O&B Puckcast Episode #208 Gauthier Shock Trade with Kevin Durso

Isaiah, Chef and Dan are back with special guest Kevin Durso of 973espn.com with a comprehensive breakdown of the stunning Drysdale – Gauthier trade. Also, looking back at the Flyers first 40 games, the Penguins game downer, the schedule ahead, Gold for Team USA and more!

Back hands it up the Penguins were changing they’re able to come out relatively easy let Keith Primo with the first Primo cuts the there is Keith Primo the MCH malign center of the Philadelphia Flyers wins this game in the fifth overtime hey everybody it’s Isaiah and I’m here

With Chef be who’s going to tell us about one of our sponsors here Chef yeah OMB podcast is now brought to you by Summit Public Adjusters the winter months can be especially hard on our homes from roof damage to and peeling siding to frozen pipes and toilet overflows call Summit Public

Adjusters before you call your insurance company dealing with your insurance company can be stressful and confusing let Summit Public Adjusters take the stress out of the clean process by having our guys work for you get the most for your money and your repairs the next time the big snow or rain leaves

You with some home damage contact us for a free consultation Su public ad Justice are licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey learn more at sumitu adjusters.com or call 25752 56 just tell them that the chef sent you yeah what was that number again Chef 215 75256 oh that’s terrific all right we’re

Going to carry on with the rest of our show and we are back it is your host Isaiah welcome back to the OMB podcast this is episode 208 brought to you by Flyers nitty-gritty decom and we had all these plans about the midseason review of the Flyers the wjc wrapup and uh

Somebody who was a prospect for the Flyers and how well he played forget it tonight we are going to discuss mainly kuto being traded to the Anaheim Ducks for Jamie Dale who was a number six overall pick in the 2020 draft and a 2025 second round pick we’re going to

Talk about how it all went down we’re going to try and describe what led up to that the best we can with the information we have available and we’ll go from there because it’s a fascinating topic and I was saying to Our Guest it’s probably the biggest chunk of red meat

Flyers style that we’ve had since Matt vay mitchco was drafted in the summer so let’s get to it because of the power outages that are going around in the Delaware Valley uh our buddy Chef has been knocked off the grid but we do have with us the Great Dan silver Dan what is

The word that you have for tonight I’m almost speechless I was like speechless when this trade happened yesterday and still trying to synthesize it strange is the word is the this is the strangest Saga like there’s so many weird moving Parts with the Kevin Hayes stuff and the torella stuff and then the

Brier stuff I mean the whole thing is just strange I can’t wait to get into it I mean it’s it’s wild yeah that absolutely yeah and and you know we have a lot of numbers to talk about with the Flyers at midseason like I talked about and there’s a lot of situations that

Developed and I think you add this scenario here this situation and it’s going to have obvious Ripple effects on the roster and ALS not only shortterm on defense but also how they’re willing to draft who they might be looking at free agency or trade-wise we’ll get into that

Before we introduce our gu just a reminder that the OMB podcast is on several podcast platforms so Google is going out of business auty is going out of business but we are on Apple Spotify iHeart TuneIn Amazon Audible and of course we have a YouTube page just plug

In their om podcast and Facebook page as well if you would rate and subscribe if you would follow it really helps us out when the algorithm is trying to figure out where to direct you when you’re looking for Philadelphia Flyer podcast which of course is what we are so

Without any further Ado let’s bring on from 973 ESPN in South Jersey and also the ywt podcast you know him as Kevin derso Kevin how are you man I’m doing well guys um I know I joked earlier um kind of running on fumes today because

It’s not every day that I put together 2 200 words to kind of put together all of our thoughts and emotions and reaction to everything that happened in the last now about 24 hours so it’s been a day for sure but uh excited to talk about it

Because there’s a lot to talk about okay so what I want to do want to take this in stages let’s talk about the deal on its face then we’ll get to what led to that what the you know the the the sequence of events and then maybe we’ll

Deal with some of the rumors I think it’s going to take a while until we get a final answer and determine how many grains of Truth there are and all the things that have come out so why don’t we talk about the deal itself the quality of the players and go from

There yeah I mean so uh we all know the pieces by now obviously so cutter go Anaheim the return is Jamie Dale who’s a right-handed defenseman 21 years old and they also got a 2025 second round pick as well and so I think when you kind of

Compute the value it obviously goate was a fifth overall pick drale was a sixth overall pick you get another draft pick involved in it as well you know we’ll break we’ll kind of break down the fact that there was a situation at hand with this obviously that kind of forc the

Flyers into making a move when you’re forced into making a move sometimes the turn is less than desirable because of that the way that the Flyers handled that part of it and not kind of keeping it out of the public eye in terms of that they had no leverage that kept them

With some leverage to wait for the right player to come along into negotiations and it’s an interesting it’s an interesting trade for them I think because of the fact that it’s it’s not like Dale is just an average player here he could be something that is much more

Significant and could line up you know maybe could line up with it’s it’s really tough to put projections on things because of both the age of both you just don’t you know it’s one of the things you don’t see a lot of Trades where it’s here’s a

Prospect here’s a 21 year old let’s make a straightup trade you know you just don’t see that very frequently so the fact that both sides can potentially come out of this with something of significance presents you know positivity for both sides I’m sure but in the immediate it’s you know in the

Immediate let’s put this way I think that both sides from their own fanas both sides were shocked and maybe none too happy about it because goate was obviously getting hype from the Flyers side of things Flyers fans were watching him in World Juniors and thinking this is what’s coming soon and Anaheim fans

Really like drale a lot and I I even had somebody send me something on Twitter right after the trade happened it’s like let me tell you Anaheim fans are not happy about this one right now because they really do like drale so it’s like you know that both sides maybe get

Something out of it that they feel like they want that they feel like they need to keep moving forward because both teams obviously are in relatively similar situations you know at least entering the season you know the Flyers are maybe a little bit further up in the standings than anticipated but obviously

Anaheim’s trying to build as well so maybe both teams get something that they want but obviously it’s a trade that send shock waves around the league yeah definitely Dan yeah I mean it’s so weird because a week ago we were out here talking about how dominant cutter GOI

Was at the World Junior Championships dominant might not be the right word but he led the entire tournament in points and he was you know one of the named one of the top three forwards at the entire tournament and I’m out here sending you know tweets out about how

Great it’s going to be when he’s with the team and he’s in college he he’s scoring all these goals but in the world juniors he was showing he could be a playmaker we’re all just excited about this the Flyers official Twitter account is setting out stuff about cutter goate

Scoring game-winning goals in the sem you know everything’s great then all of a sudden he gets traded and it’s like what well there were a lot of red flags along the way which we I’m sure we’ll get into on this show first so Jamie Dale uh he was taken sixth overall in

2020 I want to read you what the elite prospects like draft guide had had wrote about him this is about Dale he’s a brilliant skater capable of quarterbacking a power play with ease and ating results both ways through the neutral zone more of a playmaker than a shooter Dale is adaptable first and

Foremost he’s going to make the best decision regardless no matter the situation he’s the only defenseman in this year’s draft with clear number one defenseman upside Jamie Dale is a pretty good player he struggled a little bit out of the gate they probably had him in the

NHL earlier than he should have been um and then he had a shoulder in injury I think sort of similar to what Morgan Frost was had surgically repaired a few years ago labor isue he’s looked really you know he’s looked good since coming back this year he feels a huge need for

The Flyers when I was looking at the 2024 draft with the Flyers with their two first round picks the goal for me was getting a top power play defenseman on this team because I don’t think they have one right now this this potentially solves that Jamie Dale is I like what I

Just said I mean they said it better than I could say it you watch him skate he is a exceptional skater he’s basically sort of like cam York except he does everything a little bit better than cam York like he’s a supercharged version of Cam York he’s a very exciting

Player so I think that from that perspective the Flyers got a very exciting addition to their roster the problem was was that trading away cutter go and despite what Danny Brier said yesterday I think they were hoping he was going to be their you know first

