In terms of numbers of seasons at the helm, Chuck Fletcher is nearing the same number of years as Philadelphia Flyers general manager as Ron Hextall.
Hextall managed the Flyers from 2014-15 to the mid-way mark of 2018-19, when Fletcher then took over from 2018-19 and has resided ever since. In terms of games played, this would only be the 2nd 82-game season for Fletcher with the Flyers due to the COVID postponement of 2019-20 and then the shortened season that followed.
The unfortunate circumstances that have risen from one general manager to the next is that the Flyers keep getting worse. You can make the argument that they dropped off from Paul Holmgren to Ron Hextall, but in his defence, he was trying a rebuild of sorts. With multiple finishes near the bottom of the division, you wouldn’t think things could get worse, yet somehow from Hextall to Fletcher, they have gone from hopeful to purgatory in a snap of a finger.
Looking back on it, it felt like Hextall was at the helm longer than 4.5 seasons and fast forwarding to the present, it does not feel like Fletcher is approaching that same amount of term at season’s end. The modern-day Flyers have been disappointments to their historic counterparts and it started after the calendar flipped to the 2010s. Before the 2012-13 season, when the Flyers embarked on their historic decade of alternating between playoffs and the golf course, they had only missed the postseason 8 times from 1967-68 to 2011-12 – with 5 of those coming in consecutive seasons in the late 80s to early 90s.
A lot of factors go into that kind of success versus the disappointment that has followed since. The playoffs was always a foregone conclusion, even advancing past the first round was almost fully expected. Big trade deadline moves and going after the big fish in the open market was the Philadelphia way, even with the constraints of the salary cap.
As much flack as Holmgren gets for his tenure as general manager, he actually did a formidable job in the first half of his 8 years. He took a team that finished in dead last – for the first time in franchise history – and took them to the conference finals the following season. He made some shrewd moves that catapulted the team into a playoff contender in short order. His downfall came after the 2010 playoff run because everything he had done up to that point got washed away due to the old Flyers mentality of going after every name possible, trading plenty of assets, and signing players to egregious contracts – not focusing on the future in the slightest and only thinking about the now.
The Flyers found themselves in salary cap trouble, they made the franchise altering moves of trading their cornerstones for players who ended up carving a good future with the Flyers – but created no team success – and the pressure was mounting from ownership for a championship. From 2007-08 to his final year at the helm in 2013-14, the Flyers made the playoffs in all but one season. He lost in the conference finals in 2007-08, he then lost in the first round in 2008-09, lost in the finals in 2009-10, lost in the semifinals in back-to-back seasons in 2010-11 and 2011-12, missed the playoffs in 2012-13, before being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 2013-14.
Hextall was tasked to clean up his mess and ultimately did because in the summer of 2019, the Flyers had nearly $35 million dollars in open cap space, which was unheard of for this organization. Over his tenure, he tried building through the draft, he acquired and stocked up on draft capital, and he was hesitant on making the bigger moves that Holmgren was known for because he had his “5-year plan” in motion.
He made 42 picks in the 5 drafts between 2014 to 2018 with many standouts that are still currently on the team like Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Travis Konecny, Carter Hart, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, and even Noah Cates. The problems that arose with his stockpiling of draft picks and prospects is that not many of them turned out to be elite game changers, which was generally the idea when he wanted a full teardown rebuild. The players previously mentioned have been good for the most part, but we are witnessing a dry period of talent for the Flyers. They always say that once you get past the first round, the likelihood of success in the NHL diminishes rapidly, so that explains why a lot of his later picks either floundered in the minors or weren’t even signed.
They got a little bit out of Oskar Lindblom, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and Nolan Patrick. The jury is still out on some players like Frost or Wade Allison, many signs are pointing to the fact that Jay O’Brien might not get signed by the team, and a player like Linus Högberg just had his contract terminated. Isaac Ratcliffe, Pascal Laberge, German Rubtsov, Adam Ginning, Carsen Twarynski, Mark Friedman, Kirill Ustimenko, and Matěj Tomek were all drafted within the first 3 rounds of their respective drafts and never made an iota of a difference in the minors or in the big leagues.
Even with all the misfortunes that followed you can still make 2 concessions: 1) the Flyers actually had a plan in motion and Hextall was technically unable to see it through, and 2) Provorov, Konecny, Sanheim, Farabee, and Hart are mainstays of the current team and have been for some time, and it’s the surrounding pieces that are either missing or not contributing either.
We will never know what Hextall had planned for the summer of 2019 after all his hard work in clearing Holmgren’s cap problems was about to come to fruition. Maybe he would’ve bungled it, we’ll never know, and while I have been vehemently against his tenure, when you compare it to Fletcher’s, it’s somehow almost a night and day difference.
Fletcher’s asset management has been worse off than Holmgren’s and that’s rather troubling. The one year the Flyers actually had money to burn was unfortunately during one of the weaker free agent classes in 2019. Kevin Hayes was the big fish – or at least one of them – that summer and it was definitely an overpay, but the Flyers were hopeful that Nolan Patrick would make strides into a top-6 centre within the following few seasons. They were banking on the idea that they could form a formidable trio of Sean Couturier, Nolan Patrick, and Kevin Hayes down the middle for the top-9.
Patrick flamed out, Hayes became a very expensive and mid-tier top-6 centre, and Couturier has dealt with injuries the last few seasons. In that time, the Flyers shipped out players like Shayne Gostisbehere, Jakub Voracek, Phil Myers, Claude Giroux, and Patrick, while bringing in Ryan Ellis, Cam Atkinson, Rasmus Ristolainen, Justin Braun, Keith Yandle, Tony DeAngelo, Owen Tippett, Nicolas Deslauriers, and Martin Jones at different points.
