Out of the woodwork comes Chuck Fletcher, the supposed President of Hockey Operations and General Manager of your beloved Philadelphia Flyers.
With the way the season has unfolded and how they’ve approached media availability, you would think the John Tortorella was the president, general manager, and head coach as he has taken the brunt of the questions regarding the state of the team from start to present. Alas, it seems that Fletcher will be sticking around not only for the trade deadline, but beyond as the Flyers intend to continue to shroud the iron curtain over our eyes.
Fletcher, who many haven’t seen or heard from all season, held a press conference earlier Tuesday and explained what the next steps were heading into the trade deadline and beyond. Similar to his predecessor in Ron Hextall, Fletcher is not a fan of the word “rebuild”, and who can blame him considering everything he has done up until this point? When asked on whether or not they are going to call this a “rebuild” he staunchly sat there and said:
“I just…it’s terminology. I mean, are we going to gut this team? No. We’re not going to gut this team. I’m not looking to trade Tippett and Farabee and Frost and Gauthier and just trade everybody and start over. But clearly we have to get younger and we have to find some more young assets. I think what we’re going to try to do is probably more in line with what most of the teams in the league have tried to do the last few years. You keep some of your better assets, and if you can move a couple other players out to get younger, then we’ll do that. The timing of how you do things is important, and it really depends on the market. The goal is to get better, and to get value, not just to move guys out.”
This quote in it of itself is a microcosm of how bad things currently are in Philadelphia and how deluded the front office has become and/or thinks the fanbase is. In reference to a rebuild, no one is sitting or clamouring that the Flyers need to move Owen Tippett, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, and especially Cutter Gauthier, and it’s very interesting how he decided to single out the 4 players who you would intend on building around rather than moving outright. Tippett, Frost, and Farabee barely account for $8 million combined – that’s not the issue at hand – but the problem are the other destructive contracts that Fletcher decided to hand out, that some teams are interested in but he’s not willing to move on from – at the current moment.
He quotes how the timing is important as is the market, yet he held onto Rasmus Ristolainen when teams were offering a first round pick last season before the contract extension was handed out, he held onto Martin Jones full well knowing he wasn’t going to keep him around beyond the season instead of recouping a 4th or 5th round pick, he is holding onto Nick Seeler with his value sky-high, he is extremely hesitant on retaining salary on Kevin Hayes, he has held onto James van Riemsdyk for far too long with 4 teams that were previously interested having already made moves for similar players – Dallas, Winnipeg, Vegas, and Carolina – and he is still perusing the market for upgrades like Dylan Larkin, Colton Parayko, and was also in on Bo Horvat.
Fletcher then continued by saying that he has had a lot of talks with Dave Scott about his future and the future of the team and said that “we all understand where we’re at.” He continued to say that they’re close to being the 5th-most improved team from last year and reiterated that he knows they have to get younger. Fletcher doubled down on “selling” at the trade deadline and said teams have called about their expiring contracts and how their asking price are picks and prospects because they believe that the upcoming draft is deep, even beyond Connor Bedard.
In terms of these “expiring contracts” that teams are calling the Flyers about, it’s essentially just James van Riemsdyk, Justin Braun, and potentially Zack MacEwen. Justin Braun said if he were traded he would like to go to a Stanley Cup contender, so I wouldn’t expect the price of acquisition to be that high to begin with. MacEwen was generating a lot of interest before he broke his jaw, but he is the type of depth player that a lot of teams covet going into the postseason, and of course there’s the saving grace in van Riemsdyk.
Fletcher is acting like trading James van Riemsdyk is a groundbreaking move that no one anticipated. As if this is the move that is going to get the rebuild in motion. I’m not sure how many teams are left in the running for van Riemsdyk, but he should be a marquee name with the rest coming off the board in quick order. Minnesota is a team that has been sniffing around and it’s no surprise considering it’s Chuck’s old stomping grounds. Jordan Greenway has been rumoured to be the return, with potentially a mid-round pick as well. Carolina was another team desperate to make a move, but they just traded for Jesse Puljujarvi from the Edmonton Oilers with no salary retention.
He listed out several main focuses that the Flyers will look to undertake from now to the summer and that is using Tortorella as a culture-fixer, going after young high-end talent, and resolving his cap situation. Very much easier said than done because other teams aren’t just handing out young talent for nothing. However, if the Flyers are actually serious about selling and not just using that buzzword right now because they think it’ll satiate the fan base, trading Hayes and Tony DeAngelo is a good place to start.
There are several teams lining up for Hayes, several teams calling the Flyers about his availability, and Fletcher insinuated that if the price was right he’d do the deal. With 3 more years remaining at $7.142 million AAV, the Flyers have to retain salary but even if it’s only $2 million, they end up saving upwards of $5 million for the following 3 seasons, which in essence is a huge relief. DeAngelo has gained interest from the very team that traded his rights over the summer, and I didn’t think his name would be popping up in trade talks until next year. With another season at $5 million AAV, it could work if the Hurricanes are desperate to make a move and they might be considering the New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, and Tampa Bay Lightning have beefed up.
The Flyers were perusing the market for Vitali Kravtsov before he was traded for a 7th round pick and a prospect that has not panned out, and they were also in on Denis Gurianov before the Montreal Canadiens scooped him up for Evgenii Dadonov. I’m not sure how missed the mark on either player with low-risk-high-reward tags, and he also didn’t bother scooping up Eeli Tolvanen or even Kasperi Kapanen off waivers with the former only being 23 years of age. It’s been reported that he’s interested in reclamation projects, which is why Jordan Greenway makes a lot of sense – using that specific terminology – but without finagling your way out of the salary cap mess you created, I’m not entirely sure how the Flyers are going to be trading for young high-end players.
It’s always something in Philadelphia, and it’s miraculous how Fletcher has remained the general manager with the team hitting rock bottom in 3 consecutive seasons, somehow getting worse and worse in the act. They’ve shifted from “retool” to “aggressive retool” to “rebuild” to “aggressive rebuild” to “stabilizing” with rebuild being a bad word, to now “selling”.
Actions speak louder than words, so let’s see what happens in the next few days with the trade deadline heating up by the hour.