Line Center for for a long time to come or at least second line Center he made a comment about him being a Winger I think that was sort of made out of spite um but yes trading away goate I think uh you know leaves a lot

Of depth concerns for the Flyers at at Center whereas Anaheim they traded from a position of of great depth they’ve got a young kid in the miners named Olan zeler who’s a one of the best offensive defensemen to come out of the Canadian juniors in years this move makes room

For him like he could be potentially just as good as Dale they’ve got pavl mov they’ve got another good young defenseman Tristan lunau like the the Ducks could afford to move a guy like this um but it was the Flyers game like I think considering the circumstances

Which we’ll get into this was probably about as well as the Flyers could have done in a trade moving out goate no I agree I mean mop been a real important reason he’s just been really good this year for the Ducks and so many the other prospects like you talked

About but the thing with Dale is he does meet a eat if he can hit his ceiling and so there’s Intrigue there and and comparing him to York yeah he does a lot of what York can do but better like you said his skating and hopefully we get a

Chance to see it tomorrow versus Montreal is next level compared to what we’ve seen from most of the Flyers defenseman and he’s got a better First Step even than than sanheim he it it’s exciting in that way it’s just he’s had defenseman take longer that’s the tough

Part of it when you draft them they don’t come out of the gate like forwards are capable of and Kevin it it it gets back to what Dan was talking about in terms of rearranging the Flyers priorities because was I was going to mention this I would even know if we’ll

Get to it how many minutes coutou has been taking on I mean particularly the Kory game he he he takes I think it’s 24 minutes total on ice and he’s been averaging over 20 and then you look well they only real prospect that could be in

That top six is gone if he was going to be a center so all of a sudden the focus now turns to Center I what traditionally had been an organizational strength for 40 50 years and now here they are this this leaves them bere the real top

Prospects in that area yeah it does and it goes back to the focus because Keith Jones brought this up when he was on the broadcast last night a little bit that like they’re trying to build from the back end a lot and certainly the defenseman that they had and you guys

Touched on it the defenseman that they had are you know they’ve got good potential you think about what York could grow into I’ve really liked zula’s de development this year but it doesn’t mean it’s going to be equate to anything significant Z looks like a nice third line or third pairing defenseman right

Now and probably fits exactly what he’s playing and and you look at some of the other ones that are drafted recently are kind of coming up and it’s like wishful thinking that Oliver bnk could be maybe a number two but certainly not a number one and that was the biggest void of the

Whole thing with this blue line was yeah you know Bon and Andre and guys like that they they they could be really solid but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to take the big minutes and be that kind of player Dale comes in and I think at least provides that level of

Potential his his skating is phenomenal and if they can you know I thought that torella said something really interesting about him that I agree with which is that he probably doesn’t play up ice enough in Anaheim or didn’t play up ice enough in Anaheim and activate

That offensive skill set to be able to put up the numbers he could be capable of you know we we talked you touched on his 18-year-old season when he came in as a rookie and it was you know all right probably rushed into the league a little bit obviously and but I thought

His 19-year-old season when he played 81 out of 82 and you go 32 points in that time it’s not bad for a 19-year-old defenseman you know for some for a position that does take a lot longer to see come to fruition so I thought that that’s an encouraging sign and I think

That you know ironically and I actually talked to you guys fairly close to when this happened I had taken I had to take a trip to California last October right the start of the 20 2223 season and went to it went to the Anaheim Ducks season

Opener and it seemed like a lot of the vibe that was around that team and the growth that that team could have had before a lot of injuries came into play Dale’s included was that Dale was gonna be a key part of that picture and growing and doing all that so that was

Encour you know it’s I think it’s encouraging that that potential is there and that there was a Vibe about how he was growing and that there was an excitement about him in Anaheim at that time the injury hit it derailed some of what was going on in the injuries this

Year so far same thing but if he can stay healthy and he can reach that level of potential they feel a big need but that you know not to play you know but unfortunately we got to play devil’s advocate here a little bit and go to that forward position and you take away

The one pure goal scor they were going to be able to add the one high quality High you know dynamic offensive player that they really had in the system that was close you know they might have some you know obviously look we we’re all infatuated with what Matt V mishk can do

And have seen the clips and all that stuff like that but that’s not close and you know it’s not something that’s going to happen anytime soon certainly not this year and that was kind of like the potential of goate was it could be this year it could be as soon as this year

Well now that’s out the window and you start trying to figure out where you’re going to go with that and maybe more importantly than anything else with that is that the position that he specifically or that they maybe thought he could play I know you’re absolutely right with the Winger comments that it

Probably was set out of spite because I don’t understand why he would be playing and why everybody would be looking at him and watching the way he played as a centerman at World Juniors as a centerman at Boston College and doing things that get give you that

Level of encouragement just to sit there and later say nah you know we just saw him as a Winger just a Winger if he wasn’t gonna play center I think you’re saying it because it didn’t work out and you now have to go figure out where your

Top where your future Top Line Center is going to come from you know somewhere in the universe so there you know that’s probably where came from and that’s that’s the tough part you know maybe what they have to do now is probably step back and evaluate where that’s

Going to come from down the line because the easy thing to talk about was it was going to be drafted and you had drafted a guy that maybe you thought could fill that spot when you had go and now that you don’t is that where you’re going to

Try to approach this again do you find a way to draft another player who you think could give you that upside somewhere down the line or does this become a conversation that we’re going to have for the next several years until they become free agent buyers again and

Look to add that way because that might be what it takes to get a legitimate Topline Center in now that they’ve gotten rid of the only player in the system that seemed capable of potentially doing it so that’s kind of how we have to navigate this going

Forward the defense of course sure looks great once you bring Dale in and you consider that Bon and Andre are in the system and they’ve got zamula playing with more consistency and York looks like he’s taking steps and sanheim and even ristan even though ristan may not

Have as long of a future here they’ve taken steps in the right direction they’ve got actually now a really good defensive group of maybe about seven or eight guys between prospects slash you know younger Veterans of sorts like sanheim for example that could be you

Know could be part of this picture for a while but forward it’s a different story especially down the middle considering that you’re leaning on Sean cier so much right now and he’s pretty much the only Topline possibility you even have yeah absolutely I I wanted to get back into

The chronology of this when it first started and the issues I just wanted to welcome Chef in in the darkness and during a blackout Chef can let’s let’s make sure we can hear you and appreciate your dedication yeah thank you guys can you hear me good y well enough all right G

Up continue then okay so we’ll get you the way in I did I did want uh Dan or Kevin whoever wants to volunteer to talk about how gotier was quietly shopped at the draft according to Charlie o Conor and Dan I don’t know if you had heard rumors

To anything you know to that effect and apparently they offered Montreal to swap gotier for the number five pick knowing that they could get Mitch cop at number seven they were going to take rybach and try to hit a home run what’s your thoughts about that report from Charlie

It makes sense in retrospect I mean the Flyers were really really good at keeping this situation Under Wraps I’ve talked about on this podcast before that I had been told by people that cutter gotier wanted to turn pro at the end of his freshman season the Flyers wanted

Him to stay another year uh to you know develop as a center and that he wasn’t happy about that I’ve talked about that um I’d heard that from people you know in close to the organization but this takes it to obviously a completely different level I mean this kid wasn’t

Talking to Danny Brier for months he wasn’t returning his calls it’s it’s wild to me that 19-year-old kid would be acting like this and it led me to believe that like something more must have happened and Elliot frieden on his podcast today said you know that that he

He the same thing he heard that it was because you know the Flyers had told him that they they didn’t want to sign him at the end of his freshman year because the bonuses would put them like over the salary cap which is also it doesn’t make

A whole lot of sense to me the Flyers would take that stand but the whole thing is is Goofy that like he would react that way I it’s makes me wonder if there’s more to the story but the the to answer your specific question it makes sense that

They would have shopped him and how about the Montreal Canadians they get offered cutter gotier who you know could become a onec and not only do they not take Matt V mitkov with that number five pick but then they take David reinbacher who clearly isn’t in my mind and in most

