http://espn.go.com/nhl/news/2003/0528/1560161.html

Shipped off to the LA Kings for a 2004 second-round pick.

So, does Esche start or do the Flyers try to trade for or sign a starter?

With Clarke at thelm, who knows? I would imagine that we are going to trade for a veteran.

2nd round draft pick for roman. based on past history, we will give up some young players for one season with a veteran.

It will be interesting to see what the flyers do in the draft and in the offseason, there was a lot of talk about them getting younger, and this is probably just the first move in that direction.

As for Roman, doesn't bother me to see him go.

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The somewhat ironic part about that is goalies are probably the only position where they get better as they age.

Still, I'm fine seeing Cechmanek go. He appears to have lost the faith of his teammates, which is never a good thing for a goalie. Plus, at least they shipped him off to a Western Conference team, so if/when he comes back to burn us, it will only be 2 or 3 times a season.

What other positions do we need to address? Our power play and penalty killing were very inconsistent last year.

The power play has been an issue since Tim Kerr left the team, it seems.

I don't even know at this point how to correct those problems. Especially the power play, they'll get hot for a couple games, then stink for three times as long. It's almost like they need to keep changing the lines to keep things from getting stale.

he lost faith in his teammates too. it seems the kings got him on the cheap.

We seem to do that. Kill a guy's confidence and then ship him off to come back strong somewhere else.

I was thinking that too, but reading something in ESPN Magazine helps it make more sense.

Cechmanek has great numbers in the regular season, but it's the play-offs when he gets shaky. That trait is well known to most hockey fans, let alone NHL general managers, so the Flyers didn't have much leverage in any trade.

That being the case, they should have traded him to the Rangers. He's just what they need, being so desperate to even make the play-offs. Like they'd care about his annual meltdown because they're season objective would have been attained. :wink: