Nine times out of ten, the general manager of an NHL team that is sitting 28th out of 32 teams would be sitting on a very hot seat and most likely not surviving the end of the regular season. You look at all the teams in the bottom-ten and they’ve either all recently hired a new general manager or they’re at least rebuilding, which allows them to avoid the hot seat for a few years. Arizona’s GM was hired in 2020, Montreal’s GM was hired this season, Seattle is an expansion team in its inaugural season, New Jersey’s GM was hired in 2020, Chicago’s GM was hired this season, Detroit’s GM was hired in 2019, Buffalo’s GM was hired in 2020, and San Jose’s GM just took over the position on April 7th. Only the Ottawa Senators have a longer tenured general manager than the Philadelphia Flyers in the bottom-ten, but his excuse is that the Senators are rebuilding and have a stocked cupboard of prospects.
Every team amongst that list is tanking, rebuilding, looking towards the future, or whatever term fits the bill, except the Flyers. The Flyers are the only team that refuses to acknowledge their current trajectory, their future plans, and how badly they need to re-shuffle the deck. The new wave of NHL general managers have brought about a fresh new perspective and rapid change, most of which is successful. Bill Zito added to the talent in Florida to catapult them into Stanley Cup contention, rather than the Flyers mantra of trading an eye for an eye. Rob Blake took the Los Angeles Kings’ old roster, injected youth all throughout, and turned things around in very short order. Joe Sakic had a few lean years where people questioned his abilities but turned things around so fast that now he’s touted as one of the best around the NHL. The list is endless, but nowhere will you find Chuck Fletcher anywhere near the top, let alone even the middle.
The Flyers need a new general manager, they need a new voice, they need to shuffle the deck, but most importantly they need a new vision. They went from aggressively re-tooling with Paul Holmgren to begrudgingly accepting Ron Hextall’s half-way rebuild, to reverting back to an aggressive re-tool without a second thought. They haven’t learned from their past mistakes, even dating back to the Bobby Clarke days where he traded every draft pick imaginable for a “big” name that eventually let them down en route to a playoff defeat. Rebuilds won’t always generate success with Buffalo, Arizona, and even Hextall’s tenure coming to mind, but it’s your best bet to changing the culture and reinvesting for the future. Fletcher has tried to shuffle the deck more than once, and no matter what the reason is, he has fallen short every time. The third time is not the charm and the Flyers should be wise to that. However, sadly they are confident in his ability to turn things around and Dave Scott believes the Flyers can be contenders next season.
Bill Zito was hired as the general manager for the Florida Panthers in September of 2020 and even though he inherited a solid team, he made the needed additions to put them over the edge. He traded two roster players for Patric Hornqvist as his first move, he traded a prospect and a second round pick for Sam Bennett and a sixth round pick, he traded a prospect and a first round pick for Sam Reinhart, he signed Anthony Duclair as a free agent for $1.7 million and then extended him for another three years at only $9 million, he unloaded the final year of Anton Stralman’s contract to the Arizona Coyotes but he had to attach a second round pick alongside the defense-man, and most notably at this year’s trade deadline he acquired Ben Chiarot and Claude Giroux for two firsts, one third, one fourth, and Owen Tippett. Zito has been busy and his efforts have catapulted the Florida Panthers to the top of the Eastern Conference as they embark on their Stanley Cup window. They went from 4th in the Atlantic and 11th in the East in 2019-20 to 2nd in the makeshift Central Division and a first round loss in his first year in 2020-21 to 1st in the Atlantic and 2nd in the NHL this year so far.
Rob Blake’s path to the playoffs was a little different after he inherited a Los Angeles team that was several years past their prime and well away from winning the Cup again, let alone making the playoffs. He made rebuilding moves like trading Jake Muzzin for two prospects and a first round pick, Jack Campbell and Kyle Clifford for Trevor Moore and two thirds, Tyler Toffoli for two prospects plus a second round pick and a fourth round pick, Alec Martinez for two second round picks, Derek Forbort for a fourth round pick, and Jeff Carter for third and fourth round picks. His next move was acquiring Viktor Arvidsson from Nashville for a second and a third round pick because they were looking to move on from bigger contracts with value. Blake also drafted an arsenal of great players: Gabriel Vilardi, Rasmus Kupari, Alex Turcotte, Tobias Bjornfot, Arthur Kaliyev, Jordan Spence, Quinton Byfield, Brock Faber, Brandt Clarke, and Francesco Pinelli among others. The Kings made the playoffs in his first season as general manager but then finished 8th, 7th, and 6th in the Pacific Division, respectively, in the following three seasons. Now the Kings are sitting in 3rd place and only four points back of home-ice advantage in the first round.
The Montreal Canadiens and Anaheim Ducks named their new general managers in-season with Kent Hughes being hired by Montreal in January of 2022 and Pat Verbeek getting the job in Anaheim in February of 2022. Both general managers had the tall task of having to deal with rebuilding squads at the trade deadline. Kent Hughes traded Tyler Toffoli for a prospect, a roster player, a first round pick, and a fifth round pick. He then traded Ben Chiarot for a first round pick, a fourth pick, and a prospect, then traded Brett Kulak for a second round pick, a seventh round pick, and a prospect, before signing off by trading Artturi Lehkonen for a prospect and a second round pick. Pat Verbeek started his rebuild off by trading Josh Manson for a prospect and a second round pick, Nicolas Deslauriers for a third round pick, Hampus Lindholm for a roster player, a prospect, a first round pick, and two second round picks, and then traded long-time Duck Rickard Rakell for two roster players, a second round pick, and a prospect. Both teams understood what was required for the betterment of the future and in the case of Anaheim, who were at the top of their division at one point in time, they understood what was necessary for the betterment of their franchise and didn’t risk the future by playing out the present.