People’s mind is clearly an inferior Prospect to Cutter gotier while having Lane Hudson in their pipeline already a really good young defenseman not that they don’t need more but like the Canadians turning down that trade of gotier for pick number five is is fairly insane to me I totally believe

It and and it is amazing that the Flyers kept this whole thing under wraps for so long yeah Kevin I just want to ask and then uh Chef I’ll get you the thing that doesn’t make sense with what Freeman said is all the Flyers had to do was

Tell goate well why don’t we wait until after July 1st and get on the other side of the cap for 24 just like Logan Coley did with Ariz and that would solve that problem what am I missing something well I I I have a belief and

And again I don’t want to try to contribute to a ton of theory you know conspiracy theories here but one of the things I’ve also thought about the situation was especially once once he didn’t sign once he was back in college and going for a sophomore year now you pushed especially after everything

Happened in may like let’s remember May was kind of this big turning point of the whole thing May was when World Championships were that’s when right after after that was over that’s when he told them he wasn’t interested anymore didn’t want to play for them and at the

Same time earlier that month was when all of the front office changes happened that’s when Brier formerly got the GM title that’s when Keith Jones got hired that’s when the new era press conference was so all that stuff’s happening all those changes are happening and within a

Month of that that’s when the draft happens and now they have mov in the system and we knew from the beginning we talked about the mgov timeline the three-year contract he had in Russia and I kind of want to believe that part of this also has to do with the fact that

Given all the things with the cap and the cap is going up and all that stuff like that and I get it but wouldn’t it be something if you signed gotier one year later send him back to college he plays his sophomore year one year later and michkov comes over in three just

Like you thought and both are on entry level deals at the same time wouldn’t that be something and you can do you can work it that way and this way you maybe at that point in time three years down the line you go now we’re buyers now now

We go to the free agent market and start trying to get something else to bolster this whole thing maybe at that point because you know if goate looks like a center to to you at that point maybe you don’t go out and get a center in free

Agency that’s over the top and10 million 11 million maybe you do that defensively and you say now we got our top defenseman too because we didn’t we waited to sign a guy instead of worrying about Drafting and developing him and you go all in and it it may only last

For a year before somebody needs a contract but you get them both for under a million for one year to really open this window I don’t know that that’s completely the case because it we really wouldn’t derail much I mean all you’re doing is speeding up his timeline a

Little bit but somewhere along the way that rubbed him the wrong way and the message was somehow taken for we don’t want you when that was clearly not what the message that was intended to be was and if that’s the case I mean I the part

That doesn’t make a lot of sense here and you guys touched on it is to completely go quiet you know it’s thing to say I don’t like this and push back a little bit and you know maybe make it a tougher negotiation process or something like that just to completely give them

The cold shoulder and ignore them especially the different people that tried to get involved I saw that you know Kevin CS had a story on the on the athletic today about how John lir and Patrick Sharp tried to go up to Boston College in November he wouldn’t meet

With them to you know two NHL players with so much experience Stanley Cup champion players you don’t want to meet with them you don’t want to talk to Danny Brier or Keith Jones about you know and this this carried on for a while too like that was a meeting that

We’re talking about that they tried to have in November with with lir and sharp and it was as recently as last week Danny Brier even said and and this I want to give Brier a ton of credit by the way for after the first period when

He met with the media he G he answered everything he gave you full transparency except for the one thing that he couldn’t answer which was why they didn’t have a reason because they never met with him so he couldn’t answer why but he gave you everything else he gave

You exactly when the problem started when he came to them first and said I don’t want to play for the Flyers anymore or I’m not gonna sign with them and then went through the whole thing down to last week Brier and Keith Jones went to Sweden at World Juniors and we

Going to take one more shot at trying to talk to him and he still did and Patrick Sharp and Patrick Sharp went too I just heard that right right like Kevin yeah just was just saying that I don’t know if you you quot that but yeah but you

Know Chef uh one of the other things it came out from the spitting chicklets uh people the re Admiral guy real Admiral blog from that podcast I guess he a host talked about cutter not comfortable with the Flyers because of a quote rookie GM and the coaching

Style of torella and that that seems to I don’t know it seems pour water on that with some of the other things that have come out what what say you H see I don’t think you know what we know what when we’ll find out this is

When like I don’t even think I’ve looked and I before I lost power here I I was looking around to see if cutter cutter said anything he’s he’s silent too so he’s he’s it’s not just uh the Flyers uh Personnel he’s not talking to he’s not talking to anybody apparently right now

Except maybe if you believe the rumors Kevin hay so there’s all these things that are fueling into this and I don’t think you’re going to get any kind of satisfaction from anybody in this whole thing not not from the flyer side the the I I think the only possible

Salvation is if something happens with his his agent and they part ways because of this Fiasco I don’t know what ends up happening for him at the end of the season he goes out to you know Anaheim but if if something happens in that case and that deals botched and you know

Maybe he doesn’t have the same agent anymore and and maybe maybe you’ll get some sense of what the hell happened but I I don’t my my biggest problem is this I I don’t understand how it could turn so sour so fast and and like not so sour like like not calling you like

Completely ignoring you like you’re not even a person so that that’s that’s the thing that befuddles me the most about this is I just can’t understand what the hell if the what the Flyers did and the funny thing was you know we you you just Kevin just mentioned that them going to

Sweden they had taken the game plan for the next like five years apparently and they were going to go and explain it to him in person and say look we want you this is what we want they were bringing you know there’s three of them we’re we’re going to lay out everything for

You and show you that we we give a give a crap about you and you’re part of this future we you know and nothing you still don’t get nothing so I I don’t think we’re going to get any resolution to this anytime soon un let’s cutter start

Shooting off his mouth I think I we’ll find out the truth usually comes out it it may take a year it may take two years we’ll find out what it actually is because there’s some missing pieces here and you know maybe there’s a grain of truth about some of the other stuff that

Came out like with Kevin Hayes Dan you know I I don’t want to add fuel to the fire of something that probably isn’t true at least not to the degree that some people have said the whole thing is just so goofy because there’s these like I’m just reading now that sha

Avery on his Instagram account went on some show and he bashed the Flyers he gave his reasons why cutter gotier didn’t want to play in Philadelphia John fedman apparently came up in his rant and then cutter gotier liked the the post on Instagram like I let me say this

When the Flyers dra a stroke of Genius by the way yeah Avery go ahead Nolan Patrick and I saw his interview at the draft I got real weird Vibes like this dude’s strange like this could this might not turn out that well I got to be

Honest with you and I I said this at the time I got some weird vibes from cutter gotier when they drafted him the thing that I thought was strange was they were talking about his like his combine his combine interview with the Flyers and he was like he’s like yeah they asked me

You know if I could be a center and I was like hell yeah like if if you want me to be a center I can be a center and I was like this is a little strange like I don’t know the whole vibe he was

Giving off and he gives off he does give off sort of the Arrogant Vibes that like Nolan Patrick used to give off never met either player I’m just telling you I have the same Vibes that I did about Patrick about goate um but the whole stuff with bar stool and spit and shlick

Because cutter did say that you know Kevin Hayes was a four-year player at Boston College cutter go at Boston College they played golf together over over the summer cutter gotier was on record as saying that like he’s become close friends with Kevin Hayes talks to Kevin Hayes about a lot of stuff um

Obviously Kevin Hayes had a very unceremonious departure here clearly doesn’t like John torella so a lot of people were theorizing that Kevin Hayes had something to do with it maybe soured cutter on this stuff so Kevin Hayes is one of these barol Sports spit and chicklets guys with you know Brian

Whitney and so these guys are all a buddies hang out aost budes these guys are all coming to to to Kevin Hayes’s defense on Twitter like I tweeted today like I don’t know if Kevin Hayes has anything to do with this but I don’t trust a single word that comes out of

Kevin Hayes’s mouth there’s some burner account on Twitter that seems like it might be Kevin Hayes that’s now going after me like the whole the whole thing is insane I mean it it really is like one of the the crazier sagas I’ve seen and I’m sort of happy that goer is not

