Ivan Provorov Does Not Need a Reset, He Needs Help

Grabbing Ellis was a strong move, but it was extremely costly.  It also hitched much of the Flyers’ destiny to the play of Ellis. There were better move that could have been made.

Phillipe  Myers

Part of the price for landing Ellis was Phil Myers.   With the Flyers placing such a premium on right-handed defensemen, rightfully so, parting ways with the young and reasonably priced Myers was a mistake. The fact that Nashville, an organization known for developing defensemen, wanted Myers so badly should have been a huge a sign that this was player to keep.

To be fair to the Flyers, landing Ellis was their original plan, and had he been healthy, it may have worked. But by including Myers, it eliminated their built in “plan b”.  So they reintroduced the Braun plan, which was so disappointing last season. It would have made much more sense for the Flyers to include York or Zamula or picks in place of Myers.  Were general managers really kicking down Nashville’s door to scoop up the Ellis contract?  I doubt it. Management traded away their best contingency in the event of an injury to Ellis.

Tony DeAngelo

I feel the hate coming on, but as Claude Lemieux pointed out, hockey is not a popularity contest.   DeAngelo has had some very public incidents and flair ups with teammates. He has been suspended for harassment and using a racial slur in the OHL.  This is not a fine body of work, but people do make mistakes, young immature people especially. The track record of “crappy teammate” is a risk, but people also change, sometimes for the better.  In a high character, low talent Flyers’ locker room, it was a risk worth taking.

As for the hockey side of the equation, Provorov had pretty good results when paired with Gostisbehere. DeAngelo shares a lot of the same (on ice) traits, and is a right handed shot, if that matters. This could have been the best kind of low-risk, high reward signing for the Flyers. A player who knows he is running out of chances, who has a lot of talent, and would be playing just miles from his hometown of Sewell, NJ.  If it does not work out the contract is so small that it can easily be buried in Lehigh, or simply release him.

For the record DeAngelo is the top scoring defensemen for the Canes, who lead the division in points percentage. More importantly, it appears he has been nothing less than a model citizen, with his only infraction was coming down with COVID, like half of the country.

Travis Hamonic

Losing Aube-Kubel (five goals and seven assists since joining the Avalanche) on waivers to make sure we kept a roster spot for the likes of Patrick Brown, Nate Thompson, Nick Seeler, Max Willman and Zack MacEwen or other AHL talent is a galling waste of value, especially when the team passed on an opportunity to grab Travis Hamonic.

Full disclosure, I am a Hamonic fan boy, and even I recognize he has slowed from his prime and is currently injured, but he is a better hockey player than Kevin Connauton ever will be. More importantly Hamonic, even in his reduced state, is perfect for the role of support man for Provorov. Hamonic spent most of his time in Vancouver riding shotgun for Quinn Hughes.  Prior to that he was paired with Noah Hanifin. Hamonic knows his role, and it is to support his partner for the betterment of the team. Whatever Hamonic has left in the tank, waiver claim would have been worth exploring especially looking at the collection of AHL level forwards Chuck Fletcher opted to keep.

As I have earlier documented, the Flyers are all in, and are unlikely to make major changes. In order to make this team a contender, adding pieces specifically for Provorov is an urgent matter, maybe the most urgent. It is clear that the organization shifted its focus almost entirely on the present, but failing to address how to maximize Provorov has hindered the team today and if not addressed, will be a growing problem for the future.