The '25-'26 Philadelphia Flyers thread

[VoteForKalas]

And the pro leagues have no interest in handling more development.

Because now they are getting the development for free. The system has all the wrong incentives.

The pro leagues should be funding everything because 1) they have the money and the jobs, 2) the educational institutions would be removed from the equation, 3) the players would be paid for their efforts and 4) the pro leagues would directly benefit from said investments.

[bigegypt0417]

the adding of these players to NCAA teams is a huge development for them because even though these are one and done guys, it makes their pursuit of players who historically stayed away more possible. Signing McKenna is huge but if it helps them attract kids who wouldn't think of college then it's a win for college sports and also brings in more money.

I would imagine NCAA will be a hot ticket in the Big 10 this year.

[zambonir]

The problem is college sports doesn't really fund anything other than college sports. It doesn't take away money from education, but its tangible impact on university operation and fundraising is always overstated. It's good branding but that is all. At one time it might have been true that having politicans who were fans of the football team were more inclined to help the University. But those type politicians are no longer inclined to help higher education at all.

And now we're seeing MLB's billionaire owners pinching pennies in the minor leagues and wanting to shift things more towards college. So of course Comcast doesn't want to pay Porter Martone more than MSU's NIL people can to play in the AHL [if they could]. What's ironic is that McKenna being at Penn State is due to $ coming into a program that exists entirely because of the owner of the Sabres.

[flyers19rw]

Because it is a State university, its books have to be made public. UCLA’s athletic department has been running deficits of over $30M per for years. The educational side of the school has had to bail them out. It seems that Cal is in a similar situation but not as deep in the red as the Bruins. That being the case, it’s hard for me to see how to justify and support the current system for collegiate athletics.

[Austinfan]

Deficits in most athletic programs are due to non-revenue sports like swimming, etc.
Football tends to subsidize other sports, as does basketball, hockey may be headed that way.

Universities are billion dollar corporations, let's drop the purity argument.
Same with liberal arts education, designed for the privileged to prepare them for high level positions greased by Daddy's connections, only change is elite schools now have a mix of rich and elite talents.

But most students, a college degree basically replaces a devalued HS degree as a signal of basic competency.
And most students are happy with the degree and 4 fun years before adulthood.

[zambonir]

Deficits in most athletic programs are due to non-revenue sports like swimming, etc.

even baseball is a non-revenue sport. But there's no way that's what is doing at it UCLA or Cal, that would probably be because their revenue sports aren't revenuing. Probably not gonna get better for Cal in the ACC. It will for UCLA.

NIL is separate from all this but revenue-sharing isn't.

Also, a PA quirk: Penn State is "state-related" rather than a true public school and therefore not subject to Open Records requests or automatic release of all $ info in the same way as most big state universities. But they still have to release info due to PA transparency law. Temple, Pitt, PSU and Lincoln all in that group.

[Docs]

Canadian hockey verdict ongoing, the judge opened the day saying the crown did not prove any of the counts and that the accuser’s evidence was not credible or reliable. The players will be found not guilty.

Per her testimony, she provided consent for the things they did and she said no to some requests and the guys accepted her no’s as no.

[xogfog]

I wonder if they are found not guilty if the Flyers would try to bring back Hart. Do they retain his rights or would he be a free agent?

[bigegypt0417]

He's an unrestricted FA.

[zambonir]

It will be interesting to see how the NHL in general views these guys, and at what price. But I don't see how the Flyers could sign him now. Financially or in terms of playing time.

If they were MLB or NFL players they would still face supplementary discipline, regardless of legal verdict. Not clear if NHL has either the interest or the policy with which to do so. Which also worked against the Flyers, as if Hart had merely been suspended this whole time he'd still be an RFA.

[phillychuck]

If they are indeed not guilty, and the judge's account is factually correct, what a disastrous turn of events this has been for the players involved. I have not followed any of the details in the day-to-day reporting of this, but what a waste of time this seems to have been been for the players, the court, and for the woman.