In the organization now after seeing all this stuff that was going on I do have a solution for the center issues uh Conor McDavid is an unrestricted free agent the summer of 2026 which by the way happens to be the same summer that mat mitkov is supposed

To be coming over the salary cap will be going up by then I’m sure that Danny Brier and the you know the bean counters at the Flyers can figure out a way so that when Matt B comes over he’s on his ELC we can sign Conor McDavid to be the

One C I’m not I’m sort of half joking I mean if Edmonton if Things Fall Apart in Edmonton there’s a chance that McDavid will make it to free agency and and why not come to Philadelphia and play with the next Superstar so there’s my solution for for fixing the center

Problems with the franchise also the fact that they have now have filled the hopefully filled the void for this number one power play defenseman could even be just like a number one defense Defan anyway you can use some assets like some of those first round picks and maybe some of the other guys

Who you could move maybe they’ll even tried to move Carter hard again and maybe you can move up in the draft and try and get one of the second tier centers like a Kaden Lindstrom or constant helenius two of those those guys are probably going to go between

Picks like four and eight maybe you can move up get one of those guys they could both develop into one seas in the NHL um so getting Drive D gives the Flyers more options to try and package assets to get a potentially really good Center in the future well yeah that’s

The thing Kev I think that it’s clear that if we’ve covered most of the scuttlebutt around the transaction and what led up to it maybe we can move to that point where well the Flyers are kind of playing whack-a-mole here because 1D was a need that they had

We’re not sure Dale can fill that role Ro but if he’s like a poor man’s marar which is kind of what projected he could be which is in the same realm a similar siiz defenseman great skater great offensive player whose defense is a lot of offense and I I would mention also

That he is not played zone defense and that scheme in the NHL and you can tell me whether you think that may be to his advantages his Advantage I should say at this level that could make a difference in a long with something more substantive like the coaching of Brad

Shaw oh for sure and and I think you’ve seen already with what Brad Shaw has done with all the other defensemen that are here already you know I went down that list of some of the defensemen that have taken at least a moderate step this year to this point we’ve talked about

York and sanheim and zamula and things like that I didn’t even get into the ones that are sitting in the miners right now kind of waiting for an opportunity to open up you know they still have Ronnie adder and Adam Jenning and guys like that and it’s like you

Know Emil Andre well Andre I did bring into that equation earlier because I think he fits kind of that like I think he’s going to be around for more of the Long Haul I don’t know as much about adder and Jenning like that but doesn’t that make guys even like that

Potentially more expand Expendable down the road you know as you start to develop who really stands out in this thing like beginning of the year did anybody think that Travis sanheim was gonna possibly be a more longer term you know I know we had the extension but it

Was like he was in trade talks this offseason did you really think that he was going to come out of this on the other side with the way that the whole thing happened after he got the extension last year no and now it’s turned into something where it’s like no

Maybe there’s a fit and actually you know I think that the real key with sanheim is is we kind of got this you know one of the other aspects of this whole thing happening last night was the reaction the what kind of came after it and Brier talked and was transparent

About the whole thing and that’s all well and good but I think that I think that what was more telling was all of the different places that everybody else who may have had involvement in this or that you would want to hear from you got tons of quotable moments from this last

Night Keith Jones went down to the television booth and dropped the if you don’t want to be a flyer then you’re not gonna be a flyer that was the first one same time he’s doing that Dan hilford he was on press the Press row show for snow

The goalie and basically said we only want people who are here to had had what I would consider a very Ed Snider likee moment as an ownership representation to drop the hammer and say fine you know I I feel bad for him but I don’t because

If you didn’t want to be here then we didn’t need you here that kind of thing torella was going to give you a sound bite no matter what because that’s just John tarella for you so when he sits there and says I don’t know cutter from

A hole in the wall you you kind of knew what was coming there but I thought that the most one of the most telling ones was Travis sanheim brought up the fact that he wasn’t at development camp and said as far as I know you go to development Camp whether you skate or

Not and that really stood out and stuck with everybody who’s in this room right now that’s really telling first of all what a leadership kind of moment for sanheim to step up and be the player who said something something like that to the media and and give you a quote like

That and let’s not like let’s not ignore that sanheim was going through something over the offseason where there was a chance he wasn’t even going to be here and now he’s sitting here defending the whole room and saying we heard about this it didn’t sit well with the people

In the room and you know fine if that’s the way it is we’re happy to have the other guy that’s really telling for how tight the room can be and maybe how this resonated around the rest of the room so I I think that that makes a huge

Difference as well so certainly you know there there’s so many layers to this thing that’s why we’re going to go all over the place with it because there’s just so many layers to it it was so many different different quotable moments and reactions to it and obviously breaking

Down what Dale brings to this thing and and all of that and what happened with goer in the first place so it was quite it’s quite the Saga but at the same time you know it sounds like at least what the Flyers did as an organization as a

Whole was unite behind behind that message of fine you don’t want to be here we’ll move on without you kind of thing and it came from every angle possible from the president of hockey Ops to your ownership represent representation to your head coach to one of your

Players no I I agree and you know thinking just in the macro I think as a salvage operation Danny Brier did pretty well you think about value I mean these are comparable players coming out of the draft a number six in a superior draft in 20 is very comparable to number five and

22 if not even better in terms of projection and knowing the defenseman take longer so the next step gentlemen I’ll start with you Chef what happens to the Flyers defensive mix Now Kevin alluded to it it appears as if you’re G to have Dale and sanheim tomorrow night

It’s not for certain but it looks like it then you have Walker with York I’m not sure what they’re going to do with the third pair I think there’s I think the way we thought about Walker’s possible future here in ristan has kind of shifted gears

Chef I wanted to start with you and then we’ll go around the panel and talk about what you think is going to happen you got it all right so let’s start with risto remember a year ago I said I think his contract’s going to age pretty well

I think it’s going to age pretty well I think it’s going to be very movable in the off season or at the trade deadline because with the cap going up that’s going to look like and look let’s face it he is playing 110% better than he did

Before he’s not out of position anymore when he does hit they’re brutal they’re brutal hits they’re they’re they’re still good hits It’s just he hey guess what he’s still in the freaking play he’s not on the other side of the of of the face off Circle so that’s good you

Know so uh I think allows you more versatility uh especially and Walker too I think the essential thing I will stand by it you you have to get at least a second for walk you need to because like as Dan has alluded to already all this draft

Capital you have are chances to feel you know you you were smart you you’re losing a a scorer in goatee but you’ve manage to pick up hopefully your number one day if you can next address Dan is is quite adamant about it and I agree with him that that that number one and

Number two Center needs to be filled all right so if you can get it by packaging a trade uh with the number twos that you pick up here and there and or maybe swapping two twos and jumping up uh to maybe a late first rounder all right

That’s fine I think that that’s where that comes in and and even with walk uh with sealer now too I think it it it you know like like we had talked on last show he his his stock went up too so and if if you’re buying into into the fact

That with this Decor that’s here now these you know and that they’re getting they they’ve gotten fixed and their their capital is higher now I do not for one second think that if there’s a deal tomorrow and somebody says I’ll give you a second for a walker

Look at what he did he pulled a trigger on cutter like as soon as His Highest value was there I think the Flyers will take advantage of that I think I think Brier and and and Jones e they’re not stupid whenever they can get the most

For the player they’re going to do it now so I wouldn’t be surprised if you see them picking off guys here and there for the rest of the season because they’re they’re G they’re G to try to get to jump on everybody else just to make sure that they get their

Value okay um Kev the way I look at it is from the Flyers perspective you look at that first four and then you say what what components are there when what components are missing I’m thinking this just my opinion of course that since it reshaped with dry stale they actually

Have a greater need for somebody like rist alion than Walker because Walker’s skill set is not quite at the level of what ddes should be in fact Dale should be a better version of Walker especially if he develops defensively they need more guys who can take tough minutes and

