Typical Philly

Well it was late last night (early this morning in the East) that Darren Dreger broke the news that Shea Weber had signed an offer sheet with the Flyers.  14 years/100 million.  In some ways I’m shocked, because while I was pretty certain Weber wanted to leave Nashville, I thought he would force a trade rather than give the Preds a shot to match an offer sheet.  But then again it’s the Flyers, they’ve done this for decades.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a HUGE Shea Weber fan.  Great player, great person, in my mind he is the most complete defenseman in the game today who is just now entering his prime.  But Philly could easily be just screwing themselves even further.  The Bryzgalov contract is embarrassing, the Pronger contract was embarrassing, and now they add this one in that will cost them a boat load of picks when they already got a pretty depleated system.

Sure they have some real good young players like the Schenn brothers, Couturier and of course Giroux.  And they’ve drafted great.  But having said that these moves are usually suicide for a franchise.  Not to mention, guys are going to stop signing there once they figure out that while the Flyers embrace you today, they’ll likely spit you out in 2 or 3 years when something shiney and new comes along.

And if they want a reason as to why they make all these big moves and never win that is likely it.  How about building it from within and allowing those players to grow together?!  Crazy thought I know, especially when 4 of the last 5 Stanley Cup champs have been built that way.  When you bring in a bunch of UFA’s and big stars it takes time to build chemistry.  I know it seems easy and logical that you go get a superstar to plug in and you should be a lot better.  But it rarely ever happens that way.

As for Weber, if he didn’t want to go back to Nashville and they match….what the hell is he doing?!  Dreger said on twitter that Detroit, NYR, San Jose and of course Philly were in big trade talks with the Preds, which would indicate to me that Weber didn’t want to be back and knowing this Poile was trying to get something for him.  Let the trade happen.  I don’t know why if the Preds do have the money they’ve claimed to have that they wouldn’t match the offer.  So Weber is stuck!  Wouldn’t that be something if the Preds match and essentially have no money left in their budget to put pieces around him.  I hope Weber and agent Jarrett Bousquet know what they’re doing.

One thing I can’t criticize the Flyers of is being boring.  They’re a dynasty when it comes to winning the offseason.  And what a comeback it was this year.  Just when you and I all thought they were done for, they rose up and snatched back that title!  Too bad it’s July and winning that counts past them by in early May with a dismal performance vs the Devils….after making big splashes last offseason.  We will see how this one goes.

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