On June 22nd 2012 the Flyers traded Sergei Bobrovsky to the Blue Jackets in return the Flyers got 2012 4th and 2nd round picks and a 2013 4th round pick. The 2013 4th that became Justin Auger got traded to the Kings Feb 26th 2013 for Simon Gagne, Auger who was up and down in the AHL and ECHL never played in the NHL later retiring in 2020. The 2012 4th became Taylor Leier who played in 55 NHL games scoring 2 goals and 7 points all with the Flyers and is currently in Sweden. The 2012 4th was used to select Anthony Stolarz who was in the Flyers organization from 2012-2019 later getting traded for Cam Talbot who left via free agency to the Flames and now is a member of the Detroit Red Wings. then left the Oilers for the Ducks and became a decent backup/third string for them until leaving in 2023 to backup Bobrovsky to win the 2024 Stanley Cup and then this summer signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs to likely be the backup for Joseph Woll, in 109 NHL games he has 43 wins 31 losses .915 SV% and a 2.19 GAA.
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Looking at the timeline, this was peak Giroux era. Not that they ever actually built a solid team top to bottom in that time frame to begin with, but damn a strong goalie would have went a long way. Outside of a season or two of Steve mason, their goaltending was not good.
The only thing worse was signing goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year deal worth 51 million in June 2011 and then buying the contract out in June 2013. woof.
I think signing Bob would’ve turned out much better for Flyers.
It’s bad because he eventually became good, but realistically it made some sense at the time.
Philly has the goalie curse so it probably wouldn’t matter.
Not as bad as signing Bryz. As a Ducks fan, I love my humongous beeg Space Cadet, and I ask myself why I heff to be mad at things all the time. But his game absolutely fell off a cliff. Saved us in our Cup year when J-S Giguere’s wife and newborn were in medical danger, kept us in long enough for them to recover and J-S to get his head back in the game. But something went wrong in his head and he lost his game.
That said, there’s a place for him in commentary somewhere purely for the entertainment value. He’s such a super chill dude and funny as hell.
Columbus eventually traded us Tortorella in return, so I’d say the general trade was pretty bad.
It’s even worse. The Flyers traded Bobrovsky because they signed Ilya Bryzgalov.
They weren’t patient with him, didn’t give him a chance to really develop. He had a rough game or two and was benched for the ever present goalie rotation in the playoffs which led to losing the cup on a soft goal. With the goaltending costing them the cup and the emergence of Giroux they made a choice to make a big goalie move and not be in this situation again (hahaha worked out great). I guess they moved Bob hoping their investment in Bryz would pay off, even though it seemed clear that wasn’t going to be the case. Bob got a real shot on Columbus and ran with it. If the Flyers were just a little more patient, they could have had that long term #1 they haven’t seen in decades.
We’re cursed with goalies. They either come and have the worst stretch of their careers, get hurt (Jeff Hackett vertigo), or we draft them and they never quite live up to the potential they had. Until they get traded away. Or they rape someone and hockey Canada covers it up.
The worst.
Hindsight is 20/20. But I still have nightmares about it, more so since he won a ring.