I don’t even think D was known for PK Duty that I’m sure that’ll change over time but right now he’s not on the PK so it seems like Walker becomes more Expendable seeler same because if Walker and seeler are moved in that deal where one team

Claimed to want them both so you have a Synergy there you might be able to get up to a first round draft pick plus and it behooves the Flyers if they want to move up in this upcoming draft or have more you know ammo for trades or whatever to look at every available

Option in that regard knowing that they have ad and jinning and they still have zamula and and whatever else yeah so I’m gonna answer one part of this because the short the really shortterm part is what happens with this Decor I I just reading the te leaves and of what was

Said and some of the very recent trends that they’ve gone through I think you see seven on Wednesday against Montreal I think you see 7D I don’t think he wants to take zamula out just because they bring in a Dale so I think that it’s seven um and I think they’re going

To roll with that for a little while right now because they’ve been willing to scratch forwards a little bit more and I would hope right now that you would keep zamula playing because I really like the consistency that they formed zamula and ristal and it’s it’s become you know there were there were

Years where we were watching certain players play defense for a while and it tortorella’s line at the very early part of the season was horror show you could sense horror show with some of these guys in years past I agree with you on on the The Walker wrist Alig and kind of

Debate here because what I would worry about with Walker is that has he been consistent and steady this year absolutely but I don’t have anything else to go off with that and he was he was pushed out of the mix in La they had they had the same

Kind of thing they had a lot of defensive depth there was a guy who had to move that’s who they moved I don’t know if that is something that is going to sustain Beyond this year at least with rist Lan right now and you’ve got a few more years on that

Contract so you have a little bit more term to work with than with Walker’s contract in terms of future and and and how difficult that could be to move because as much as I think you could move wrist line and right now in terms of performance I still wonder if the

Contract’s a challenge to move anytime other than the off season like it’s just hard to navigate the money midseason but I think they really like what rist Lan’s done and I I think that you’ve seen consistency now in his game not just this season but last season so you’re

Seeing him actually string together two solid years having been coached by torella having been coached by Brad Shaw and the effects that it has and that’s not a knock on Walker I just think that the buzz around Walker is going to be higher right now because it’s it’s it’s

Just such a simple equation here one year left on the contract $2.65 million go ahead and retain half and let somebody else take it and get back what get back the value you think you deserve in terms of draft Capital there I think that that is a it’s a prime opportunity

To get even more draft capital and I I agree I think at minimum a second if not trying and push for a first like was possibly on the table and if and if Seer helps you get that too go for it right now you already have eight

Guys technically up on the roster in terms of defenseman so what’s to say that at that given point in time you don’t dip into the miners and say adder or Jenning come on down you’re filling the void for whoever gets traded so that’s the fascinating and it’s interesting because up until this point

Up until they did have a dri Dale in the system now that they could lean on and look at as a big part of the future I really was starting to become convinced based on the way the first half of this season went that Walker maybe wasn’t

Just a one-year guy that they really liked him enough that they were GNA keep him for a while and see what kind of contract they could work out but now that they’ve got Dale in the picture and it really creates an abundance of you know all of a sudden they’ve got an

Abundance of right-handed shot defenseman that they didn’t have yesterday essentially you know once you get dry in there and it’s like okay the projection is that he could move up almost you know whether you want to keep sanheim on the right side or not because they really liked him on the right side

He is naturally a left left-handed defenseman but we’ll see what that does if they go with what we think they’re going to go with tomorrow against Montreal will be sanheim back on the left but you’ve got time to figure that part of the equation out even leading up

To the deadline honestly like let’s put this way this trade was made exactly two months before the trade deadline so you have time to actually see what Dale brings and evaluate your total picture of defenseman before you have to make that that trade but I do think that

There is a sense that there is this sense that Brier is kind of No No Nonsense not messing around kind of guy when it comes to if if they see something that they feel like they want to do and they like the value that’s great I I think that

Something that really stands out about this kind of goes back to what happened with when when michkov got drafted because the weeks leading up to when the sanheim trade rumors were out when they moved Ivan Prov when they moved Kevin Hayes and there was a bunch of other

Rumors floating around and this guy was going to get traded and and that guy was being shopped and all that kind of stuff everybody turned around and all of a sudden it was man you know if this is how things are going to go for this new era this is showing the inexperience

Because everything seems to be leaking out and this that and the other and what did they keep the most tight lipped of anything their meeting with michkov they kept that tight lipped and nobody knew that they were definitely in on it they kept everybody guessing and then they

Pulled the trigger on that to keep something like this quiet for upwards of six months and not let anybody else in the public get any word of he doesn’t want to play here and we’re we’re actively shopping him is incredibly impressive in this day and age with the

Way that social media works so the fact that they can actually operate that way should give you a lot of confidence in what Danny Brier and Keith Jones are able to do from a hockey operation side and the kind of ship they’re running yeah Dan I mean that just screams rookie GM

Right yeah look the we talked about this before the leaks that happened over the summer that people were complaining about were actually not from the Flyers Camp they were from the blues Camp I mean you know a lot of the stuff that came out about that trade I had people

With the blues leaking info to me that that you know about the Tory Krug thing none of that was coming from the flyer stuff um these guys are proven they’re really good at um uh at keeping a unified front which both in terms of not letting info get out there and then

Yesterday you guys already talked about a little bit the unified front that they put put out with sort of the bashing of cutter goate was incredible I mean from Danny Brier doing a press conference to John tordella saying he didn’t know cutter from a hole in the wall and

Travis sanheim comments like basically across the board they were out there and I think they wanted to make sure a lot of people were saying this isn’t really how hockey usually works right you always kind of say well you know uh we wish cutter nothing but the best and all

This kind of stuff no they wanted to get out there all of this stuff about cutter goti to make sure that they don’t look um it doesn’t you know that it is out there and that people can focus their hatred on cutter um I can’t wait for

That first Anaheim game next year by the way like if if the schedule makers have a game with the Ducks visiting the Flyers can you imagine I mean that’s gonna be great I’m gonna make sure I’m at that game they’re gonna be they’re gonna be checking people at the door for

Batteries you know oh oh my God batteries is gonna be the least of the concerns I mean they’re on the defense core real quick I do agree that this trade makes Shawn Walker Expendable and I agree with Isaiah that rist Al linan is a guy who

Now make may make more sense you know the guy who I really like and I think that maybe they should try and keep around if they can is Nick sealer I just love what he brings as a third I don’t think you can like find a better third

Pair guy on the left side to you know he turns games around sometimes just with a fight with his physicality and he’s gotten a lot better as a hockey player so he’s an unrestricted free agent at the end of this year I’d love for them to figure out a way to keep him

Around um W I actually sort of prefer him to risk the line in a little bit I I I really like what Nick sealer brings to the table Walker I think you know they’ll try and move him hopefully get a second round pick for him other than

That the defense is setting up you know pretty well for for a number of years down the road what’s interesting is um Jamie drale is a he’s signed for three more years and then he’ll still be an RF but he’s at a very manageable cap hit

For the next three years like if he can turn the corner and become a number one dman he’s making 2.3 million a year right now that’s that’s a really good contract that Anaheim signed him to kind of like a a prove it contract but it’s he’s very good we already know how good

He is so that’s gonna be that’s that’s kind of an advantage they have there’s a lot of good things that Danny Brier can kind of do now in the next few years I still think that the Carter Hart one to me is the most interesting in because

You’ve got so there was this Twitter account um that a lot of people including me thinks it’s either a Kevin Hayes burner account or um at least someone that’s really associated with Kevin Hayes because this account oh the account is Jimmy sa Goodman Jimmy sa good

M1 this account for months has been out there saying that cutter go doesn’t want to play for the Flyers and saying a lot of nice things about Kevin Hayes like honestly go to this account at Jimmy saw good M1 and take a look and all this

Stuff is like came true so this person clearly had a lot of inside knowledge about what was going on and this person is always defending Kevin Hayes um is it cutter no it’s not there’s no way that would be asell I I don’t think 19 year

