A four-year contract with Dale Weise had not been a good investment for the Flyers until recently. He's finally feeling comfortable in Year 3.
PHILADELPHIA — At the end of every season each player meets individually with general manager Ron Hextall and coach Dave Hakstol. It’s a time for feedback, review of the season and what to work on in the summer.
Back in April, before Dale Weise went back to Winnipeg, Manitoba for the summer, he knew how the feedback would go. He shared their view. To that point, a four-year, $9.4 million contract had not been money well spent for the Flyers.
“I left the exit meeting and Ron and Dave had good things to say about me,” Weise said. “It’s just kind of a small sample size.
Weise played only 46 games last season and it wasn’t because of injury. He was healthy scratched 36 games, including one stretch of 13 straight between early January and early February. He wasn’t producing points, but points aren’t necessarily what the Flyers signed him for.
The biggest problem was something else. So far this season he’s solved it. Even though he only had one goal in his first 15 games, he has had a much bigger positive impact than the first two seasons.
Weise had played the last seven games on the third line with Jordan Weal and Wayne Simmonds. That’s the unit on which he scored his first goal of the season and had gotten six of his eight points.
That changed Thursday when the Flyers got James van Riemsdyk back in the lineup and pushed Weise down to the fourth line with Scott Laughton and Nicolas Aube-Kubel. Weise gladly accepted the new role, especially seeing as he had played with Laughton in the past and it went well.
For Weise, that means not changing what’s been working well for him this season.
Then there was the start of the season when the Flyers put him on waivers. He passed through the league, no one choosing to take him and his $2.35 million contract. It took him four games this season to even get into the lineup. Since then, things have gotten better. Could you explain what problems Dale Weise faced in his first two seasons on the Flyers team and how he addressed them?
This prompt doesn't seem malicious.