Hartnell or Heart-null
With all the progress and promise the Flyers have brought to the ice this season, its hard to question if this team is for real. Everything has blended better than expected and all cylinders are firing with everyone playing their part. Except for one $4.2 mil malfunction! Scott Hartnell has done pretty much – nothing!
He is a fine example of free agency acquisitions gone badly. He has no fire, or skill, or heart! I had high doubts about him from the get go, and in all of Philadelphia’s acquisitions this season, he is the only one I questioned. I was very excited about Briere, and became even more surprised and delighted to see Lupul and Smith come to the Flyers for basically an over the hill winger and a non-NHL caliber defenseman. I knew it was a huge risk giving a fairly unproven player $4.2 million. Now, the Flyers and GM Paul Holmgren have some more homework to do to keep this newly developed team running properly.
First off, the Flyers have less approx. $700,000 of cap room. Next season they have 3 very key RFAs and 1 UFA who happens to be the captain. The 3 RFA are Richards, Carter, and Umberger: three future components of the team. Richards, is the future NOW. He is definitely one the most complete players in the league at only 22. His skill base includes: scoring, playmaking, power-play (now quarterbacking the point), penalty kill (scoring 3 SH goals this season), fighting, and generally leading by example. He IS the future of the Flyers. A sure captain, and likely a soon to be 40 goal scorer. The Flyers need to lock him up and FAST. He will be in line for a hefty raise over the $950K he currently makes. Probably between $3-3.5 mil. Carter and Umberger will definitely warrant around $2-2.5 mil. The cap may go up to $53 million giving the Flyers a little over $3 mil to work with. If they are to give Smith a boost (which I think he deserves) they need more cap room. The obvious option is to lose Hartnell. He does nothing and makes a bundle for it. Losing him would give the flyers almost 8 million in cap space next season to sign key FA’s and possibly add some new talent. Hartnell is a waste. He has awful balance, choppy stick handling, and gets left behind the play. He is decent in the corners, but it is not working for him on the Flyers. Get rid of Him!!! The only option is how? Who is going to pick up his salary in a trade? He is in the first year of a 6 year deal so buying him out is ludicrous. Do they send him down?? Hopefully Holmgren does something soon. After last season’s free agency market and the stunts Lowe pulled, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a GM give an offer sheet to Richards for some mega bucks. Especially if he continues at the pace he’s going, which I see happening. Flyers have enough Heart…don’t heart Heart-null!!