Previously, they traded center Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Jakub Voracek and first- and third- round picks in last year's draft. The Flyers selected Sean Couturier and Nick Cousins with those picks.
Those moves allowed the Flyers to sign goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, addressing a longstanding need in net. The team also regained cap room that they hadn't had since 2005 and buttressed the organization with very young, highly regarded talent.
The Flyers have taken a small step backwards. They won their division last year with 106 points. They currently sit fifth in the East and third in the Atlantic behind the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins with 92 points and nine games left to play.
If Philadelphia manages to do better in the playoffs than they did last year, they have to see the moves they made as successful. They are still tight against the cap this year, but they have some younger players who hopefully will improve with time.
Carter and Richards are in their prime and unlikely to perform much better than they have already in their careers.
Most of this personnel rearrangement was done so the Flyers could fill that gap in goal that they have suffered with for the last decade. Ilya.Bryzgalov had been a disappointment so far this season with an .898 save percentage in his first 43 games. He was barely out-pacing Sergei Bobrovsky for the starting job.
The last 11 games have seen a huge improvement for him statistically. He now has a .910 save percentage, which puts him in the company of Ondrej Pavelec and Jonas Hiller. He has posted four shutouts since March 4th and looks like he is fi...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Kings