Olds are are I don’t know doing that kind of stuff but um he this same person posted has been posting stuff today just wait until Carter har and ow tippet and TK you know all leave because they don’t like torts well we already know that this account knows some of the things

That are going on I don’t necessarily I don’t believe that kkny feels that way about torts but I wouldn’t be surprised if like Carter Hart does um so I still think that Carter Hart’s going to be an interesting one I don’t think a year

From now he’s going to be on this team I could be wrong but that’s that’s going to be an interesting one to follow but Danny Brier is gonna have a lot of fun over the next little bit I think he’s got some got some Gunpowder got some

Assets I think this this cutter gothier thing is sort of like it is basically created like a ball of hatred among Flyers fans Flyers management Flyers players I think this this cutter go ball of hatred is going to fuel some really good things for the Philadelphia organization and its fans

Is what I think yeah I don’t know how productive they’ll be just one comment on your sealer request I would love to I just have a feeling if sealer as a package deal they’ll get more from Walker and to me that’s a higher priority they really want to get at

Least one more first round draft pick and I think seeler might be able to push Walker into that first round plus territory that’s just my feeling and if that is the case and he’s a dividing line between that then I’d have to say goodbye that’s just my yeah you could

Get first round pick for Walker and seeler I guess you really have to you know consider it strongly I just really like a lot of the intangibles that Nick Seer brings totally agree with yeah yeah I mean it also depends on what the team

Is I mean I don’t know I don’t know if I would trade both of those guys for like the last pick in the first round quite honestly may maybe but you know I don’t know Walker might be able to get a first by himself but we we’ll see it depends

On the market people want tanv but it’s tough to get a guy like Walker and just plop him into your lineup a veteran for the playoffs it seems like it’d be just perfect I’ve seen guys that weren’t anywhere near as good who’s the guy that

Florida got or no uh who was it no he played for Montreal in the playoffs he was with Florida for a while left-handed he’s on the first pair he was with the Canadians when when sha Weber uh shirat Ben shro I think he got a first round draft

Pick yeah he did it it was a big yeah it was a big package that they got back for that yeah and I was like Walker’s better than him and he’s right-handed and he brings more offense he’s a better Puck move he’s got better stats everything

And he’s 29 it’s not like he’s a kid he’s gonna choke he he’s been in the playoffs with la king so I I I still hold out hope it just depends what the market is what the alternatives are so any final thoughts about the fly’s defense cter go Jamie Dale anything

Before we move on yeah I’ll say this I’ll say uh I’m happy that like like what uh Dan and uh Kevin both have said it’s a unified front now because remember L literally like a year ago some you know that your GM was afraid to say rebuild and then he wasn’t

And then you know you got your coach saying one thing your GM saying another you’re not even hearing a hair from Dave Scott now you got all three guys within like nine minutes of each other blasting it out there like you know this is this

Is what it is this is a new eror of arms this is what we do I find that to be the most refreshing thing because it it you know before in the past I thought they were winging it you know oh we’re gonna get an app for that or we’re gonna do

This or whatever now they were they were all yeah because all three of them are literally almost saying almost the exact same bullet point I believe that they have a plan and now I’m I’m a little more comfortable knowing they were able to do what they

Were able to do so that that makes me happy that’s the last my last say on that yeah that was a whole my beer fest it was like first prier with the with the Winger comment which he said I think at least three times then I think you

Had Jonesy coming out saying I if someone doesn’t want to be a flyer you’re not going to be a flyer and then I think hilford around the same time he was on the snow goalie their intermission show more or less saying the same thing and implying that he’s

He’s you know cutter is going to have a tough time when he visits so yeah I I like that too so that kind of leads me into what will be a truncated comparison and a look at where the Flyers are uh since our last show they’ve they’ve lost

Six of their last eight games okay they’re 2014 and six with 46 points I’m getting some Echo here I hope you’re not getting that too much they are clinging to a wild card spot they have 42 games remaining and 23 games left before the trade deadline if

I have my numbers right so last year they were 151 18 and seven for 37 points after 40 games this year they are 204 and six for 46 points after the same number of games so they’re nine points ahead of last year’s Pace their power play is no better their penalty kill and

Improved from 21st to now it is second in the league that does not count last night though I have to admit so there’s numbers are probably altered uh I don’t know if I really want to go through the game but Kevin I’ll give it to you being

The beat person I mean what what are the couple single you know three or four different aspects of this team that are represent an improvement whether it’s Personnel or performance on the ice what have you well for improvement I think you start with the penalty kill this

Year because it’s just been so good and even even even last night’s game you know they gave up an ear an early power play goal but that by the end of the period I think they took five penalties in the first period alone so they had Pittsburgh had five power plays so to

Still go I believe they finish the night five for six on the penalty kill that’s still a a good percentage that actually fuels what they’ve done to this point so that’s that’s been one of the most significant things I I agree with you guys in terms of the you know the the

Future situation that could involve Carter Hart in terms of whatever happens with his future because right now they have two really good quality goenda and Sam Arison I think that you know you look at their pipeline too they’ve got guys who were in The Pipeline who could become part of this

Equation eventually and make one of those guys Expendable as well so like I think they’re in a they’re in really good shape go ending wise I mean Hart was brilliant last night in terms of some of the high quality chances Pittsburgh got that was for sure you

Know and I know that look once the trade happened the game became very secondary I don’t even remember much about the first period to be honest because we were so busy trying to put together details and get ready for Brier’s presser and all that type of stuff but

For the rest of the game I saw a lot of what I thought I was what I was getting based off of crowd reaction in the first period which was Pittsburgh got a lot of chances and it was as close to show as I think we’ve seen from the defensive

Coverage all year and Hart kept them in that game for as long as humanly possible so they don’t have a goal tending issue their penalty kill is a lot better I think that they’re you know their their identity has improved a lot because they have they have a clear-cut

Identity when they get on the ice they they play with this level of intensity they definitely are competitive the one thing that’s caught up with them to me in recent weeks is theyve kind of lost a few more games is they were very reliant on the rush earlier in the year and they

Still kind of are they’re trying to be more of a for checking team but they’re still getting you know now they’re getting swallowed up in the neutral zone a little bit more the entries are not as clean if they go to get pucks deep they’re not getting there fast enough so

It’s kind of become a little bit easier for the opposition to break out because they’re trying to send in enough bodies to get in on the four check but they for the for long chunk a large chunk of the season to this point they’ve played that identity and that was the interesting

Thing about the game against Pittsburgh was I didn’t see a lack of chances off the rush or a lack of opportunities they just didn’t have the ability to finish in that game and that’s another area that’s kind of dried up lately the scoring has really kind of become you

Know at one point in time I I was on the air on 973 before the Columbus game I believe and I said something along the lines of if what am I looking to see over the course of the homeand somebody not named Travis kekney and Joel farby

To score a goal every so often because it pretty much lately had been those two and nothing else from the forward they were getting goals they were getting goals more frequently from defenseman than they were any other forwards on on the team so that’s kind of something

That needs to change and change quickly if they’re going to kind of maintain what they had started but it’s it’s also to be expected they’ve got younger guys in that picture they’ve got guys like cier and ainson that missed an entire year and are going through a rough patch

In terms of some of the production cier has actually maintained it pretty well I just think that you guys alluded to the minutes he’s been playing that that does catch up with you after a while and especially when like I didn’t like one of the things I’ll tell you about the

Recent week was I hated the lineup against Columbus from a forward perspective that was almost self-sabotaging that game from tortorella’s perspective because that’s a winnable game against the Columbus team that’s toward the bottom of the standings and to you want to pull cam ainson because

Of how long the goal is drought was and all that type of stuff that’s fine but but doubling down and going with frost 2 which really depleted your Center depth in that game even more so than it typically is to put in you know to put

In Rhett Gardner who played all of seven minutes and bring Nick delorier back in to literally not have either of them take a shift in the third period basically I don’t know what your goal was out of that but there was not I just didn’t get the I didn’t get the mindset

