Sabres accept

Rebuilding teams don’t send picks for 31 year olds who won’t be around for the rebuild

Buffalo accepts and Wings decline.

Wings have no cap issues, so keeping Neilsson for 2 more years at 5.25 million and 2 2nd round picks is better than JVR at 3 years and 7 million. Not a trade a rebuilding team makes, they keep their picks not trade them away for high priced players in their twilight.

Please tell us why Wings would.make this trade, retain 1/2 and take on 7 million cap and then give you two picks?

How does this even make us relatively better? Not only did we not get anymore dynamic on offense or any more sold on defense, we still spent to the cap AND you wanna bring back Simmonds?? We all love the guy but he's declining at too rapid of a rate, and he's blocking our youth from coming up. This whole scenario is actually taking steps backwards.

You say get more dynamic on offense like that is easy to just obtain. A full year of Lindblom, Farabee, and Frost being in the lineup has to account for some youth that is unblocked and creating more offense. Simmonds was an addition for $1million. He blocks no one. He's at the value of a spare forward so if a young player such as Wade Allison pushed him out great. But in the world of not giving prospects automatic jobs, I signed Simmonds to give the Flyers a touch of toughness and a player who can offer some Power Play specialty at the net front. He's not the player he once was but he can still contribute in a limited role.

Ghost wasn't playing in the lineup. Miller is an upgraded 3rd pair RHD defenseman over Braun. The Hagg-Miller pair is more balanced as complementary players. The defense isn't some drastic overhaul area.

You have valid points. I know Detroit does not need to move Nielsen or Glendening for salary cap reasons. However, I thought they might want to part with them for actual hockey and roster considerations. JVR is still a solid goal scorer and productive player with only 3 years left. He can play on upper lines and help bring younger players along. No, Detroit is not winning a cup with JVR in those 3 years but a productive NHL veteran and leader would be helpful for all of the youth the Wings have coming up. Glendening and a 2nd might be fair value for an asset such as JVR to the Wings.

Nope.

It's not easy to obtain but we have pieces in place, it would only take another piece or two to do what I'm talking about. It's not like we're starting at zero here with our offense.

You're also banking and presuming a lot with Patrick (who knows if he'll even play), Frost (who knows if they think he's ready), and Lindblom (yes seemed to be turning a corner as a true goal scorer and PP threat, but who knows what happens when he returns, what if he falls behind? I hope he doesn't as much as anyone but none of these you can say 100% will happen), all filling in important spots. Even Patrick at 4C, you see the need to really be able to roll four lines so if it's a Bunnaman or Laczynski, what does that do for your lineup?

The fact that Simmonds doesn't block anyone is irrelevant, with a flat cap space you can't waste a million dollars on a player that you have plenty of, it just doesn't make sense in the cap situation we currently are in. We're up against the cap as it is and I would rather have Pitlick than Simmonds at this point, and we're most likely gonna have to let Pitlick walk. So no its not just about blocking Allison, it's about spending much needed money on a redundancy

Trading Ghost? OK fine, I get it, but bringing on a 5/6 dman at almost a 4 million cap space, is also a luxury we can't afford. My best bet at our third pairing next year will be Hagg/Ghost - Friedman, whichever of Hagg or Ghost they choose to keep, I don't see them both coming back, especially if Braun signs for a smaller 1 year deal, but I see them letting Braun go.

The team is getting to a point where they need to have some faith that Patrick can be healthy and return. If he's healthy he's the 3C and they'd be hard pressed to find one with his talent level for that cap price. Since What/Ifs are always a part of the offseason, I would counter the Flyers are prepared for a scenario where Frost and Patrick are not ready or unavailable. The Flyers have 2 natural centers in Giroux and Laughton playing the wing. In the event 1 or both needs to move to center the Flyers have that ability. The team also has Raffl as a spare forward to enter the lineup on the wing. The Flyers have other youth options for 4th line center like Bunnaman or Rubstov as well.

I don't see Simmonds as a redundancy but as an actual need. If you watched the team play in the playoffs they had a real lack of net presence and layering to help shots get through from the point on the power play. Simmonds is an instant improvement in that regard. Pitlick is a nice player but as a UFA I suspect he'll be paid closer to $2 million per season which is tough number to give for a 4th liner PK specialist when the Flyers have many players who fill that role.

As far as having a "luxury" 5/6 defenseman, you have to look beyond this 1 season. Niskanen probably won't be back. Miller gives the Flyers a viable #4 RD at a reasonable cost in the 2nd year of his deal. The Flyers will have to sign Carter Hart after the 20-21 season.

I agree about Patrick, but having faith in him and him actually doing it are two different things. We can believe anything we want but if this neurological issue ends up not going away, then that plan for Patrick is moot. We just have no idea right now. I know they have G and Laughton to play C, but they have proven over the last two years that they are best suited to wing. If we don't need to play them in a position that they are stat wise not best at, why do it? We have plenty of young bottom 6 players we can plug in, we do have Raffl who can play all over the line up sure, but that doesn't make us more "dynamic". The only way I see that happening with players under our control is if Patty resembles something like Hischier (compared to his draft class) at 3C and Frost turns into a bonafide top 6 sniper on the wing. That's what we need, we need a scorer on the wing, someone who will shoot first over our bevvy of pass first players. You're not gonna play Frost at 4C, and if Patty plays like his potential indicates, Frost isn't unseating Coots or Hayesy.

What then?

Again, we have younger, less expensive players already under contract that can bring what Simmonds can bring at his age, right now. The reason why he would be a liability is because how would he get to be able to have those net front presences if his underlying stats show he doesn't drive play? OK, so shelter him with OZ starts. But then you're taking valuable OZ time away from another forward who performs better in the now. The same reason you don't like Pitlick, because we already have those players, is the same reason why bringing Simmonds back makes no fiscal or technical sense, we have his type of player already under contract and our cap situation can't afford us add more money to it.

I am looking beyond this season, we still need to sign Myers, Hart, Sanheim, and then in a few years we need to sign Coots/Giroux/Laughts/Farabee/Frost etc etc, why would we keep a 5th/6th defenseman making 4 million when we have all those contracts to pay and no raise in salary cap??