Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Carter and Richards had also just been to the freakin' cup final and Carter had a 46 goal season under his belt with TEN YEARS left on his contract.
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Having them locked up long term was part of the trade but in the current NHL that term is almost seen as more of a risk for a 26 year old than a benefit.
Plus you’re forgetting that the reason the deals happened was because there was a lot of question about the two young forwards commitment, their off ice behaviour, and the whole Dry Island thing.
So sure they had better playoff results (a run as an 7 seed one year led by Pronger) and still had long term deals but in terms of pure NHL production at the time of the trade, and the players age, it’s pretty close:
Carter - Age:26 GP:461 G:181 P:343 P/GP: 0.74
Richards - Age: 26 GP:453 G:133 P:349 P/GP: 0.77
Vs
Gaudreau- Age:27 GP: 464 G: 151 P: 445 P/GP: 0.96
Monahan- Age:25 GP: 541 G:194 P: 411 P/GP: 0.76
Sure the Flyers struggled a bit after that but IMO it wasn’t because of those two moves which actually brought a lot of great pieces into the organization. They lost Pronger after that season due to injury which was the biggest impact, Briere took a step back (he was the leading scorer in the cup run), and they gave the ridiculous contract to Bryzgalov.