There and then they play a good competitive game against Calgary the following game but torella said after the game he went with he rolled three lines again in the third period so that’s going to catch up really fast at this point in the year especially if you’re talking about grinding out more

Games and foreing and all that type of stuff like it becomes even harder to play that way when you cut down a line and aren’t able to roll four because you feel like you need to go with three just to come out on the other side

So there’s been a lot of positives but I do think that some of the things that we were worried about at the start of the year that we had concerns about are starting to catch up and look that’s that might just be natural sometimes everything comes back you know you come

Back down to earth the level always Rises to where it should and I think that’s what what’s happening now is everything’s kind of coming back to the level where we anticipated because it’s just it’s a grind of a season you’re nearly halfway through it there’s still

A chance they come out on the other side and do something but there’s also equally as much of a chance if not slightly greater that this kind of is more of who they are as we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks and it’s going

To be kind of the end of the magic and more of where everything finishes up at the end of the season yeah yeah that’s really well stated I do think one best area of improvement was the defense and that only should get a little bit better

If Dale can get acclimated here as and when we slot players like York on a second pairing with somebody like Walker or whoever might be with Walker um or with York going forward so that’s something I’m I’m counting on to to stay at a certain level but the rest of it

It I I do think they are finding their level and it’s it’s it’s not quite good enough the other I guess in a category of disappointments it’s been a tough year Dan for for Noah Kates and he’s going to be coming back and it’s interesting that even ttz is not really

Sure where he’s going to put Kates in the lineup and if Kevin is right about the 11 and seven scheme that’s going to make it more difficult you figure in delore are okay he’ll be one of the guys that comes out he’s getting cratered most of the time anyway but who who else

Who’s the next guy on the list to come out and it really should not be Morgan Frost yeah I don’t know I’m just looking at their lineup now I mean I think you probably still you know Bobby Brink maybe he’ll get some spot games maybe not playing

Um I don’t know I mean it’s just such a weird setup to go with when you’ve already got a forward group that’s probably a lit little run down just because of the way that torch runs things so I you know we’ll see how long it lasts but I think Brink would be a

Guy getting some some spot some some you know benched some games just to kind of keep him a little bit fresh he’s probably wearing down a little bit um yeah I don’t know I’m not a big advocate of going seven defenseman and and reducing the number of forwards it doesn’t really

Make a whole lot of sense to me so we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll see what happens I agree Frost you know Frost has played had that really good game after the discussion he had with um John tordella which feels like eons ago but I think it

Was just last Friday where you know that was a good thing you know we haven’t talked about that but could be a good development in Morgan Frost’s careers here’s the thing with with goate now not in not in the organization it kind of gives Morgan frost a little bit more

Runway to work with if he’s going to become uh you know sort of a top Center for this team not a onc but he doesn’t have cutter as kind of the guy who is going to come in and take his job away so sounds like frost who’s a shy kind of

Guy doesn’t really he’s been he said he’s has was sort of raised not to really um argue with your coaches that he sort of marched into John tortorella’s office last Friday and either Thursday or Friday and he got some stuff off his chest and when John torella talked about it in his press

Conference that day he was almost sort of like beaming he was very happy that Morgan Frost had taken the initiative to come into his office kind of have it out with him a little bit they wouldn’t talk about what was said but that could be a good sign for Morgan Frost right his

First game after that at a goal and an assist maybe that’ll you know add some aggressiveness to his game which is what he’s really missing um put a little chip on his shoulder so I think that uh you know that could be a good thing for Frost yeah absolutely two more things before

We wrap it up obviously we truncated our uh our review section tonight I did want to mention the Ed Snider 91st birthday tribute Kevin I thought they that was really well done by the Flyers they hit every right note on that and I think it was important and I think it played a

Role in helping the team get over the hump in the midst of a losing uh string I think they ran into our hammer of a team right now Pittsburgh that’s on a good run so I hopefully we’ll find out tomorrow night versus the Canadians whether that’s the case but at least for

One game they battled and brought many of the elements that made them successful in the spirit of the tribute to Ed Snider yeah for sure um you know unfortunately for me I wasn’t able to be there that afternoon I had a family event that I was at instead um but I did

Follow from afar I saw a lot of what was going on and just knowing that they even having the day and what the festivity plans were there was a press release I think sent out either the day before or two days before with kind of what was

Going to happen and I wrote about it for the morning leading into the game just about kind of this you know think about how much you know we’re talking about a rebuilding team here and when we say rebuilding a lot of times we just think

Of players and how you get better as a team on the ice and things like that they needed to rebuild almost everything they needed to rebuild identity just in terms of on ice and off they needed to rebuild culture and I think you’re seeing steps to it it started small

Enough or or sometimes the smallest gestures or sometimes the biggest ones to the fan base potentially but when they went back to the double Center Ice logo which Ed Snyder loved and did something as simple as that changed the logo at Center Ice people went crazy

It’s tradition it’s back to that kind of thing that’s part of the culture and to continue to do that in this way and have this kind of game I hope it becomes an annual thing I I hope that that’s what it turns into because it there was from

What I understand it was it was a packed house it was a great crowd and people were behind that and then you got a game that fit kind of the mold of old school Flyers it was physical you you forget the with these teams I mean we’ve been

Joking all night about what happens the next time Anaheim comes to town now because of the whole cutter goate thing they they played Calgary two times a year and that was intense that was physical there was some bad blood there which you don’t see that often with

Teams that don’t play three or four times a year so that’s encouraging to see that kind of you know to see that and they see that kind of game on that particular day for what they were trying to go for it’s great and you know this month in general by the way because

That’s this was the beginning of the month and they have this game they’re closing the month out with all the alumni festivities the Stanley Cup 50th anniversary celebration Mark wy’s induction into the Flyers Hall of Fame and it figures to be a big spectacle as well it figures to be kind of exactly

What we’re used to when the Flyers have something like this so I I think that this month in general has been a huge step in the right direction from that standpoint in terms of what they’ve done to repair that kind of with with a with a fan base that kind of even thought

They were getting away from that too Beyond just the team isn’t the same it feels different watching them they don’t have you know they got to rebuild they need to do more to get talent and get the kind of team that we’re that we’re used to seeing and things like that

Beyond those factors to get back to the culture and the tradition level that people are familiar with I think they’re starting to do that more and more every time we see one of these things and I think the Hall of Fame induction is going to be another example of that yeah

Absolutely Chef I just wanted to get your take on that kind of stuff because like me you’ve well all of us really follow the teen 30 plus years but you’re right in the middle there at 40 plus it was nice to see the Flyers play an old

Style game in honor of the uh their owner and the creator of the team yeah well I thought it was interesting I you know I come from a large family and my mom was the big one that was the Flyers fan so it was awesome that my

Youngest I have five brothers and my youngest brother took his two his his son his daughter to their first game and it happened to be that game and the funny thing about it is like the the his daughters they they share a name with my mom and I thought it was hysterical that

During that game my I asked my brother how how they like the game and she go he goes well was all right but Abby just was like she loved the fighting she loved the like the the all all the checking and punching and stuff I said

Wow you know she is really you know she is after my mom because my mom was the one that like get him hit them check them punch them so it’s good it’s I like seeing what makes it is what I realized after that game is that’s that’s them

Building for the future we you know when people always thought it was gritty to get kids in there but it’s really the games really do take over when they’re a good product and that’s what you’re getting now like they want to go oh when

When we go back when can we go you know so that’s a great thing you’re you’re you’re creating the demand and it’s good to see that product that’s on the ice now and the people that are working in the in the you know executive positions now that actually care and and to give

You a good product and ice and you feel like after that game you felt like yeah they are doing Ed Snider are solid now that they’re keeping with tradition so I appreciated all that fantastic well it would be uh neglectful if we didn’t mention and give congratulations to Team USA for their

Gold at the wjc I know we had a different rooting interest going in and coming out of that it I guess last night to a great extent but still we were vested all of us as fans in that game for so many reasons looking forward to players we spoke about with

