By Mary Cunningham
For the Flyers, this was the week that was.
They hired a new coach, Dave Hakstol, and they signed a couple of defensemen from the KHL.
After adding Yevgeni Medvedev to the mix, Flyers GM Ron Hextall knows he’s going to have to do “something” about all the defensemen he’s got.
He knows he can’t keep all of them. Especially not with a bunch of talented young blue-liners waiting in the wings.
Hextall said that he plans to re-sign and keep Michael Del Zotto (above), so we can take the 24-year-old off the trade list.
Meanwhile, Andrew MacDonald may not have a market whatsoever, given he’s signed through 2020 and hasn’t exactly shone since joining the Flyers.
Luke Schenn and Nicklas Grossmann are pending UFAs, so their trade value is automatically limited. Perhaps there’s still a GM out there who believes Schenn, 25, has good potential. Then again, maybe not.
Nick Schultz has a reasonable contract and would have some trade value. But do the Flyers have anyone to step in and reliably do all the dirty work that he does? Remember that they don’t have Braydon Coburnanymore.
Mark Streit may be their most valuable trade chip. He’s 37, so it’s not like he’s going to be part of the long-term future in Philly. And he can still produce offensively, as evidenced by the 52 points he put up this season, the third most on the team.
The problem with trading Streit is that there are still expectations for the current roster, as Ed Snider made perfectly clear. And with all those talented, young defenseman in the system, might Streit provide a good role model?
“We’re going to have to do something,” Hextall said, per the Daily News. “Yevgeni we thought was a real good, solid upgrade on defense and was someone we couldn’t let go by. But yeah, something will have to give here.”
