Paul Holmgren spoke with the media today and he basically said a lot of what we already know. No real shockers here, but the highlights as follows:
- When it comes to Weber, the Flyers hoped the structure would lead to Nashville failing to match. It was “disappointing” that they matched, but the Flyers will move on, as Nashville matching was always a possibility.
- As for other RFA’s, the Flyers likely won’t be sending any more offer sheets this summer. As we wrote yesterday, the team would have to seriously overspend to land an RFA like John Carlson or P.K. Subban, and that would be silly. Homer: “We took a shot at Shea Weber because he’s Shea Weber and I don’t think there are many Shea Weber’s out there that are left in that category. … I don’t see that being an option certainly this year.”
- Holmgren likes his team — both on offense and defense — and isn’t looking to make any major changes the rest of the summer after losing out on Shea Weber.
- “We have a good young team that we believe is only going to get better, and we want to add to that without taking anything away. Anything we’ve done this summer has been just that. The caveat to that is that we’ll look and see what we can do to make our team better but our mindset is that we like our team. We’re not looking to make big changes. We’re just looking to add without subtracting. We’ll see what we can do.”
- So, between the lines: Losing Brayden Schenn and/or Sean Couturier in a trade doesn’t really seem like an option.
- No comment (he’s on another team, so he says he can’t comment) on Bobby Ryan besides more of that same: We’ll continue to try and make our team better without making big changes.
- Yeah, if Shane Doan decides he’s not staying in Phoenix, the Flyers would love to have him. But as we all know, Doan wants to stay in Phoenix. Holmgren confirmed that. Not surprising on all accounts, really. “If he’s ready to make a move, we have interest.”
- Holmgren “loves” the defense he has. “Good youth, good size,” he said. He even mentioned the pieces they have by name: Bruno Gervais, RFA Marc-Andre Bourdon, Brandon Manning, and Erik Gustafsson by name. (We would argue with Homer on this, but we have the rest of the summer to do just that it seems.)
- Finally, he believes Jakub Voracek will play alongside Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell on the top line, effectively replacing Jaromir Jagr. And yes, that means Voracek will sign soon. “Just a matter of time,” Homer said.