Steve coros the draft analyst uh you know going into the tournament for the draft eligibles obviously cutter gotier who had two goals 10 assists and 12 points and that’s the last time I’ll say his name for a while and and the Big Goal that that that he had in the

Semi-final game but it it was quite a team and it was a fun tournament Dan I know one of the fun occasions during the hockey season in in you know complimenting the the holiday season yeah it was uh it was great this year and obviously it’s a little strange

Now with h with what’s happened now but yeah the the um yeah I thought it was uh you know just a great tournament good good thing to watch and Team USA winning is um you know it’s that was one of the best world junior teams that I’ve ever seen they didn’t

Have the Superstar but they the depth that that team had and then those you know it’s it’s watching the three kids that have played together it seems like at every single step of the way Will Smith Ryan Leonard and Gabe perau watching them just dominate everywhere

They go they that line was a Difference Maker in the championship game um it’s a really fun USA team that’s sort of the whole cutter goate thing is put a little bit of a damper on but yeah yeah that was that was that was fun it was a thrill and the way Finland

Fell apart versus czechia Kev I don’t know you got a chance to see that that was crazy they were up five to2 until late in the second period and what did it end up like8 to5 or something crazy yeah of course I got to see it who

Doesn’t love watching hockey at 9:30 in the morning that’s like the best part of the world juniors when it’s overseas like that um that was yeah it was wild um Finland really like the thing that impressed because Finland really impressed me in that semi-final game the

Way that they played the us because the US had so much Firepower they had the depth they could they were scoring in bunches throughout the tournament and they looked like they weren’t finding their way early on that was Finland doing a lot of taking away everything getting some goals early on they really

Put their foot down early in that game and then it looked like they were in total control against czechia too and then it just all man that all just unraveled so fast F and it it’s it was incredible I mean and then that was the thing right like I looked at that game

Saw the final score of that game and said okay hope you like all the goal scoring that happened now because it’s going to be a 3-2 final between us and Sweden or something like that because I I fully had that being way lower scoring in for a little while it looked that way

And then the US did what they what they do that they they were such a good team I mean that was just a Powerhouse top to bottom and you know I it’s funny because at the time that we were looking at all the gota stuff and everything like that

And watching obviously watching closely for gotier I couldn’t keep my eyes off all of his Boston College teammates and Dan mentioned the line of the forwards but they have two defenseman on that team Fowler came in and played well in goal when he did I mean obviously he

Wasn’t in goal for the last two that was Trey Augustine but still and you know what I like it’s funny because I know we highlighted like goate was highlighted as one of the top forwards in the tournament and all that kind of stuff like that you know who I thought was

Tremendous in that tournament for us I thought Lane Hudson had a brilliant tournament he was outstanding and and as well yeah oh yeah for sure Hudson was everywhere to me though like he he was constantly like as consistent As It Gets In terms of the way he was playing

And you know that’s that’s a good Prospect right there that’s a guy who we’re going to hear about for a long time I think because he he was so impressive and and to think that there’s guys on you know on that roster on Cana you know even on Canada who got knocked

Out in the quarters like that there’s guys who go to these tournaments that don’t have a team yet in terms of draft pi you know that they’re out there ready to be drafted this upcoming year it’s it’s exciting when you think about guys like that yeah absolutely well we’re

Coming to just about the end of the show and Kevin I wanted to give you the opportunity to uh make any uh final uh judgment statements things you want to say and of course let the people know what you’re working on and where you can be contacted on social media sure thing

So as always 973 espn.com uh I’m on social media Kevin derso lots of uh lots of things going on diff you know different things we’re putting videos weekly videos up on the website on on 973 we’re doing uh I’m making pre- and post game reels on Instagram for the season and keeping

Everybody up to date kind of 60c glimpses that kind of build the lead into and the re the recap of games um you can also find my stuff over at Sports Talk philly.com the ywt podcast every week and you know you know it’s early in the New Year guys so you know

Who knows what’s on the horizon 2 so I’ll you know if anything changes next time I’m on I’ll let you know but always always keeping feelers out for different things that may be coming along in the pipeline for me as well yeah fantastic remember 23 games left before the trade

Deadline I think it’s going to be an active hot Stow period Kev thanks so much for coming on look forward to talking to you again very soon absolutely my pleasure guys thanks Kev always great take care thanks keev okay jent we’re going to wrap it let’s get uh some final thoughts Chef thanks

For making it I know it’s not easy you’re literally in the dark we are not a video podcast yet so yeah this guy’s uh looks like he’s calling from a cave you you go ahead not the first time I was told I was in the dark but all right

So uh yeah I’m I’m looking forward to what’s going on here I like how they’re they they’ve pivoted handled every kind of adversity this this upper management team I’m loving that so I’m looking forward to the rest of the season I’m I’m I’m very optimistic about this kid I

I I just I want to see what he can do I mean that you know like you were saying you know five is no slouch pick number and he was the best defenseman of his class so I’m hoping that uh Jamie Dell can uh fill that void at least if you’re

Going to take something away you filled uh a another need so I like that at least if you’re losing out on something like you said I think we both said it like we didn’t see anything really happening of them acquiring any players unless it was a kind of a swap thing and

It ended up being almost a swap thing so that’s good so uh yeah and uh you know if you want to argue with us about it you can find us on uh X you know Chef to left be on X I’ll gladly debate anything with you I’m very reasonable but I I do

Uh occasionally go out there and propos like crazy ideas but it’s always fun to talk interesting uh Dan I thought i’ hit you with this have you been reading Frank s rale and Charlie o Conor’s comments about Trevor zis next out the door with the Ducks and Charlie o Conor

Saying I I didn’t follow the whole thread so I want to be fair to him I’m not saying that Trevor Zas will get will get traded I am not saying the Flyers will trade for zigis I have no inside info however it would be very funny if

Zus got to play with best bud Dale again and had to make peace with John tarella to do it yeah there’s I think there’s very little chance that uh Trevor zis ends up as a Philadelphia Flyer I don’t think he’s the kind of guy that they’re

Looking for these days but yes that was a funny funny idea and funny tweet it’ll be interesting to see what the Ducks do they have a ton of really good young talent but they got to make sure they don’t become the Buffalo Sabers with a ton of very good talent and they can

Never turn the corner because they haven’t built the winning culture so that’s going to be an interesting thing I’m looking forward to a Ducks Flyers rivalry that’s going to be very intense over the years with cutter I really think that the cutter gota situation may Galvanize the Flyers fan base and

Players and may really help get us to the next level I do honestly think that there’s a chance that Dale becomes a better NL player than Goa ever becomes so we’ll see it’s going to it’s going to be interesting great and people can follow you on X at

D88 that’s right d88 throw me a follow and you can find me on X I’m actually GNA be at the Flyers game next Thursday night um I’m gonna be there with uh Mikey ow and P who’s a yeah really great guy him and I are gonna go to the game together gonna hang

Out before the game with some fans and then the Flyers Town Hall season ticket holder meeting is next Friday I’ve never gone to it but I’m going to go with my mom this year she’s a big Flyers fan and so we’ll see that’ll be even a little

More interesting now with the trade oh yeah absolutely that’s great uh you can follow me Isaiah is AI ahore 520 Isaiah don’t forget the underscore 520 for my eclectic views on many things and of course follow the OMB podcast on X at OMB Puck at OMB Puck we’re also on

Getter as a backup at OMB podcast OMB podcast one last thing schedule coming up for the Flyers very bottom of a very long page tomorrow night at home versus the Canadians then the Flyers go on the road Friday and Saturday in Minnesota and Winnipeg respectively two tough games Winnipeg the best or the

Second best team in the league right now then on Monday they’re in St Louis couple days off on the 18th they’re back home against the Dallas Stars and on the 20th which is a Saturday they have a mat against a Avalanche we’re going to leave it there because we’ll probably

Talk to you before that happens but they have a very busy schedule and their last game is the 27th and then of course they take the All-Star break have some time off but thanks for listening tonight we really appreciate it and until next time everybody take care M