Holiday Wish List for the Philadelphia Flyers in 2014-15

The holiday season is upon us, and with it, everybody has a list of what would make the perfect gift, even NHL teams like the Philadelphia Flyers. This is a list of perfect holiday gifts for members of the Flyers' organization.

Keep in mind that this list is what people truly need, not always necessarily what they want. In the long run, however, these gifts are the best thing for the organization. This list includes players, coaches and members of the front office.

Feel free to comment on any of the items on this list or to add one of your own. As always, please indicate why you feel the way you do.

For Flyers owners Ed Snider, the gift he needs is patience.

Before the season started, Snider indicated he would have more patience. "I have probably been a little too anxious to win another Cup," Snider told Sam Carchidi of The Philadelphia Inquirer. "I was very patient when I was young, when we built the winners. We let the other five teams trade away their draft picks and some of their top kids, and we didn't do that."

So far, Snider has backed up his statement, although the Flyers truly have few alternatives due to limited cap space and no-movement clauses in the contracts of several players they'd love to trade away.

Snider needs to have some patience over the long haul, though. Those bad contracts handed out by former general manager Paul Holmgren will take time to come off the books. Some of the team's prospects will also need time to develop into NHL players.

If Snider goes back to his old "win now" philosophy, the franchise could be back on the treadmill of good but not great, always falling short of excellence. If Snider stays the course, the team may struggle for a few years, but it would have the chance to become a Stanley Cup contender for several years after that.

The ideal gift for Flyers general manager Ron Hextall is some cap space.

Hextall has some definite plans for this team's future, but he is hamstrung by the mess that his predecessor left him.

Players like R.J. Umberger, Vincent Lecavalier, Braydon Coburn and Nicklas Grossmann all have no-movement clauses in their contracts and are paid a lot more money than their on-ice performance justifies. That makes trading them difficult, but not impossible.

Finding cap space won't be easy. It will take the right trading partner and the right circumstances, but that would truly be a gift that would speed up Hextall's rebuilding plan. It would certainly be better than the status quo for Hextall and the Flyers.

The Philadelphia Flyers signed veteran defenseman Nick Schultz with the expectation he would be their seventh defenseman. Instead, Schultz has become one of the steadiest players on a shaky Philadelphia blue line.

The perfect gift for Schultz would be a little recognition for his efforts. In 29 games this season, Schultz has seven assists and is a plus-seven. That ties him for the team lead in plus/minus with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek.

"He’s a good player. A solid player, a competitor," Hextall told CSNPhilly.com's Tim Panaccio. "He almost always is in the right position."

On a defensively challenged team like the Flyers, a strong, steady presence is vital.

Head coach Craig Berube also appreciates Schultz's contributions. "He’s got a good stick," Berube told Panaccio. "He has been a good player a long time. You don’t play in the league that long if you are not that good."

Schultz isn't flashy, and he doesn't show up on the score sheet all that often, but he is a steady player on a team that lacks them. A little appreciation and recognition would be the perfect holiday gift for Schultz.

Things haven't gone too well for Vincent Lecavalier since he signed with the Flyers in the summer of 2013. He signed a five-year, $22.5 million deal but hasn't lived up to those numbers on the ice.

Last season, Lecavalier struggled and was demoted to the fourth line late in the season. This year, he has just two goals and six points in 16 games.

There are two gifts Lecavalier could really use this holiday season. First would be a trip to the fountain of youth and a return to his prior production. That's unlikely at the age of 34. Lecavalier will never be a 50-goal scorer in the NHL again. Heck, even 30 goals in a season may be a reach.

The more realistic gift would be a change of scenery. Lecavalier doesn't fit in well with the Flyers right now. He may be able to have at least a small resurgence elsewhere in a system better suited to his style.

Lecavalier would have to waive his no-movement clause for this to happen, and the Flyers would have to find a team willing to take on his contract. His cap hit is $4.5 million for this year and three more seasons. It may be a lot to ask, but it would be the perfect gift for the veteran center.

Coach Craig Berube has a long wish list for this holiday season. There are a two items that top the list, though.

First, Berube would love some consistent secondary scoring. Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux have been excellent all season, and Wayne Simmonds has been great on the power play, but some more production from players like Vincent Lecavalier, R.J. Umberger, Matt Read, Sean Couturier and Scott Laughton would go a long way toward making the Flyers a winning team.

