Looking back at last season, it's impressive that Philly won 43 games and earned 100 points. Consider that ... GM Bob Clarke fired coach Craig Ramsay in December. Perennial 40-plus goal scorer John LeClair only played 16 games and finished with seven goals. Eric Lindros stayed home and nothing came in return. Brian Boucher, the No. 1 goalie from the previous season, was relegated to backup status due to shaky play and the emergence of Roman Cechmanek. Include the fact that Keith Primeau, Mark Recchi, Simon Gagne and Rick Tocchet missed a total of 59 games to injury, and the regular-season performance of coach Bill Barber and his team stands as quite a feat. Of course, the name of the game in Philly is to compete for the Stanley Cup, and the Flyers exited in the first round of the playoffs, forcing the front office to consider some dramatic maneuvers.

	2000-01 by the numbers
	Record: 43-25-11-3, 100 points (7th overall, 3rd East, 2nd Atlantic) Man-games lost to injury: 221 (14th) Goals for: 240/2.93 (11th) Goals against: 207/2.52 (T10th) Differential: 33 (8th overall) 20-goal scorers: Keith Primeau (34), Mark Recchi (27), Simon Gagne (27) 50-point scorers: Recchi (77), Primeau (73), Gagne (59), Daymond Langkow (54)

Looking at next season
To that end, the Flyers have been one of the league's most active teams in the offseason, and have re-tooled the team to look every bit a Cup contender in 2001-02. To ensure that the Lindros question doesn't arise from a roster standpoint, the Flyers signed free agent Jeremy Roenick to a five-year contract and inked Czech star Jiri Dopita -- a 6-foot-3, 220-pound center -- to a two-year deal. With Primeau (34 goals in 71 games) taking faceoffs on the top line, that gives Philly three world-class centers.

The major question marks for the Flyers are defense and goaltending. Although the Flyers still have an aging blue line corps -- average roster age of 29 -- adding free agent Eric Weinrich (34) will help out quite a bit, especially by giving Eric Desjardins a breather on the power play. Gritty but skilled Dan McGillis (35 assists, 86 PIMs) signed an extension as well. To make the unit on par with the conference champ Devils, three players must be at their best. Luke Richardson has to repeat his career year from '00-01, when he was a career-best plus-25. In addition, the Flyers expect one of two youngsters -- Chris McAllister (26) or Andy Delmore (24) -- to prove worthy of consistent work in the top six.

In net, there's irony piled upon irony. Boucher entered last season as one of the league's most promising young goalies. But the 24-year-old followed up a stellar rookie season (20-10-3, 1.91 GAA, .918 save percentage) with mediocre-to-poor play (8-12-5, 3.27, .876), landing him on the bench. Cechmanek replaced him and probably deserved the Vezina Trophy over Dominik Hasek after winning 35 of 57 starts. But Cechmanek struggled in the playoffs, allowing more than three goals per game as the Flyers lost in six games to Buffalo. Whether Cechmanek was rattled by postseason pressure or had tired from a grueling season in which he played more than a dozen games over his previous career high, the 30-year-old Czech became one of the goats of the postseason.

If the Flyers expect to reach the finals -- starting with getting past the first round -- Cechmanek cannot fade in the playoffs. If Clarke trades Lindros, he likely will acquire a defenseman or right wing -- a thin position behind Recchi and Tocchet unless 19-year-old Justin Williams can increase upon his 12-goal rookie campaign -- to shore up what looks like a rather formidable roster.

Brian A. Shactman covers the NHL for ESPN.com and can be reached at brian.shactman@espn.com.