I wonder what the feeling is of the Flyers’ organization about Hart, and whether or not they would welcome him back?

[Docs]

This event did shed light on hockey Canada, which paid the woman millions of dollars(Canadian) to be quiet, and a further investigation saw that they had paid many sexual assault accusers a lot of money over the years. They needed to clean up the hockey Canada leadership and did.

I also felt like hockey Canada failed the players by not having chaperones at the hotel and letting a bunch of 18 year olds drink (i know it’s legal) and then have full run on their hotel rooms. High schools and colleges put tape on the doors and have coaches check rooms at curfew. I feel like the hockey Canada culture was an issue and am glad they addressed that as a result of this incident.

[phillychuck]

Good point.

[zambonir]

It certainly feels like a big failure by the Crown that they did not turn out to have a winnable case given all the time and effort they put in to re-opening it. But I don't think anyone's time was wasted. She deserved her day in her court, they deserved to be held accountable, light was shone on the whole thing, and if they are not guilty they are not guilty. Having read every story about it it is still not at all clear that she consented to everything, even as it's also clear it may have just been a wild sex party out of control. But not enough to be beyond a shadow of the doubt in the former case. Much of the evidence would not have come out without the trial though.

I doubt a jury trial would have gone any differently but the fact that there were two mistrials and it wound up being at the sole discretion of one judge doesn't seem like the ideal carrying out of justice either.

Also entirely possible the Crown appeals and this continues on for another year. Seems like they might want to take the L, but they absolutely have ground to do so in terms of procedural/legal questions. And defence obviously would have appealed too.

[flyers19rw]

Big difference between innocent and not guilty.
Trying to market your team as family entertainment with one of these guys on it might be difficult.

[bigegypt0417]

It seems like based on the conversation the victim in this case seemed to lack credibility...the judge so much as said that.

if these players have value, they will be signed.

[xogfog]

Hart would probably still be the best goalie on the Flyers, I would try to sign him.

[zambonir]

They call it "blaming the victim" and "he said she said" for a reason. I honestly find some of the judge's statements to lack credibility and go beyond what would seem to be legally necessary. She seemed to be writing her own legal brief to anticipate the national backlash against her.

It's not hard to understand the case wasn't proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, but we'll never really know what happened, and a trial built mostly on seven-year old memories of events was always going to be difficult to parse whichever side it came down on. For me, it's impossible to read the testimony and not see it as closer to a gang-rape than a threesome or an orgy. And I know similar scenes have played out many times before in junior hockey. But it's not surprising five defense attorneys were able to pick apart the recollections of one woman with regards to how drunk she was, what she weighed at the time, and whether or not she consented to all, some or none of what happened [including which things actually happened]

For sure, these players are not going to be unemployed or consigned to Europe if they're good enough forever. But not every team is going to be eager to sign them [especially not in Canada].

Obviously Flyers and XO represent two poles of Flyers fandom on this. I'm not sure the organization in its current state can afford to alienate the half of the fan base that would not be happy.

They are all officially not guilty now. That took all day.

[bigegypt0417]

They call it "blaming the victim" and "he said she said" for a reason. I honestly find some of the judge's statements to lack credibility and go beyond what would seem to be legally necessary. She seemed to be writing her own legal brief to anticipate the national backlash against her.

So I'll say this...unless there was just an anti-victim judge in this case it seems like the reasoning for his statements is in the testimony. He said she acknowledged giving consent and not giving consent and when she did say no, they complied. Again...I believe victims should be believed but also you can't throw away the lives of these people if the evidence stated there reason to believe she may have not been truthful.

[xogfog]

I'm all for the me too movement, but these players, especially Hart, who was in a different category of defendant that was less involved than the other players, should not br blackballed by the league and should be able to go back to work now that the have been ruled innocent by the legal system.