The 2011 Philadelphia Flyers Offseason Brought Years of Misfortune – The Hockey Writers – Flyers History

After a 2010-11 season in which the Philadelphia Flyers had the third-best record in the NHL but lost in the second round of the playoffs, the team wanted to play big this summer. And, to their credit, they certainly did. Unfortunately, their moves set the franchise back, inadvertently ushering in the least successful era in franchise history. Let’s take a look at the 2011 offseason, led by general manager (GM) Paul Holmgren.

Lack of faith in Bobrovsky plagues Flyers

Holmgren and the Flyers’ first damaging mistake of the 2011 offseason was not trusting young goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. A dominant force in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), the undrafted free agent appeared in 54 games at age 22 in the NHL. With a .915 save percentage (SV%), 2.59 goals against average (GAA), 3.04 goals saved above average (GSAA), and 9.75 goals saved above expected (GSAx), he was actually one of the best goalies in hockey.

Bobrovsky showed some regression in April and the postseason, but ranking in the 87th percentile for GSAx at age 22 is no easy feat. He had a 15.8 GSAx going into his last three contests, so his position here was clear — the Flyers had something. Rather than bet on a man between the pipes who was 28-13-8 (and started 21-6-3), they had a different plan. The Orange and Black decided to sign his replacement.

In the offseason, the Flyers signed Phoenix Coyotes goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year, $51 million contract extension, worth $5.67 million per year. The 30-year-old was a Vezina Trophy finalist in 2009-10 and finished sixth in the voting in 2010-11, but his three-year GSAx was a modest 3.62. Still, the message was simple: Bryzgalov had to be the future of the franchise between the posts. After two spectacular regular seasons, he was thrust into the spotlight.

Related: The 7 Richest Flyers Contracts in Franchise History

Bryzgalov’s first campaign out of Phoenix’s stout defense was decent for a starter, but not worth the money he was given. Although he had a disastrous start to the campaign with an .891 SV%, 3.07 GAA, minus-17.1 GSAA, and minus-13.8 GSAx through January 14, 2012, he rebounded quite nicely towards the end of the season, posting more respectable numbers.

Bobrovsky took a step back from his previous campaign, but had an elite .921 SV%, 2.42 GAA, 3.73 GSAA, and 7.39 GSAx over the same span as Bryzgalov. Bobrovsky’s numbers dropped off precipitously as he watched his teammate improve, but the promising goalie was clearly still out there somewhere.

Bryzgalov was not at his best in Phoenix in the postseason and continued to be so in Philadelphia. With an .887 SV% and poor advanced stats, it was not the first performance to be proud of. By the summer of 2012, the Flyers decided they had had enough of Bobrovsky, even though he still had a year left on his contract, and he was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Doubling down on that was one of the worst decisions not only in franchise history, but also one of the worst moves in NHL history. Bryzgalov’s play declined even more, leading to the final seven seasons of his contract being bought out in the 2013 offseason. As for Bobrovsky, he won the Vezina Trophy in 2012-13, now that he had a real permanent role. Today, Bobrovsky seems like a sure-fire Hall of Fame prospect, with two Vezina Trophies and a Stanley Cup win under his belt.

Richards & Carter Transactions

Here we find a rather odd juxtaposition of ideas. While the Flyers were clearly in a win-now mindset by signing a veteran goalie to a big contract, they traded two of their best players for a group of young athletes in the 2011 offseason. This conflict of building for the future as the Stanley Cup window loomed was going about as well as one might expect.

Mike Richards, then Flyers captain, prospect Rob Bordson and Jeff Carter were traded for a combination of young players and draft picks. In receiving Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds, a 2012 second-round pick (traded), Jakub Voracek, a 2011 first-round pick (Sean Couturier) and a 2011 third-round pick (Nick Cousins), Philadelphia looked good on the surface. But at the end of the day, they really didn’t.

On the plus side, the Flyers freed up a lot of money and got four players off the 2011-12 roster for their troubles, but they also had a Stanley Cup window in place. With defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Chris Pronger at 36 and 37, respectively, Matt Carle on an expiring contract, and a weak defense with no good prospects in the system behind those three, it was a recipe for disaster.

While forwards Schenn, Simmonds, Voracek and Couturier had fantastic NHL careers, it took them a while to reach their peak. The Orange and Black significantly trimmed their roster, trading away two of their top three forwards in 2010-11, one of whom was a consistent Selke Trophy candidate (Richards) and the other had three consecutive 30-goal campaigns (Carter). There was speculation that off-ice concerns were the reason for these trades, but that is not justified.

The Flyers were still one of the league’s best teams thanks to Claude Giroux’s MVP-caliber season in 2011-12, but the losses of Richards and Carter were felt. Giroux’s first-round heroics against the Pittsburgh Penguins (14 points) were good enough to win only six contests. Philadelphia lost in five games to the New Jersey Devils in the next round. Pronger’s career-ending injury early in the campaign didn’t help matters, but it was really a one-man show mixed with the brilliance of Danny Briere and Timonen, especially.

The Flyers lost four key players from their previous roster prior to the 2012-13 season: Pronger, Carle, Jaromir Jagr and James van Riemsdyk (he was traded for defenseman Luke Schenn). Briere was mostly a shadow of his former self, and the depth on both sides of the ice was poor — the team missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006-07.

You have to think that if the Flyers had made the most of their Stanley Cup window, they could have had more than two playoff wins since Richards and Carter left. Now, their best stretches only lasted so long (Richards has about two good seasons left), but those trades completely changed the complexion of one of the best rosters in the sport.

Flyers Final Score

By getting rid of what allowed the 2010-11 Flyers to battle for the top spot in the standings with the eventual Stanley Cup finalist Vancouver Canucks for most of the season, the Orange and Blacks hurt themselves. Not only did their moves evaporate their championship window faster, but the decisions didn’t help in the long run — the Flyers are still paying Bryzgalov damages. Perhaps Richards, Carter and Bobrovsky could have given Philadelphia a better chance at a championship in 2011-12 and beyond by taking the burden off Giroux’s shoulders.

It’s worth mentioning that players like Schenn (forward), Simmonds, Voracek, and Couturier were incredible in their primes, but that didn’t really matter. The Flyers didn’t have a future anyway, so those players wasted some of their best years on lower-tier playoff teams. Instead of enduring a small rebuild around Giroux and Bobrovsky while players like Pronger, Timonen, Jagr, Carle, Briere, and others left, Philadelphia stuck in the mud — bad enough to have no chance of competing for the Cup, but good enough to never have a top pick in the draft.

After trading away Richards, Carter and eventually Bobrovsky, the Flyers made only minor moves to try to compete. From 2012-13 to 2023-24, they accumulated half of the franchise’s playoff losses (eight of 16). In fact, it took them 12 seasons to accomplish what they had in the previous 44.

The current Orange and Black era is definitely the darkest it’s ever been, and that’s largely due to the shortsighted 2011 offseason. Hopefully the team can learn from its failures during that time. Holmgren has generally made good moves as GM — he (probably under peer pressure) just had one really, really bad summer.

Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick