With the NHL entry draft officially over, and July 1 fast approaching, the Philadelphia Flyers, like the rest of the NHL, have turned their attention to free agency. This time around, things won’t be nearly as hectic for the Flyers. Last season, the team had more money to spend in free agency than any other team in the league. Not so this time around as the Flyers are up against the cap and were forced to trade R.J. Umberger at the draft.

Flyers General Manger Paul Holmgren was able to help turn around a team that had the worst season in Flyers history, to a team that had one of the most satisfying seasons in their history by reaching the NHL’s final four, and were within only three wins away from reaching the Stanley Cup finals.

Now comes the hard part for Holmgren, who does not have a bank full of money to throw around at his team’s problems, and doesn't have a ton of draft picks in which to trade for an impact defenseman. Fortunately for Holmgren, the list of issues that he will have to address is far less his time.

Last season, Holmgren had to clean up the mess left by former Flyers GM Bob Clarke who had built a team that was not constructed well for the post-lockout rule changes, as well as for the speed of the game that has all of a sudden gone to some of the younger players in the league.

Most of the dead weight is gone from the team, but some of it still exists, mostly on defense, but there are some other major issues to address. Some of the major questions this time around involve Simon Gagne, Derian Hatcher, Jason Smith, Mike Knuble, overall speed on defense, and what to do with potential rookie-of-the-year candidate Claude Giroux.

Here is a look at the Flyers and what they should do come July 1.

Derian Hatcher

There are two major issues with the Flyers and Derian Hatcher is one of them. Hatcher is not getting any faster with two bad knees, but a decision on his career, not just with the Flyers but for his hockey career, might be a forgone conclusion.

Hatcher has stated right after the Flyers season ended that he would like to come back and play next season, but his knees are a constant issue, and at $3.5 million per the next two seasons, it is a bit much, even for the Flyers deep pockets.
With that said, the Flyers have given Hatcher until July 1 to make a decision about next season. If he says he can play, then they can do one of five things with him:

1) Trade him - This will be tough to do with the amount of money he’s making but a team in need of a defenseman might take a chance on him.

2) Keep him and limit his ice time - For Holmgren, who has stated the team must get faster on defense, this cannot be an option. Limiting his playing time to penalty killing might be a compromise both sides can live with, however, at $3.5 million, Flyers brass might say no to that idea.

3) Send him to the minors the way they did Denis Gauthier - At least one media member has suggested at the idea, but one gets the feeling that’s not an option given Hatcher’s standing in the league.

4) Buy him out – This idea sounds great, but how often do the Flyers ever do this? It’s an option but one that is a last resort, if the Flyers really want to move on, they might not have a choice.

5) Put him on long term injured reserve – If Hatcher can’t play physically, they can put him on long term IR the same way they did Mike Rathje. This would get his salary off the books and allow the Flyers to pursue another free agent to take his place.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, that decision won’t be able to be made until close to the start of training camp, or deep into it.

So what will they do with Hatcher? According the Holmgren, Hatcher is a 50-50 shot at coming back, despite Hatcher working on a stationary bike and is “without significant pain,” but according to published reports, Holmgren does not feel Hatcher can withstand another 82 game season, plus the playoffs.

The Flyers either need to trade Hatcher or put him on long term IR. If Hatcher does not want either of those options, buy him out. It a tough decision but this is not a time Holmgren can allow personal feelings to get in the way. He needs to do what’s best for the team.

Hatcher just might call it a career anyway and that will take the burden off of Holmgren, but the gut feeling here is Hatcher will want to play next year, and it will be for the Flyers which will further hamper Holmgren heading into the off-season.

Simon Gagne

As stated before, the Flyers have two major issues, with one of them being Derian Hatcher and the other is regarding Simon Gagne. This too is complicated considering his concussion issues. The last thing the Flyers want, or need, is another Eric Lindros/Keith Primeau on their hands, but unfortunately the fear around the team is that is exactly what they have on their hands with Gagne.

As with Hatcher, Gagne carries a heavy price tag ($5.25 million cap hit over the next two seasons). The good news is Gagne is still in the prime of his career, where Hatcher is at the tale end of his. Gagne had 41 goals in 2007 and is still seen as a valuable commodity across the league, concussions aside. It is the opinion here that since the Flyers need to unload money to sign a high priced free agent such as Brian Campbell in free agency, even if you can get Hatcher's money off the books, it still might not be enough to sign Campbell, who is exactly what the Flyers need.

Since the options for the Flyers are few and far between in order to land an impact defenseman, the Flyers should have tried to get one of the top four defensive prospects at the draft. Most scouts feel that Drew Doughty, Alex Pietrangelo, Zach Bogosian, and Luke Schenn were NHL ready, or darn close to it.