A solid top-four defenseman would also be at the top of Berube's wish list. The present defense is too slow and coughs up the puck too often, especially in its own end. The Flyers don't need the next Bobby Orr or even another Chris Pronger back there, but a consistently good player would be a big help to this team.

Goalie Steve Mason has played pretty well this season. The biggest item on his holiday gift list would be some support.

That breaks down to some better team defense in front of him and some more scoring.

The Flyers are presently 22nd in the league in shots allowed per game with opponents averaging 31.2 shots on net. Getting that number more toward the middle of the league even would be a big help for Mason. So would a better penalty kill.

Philadelphia is also just 16th in the league in goals per game with 2.67. If the Flyers scored a few more goals, Mason would be under less pressure and have a greater margin for error. Either of these gifts would be perfect for Mason and backup Ray Emery.

Jakub Voracek is tied for second in the NHL in points as of December 17, while linemate Claude Giroux is tied for fifth place and is just three points behind the league leader.

These two top-line players have been absolute studs for the Flyers and given Philadelphia hockey fans some elite offensive players to watch nearly every night. They are dynamic, skilled and exciting to watch.

But Giroux and Voracek can't do it all by themselves. They need steady contributions from other players in the lineup in order to take some of the pressure off the team's dynamic duo.

The perfect holiday gift for Giroux and Voracek is a more offensive production from the second and third lines in the second half of the season. The team showed some glimpses of this in the past five or six games, but it needs to continue this improvement over the long haul.

Sean Couturier is considered one of the up-and-coming defensive forwards in the NHL. The Flyers often try to match him against opposing teams' most skilled offensive players, knowing he can at least slow them down and limit their scoring chances with his tight checking and smart defensive play.

But the Flyers have moved Couturier up to the second line for much of this season and would like to see him fulfill more of his potential to put points on the board.

Through 30 games, Couturier has seven goals and 15 points. This puts him on pace for 19 goals and 41 points over 82 games, both career highs but hardly great numbers for a second-line forward.

Despite getting roughly the same amount of ice time, Couturier isn't getting as many shots on net this season. Last year, he averaged 2.01 shots on goal per game. This season, that number has dropped to 1.5 shots per game.

While Couturier is still just 22 and has the the time and potential to develop into a better offensive player, the Flyers would like to see more from him this season. Some more consistent offensive play would be the perfect holiday gift for Couturier.

Rookie Scott Laughton has played very well for the Flyers since joining the team in mid-November. While he has earned rave reviews for his hard work and maturity, he has yet to see that hard work pay off on the scoreboard.

In 14 games with the Flyers this season, Laughton has one goal and four points. His first career NHL tally finally came on December 14 against the Carolina Hurricanes. 

Laughton was happy to finally put the puck in the back of the net. "A big relief,” Laughton told Tim Panaccio of CSNPhilly.com. “It definitely weighs in the back of your mind. I thought I had opportunities every game."

His teammates have had plenty of good things to say about the highly regarded rookie. "He’s fun to watch, he’s pretty fast, and for a young player he’s pretty mature on the ice and plays a hard game," captain Claude Giroux told Panaccio.

Wayne Simmons also spoke highly of his new teammate, "Laughton is a great player," Simmonds told Panaccio. "He shoots the puck, he crashes the net, he has a lot of skill and will probably score a lot more."

The best holiday gift for Laughton would be a little puck luck so all of his hard work would pay off with more goal-scoring production.  

R.J. Umberger has been a major disappointment this season for the Flyers. In 30 games, Umberger has just two goals and five points and is an embarrassing minus-10.

His poor offensive production has just been the tip of the iceberg. His overall game has been lacking in so many areas, and he has been a real detriment to the team.

Needless to say, Umberger is frustrated. "I've had a couple bad starts in my career," Umberger told Frank Seravalli of The Philadelphia Daily News. "This might be the worst. It's hard. For me, personally, I've got to ignore it and bring what I can bring to the team everyday. Obviously, they made the trade for a reason."

Head coach Craig Berube is still hoping Umberger can find his game. "He can skate better," Berube told Seravalli. "Since he's had the weight of the world on his shoulders, you don't skate as good. He needs to free up a little bit and move and trust his abilities."

The perfect holiday gift for Umberger would be a huge second half of the season. That may only give him average stats for the season, but it may prolong his prospects of being a long-term contributor with the Flyers.