on who is taken in the four slots before them but I think we can safely say that the four players will be some combination of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Adam Larsson, Gabriel Landeskog and either Dougie Hamilton or Jonathan Huberdeau.
If the New Jersey Devils select Hamilton at four, should the Islanders select Huberdeau, another center? Or should they select Sean Couturier, who was once projected to go number one?
No matter that GM Garth Snow and his staff choose to go with, they will gain another large piece of the future here with the Islanders.
If Hamilton is there at five, then it is the fans opinion that Snow should grab him quick. He is a big bruising defenseman that every team needs.
If he is not there then I think the team should go for Couturier.
Unless Snow chooses to trade down. I hope he doesn't because the draft is deep but it is also thick at the top as the top 6 players are all very good prospects.
I will be at the draft party and it always is fun. Hope to see you there!