In order to get one of those four players, the Flyers should have dangled Gagne as part of a huge package, such as adding right wing prospect Andres Nodl, defenseman Lasse Kukkonen, and the team’s first round pick at 27 in front of a team that desperately needs to make the playoffs, such as Columbus, Los Angeles, Atlanta, or St. Louis.

Gagne would have been perfect in Columbus considering his old coach, Ken Hitchcock loves him, and Rick Nash needs him. Instead the Flyers added a first round pick (#19 spot with Columbus) by trading Umberger and took defenseman Luca Sbisa with the pick. If the Flyers could have landed one of the big four, the Flyers wouldn’t have to spend the money on a free agent and can save the money for the trade deadline, which they were not able to do this past season thanks to Holmgren’s spending spree last year.

The decision to trade Gagne would have been made so much easier for the Flyers if top prospect James vanRiemsdyk, who is a left winger, had left college this year and filled the void left by Gagne, but that was never really an option. Still, Gagne faces the same decision about his career the way Hatcher does. Can he take more risks with his health should be face another concussion?

So far is seems as though that will be the case, which means the Flyers are stuck with Gagne and his $5.25 million cap hit as well as Hatcher and his $3.5 million. In other words, forget free agency being a source of help for the Flyers on defense if Gagne comes back to the team in the fall.

Free Agency

Adding to Holmgren's headaches is he needs to sign a couple of his own free agents before they worry about going outside the organization. Signing Jeff Carter and Randy Jones are the team’s top priorities. Signing Jones has become an important singing especially since it looks as if Jason Smith will leave and if Hatcher retires. Carter is a huge part of the future of the team and won’t be used as trade bait according to Holmgren.

For now, Martin Biron is the man in the net for the Flyers, at least for next season, but given the teams lack of goaltending depth despite drafting two goalies, the team needs to re-sign Biron to at least another two year extension. The Flyers had better hope he continues to be the man in net and so far he has proven so, but the Penguin series showcased some of his flaws and that could press the Flyers to reconsider him as the team’s number one goalie. Antero Niittymaki is a backup and is not an option, but he could be moved as part of a package and allow Scott Munroe to be the backup.

Still, defense is the team’s off-season priority, not adding offensive firepower. The Flyers still need some help on offense now the Umberger has been moved and Ryan Potulny was traded to Edmonton. Still, offense is created from defense and turnovers. It won’t just take adding blue line help to turn the team around on defense. It is also how the team back-checks from the forward positions. This must improve next season if the team is to take the next step.

The defense is still in dire need of an overhaul by moving Hatcher and Smith for younger legs. Getting Steve Eminger at the draft may or may not help but it can’t be the team’s only solution to the problem that is the team’s speed on defense. It was no coincidence last season when both Hatcher and Smith were out of the lineup at the same time that they were a better team on defense by adding youth into the lineup.

Ryan Parent, and perhaps another prospect, will be moved into the fold to help proved some solid play on defense. One wild card in the mix is Russian prospect Denis Bodrov, a Flyers second round draft choice (55th overall) in 2006 who is supposedly ready to play in the NHL. If so, this could be a coupe for the Flyers since they won’t have to go outside the organization to find a defenseman, otherwise, it’s back to the drawing board.

Some of the options the Flyers want to go after in free agency are: Brian Campbell, John Michael Liles, and Mark Streit; they are the top three options for the Flyers, along with Brooks Orpik, Dmitri Kalinin and Ron Hainsey. Campbell and Streit will command the most money, and Orpik did have an excellent playoff run with the Penguins so up his stock and his asking price. Kalinin is intriguing, but is he what the Flyers really need? Hainsey is only 27 and is arguably one of Columbus’s best defenseman.

Trades

With the salary cap still a major issue, moving a veteran or two for a defenseman is one of the teams few real options. Look for Scottie Upshall or Mike Knuble, who will turn 36 in July and has a $2.8 million salary cap hit, as well as Niittymaki as a couple of different trade options. Most teams prefer youth over age, but Knuble had 29 goals, 15 on the power play, and both stats make him more attractive than Upshall does.

So what is the Flyers top off-season priority? It's defense, pure and simple. The Flyers must get younger, faster, and just plain better overall. The Flyers will do something, but how is the question. As you can see the answers are few and far between. Oddly enough this might prove to be a most interesting off-season the Flyers have had in a long while simply because it was pretty much a given what the Flyers were going to do last year to turn things around. This time around things aren’t so simple.

So, here we go again with another off-season of intrigue around Flyerland. Let the fun begin.

Contact the author at BJennings@insidehockey.com