Shelley Proving to be an ASSet

When the Flyers announced the signing of Jody Shelley back in July, it was basically a forgone conclusion that Shelley was to be the new tough guy on the Flyers. The new Donald Brashear. A Riley Cote who actually wins fights.

Well at $1.1 million for three years, Shelley better be beating the opposition senseless and taking out the other team's most important players or at least keep them off the ice when he's on it.

But that's not exactly what has happened so far this season. Ever heard of Deryk Engelland? Unless you're a serious Penguins fan I doubt it and even if you have, I doubt you consider him a legitimate fighter. Well take a look at what he did to our dear Jody Shelley last Friday in Pittsburgh.

According to the preeminent NHL fighter's dreamland, HockeyFights.com, 97.2% of people said that Engelland, won the fight. And after watching that beat down, it's impossible to disagree.

Once again, Jody Shelly is making $1.1 million per year to "bring his talents to South Philly." He's making more than Sean O'Donnell ($1 million), Brian Boucher ($925,000), Oskars Bartulis ($600,000), Sergei Bobrovsky ($900,000), Blair Betts ($700,000), Darroll Powe ($725,000), Andreas Nodl ($735,000), and here's where it gets interesting...James van Riemsdyk ($875,000), Dan Carcillo ($1.075 million), Ville Leino ($825,000) and Claude Giroux ($765,000).

Jody Shelley is making more bank than the Flyers' leading scorer (Giroux) and second leading scorer (Leino), cashing more checks than a quarter of the Flyers' blue line and seeing more bills than both the Flyers' netminders.

The NHL's leading bruisers with at least four fights on the season are Zenon Konopka ($600,000), Tim Jackman ($550,000), Mike Brown ($575,000), Brandon Purst ($800,000), Deryk Engelland ($500,000) and Ryan Clowe ($3.5 million).

Aside from Clowe who actually scores on occasion and averages 16:42 ice time per game, none of these so-called enforcers have a cap hit of more than $800,000/year. Most teams realize a fighter shouldn't be making more than a million per.

Shelley averages 5:01 time on ice per game. That means if you assume that Shelley plays every game from now until the rest of the season, and put his salary at a per game level, Shelley makes around $2,683 every minute he's on the ice getting his face pummeled. Compare that to Matt Carle who, if you did the same calculation with his 20:02 TOI, makes $2,096 per minute on ice. Shelley makes more per minute for his services on the ice than does a guy on the Flyers' top defensive line.

“I think our fans are going to take to Jody Shelley just the way they took to Dan Carcillo,” Paul Holmgren said after the Flyers signed him in July.

"We feel we got a guy who can play a role for our team we haven’t had in quite some time and play a third or fourth line, he’s a bigger body, and I’m talking about Jody Shelley, so I’m very happy with what we did today."

Dan Carcillo has the ability to score, Shelley does not. Dan Carcillo has the ability to win fights, Shelley just got his face wrecked by Deryk Engelland.


Take it as you will, but the signing of Jody Shelley is the worst signing in recent Flyers history. Especially when he keeps better players off the team with his enormous cap hit.

Rookie Camp Opened Today...Jody Shelley Got Nervous

Well it's the unofficial, official start of the hockey season. Flyers rookies have made their first appearance together at the Flyers Skate Zone in Vorhees (along with some veterans too). And with the start of training camp some serious personnel questions surrounding the Flyers begin to arise.

Bill Guerin is still skating at the Skate Zone and in order to continue to skate there past Friday, he needs to sign a contract. He originally said he wanted to come to the Flyers' facilities just to skate around while he was visiting his in-laws. So either he's so strapped for cash that he's moving in with said in-laws, or he's working on getting a contract with Philadelphia before the weekend. Now I'm not aware of Guerin's financial situation, but I'm going to guess Silly Billy is still at the Flyers Skate Zone on Saturday.

There are a couple of Flyers rookies who some people think have a chance of making the roster. Forwards Mike Testwuide and Kyle Wellwood as well as defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon (who the Flyers have given attempts at making the roster before, but so far he just hasn't panned out the way they would have liked) and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (who many think will be the Flyers starting goalie in 2011/2012, not this year).

All of this should strike fear in the hearts of Players like Dan Carcillo, Darroll Powe and especially Jody Shelley. Shelly better not get a roster spot in favor of a younger, more talented forward or the more talented veteran Bill Guerin and sit for the majority of the Flyers season, like I predict he will. Shelley is already a waste of space on this team and if he inhibits a more capable player from making the club, it will be a real shame.

Look for a post this weekend on the beginning days of Flyers training camp. It's hockey season y'all. Get pumped!

Predictions and "Grade-ictions" Series (The Noobs)

New winger, Nikolai Zherdev. Yep, he's on the Flyers.

Jody Shelley

Because I think this was one of the worst signings in recent Flyers history, I'm going to include his games played as well as point production predictions. Shelley will suck. Plain and simple. You thought Riley Cote was a waste? Ha! Just wait for this guy.
2010/2011 Predictions: 31GP 0G 2A -4

Nikolay Zherdev

I really can't decide what the hell this Cosmonaut's going to do this year. He was great at times with the Rangers and Blue Jackets, there's no doubt about that. But the fact that the Flyers don't have another Russian on the team to hang with Zherdev (which is apparently what these young Russian players need in order to thrive) scares me a little. If he did, like he says he did, improve his play in the defensive zone, he could be huge. Holmgren took another risk on a player from Russia again this year (Ray Emery), and hopefully it ends better than the last.
2010/2011 Predictions: 24G 36A -9

Andrej Meszaros

Which Andrej Meszaros will appear this year? Will it be the 39, 35 and 36 point man with the Senators? Or the 16 and 17 point man with the Lightning? Could it have possibly been the fact that he was playing on a poor defensive team in Tampa that his stats were so down? Or could his first few years in the league been a fluke? Do I have any idea? Why is this entire player preview written with questions? Who knows?
2010/2011 Predictions: 9G 22A +14
 

Sean O'Donnell

Probably my favorite Flyers signing of the offseason. He's going to be a tremendous 6th defensemen and about a million times better than whomever the Flyers threw out there last year (Ryan Parent, Lukas Krajicek, O.K. Tollefsen, Danny Syvret). And plus another veteran presence on a team never hurt anybody.
2010/2011 Predictions: 2G 12A +2

Matt Walker

Well, Matt Walker...Matt Walker, Matt Walker, Matt Walker. Referred to by many as the "bag of pucks" we got for The Departed (Simon Gagne). The highest amount of games Walker ever played in a season was 66, and the most points he has ever gotten is 14. Not expecting a lot from this guy this year. He'll most likely be the team's 7th D-man.
2010/2011 Predictions: 0G 4A -4