Another good rebuilding general manager is Bill Armstrong from the Arizona Coyotes, who took over that mess in September of 2020. His first trade was acquiring Andrew Ladd, 2 second round picks, and a third round pick simply as a cap dump. He then traded Adin Hill for a prospect and a second round pick, acquired Shayne Gostisbehere, a second and seventh round pick for nothing in return, traded a big contract in Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland for three expiring contracts, a first round pick, a second round pick, and a seventh round pick, acquired Anton Stralman and a second round pick for a seventh round pick, traded Christian Dvorak for a first round pick and a second round pick, and then traded Johan Larsson for a third round pick. His efforts have given the Coyotes three first round picks and four second round picks in 2022, seven picks in the first four rounds of 2023, and eight picks in the first four rounds of 2024, including three in the second round. The Coyotes will also have $34 million in open cap space but only have 15 players signed, which shouldn’t be an issue for the oft-rebuilding franchise.
Joe Sakic’s first few years as general manager for the Colorado Avalanche didn’t produce much of anything outside of his Ryan O’Reilly trade that netted him Nikita Zadorov, Mikhail Grigorenko, J.T. Compher, and a second round pick. In fact, the Avalanche didn’t qualify for the playoffs in his first three years at helm, finishing last, second last, and last in their division in respective years. In 2015 he drafted Mikko Rantanen, in 2016 he drafted Tyson Jost, and in 2017 he drafted Cale Makar. As part of a three-team trade in 2017 as well, Colorado traded Matt Duchene to Ottawa for Shane Bowers, Andrew Hammond, a first round pick, and a third round pick. Also a part of the deal was Colorado flipping Kyle Turris to Nashville for Samuel Girard, a prospect, and a second round pick. This trade changed the trajectory of the franchise as they drafted Bowen Byram with Ottawa’s first round pick, Girard is a stalwart on the backend for the team, and parting ways with Duchene really opened things up for Nathan MacKinnon. Sakic and the Avalanche were playoff bound afterwards and he constantly made moves to better their chances. He acquired Philipp Grubauer and Brooks Orpik for a second round pick, Andre Burakovsky for second and third round picks, Nazem Kadri in a package for Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfoot, and Brandon Saad for Nikita Zadorov. At this year’s deadline with the Cup in their grasp, he acquired Josh Manson for a prospect and a second round pick, Nico Sturm for Tyson Jost to alleviate money, Andrew Cogliano for a fifth round pick, and Artturi Lehkonen for a prospect and a second round pick.
Then you have the old-guard of general managers, the same category that Chuck Fletcher might fit into, with Ken Holland. He took over the Edmonton Oilers after some disastrous seasons in Detroit after their dynasty finally collapsed. Armed and loaded with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on relatively friendly deals, all things considered, he hasn’t been able to set them up for success. His first move was a good one as he sent Milan Lucic and a third round pick away for James Neal; bad contract for bad contract with Neal finding early success scoring 19 goals in 55 games that year. Then he traded two second round picks and Sam Gagner for Andreas Anthanasiou and a prospect, and before this season he traded Caleb Jones and a third round pick for Duncan Keith’s entire contract without any salary retention. The Oilers are in trouble because Darnell Nurse’s $9.25 million extension kicks in next year, Duncan Keith still has one year left at $5.538 million, Tyson Barrie is signed for two more years at $4.5 million, and Cody Ceci has another three years at $3.2 million. Edmonton’s goaltending is in shambles too with Mike Smith and Mikko Koskinen, with the latter becoming a UFA at season’s end. The Oilers only have $8.8 million to work with as they look to extend Evander Kane, Jesse Puljujarvi, and Kailer Yamamoto, as well as finding a suitable goaltender. There is only so much that Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl can do, but one has to wonder when the enough is enough in Edmonton.
You can make the argument that Fletcher has attempted some of these models but they didn’t work out in his favour, and now the Flyers’ future is as bleak as ever. They have, and have had in the past, rosters with over-valued, underperforming, and questionable players all throughout their lineup, which is why they weren’t able to do what Bill Zito accomplished as he catapulted the Panthers. In his first off-season in 2019, Fletcher had $34 million to play with and made several additions that pushed the Flyers over the playoff hump. Addition without subtraction is the way to truly help your team but the Flyers can’t follow that equation because they can’t add to a team that is cap-strapped and filled with players that have very little trade value. On top of all that, Fletcher bungled the trade deadline by extending his only real valuable asset in Rasmus Ristolainen. $5 million a year is less than market value, however the five years he was given was far too much and he has been extremely unnoticeable since the extension was agreed upon. They took him off the power play immediately after signing the extension, all the talk about “the net front presence on the man advantage” just seemed to be smoke before the deadline, and he hasn’t been as physically noticeable, which is literally his biggest asset. The Claude Giroux trade wasn’t necessarily his fault but it’s a very “Flyers” thing to fumble the bag with two prized rentals that could’ve helped the team immediately.
Flyers fans have voiced their opinions and concerns all season and the consensus is that they want a new general manager. Unfortunately, the Flyers are going to give Fletcher another year to re-tool, but Dave Scott is very confident in his general manager. Injuries, COVID, and bad luck have been the mantra as to why the Flyers have struggled, which allows Fletcher to avoid the hot seat for another season. Maybe the third time is the charm, but it’s going to be really interesting to see what Fletcher has up his sleeve and whether or not it works. If things fall flat again in the early parts of next season, I would have to assume Fletcher’s job would be severely under scrutiny, but until then we have to wait as the new wave of general managers has taken the NHL by storm and brought about an exciting brand of hockey; something that is not synonymous with the 28th-ranked Flyers.
