This week, Bobrovsky was named as a finalist for the Vezina trophy. Many believe him to be the favorite. Why can't the Flyers get young goalies like this?
Actually, it's basically time to cue the hand-wringing of Flyers fans and writers. The predictable reactions are "I knew we shouldn't have traded him!", or "the Flyers are a joke of an organization!" Hand-wringing aside, what really happened?
The thing about having a blog like this is that there's no hiding your past statements. Indeed, most of my reason for writing this blog is just to get my own story straight. Let's recap events:
2010-11 season - The Flyers sign Bobrovsky, and by most accounts he is destined for the AHL. Instead he impresses in the preseason and Leighton is awful, and he becomes the starter. He has the job heading down the stretch run, but after a shocking run of results, he gets yanked for good in the playoffs. At the time, I passionately argued that he was not ready to lead a winning team. I do not regret a word of that.
2011 offseason - Given the absolute goaltending debacle of the playoffs (using 3 goalies, pulling your starter 5 TIMES in 11 games), the Flyers needed to make a move in net. I argued then, and still believe now, it would've been insane to give Bobrovsky the keys the team at the time. My personal plan was to acquire Nabokov on a short term contract, giving the team a proven #1 and allowing Bobrovsky to develop as the backup. (Or alternatively, sniff around and try to lowball Vokoun, who in fact signed for very little with Washington). Instead, the Flyers went big and acquired Bryzgalov. With Bryz in the fold on a 9-year deal, I would've traded Bobrovsky right then because I didn't see a future for him here anymore.
2011-2012 season - Bryzgalov had a rough season, and Bobrovsky had a few stretches as starter. He didn't run with it, and ended the season with a significantly worse stat line than Bryz. Either way, Bryz wasn't going anywhere, and I again thought they should trade Bobrovsky since he had no future here.
2012 offseason - Ultimately, the Flyers traded him for a 2nd and two 4th round picks, which was more than I thought he would fetch as his trade value declined after his mediocre sophomore year. At the time, I remarked there was no way the Flyers would get a fairly high first round pick for him, as the Avs gave up for Varlamov in the 2011 offseason. He reminded me of Nittymaki, who was capable of enticing play at times (MVP of 2006 Winter Olympics), but never proved he could be a long term #1 option.
2013 strike season - Well, we know what happened here.
So what's my story? My story is that no-way no-how was Bob ready to be the #1 after the 2011 playoff debacle. I thought the Flyers should sign a veteran goalie to be the #1 and give Bob time as backup for another year or two. Instead, we got Bryzgalov and a 9 year deal. After that happened, I didn't see a future as a Flyer for him.
In the last few days, Frank Seravalli has tweeted that the Avs wanted Bob MORE than they wanted Varlamov in summer 2011. I find that a little hard to believe, but if the Avs did offer their 2012 first round pick for Bob, the Flyers were fools not to take it with Bryz already signed long term.
Either way, the Flyers traded him the following offseason for a decent but not overwhelming return. I did not expect this season from him, and it will be interesting to see how he performs next year in a full length season as the undisputed #1.
I'm sticking to my story that once Bryz was signed, Bob's fate as a Flyers was sealed. This very well may turn out to be a big mistake long term, but I will call bullshit on people who cry "we should've given him the job in summer 2011 and rode it out!"
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