With the state of the Philadelphia Flyers’ season hanging in the balance at the midway mark, with Alain Vigneault already getting the axe, and Mike Yeo’s interim tag most likely only lasting this season, the general manager’s seat should be scorching hot right now, but there’s some belief that the man in charge might be back for another season.
Chuck Fletcher doesn’t deserve the full blame, there’s a lot that can go around and a lot of fingers should be pointed in every direction, however with two 10+ game losing streaks in one season, let alone in a span of 27 games, nothing and no one from this season should be safe. In other words, there should be large scale changes happening now all the way to the start of the 2022-23 NHL season.
With Paul Holmgren’s and Ron Hextall’s mess in the past, Chuck Fletcher did his best to re-tool the Flyers and did everything he could to get the job done. He hired the most experienced coaching staff he could find with Alain Vigneault at the helm and Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo as his assistants. He then went out of his way to acquire what he believed would be the best 2C in the summer in Kevin Hayes. Veteran defensemen Matt Niskanen and Justin Braun were added to the mix and things were looking a lot better than the previous mess he inherited.
2019-20 was a successful season in the sense that the Flyers advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2011-12. However, the season was essentially a mirage because the Flyers struggled out the gates and then had a two-month burst after New Year’s that had them pegged as the hottest team in the league before the COVID-shortened pause. Once in the bubble, they looked good during the round robin and then pretty miserable in the two series that followed.
From 2019-20 to 2021-22, the Flyers have undergone changes galore, and yet they currently sit at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division and closer to the bottom of the league than they are at a playoff spot. The Flyers are 16 and 21 points behind the two Wild Card spots, respectively, and 8 points behind the Detroit Red Wings, who sit on the outside looking in on the Wild Card race.
A team like the Ottawa Senators currently sits 3rd-last in the league, but they have seven games on the Flyers and trail by only 5 points. Just five wins in their last 26 games, on top of the fact that they haven’t won in 2022 yet, should get things rolling in terms of upper management changes.
One thing that everyone agrees on, which is a rare sight in Philadelphia, is that a rebuild is required. While many don’t have a general manager in mind to take over and make those calls, it’s clear that Chuck Fletcher can’t be the one to do it. His track record screams re-tool and big splashes and the Flyers don’t need that right now.
The Minnesota Wild struggled out the gates with Fletcher as general manager, missing the playoffs for four straight seasons, three of which were under his reign. Then from 2012-13 to 2017-18, they qualified for the playoffs but never got past the second round. The Wild had three seasons of 45+ wins but mismanagement and faulty decision making on a yearly basis cost them.
Fletcher traded prospects, a first round pick, and a second round pick for Jason Pominville, who never really played up to his trade value. He traded two second round picks for Matt Moulson, who only ended up playing 20 games for the Wild. He traded a second round pick for Chris Stewart, and then a first round pick and a second round pick for Martin Hanzal, both of whom were rentals as well. The scouts were visibly angry with his decisions, especially after the Hanzal trade. All those traded picks added up, especially considering the fact that the players that came to Minnesota left right after they got eliminated in the playoffs.
The Wild were constantly trading valuable picks and because of it they had a very desolate prospect pipeline and farm system. They weren’t able to call up any substantial talent from the AHL because they didn’t have any one to call up and step in. Chuck Fletcher only had 8 picks in the first three rounds in his final 5 drafts.
Drafting and scouting were difficult to achieve when most of their picks were traded away, but the few that they did have laying around didn’t pan out much either. Everyone is quick to bring up Kirill Kaprizov in the fifth round. Yes, he was a hidden gem and the steal of the draft, but that can’t be Fletcher’s lone bright spot in 8 seasons. That’s on top of the fact that almost every general manager in the league has a hidden gem or two under their belt.
From 2011-2018, he drafted only three players to have scored 20 or more points in a Wild sweater; Matt Dumba, Jonas Brodin, and Joel Eriksson Ek. Obviously that number has increased a little after his departure with the addition of Kaprizov and a few others, however he went through 7 drafts with only three players producing 20 points while he was at the helm.
He wasn’t great with drafting and he wasn’t great with cap management either. He was the general manager that beat out Paul Holmgren and the Flyers for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. He handed a 35 year-old goaltender in Nicklas Backstrom a 3-year contract with a no movement clause. He signed Thomas Vanek to a 3-year, $6.5 million AAV deal, who had issues with head coach Mike Yeo and had to be bought out.
Fletcher signed Pominville to a lucrative 5-year deal with a $5.6 million AAV and he immediately declined, going from 30 goals to 18 to 11 in 2 years. He then traded Pominville in a package that netted them Marcus Foligno, who he then signed to a 4-year deal worth $3 million a year. To finish it off he signed bottom-six grinders and depth pieces who never panned out to multi-year deals like Darroll Powe, Eric Nystrom, Torrey Mitchell, and Keith Ballard.
He swung for the fences several times trying to bring an impact player to Minnesota, but either he overpaid, overvalued, or they immediately declined once they put on the Wild sweater. That list of players includes: Martin Havlat, Mikael Granlund, Dany Heatley, Devin Setoguchi, Charlie Coyle, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Jason Pominville, Eric Staal, and Nino Niederreiter. They sounded okay, they seemed like decent deals, and some of them had promise; yet they never panned out, which sounds familiar to what’s going on in Philadelphia at the moment.
