There’s a saying in hockey that a team can never have too many defensemen.
It’s nearly impossible for a six-man unit to remain intact for a full season. Injuries are bound to occur. Sometimes trades are made. Slumps happen, too.
So when an NHL club has strength in numbers on the blue line, it makes things a tad bit easier on a head coach when he has holes to fill in the lineup.
Which brings us to the Flyers. They have depth on defense. The even have a handful of promising youngsters in the system.
What they don’t have is a true No. 1 on the back end. They are a mediocre group at best, full of bottom-pair caliber blueliners who were maddeningly inconsistent this past season.
“It was a bit of a weird situation with how many defensemen we had,” Michael Del Zotto said last week when the Flyers held their exit interviews at the Skate Zone in Voorhees.
“It’s not like we had young guys who haven’t been in the league or rookies. We’re all established defensemen who’ve played quite a few games in this league. It was a tough position for everyone involved.”
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Early-season injuries to Braydon Coburn and Andrew MacDonald forced Flyers general manager Ron Hextall to go out and sign veteran Carlo Colaiacovo to an abbreviated one-year deal to help reinforce the defensive corps. Hextall also called up young prospect Shayne Gostisbehere to play a few games.
When everyone was healthy, the Flyers were left with a logjam on defense. They carried eight d-men for most of the year, and it wasn’t long before Luke Schenn, Del Zotto and MacDonald found themselves, along with Colaiacovo, being rotated in and out of the lineup.
“You can only dress so many guys,” Schenn said. “It’s not like you have a guy up in the NHL just to sit all year. When guys are healthy you’re going to have to take guys out. How everyone deals with it individually is a different story.”
Del Zotto, one of the few mobile, puck-moving players at the Flyers’ disposal, sat out 11 of 14 games in December. He responded to his benching with a positive attitude and finished the season with 10 goals and 22 assists in 64 games.
The usage of Del Zotto was one of the many head-scratching decisions that ultimately cost head coach Craig Berube his job. The Flyers’ defense was a revolving door, and several players mentioned how their confidence took a hit because they didn’t know when and if they’d be in the lineup.
“You think about everything in those types of situations,” MacDonald said of being scratched. “You want to be a multi-tool player and play in all situations. I know in previous years I played special teams, on both sides, played against top lines. … I think I was just thinking a little too much at times this year. Maybe trying to do a little too much.”
Entering the offseason, defense remains a major area of concern. Hextall admitted the position needs to be upgraded, but that could pose a challenge.
The Flyers currently have seven defensemen under contract for next season — Mark Streit, Nicklas Grossmann, Nick Schultz, Radko Gudas, Brandon Manning, MacDonald and Schenn. The team also plans to re-sign Del Zotto, a restricted free agent.
It’s no secret the team would like to clear as much cap space as it can, but it will be difficult to find willing trade partners. Hextall certainly has his work cut out for him.
“There’s always changes, everyone knows that,” Schenn said. “There’s always a guy, you’re going to have prospects come up and fight for jobs. There’s free agency, there’s trades. It’s really no point to worry about any of it because it’s out of your control as a player.”
With prospects like Travis Sanheim, Sam Morin, Robert Hagg and Gostisbehere developing in the minors and at the junior level, the Flyers are aware jobs could be up for grabs at training camp.
“There are a number of young defensemen in the system that are going to be great players and their time will come,” MacDonald said. “Once they earn their spot, I know as a team we’ll embrace them and welcome them with open arms.”
Stepping up as a mentor is a role Del Zotto said he would embrace.
“Maybe having more of a leadership or veteran presence is an exciting role to have,” Del Zotto said. “Having young defensemen, especially puck-moving ones with similar talent as I did coming into the league, being able to help them mature and become a better player and person off the ice is exciting.”
Hextall has a clear vision for the future. He doesn’t plan to rush the team’s younger players to the NHL or use them as trade bait.
The Flyers, however, already parted with veteran defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Coburn at the trade deadline. With more changes likely to occur, the remaining blueliners aren’t putting their focus on personnel moves because it’s beyond their control.
“As a team, once you have your guys, you’re basically only focused on your team and who you have in the room,” MacDonald said. “As far as that goes, I think collectively we stick together and that’s really important for a team.”