There’s a large faction of the fan base that wants and wanted the Philadelphia Flyers to tank for Connor Bedard, there’s also an even larger faction of the fan base that wants a new general manager heading the team, and believe me you, we wanted nothing more than that. However draft lotteries don’t solidify or guarantee you anything anymore and it seems like Fletcher might have one foot back in the door after their recent stretch of victories. The Flyers were never going to be as bad as they were last year, there was no chance they were going to be a bottom feeder with the likes of Chicago, Anaheim, Arizona, San Jose, and Montreal outright tanking and rebuilding. Hiring John Tortorella was a tell-tale sign of that, especially when you consider that he mutually parted ways with the Columbus Blue Jackets because he didn’t want to partake in their long rebuilding process. Why would he come to Philadelphia for that exact same reason?
Unfortunately, the tell-tale signs came even before his hiring when they extended Rasmus Ristolainen before the trade deadline. No rebuilding team in their right mind would extend a defenseman like that for 5 more years at a hemorrhaging cost of $5.1 million per year. A team with a rebuild in mind would also not trade 3 draft picks – including another second round pick – for Tony DeAngelo on the second day of the draft. Finally, a team with the eye towards the future would not extend Travis Sanheim to an 8-year deal worth 50 million dollars even at his current age, it wouldn’t make sense with a rebuilding timeline. The Flyers are like a burst pipe and instead of calling a plumber to fix it – an arduous task that would take more time but yield the best results – they decided to patch it themselves with tape, full well knowing it’s a stop-gap move that will eventually come back to bite them in the future.
Chuck Fletcher was fighting for his job after the disastrous 2020-21 season, made all these fancy looking moves early in the summer of 2021, and was rather content with the changes he seemingly made. In his eyes he gutted out the negative players, sided with his coaching staff, and added new players with the intangibles that the previous team lacked. Unfortunately for him, his biggest move flamed out 3 games into the season, his depth signings did not help the cause, his reclamation projects failed, and the injuries to key players revealed the lack of depth and secondary options the team lacked.
He somehow survived the debacle, was given a clean bill of health from his boss, was allowed to make whatever moves he saw fit, changed the trajectory of his offseason on a whim – a few times – and sat back on the first day of free agency after signing the players he “wanted” in Nicolas Deslauriers, Justin Braun, and Troy Grosenick; once again making it apparently obvious that a rebuild was never in the cards. He was praying that Ryan Ellis, Sean Couturier, and Kevin Hayes would return and give this team a fighting chance then the Ellis web started weaving into a season ending injury, Couturier suffered a setback, Joel Farabee had a freak injury right in the smack-dab of summer, and even Patrick Brown had offseason surgery that wasn’t announced until training camp.
Every team and front office was well aware of Connor Bedard and the draft class of 2023 for years. The tantalizing prospect of being able to draft the next generational talent had many teams ready for a full bare-bones tear down – not the Flyers. This is an organization with a general manager trying to save his job, a front office full of pre-historic diatribe of winning at all costs, and high executives who want nothing to do with a lengthy rebuild and losing seasons. Unfortunately, the deed was done and the Flyers were stuck with Ristolainen for 5 more years at $5.1 million, DeAngelo for 2 years at $5 million, and whenever he had the chance to alleviate Ryan Ellis by placing him on the LTIR, he wavered and waited until the fall. John Tortorella was given a hard task to not only deal with a ruptured roster but to deal with the media questions that would be constantly flung his way. He took and has been taking bullets for the front office all season as we have not heard much from Chuck Fletcher and not a peep from Dave Scott.
So where do we stand now? The Flyers are good enough to beat the bad teams – something they couldn’t do last year – they are good enough to stay close or sometimes beat the decent teams, but not good enough to take down the good teams. It has also been a roller-coaster of a season with a hot start, freezing cold stretch of 20 games where they only won 3 times, and then another hot stretch of 8 wins in 11 games. In-season injuries to Cam Atkinson, James van Riemsdyk, Scott Laughton, Travis Konecny, and Rasmus Ristolainen hampered the installation of Tortorella’s system with line juggling, constant call-ups, turnover of roster players, and zero consistency throughout the lineup. It has only been during this recent stretch where the lineup has remained the same with the sole exception coming in goal and the results bearing victories.
This is where the expectations come and go. When they were winning at the start, it wasn’t believable or sustainable just based on the analytics and the superb goaltending. Then when they went on their 3-12-5 stretch, that was more pleasing because it meant: 1) a better chance at drafting Bedard and 2) Chuck Fletcher’s days in Philadelphia were numbered. The latter was very much true as there were rumblings that Dave Scott was being radio silent for that exact reason. Now they’ve finally started playing the way they were supposed to play at the start of the season, which was always going to be middling but never bad enough to be where the fan base was hoping – as Tortorella has said all season, it’s a process.
