VOORHEES, N.J. — The Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers are similar in many ways — both teams play a physical brand of hockey, feature a dynamic young core of talent and have made a drastic improvement from last season.
But how the two franchises went about building their rosters is quite a bit different. While the Caps decided to tear apart the team in 2003 and rebuild through the draft — a process that took four years to bear a competitive club — the Flyers reloaded quickly and after one horrible season have returned to the playoffs.
“It’s kind of hard to rebuild in a city like Philadelphia,” Flyers center Jeff Carter said. “They want a winner every year. [GM Paul Holmgren] did some unreal things this summer. I don’t know how he did it, but he did it. We had a real good start and we’ve had some struggles, but I think we’ve played some good hockey.”
While the Flyers were floundering last season en route to an NHL-worst 56 points, Holmgren knew he would have a vast cache of salary cap room to retool his roster, and he didn’t wait for the customary July 1 free agent signing period to get started.
He made a couple of traditional moves for a last-place team, sending aging superstar Peter Forsberg to Nashville for a pair of young players (forward Scottie Upshall and defenseman Ryan Parent) and a pair of draft picks as well as veteran defenseman Alexei Zhitnik to Atlanta for young rearguard Braydon Coburn.
But he also added goaltender Martin Biron from a contending team (Buffalo) for a second-round pick, nabbing the franchise’s new No. 1 goaltender at a time when most losing teams aren’t looking to add veterans.
“I guess you have to be creative now,” Flyers center R.J. Umberger said. “It is tough for the GM with all the rules because you can’t just go out and spend a lot of money. Yeah, [Holmgren] was creative and he did a great job. He sort of used last year to retool our team with some moves at the deadline.”
Then in the days leading to the draft in June, he pulled off one of the more unique trades in league history. Knowing the Predators had ownership issues — and possible relocation issues for that matter — Holmgren sent the first-round pick he acquired for Forsberg back to Nashville for the rights to defenseman Kimmo Timonen and rugged forward Scott Hartnell.
Both were slated to be free agents in about two weeks, but Holmgren essentially bought the right to exclusive negotiations with the players, and he signed them both to lucrative six-year contracts on July 1.
“The timeline was probably three days. I talked a lot of people,” Timonen said. “I talked to a lot of the players here about the city, what kind of fans, that kind of stuff. Everyone said [the Flyers] were going to do everything they could to win. I am 33 years old, so I don’t have time to wait with a rebuilding team. I wanted to win right away.”
Timonen was one of three captains the Flyers picked up that day. In another unorthodox move, Holmgren traded a young defenseman with considerable potential, Joni Pitkanen, and forward Geoff Sanderson, to Edmonton for a young forward with considerable potential, Joffrey Lupul, and Oilers captain Jason Smith.
The signature move of the day was landing prized free-agent center Daniel Briere. Considered one of the top players on the market, Briere signed an eight-year, $52 million deal, and his presence immediately relieved some of the pressure on the team’s core of young centers (Carter, Umberger and Mike Richards).
“We felt we needed a center, and there were three good guys available in [Scott] Gomez, [Chris] Drury and Briere. We inquired about all three with the idea that we just wanted to get one,” Holmgren said. “Danny is a good guy. He’s been a good player for a number of years, and I think he’s been a really good player since the lockout when they changed the rules around a little bit.”
It was a lot of new parts to mesh, but all of the moves have worked. Biron has been a stabilizing force in net. Briere, Timonen, Hartnell and Smith have all met expectations, when healthy.
Coburn and Lupul have started to tap into their potential and now help to form one of the league’s top nucleuses of players who are 25 and younger.
Along with Upshall, Parent and the three young centers (not to mention Hartnell, who turns 26 next week), the Flyers boast two of the game’s elite prospects — the No. 2 overall pick in the 2007 draft, James vanRiemsdyk, and Claude Giroux, the team’s first-rounder in 2006 who had 106 points in only 55 games for Gatineau in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
“For the last couple of years we’ve had a good group of young guys that is starting to get older and more experienced,” Umberger said. “Even in our system we have some more guys coming up. I think they’ve done a great job with the draft, and we should be competitive for a long, long time.”
Added Carter: “Sometimes it doesn’t [work.] But I think if you look at the guys we brought in, everybody around the league knows that they are great character guys. It has been all about the team with them and they’ve been great in the room.”
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