Kevin Hayes, Matt Niskanen, Justin Braun, Erik Gustafsson, Ryan Ellis, Keith Yandle, Martin Jones, Cam Atkinson, Rasmus Ristolainen, Nate Thompson, Derek Grant. They sounded like good moves, they seemed like they would help this team, it looked promising. However, here we are at the midway point and this could easily be the worst the Flyers have looked since the early 2000s and that includes the team that finished in last place in 2006-07.
His drafts with the Flyers haven’t been spectacular but they haven’t been awful either. He’s gotten better from his Minnesota days in that aspect but it’s also too early to tell. Tyson Foerster, Cam York, and Elliot Desnoyers look like fantastic picks, especially considering Desnoyers was a 5th-round pick.
Kevin Hayes will be making $7.14 million for another 4 years, Ryan Ellis will be making $6.25 million until the end of the 2026-27 season, it took future assets including a first round pick to acquire Rasmus Ristolainen and he looks to be gone either at the deadline or in the off-season, and extensions for Sean Couturier and Joel Farabee have yet to kick in. In defense of Couturier and Farabee, they signed to very good deals money-wise, however the length on Couturier’s contract could become problematic down the line if, and when, the Flyers rebuild.
Fletcher isn’t a terrible general manager but he doesn’t fit the Flyers’ needs anymore. He’s had enough cracks with the team, roster, and coaching staffs to figure things out and they’ve only gotten worse. After revamping the roster and re-tooling everything all over again last summer, he should’ve brought a new coach, but instead he kept Vigneault who seemingly lost the locker room the year prior. The Flyers are not in win-now mode, and they won’t be for several years, and that is why they need a new voice.
Rumours are all over the place when it comes to the players with expiring contracts. Elliotte Friedman mentioned earlier this month that Claude Giroux is most likely leaving, then most recently Pierre LeBrun stated that the Flyers and Giroux haven’t had conversations about a trade at all. It’s a bit concerning if true, considering the fact that the Flyers are toiling in the standings and need to recoup future assets for veterans.
Ristolainen is another name that has popped up with conflicting reports about his future as a Flyer. So currently, it seems like the front office and management group don’t want to give up on this season, which is a huge red flag and another tell tale sign that it’s time to move on. If you can’t realize a lost season when it hits you in the face, it might be time to cut the cord and part ways.
Fletcher set a press conference for earlier yesterday to introduce John Torchetti as an assistant coach for Mike Yeo for the remainder of the season. If it wasn’t already known, Fletcher reiterated that Mike Yeo will remain the interim head coach until season’s end, and adding Torchetti adds experience and stability behind the bench. Torchetti worked under Fletcher and current Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr when he replaced the aforementioned Yeo as interim head coach for the Minnesota Wild in 2015-16. If you want to read into the tea leaves from this recent hiring, it just goes to show that the Flyers don’t plan on moving on from Fletcher just yet. It would be a strange move for a general manager to hire a new coach, just for him to kick the can shortly after.
One day after setting a franchise record for most consecutive losses, the Flyers brass sat down for a press conference to remind us why changes are absolutely necessary; unfortunately for us, they don’t see it that way. I understand that you’re not going to come out guns blazing and admit that the team is terrible but to do the exact opposite is mind boggling.
Dave Scott on Chuck Fletcher:
“I like the way he’s built this organization… I’ve never seen the front office working this well together… injuries happen. He deserves a shot to really right this thing. I’m gonna give him a blank cheque to right this thing.”
“I like the way he has built the organization. I like his style, I like his leadership. He’s smart, he’s collaborative. I’ve never seen a front office work this well together.”
Dave Scott on people saying the Flyers culture has shifted:
“If you talk to people inside the organization, it’s been pretty stable… if you asked anybody in hockey ops, they would say nothing has changed.”
Dave Scott and Chuck Fletcher on the state of the team:
“We have a lot of good hockey players. We have a pretty good core here. We need bigger more competitive people too.”
“The core is good, we just gotta get healthy… I don’t see it being a 3, 4, 5 year thing”
“We still have half a season”
These were just a few snippets of a laughable press conference. The idea was pretty simple, mired in a 13-game losing streak and only collecting 5 wins in 28 games, they needed to find a way to let us know that Chuck Fletcher is safe for another year. Excuses have been rampant all season and while some of them are justifiable, others are not and it seems like they really want to believe that the structure and foundation of this team isn’t problematic.
With the trade deadline about 7 weeks away, the Flyers sitting 13-22-8 and last in their division, the comments from upper management make it seem like a rebuild is far from a reality. If anything, it might be another Ron Hextall “refresh” or a Fletcher re-tool 3.0 and we all know that both those methods haven’t worked out so well. These comments either show a lack of understanding or a gullibility that they hope the fan base falls for. “We still have half a season” is a haunting quote that they believe they still have a chance at making the playoffs or going on a run; a run that will surely fall flat and cost them a good draft pick.
Fletcher is essentially Paul Holmgren 2.0; if you need a big move, a big summer, and splashes all around, then he’s your guy. His draft history, his scouting, his asset management, his head coach decisions, and his salary cap management from Minnesota and Philadelphia should be tell tale signs as to why it’s time to move on. Things need to change in Philadelphia and they need to happen quickly; whether that’s tomorrow or in the off-season, it needs to happen before things really get out of hand.
However, odds are against such a “monumental” move as upper management and ownership seem keen to give Fletcher one last crack at the whip. Fletcher is turning the Flyers into Minnesota 2.0 and if it didn’t work the first time, why would it work the next time around?
