The Final Stages, and where the Flyers Stand

          The NHL led by Gary Bettman have put another proposal on the table, in attempt to salvage the 2012-13 season. Like I said many times, Donald Fehr is the reason we haven't seen the Flyers on the ice yet, but I do believe this offer could be the one that gets the puck dropped on January 19th. The Los Angeles Kings have been waiting to raise their Stanley Cup banner, and in less than three weeks there wish should come true. The leagues latest offer was over 300 pages long, so I will break it down with the most important details that can truly end this lockout.

          Gary Bettmans' main goal is to win the fans back. He may have done that by offering a 10 year agreement through 2021-22 (with an option to opt out after 8 years). This would give fans plenty of games to watch without having to worry about whether or not we will have a season. A 50-50 revenue split between Clubs and Players with current HRR Accounting is next in the offer, which was one of the biggest requirements requested by the Players' Association. Next, the NHL posted a $300 million make-whole payment to compensate players for the reduced value of Player contracts in the early years of the new CBA. Plain and simple, there are contractual roll backs of players salaries. Clubs can operate with an effective Upper Limit of $70.2 million in 2012/13; must come into compliance with $60 million Upper Limit for the start of the 2013/14 season. The final part is expected to be counter offered by the PA, and the sixty million will be changed to 70 million. You can read all about the new proposal if you click this link http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=412383. With a few tweaks by Fehr and the owners, I believe this season will be saved.

          When this lockout ends, I will finally be able to start writing about how the Flyers are doing in the standings, whose on fire, and whose struggling. Below I will give a preview of what's to come for the Flyers, who I think will be playing their first game on the 19th.

           Unfortunately, it looks like captain Chris Pronger has played his last game in the NHL. Chris moved back to Saint Louis during the off season, and hasn't really made any progress since being struck in the eye with a stick back in November of last year. With Pronger done, Ed Snider and Paul Holmgren will name the 19th captain in Flyers history. I think it comes down to three candidates; Claude Giroux (24), Danny Briere (35), and Kimmo Timonen (37). Giroux has shown he is ready and I think he'll get the call, if Pronger officially retires. They don't have the team they had last year, but still could be competitors especially with Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn playing in their second full year. Below I will put together what the lines will most likely look like come the first game. The parenthesis will show how old everyone is.

Line 1: Voracek (23) Giroux (24) Hartnell (30)

Line 2: Simmonds (24) Briere (35) Read (26)

Line 3: Couturier (20) Schenn (21) Talbot (28)

Line 4: Fedotenko (33) Wellwood (22) Rinaldo (22)

Defensive 1: Timonen (37) Coburn (27)

Defensive 2: Grossmann (27) Meszaros (27)

Defensive 3: L.Schenn (23) Gustafsson (24)

Goalie: Ilya Bryzgalov (32)

          With only 5 of the listed 19 players 30 or over, the Flyers come in as one of the youngest teams in the NHL. This team is our future and I look forward to covering them in the next decade. Hopefully my next update talks about the lockout being over, but for now the optimism bar must remain high.

-Jimmy "the Fish" Forte (Beat writer for the Sports Goombahs)

Twitter: @jimmyfort28

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