Coming off the heels of a tough loss to the red-hot Florida Panthers, Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux has quietly put up good numbers to start the season. Known for slow starts but being able to pick it up in the latter half of the season, the Flyers captain has 3 goals and 4 points in 4 games. They’re not earth-shattering numbers but it’s still a really good start considering all the flack that has been thrown his way.
Playing in the final season of an 8-year deal, both the Flyers and Giroux met in the summer and decided to hold off on contract negotiations until the off-season. The Flyers traded for Ryan Ellis and his $6.25 million cap hit for another 5 years, they acquired Cam Atkinson who still has 3 years left on his deal at $5.875 million, Rasmus Ristolainen is playing for a new contract, and Sean Couturier and Joel Farabee signed long-term extensions before the season started. Money is tight but still manageable if they want to keep the relationship going.
The Flyers and Giroux understand that this year is important, considering how inconsistent they’ve been for well over a decade. With so many changes being made and the Flyers finally giving Giroux a competent team to play for, it’ll be interesting to see how much money he’s offered, and if he’s willing to take a hometown discount of some sort like Couturier.
The national media was about a month and a bit late on the Giroux news and have made it seem like the franchise leader in games played as a captain is ready to move on and potentially start anew in Ottawa.
Claude Giroux is a native of Hearst, Ontario and has spent many summers in Ottawa as well. He played his junior hockey in Gatineau, Quebec, which is directly across the Ottawa River from the city of Ottawa. However, given the current state that the Senators are in and with the twilight of his career approaching, it is very unlikely he departs for the rebuilding Senators with a Stanley Cup at the forefront of his wishlist.
It all comes down to how the Flyers fare this season, however it is very unlikely that he would want to leave the only organization he has known and played for. If a separation were to happen, that would likely come from the front office, not Giroux. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Giroux wanting to leave the Flyers for greener pastures in Ottawa is very unlikely.
Putting that aside for now, Claude Giroux has been a mainstay on the Flyers since the 2009-10 season and playoffs. He erupted for 20 playoff points in his sophomore year, helping the Flyers reach the Stanley Cup Final. He followed that up by leading the team in points in 2010-11. Ever since then, he’s been the face of the franchise and the focal point of everything Philadelphia hockey.
Even though he has great individual numbers, his reputation has taken a hit for years, as he’s often been referred to as a bad captain, a bad leader, and not “elite”. In no way shape or form was Giroux ever touted to be as good as Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, or Patrick Kane. In fact, the Flyers reportedly wanted to draft Trevor Lewis in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft but Ron Hextall, who was newly a part of the Los Angeles Kings organization, got to him first, leaving Bobby Clarke and the Flyers with the diminutive forward from the QMJHL with the 22nd overall pick.
He often gets that label because former Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette touted Giroux as the best player in the world after the Flyers toppled the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals of the 2012 playoffs. Ever since then, a label given to him by his emotional and excited ex-head coach has followed him to this day.
Before the season started, Claude Giroux had 858 points in 943 games, he’s had 3 MVP-type seasons (2011-12, 2013-14, and 2017-18), and has 73 points in 82 playoff games. He was second all-time in franchise history in games played (943), 9th in goals (273), 2nd in assists (585), 3rd in points (858), 9th in power play goals (81), 7th in game winning goals (47), and 1st in power play assists (246) coming into this year. Individual stats don’t hold as much merit when you’re not winning games, but it’s still very impressive that he’s been able to put up these types of numbers.
After his power play tally against the Florida Panthers, he is only six power play points away from overtaking Bobby Clarke for first place in franchise history, and he’s only 22 points away from overtaking Bill Barber for second all-time in total points in franchise history. Since 2010, he has registered the 4th most points in the NHL and has scored the most power play points in that same stretch, ahead of Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Crosby, and Kane.
He’s posted elite numbers all throughout his career and continues to push the needle as he plays his 15th season in the NHL. For those interested in analytics, he has posted similar and sometimes even better numbers than players like Patrice Bergeron, Aleksander Barkov, Anze Kopitar, and teammate Sean Couturier; all highly regarded two-way forwards in today’s game.
Lack of success has fallen onto his shoulders even though he was never gifted a solid team, other than the 2011-12 Flyers who disappointed in the second round, losing to the New Jersey Devils. Ever since, he has had to anchor a team with old and not-so skilled bottom-six forwards, a joke of a defensive unit, a goaltending carousel, five head coaches, three general managers, and a core that never lived up to the hype.
To his credit, Sean Couturier has become an elite option in the last few years but was languishing in the bottom-six before then due to inept coaching and management. He also had Jakub Voracek by his side, but the two of them gave it everything they had, year in and year out with very little help.
Being the leader and captain counts for something, but when you’re playing with veterans like Jori Lehtera, Valtteri Filppula, Chris VandeVelde, Andrew MacDonald, Brandon Manning, and Radko Gudas, who all played much higher minutes than they should have, success is going to elude you. Ron Hextall’s era will aways be remembered for his drafting and salary cap management but through it all, Giroux’s prime years were wasted with his lack of proper NHL talent evaluation.
Whenever they did surprise us all and make the playoffs, Hextall never went out of his way to make trade deadline acquisitions; mostly because he probably knew they weren’t good enough to make any noise and didn’t want to waste draft capital. The only real “helpful” acquisition Hextall made was trading for goaltender Petr Mrazek in 2018 in the midst of multiple goaltending injuries on a team that looked playoff-bound. Of course, Mrazek’s abbreviated time in Philadelphia was more than forgettable.
They got outdueled, outclassed, and outskilled against the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2018 and Washington Capitals in 2016, making those series very tough to watch.
2019-20 was the first time in recent memory the Flyers made aggressive moves to better themselves. It worked out in the sense that they finally made it past the first round for the first time since 2012. Last season was a disaster, and the front office noticed that. They made several roster changes to better the Flyers for 2021-22 and the Flyers, on paper, now look as good as they ever have, and in the best way imaginable, Giroux has gone under the radar.
Most of the focus has gone towards the newcomers, understandably so, as well as Couturier and Carter Hart. Giroux can now relax a little and not have to worry about having to carry this team on his overworked shoulders. They have depth all throughout the lineup and when healthy, they should pose as a dark horse in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
All the hate directed towards the captain is unnecessary, for the most part. He’s the common denominator in every season since 2009-10, however the team around him wasn’t even close to being a Stanley Cup contender, let alone a playoff hopeful, in most of the seasons since. Giroux will keep climbing the franchise ranks, as long as he is donning the Orange and Black. He will rank top 10, maybe even top 3-5, in several prolific categories.
With players like Couturier, Travis Konecny, Cam Atkinson, and Joel Farabee firing on all cylinders alongside the captain, it should be a very successful season and potentially a better fate than their 2019-20 counterparts. The change on the ice as well as off the ice has been very noticeable and the Flyers truly do look like a different team; one on a mission to prove everyone wrong.
Sometimes it’s tough to look past the mediocre state they’ve been in for well over a decade. However, inept ownership and management has lead us to this point, way more than the captain. Chuck Fletcher has done a great job re-tooling his club and shoring up the the weaknesses from last year and beyond. With Giroux’s contract coming to an end and unnecessary rumours swirling around, maybe it’s time to finally give the captain some brotherly love.
