Scott Hannan
 

Should we have went after him instead of Lilja? He was only like $275k more and he is much better. Could we get McCabe for a price like this and release Lilja and/or Bacashihua for the cap space and roster spot?

We should've went after any defenseman. ANY defenseman is better than Lilja.

EDIT: If we can get McCabe for cheap he would be an IDEAL 3rd pairing dman. A little older in age and can get injured easily. Giving him a bit less playing time might be good for him and good for us in the long run.

He still has a good shot I think and he's not too bad. He's older and you can tell by the way he plays, but if he could sign with us for 1 mil or less I say we do it. I'm sure Homer wouldn't, but it would be the smart thing to do. Imagine slappers off the sticks of a d pairing like Mez and McCabe.

Should've went with Bartulis from the beginning.
I don't know why the organization doesn't give this guy any kind of respect. He was always reliable when he played and imo could serve very well as a #6. There may be even upside for more.

Also, if he would have been that catastrophic in a #6-role (which rarely happens) you could always give Gustafsson a shot or acquire a suitable alternative for a 5th rounder.

I guess Bart and Gus are ok but at this point I would take a season of McCabe over them and Lilja.

McCabe isn't exactly a defensive stalwart either.
He would probably play with Mez and I would prefer a defensive dman with Mez to free him more up for the offense.

I agree that I right now would take Hannan/McCabe over Lilja, but I haven't really watched Lilja play at all. But it seems like the Flyers have targeted him, which really makes you wonder since there were so many comparable guys out there why they would single out him.

I'm not to sure that many people saw hannan signing for that. He was commanding allot more when FA started.

Mccabe is truely awful. Stay the hell away from that.

Lilja is our 7th dman deal with it. Later on in the season everyone will be saying what a great pickup he was........:laugh:

People said that about Shelley, too. I'm still waiting to see how he'll be a great pickup.

Lilja isn't very good, and at two years...ugh.

But thats why on your 6th/7th d-man, you wait til the end of FA to sign someone and see which players are still sitting out there.

Exactly. We shouldn't sign a guy like a Lilja or a Shelley until the end. We could've definitely gotten a deal on Shelley last season rather than his 1 mil contract. If a guy like Hannan is still out there at this point, he takes a pay cut because he wants to play but the need for him isn't quite there.

Not that its really relevant...

But NHL 11 HATES this guy lol.
He's like the slowest NHL player by like 3 steps...god forbid you play online VS


Lol

Yeah, it's always a good reason to not go after the guy you want and hope someone is still available later. The Flyers brass wanted him, wrong or right, and they got him. If they thought he was the best guy to fill the role, why wait until the end and hope he is still available or settle for a guy they think is worse?

I know you don't like Lilja, but in general, as a GM, scout, etc, wouldn't you want to get the guy you want from the beginning? If I'm Homer and Co. and I see player X and say, this is the guy we should get for the #6 spot, lets do it. Why wait until now to see who's still "sitting out there?" The idea is to field the best team, not field the best contracts or most fan-likable time. Lilja may or may not work out, time will tell. But if the Flyers think he is the guy for the job they would be stupid to sit and wait and see who's left. Sure, they coudla gotten someone for less or let Bartulis or Gus fill the role, but they think Lilja is better. He may not be (I personally think he will be ok, especially as a 6/7). But they thought he was so you go after him. Why settle for a guy you (meaning Homer and Co.) don't believe is better?

Lilja was good enough to play for Detroit two years ago, in a season disrupted by a big concussion. I'm sure he'll be fine for a #7 who can step in and play.

I think Bartulis is #6 right now, Gus will start with the Phantoms unless he wins a spot outright in camp.

I like Bartulis, we missed him last year when Pronger went out.

But by waiting til the end, you can get a player you had rated higher but didn't think you would have a shot at. For a top 9 on O or top 4 on D or starting goalie, go grab your guy. But for the last lines, wait it out a bit.

Many people on this board seem to favor Bartulis.
But does anybody know if he is healthy enough to play at full strenght? Didn't he have some dislocated shoulder requiring surgery or something last season...

Also Bartulis would not win a spot over O'Donnel and they would rather bring back Syvret than banking on him. It appears that the Flyers don't really expect too much from him.

Oh so the Flyers didn't really want Lilja they wanted Hannan but just went after Lilja instead? Next time you are in the board room with these guys when they are discussing things like this, let me know because I would love to get the same inside information as you.

Rating Hannan over Lilja just requires common sense and a working pair of eyes. Plus, Hannan is 32 so he could be AHLed without his cap hit overstaying its welcome.

I'm with mm on this one: there is absolutely no need to shore up the just-in-case positions within the first couple of days of FA. I'm willing to bet that, growing up, Holmgren's allowance never made it past a single day.

People on this board LOVE bartulis...

'cause apparently he's a diamond in the rough :sarcasm:

He bought the little plastic phones with candy inside, seeing as he has been an aspiring GM since the age of 8. He looked at his parents and said with a smile that included a few missing teeth, " I want to play in the NHL and then I want to become a GM." His parents ignored him like usual and that's why he became a fighter in the NHL. The End. Story times over now.

I'm not saying Lilja is better than Hannan, though I don't think they are that far off, but the Flyers wanted him. It may not be the right decision in the end, but if there is a player you want (right or wrong), you go after him. You don't wait and hope he is still available later or hope that your alternate is available later. You get the player you want. There are certain situations where you might wait, but for a 6/7 D-man, you get the guy you want, not the guy that is left over.

What situation than? Cause this is the exact situation when you wait. Its not like there were gonna be 12 teams going all out for Lilja and its not like losing out on him would destroy the team.

Look, mm, if you're going to post exactly what I want to say all the time, I'm going to go pretty stagnant on the post counts. Help me out here, would you? ;)

So ... yes, I agree. The 7th dman and depth forward are exactly the players where saving some significant cap space is as important as getting the right guy. There are always going to be some serviceable guys who just want a contract to stay in the NHL after the dust settles. The first rule should be that anyone at or over 35 years old have to stand out by a big margin to be considered on a depth contract. This just makes the Lilja signing well-nigh impossible to explain. I won`t even ask you to try, DFF; it would be the mental equivalent of looking at an eclipse.

What if he thinks at it using one of these methods?

http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/To...1.html#Pinhole

A situation where a guy is asking for a lot of money but other players are signing for less. But here, the Flyers wanted Lilja and he was signed for cheap. I mean I just don't understand your logic. I get that you could have signed a different player, maybe even a comparable player. But if the Flyers wanted Lilja why would they wait to see how things shake out. It doesn't matter if no other teams or every team in the NHL was after him. The Flyers wanted Lilja. They didn't want Hannan (or they did and couldn't sign him). Either way, what would waiting have done? If they wanted Lilja, they would have Lilja now too. Waiting would not have done anything. If they were interested in Hannan they would have went after him. But they weren't. They were interested in Lilja, so they got him. If your argument is that Hannan is a better player and they SHOULD have been interested in him, then ok that's a different story. But if your argument is if they waited they could have gotten someone else, that argument doesn't really hold water since it seems they weren't interested in anyone else.