Ellis’ career could be in limbo, Atkinson played well last year but is out for the season, Ristolainen has been a polarizing figure, Braun is a healthy scratch, the Yandle and Jones experiments failed miserably, DeAngelo was an overpay, and Deslauriers and Tippett are doing what is expected of them. Comparatively, Gostisbehere has regained his form in Arizona, Giroux is still playing at an elite level, Myers has become an AHL defenseman, Patrick is still dealing with serious injuries, and Voracek’s career may also be limbo. In other words, his moves have rendered them back to being mid at best.
To acquire Ristolainen and DeAngelo, he essentially coughed up a first round pick, 2 second round picks, 2 third round picks, a fourth round pick, a seventh round pick, and Shayne Gostisbehere, while also having $10.1 million of their precious salary cap taken away through at least next season. That also doesn’t include the incessant trade rumours that have surrounded Provorov and Konecny over the last few seasons.
The Flyers are a complete mess right now and no one has any idea what they plan on doing heading into the trade deadline and beyond. James van Riemsdyk is the big name that will most likely be moved, Braun could follow suit again, Nick Seeler has gained serious interest around the league, and Zack MacEwen drew some interest before his injury. After that, the jury is out on any subsequent moves that could happen at the draft and beyond. Teams are interested in Kevin Hayes but want the Flyers to retain salary – something that Fletcher is hesitant on doing with 3 more years left after this year. There’s a chance that the Flyers and Provorov finally reach a breaking point and move on from one another as there are plenty of teams looking to acquire his services.
Fletcher has at least drafted well in contrast to his trades and free agent signings. Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, and Elliot Desnoyers are knocking on the door and should be with the Flyers in short order. Cam York is starting to flex his muscles and is excelling since being called up from the minors, Cutter Gauthier is a tantalizing prospect that did very well in the recent rendition of the World Juniors and doing even better at the collegiate level, and Ronnie Attard is another name to look for in the near future on defense.
What that means for the future is anyone’s guess because this is the first time in a long time that the front office has been radio silent. John Tortorella is doing all the talking and he’s using buzzwords that would liken a rebuild. However, the front office has been averse to rebuilding for decades and have constantly tried to look for alternative routes instead of the standard 3-4 years of toiling at the bottom to find the draft gems and develop them into superstars. It’s sad because they have been toiling at the bottom of the standings but not by design and they don’t have the game breaking talent to make this painful process worthwhile.
I’m still not convinced that they’re going to go through the type of rebuild that the majority of the fan base would like or the type of rebuild that is usually expected from a disappointing team. Chicago for instance, has 6 picks in the first 3 rounds of the next 2 drafts, they will be getting future assets for Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Jake McCabe at this year’s deadline, will have almost $45 million in projected cap space this summer, and will have a very good chance at drafting Connor Bedard. Arizona has 17 picks in the first 3 rounds of the next 3 drafts, will have close to $40 million in cap space this summer, will recoup future assets at the deadline, and will also have a good chance at drafting Bedard. Even if either team doesn’t win the lottery they could still be in the mix for Leo Carlsson or Adam Fantilli.
How about the Flyers? They have their first round picks in 2023, 2024, and 2025 as well as Florida’s 2024 first. They don’t have a second round pick until 2025, and they have 4 third round picks in the next 3 drafts. The Flyers are also projected to have close to $9 million in cap space this summer, which only amplifies the need to trade Hayes and Provorov if they want to alleviate cap space, recoup assets, and maybe try their hand on a few names in the open market. The following summer they are projected to have $27.132 million in cap space with a projected salary cap of $87.5 million. Tony DeAngelo, Owen Tippett, Carter Hart are the more prominent names expiring that summer.
Holmgren and Hextall inherited a mess – one way or the other – while Fletcher was given a much better platform to work with. Holmgren had to deal with worst team in franchise history and changed their trajectory in just one season. Unfortunately he lost his marbles after their cinderella run of 2010 and brought them back to ground zero only for Hextall to get them out of financial hell during his lengthy “refresh” as he liked to call it.
In 2018-19 the Flyers had high hopes for their young core that included Ivan Provorov, Travis Konecny, Nolan Patrick, Shayne Gostisbehere, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Travis Sanheim, and Carter Hart among others. On top of the fact that Fletcher was given $30+ million in cap space to work with, it’s sad that the Flyers have returned back to ground zero and look worse for wear – more so than they ever have looked in the past few decades.
There is a good chance that something good can come out of this mess but the big if is whether or not the Flyers have the right mindset and the right person in charge. Fletcher doesn’t seem suited for a rebuild, plus he’s trying to save his job right now. Daniel Briere is a little worrying because he has no experience and the people who are mentoring him are the ones that have ruined the state of this franchise. A clear and concise route is required and the saving grace might be their head coach. He might be the shot-caller for the short-term, and I think most of this fanbase would be more than okay with that.
The disparity between general manager and head coach is quite evident but with the former being on the hot seat and the latter having established his system within the first few months of his hiring, it’ll be damned if the Flyers reroute without Tortorella having a strong say. The current state of this franchise is in peril, the future is bleak, and the past is nothing but a distant memory.
They have an opportunity to fix this debacle, they can clear cap space, recoup assets, and draft another good prospect in a lottery position, but all of that is contingent on the man in charge and the route being mapped out.