The front office, coaching staff, and player personnel aren’t happy with the tanking talk, they want nothing to do with it, and they are going out there every night and playing like the season means something. What comes next is a little confusing because it’s a mix of retooling and rebuilding but in my opinion the Flyers will never fully commit. I do believe Kevin Hayes and Ivan Provorov’s days are numbered, and whether that’s at the trade deadline or in the offseason remains to be seen. Hayes has not been the same since he was a healthy scratch and there is a night and day difference between what he was doing at the beginning of the season versus his production since then. He was outspoken about the coach’s decision and that probably didn’t play out too well. He went from 28 points in 27 games to 4 goals and 12 points in his last 18 – with 8 of those points coming in 3 games against Anaheim (2) and Arizona.
There are rumours regarding a buyout, a trade, a trade with retention, but all it spells out is his termination with the Flyers one way or another. Ivan Provorov on the other hand has, for lack of a better word, butted heads with the front office for years. Last year it was reported that he was tough to coach, doesn’t listen, doesn’t take criticism well, and threw his teammates under the bus. Then he had his media feud at the end of the season, which of course didn’t go over too well again. All that culminated into another season of trade rumours for the former first round selection from the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.
Here we are again, another disappointing season, another failed defensive partner in Tony DeAngelo, and the head coach wanting to see more from the minute munching defenseman. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman alluded to both sides having mutual frustration and a “boiling over” that will eventually happen. The Flyers are unhappy with his development, he’s unhappy with the situation at hand, and a contender is surely going to steal him out of Philadelphia. He will thrive on a better team with lesser minutes and a slightly lesser role with competent coaching and players around him. Whatever they get in return will never be enough to replace what they once thought they had but it seems like a change of scenery is beneficial.
In any regard, these 2 moves will rattle the core once again but the Flyers and Tortorella in particular are pleased with Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Noah Cates, and Cam York joining the ranks with Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Scott Laughton, and Carter Hart. They know how well they can play when they stick to the system at hand and they are salivating at the prospect of having a healthy Couturier and Atkinson joining them next year. The departures of Hayes and van Riemsdyk will essentially be filled in with the returns of Couturier and Atkinson.
From there they will move into the off-season and look for defensive help, which is always a top priority. If and when Hayes and Provorov are traded, it’ll most likely be for draft picks and young NHL ready players. A retention on Hayes + Provorov’s remaining contract + the departure of van Riemsdyk will suddenly give them close to $20 million in open cap space + an extra million in the salary cap increase for the 2023-24 season. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has also alluded to the idea that the cap might increase to $88 million in 2024-25 and $92 million in 2025-26, which will help the Flyers even more with certain contracts expiring by then as well.
We also can’t forget about the pipeline that has Tyson Foerster ready and able at some point this season, Bobby Brink returning from injury and getting much needed playing time in Lehigh Valley, and the maturation and development of players like Emil Andrae, Cutter Gauthier, and Egor Zamula. They will also still be drafting a good prospect this year who will eventually help them down the road but unfortunately it won’t be a game breaker like Bedard unless some tomfoolery occurs during the draft lottery – which can’t be discounted either.
It will be another stop-gap-like offseason but truth be told, adding Couturier and Atkinson to this lineup will reap rewards almost instantly. Tortorella already has a good rapport with Atkinson from his seasons in Columbus and he did to him what he is doing to Konecny right now. Couturier seems like a coach’s dream with his responsible game, offensive abilities matching his defense, and essentially being the best player on the ice. We forget how good he was and his on-ice impact when you haven’t seen him play for well over a year.
Chuck Fletcher might survive this season, he also might get fired, and it’s truly 50/50 but even if he is let go, Daniel Briere has been mentored and is under the tutelage of the same people who have been instructing Fletcher. So either way, it doesn’t give us that much more of a glimmer of hope. In saying that, the Flyers have lost a fair share of their good reputation around the league, similar to Paul Holmgren. Ron Hextall was brought in to fix that and he made good relationships around the league before Fletcher flamed those out. A more competent and respected mind has to be at the fore front of these upcoming moves or else the Flyers have already lost the war before the battle has even begun.
There needs to be zero expectations moving forward from now to the end of the season. Let Tortorella plant his seeds right now, let them marinate in the soil as they become ready to blossom ahead of the 2023-24 season. We have already seen his impact on players like Konecny, Laughton, and Cates among others, he has actually made Ristolainen a better player – believe it or not – and Cam York’s analytical numbers are ridiculous to say the least. All of that has come from the man behind the bench who deserves a lot of credit and some say into the future dealings of this franchise.
It’s truly frustrating being a fan of this organization because the fans have a better idea of how to move forward than the people in charge. It’s going to be painful to draft in the 10-12 range again but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and even though we’ve gone 10+ years of mediocrity and insanity, we were going to have to wait a few more years regardless.
The plan looks a lot better than what we were told years prior and Tortorella has been more of a saviour than anyone we’ve had behind the bench in years. His words are drowning out the words from the front office and that is something that can’t be said all too often.
