After spending the last 15 seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, former captain Claude Giroux’s time in the city of Brotherly Love came to an end (at least for now) after being traded to the Florida Panthers. It was sadly a move that needed to be executed since the Flyers are in no way shape or form ready to contend, while Giroux needs a Stanley Cup to fulfill his career and legacy. In return, the Flyers received Owen Tippett and 2 draft picks in future years. It’s a weird time to be a Flyers fan right now, not only with how bad this season has been, or how mediocre the team has been for well over a decade, but also because we are possibly entering a new era of Flyers hockey with so many question marks.
For starters, the Flyers don’t have a captain for the first time in a very long time. Claude Giroux was the longest tenured captain in franchise history and the team has had a captain to some degree in every year since 1991-92. There were a few years similar to 2021-22, where the Flyers either traded their captain at the deadline or lost them to injury like in 2005-06 when Keith Primeau went down with concussion issues and Derian Hatcher was named interim captain in January. Peter Forsberg was the captain when he was traded to the Nashville Predators at the trade deadline in 2007. Since then, the Flyers have had the captain “C” donned on the jerseys of Jason Smith, Mike Richards, and Chris Pronger, before Giroux took the mantle from 2012-onwards.
For many fans, Giroux represented their entire Flyers-fandom, while others were ushered into the Giroux era after several successful decades from prior captains and teams. Being from Toronto, I never had the opportunity to watch many Flyers games between the late 1990s and the early 2000s. If they weren’t playing the Maple Leafs or if they hadn’t advanced further into the playoffs than the Maple Leafs, I would have to hear about the Flyers game from a variety of sports channels and shows that only showed one measly highlight of their game. It wasn’t until the dreaded 2006-07 season, where Canada started to air NHL games on a regular basis thanks to “NHL Gamecentre”. Ironically my chronic “watching phase” of the Flyers began shortly after Giroux was drafted and I haven’t missed a game since.
Now that he’s gone and potentially not coming back, depending on if you believe the reports or not, the next few months are going to be very important on the makeup of the team and the leadership group moving forward. The Flyers have had one constant voice through it all and even though he has been tabbed as a “bad leader” or a “bad captain”, a lot of players have either come to his defense or outwardly mentioned how great of a player, teammate, and captain he was. Do with that what you will, but surely the testimonials of NHL players counts for something, no?
The Flyers locker room and roster is chalk-filled with players who have had previous leadership roles. Part of Chuck Fletcher’s MO from the off-season was signing and trading for as many players who represented leadership. Ryan Ellis, Cam Atkinson, Derick Brassard, Nate Thompson, and Rasmus Ristolainen all wore a letter on their jersey last year. Add those players to the mix of Kevin Hayes, Sean Couturier, Ivan Provorov, and Scott Laughton, who have also worn a letter at some point in their careers. The Flyers are seemingly a team that doesn’t want to go without a captain for too long and whether or not Giroux returns in the summer, the Orange and Black are going to be naming a new captain.
Sean Couturier seems like the obvious choice based on the fact that he’s now the longest tenured Flyer, he is arguably the best player on the team, is signed through the next 8 seasons, and has worn the “A” at some capacity since 2018. Kevin Hayes, who is also signed long term, is another option as he has taken a huge leadership role since his arrival in the summer of 2019. He has become a team-favourite in the locker room, he was responsible for the team’s special camaraderie bond in the 2019-20 season, and he has several close friends and teammates on the team; whether that’s good or bad, can be debated. Scott Laughton is a dark-horse option but has been very vocal in the last few seasons, was Captain Canada during his World Junior campaign, and a lot of his teammates look up to him and follow his example. He’s a lite-version of Mike Richards with his snarl, grit, determination, and poise and we all remember those Richards-led teams very fondly.
On top of the fact that the Flyers are going to need a new leadership group, or at least a new front-and-centre-leader, Fletcher is going to give a re-tool another crack of the whip. He intimated that he wants a core group of players under the age of 25, which might see the end of Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny. They have been part of the rumour mill for years now and their names were all over the place during the trade deadline that just passed. Fletcher mentioned how he has had conversations about roster players with other GMs that would lay down the framework for a summer deal. Whatever this core group of players under the age of 25 consists of, they are going to be a vital cog for the future of the franchise.
That’s important because we have already seen what Fletcher can do in one summer in terms of drastic changes. In the summer of 2019, he acquired Kevin Hayes, Justin Braun, and Matt Niskanen, while also adding Alain Vigneault, Michel Therrien, and Mike Yeo as the new coaching staff. This past summer he made even bigger moves as he unloaded Jakub Voracek, Shayne Gostisbehere, Phil Myers, Nolan Patrick, and a first round pick among other assets for Cam Atkinson, Ryan Ellis, and Rasmus Ristolainen, while also signing Martin Jones, Derick Brassard, and Keith Yandle. He isn’t afraid to make a big move, he has never shied away from drastic changes even in his Minnesota days, but he also hasn’t had the greatest amount of success either.
Is Giroux going to be the only cornerstone of the franchise to get the boot this year? Most likely not, as Fletcher has big plans for the summer. All you need to know are 2 terms and 5 words that have been passed along to insiders like Elliotte Friedman: “Aggressive re-tool” and “re-modelling the defense”. You don’t do moves like that by trading away side pieces, these are moves that require team-wide personnel movement. He is looking to change the identity once again and that is why everything from here-on-out is extremely important for the future of the Philadelphia Flyers.
There will be a new captain, there will be a different leadership group, and right now the Flyers are going to need more players to step up with the amount of players currently missing (Sean Couturier, Scott Laughton, Nate Thompson, and Ryan Ellis). Players like Travis Konecny and Joel Farabee are going to be tasked to lead this team to the end of the season alongside Kevin Hayes and James van Riemsdyk. Interestingly enough, the latter could find his way out of Philadelphia as well as a cap-casualty. This won’t be the same team next year, at least in terms of personnel, and as we nervously await the changes that will most likely occur as soon as possible, as it did last year, it’s interesting to think about what the Flyers are and what they will look like in the post-Giroux era; even if it’s only for a few months.
