Philadelphia Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher had a wild and aggressive 2021 offseason. It included acquiring Rasmus Ristolainen, Ryan Ellis, Cam Atkinson, and Keith Yandle, and trading away longtime Flyers Shayne Gostisbehere, Jakub Voracek, Nolan Patrick, Phil Myers, Robert Hagg and a good deal of draft capital. But he had also been a busy man before this past offseason happened as well. In this article, we are going to go over his first moves as Flyers general manager.
Fletcher had a very deliberate start to his Flyers tenure. He was named Flyers GM a couple weeks after Ron Hextall was fired. Fletcher has either been a general manager or assistant general manager for six NHL teams from 1993 to the present. Fletcher has pedigree, a Harvard degree, and his father Cliff Fletcher was a long time NHL Executive and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. Being around hockey is in Fletcher’s blood.
This article will focus on his first few trades and signings, as it is too early to rank any of his drafts properly.
2/25/19 – The Flyers trade Wayne Simmonds to Nashville for Ryan Hartman and a conditional 4th round pick. The condition was that if the Predators won a playoff series, the pick would improve to a 3rd round pick. Nashville lost in the first round of the playoffs, so the pick stayed as a 4th round pick
Context: The Flyers just beat the Penguins in the Stadium Series at Lincoln Financial Stadium by coming back from 3-1 down in the last couple minutes. Claude Giroux scored a beauty of a goal in overtime to send the Philly faithful into a frenzy. Even with this win, the Flyers were several points out of a playoff spot and the smart thing to do was to sell off free agents.
Return: Ryan Hartman is a bottom-six winger who plays physically and is currently enjoying a career year with the Minnesota Wild with 11 points in 14 games, but his previous career high was 31 points in 76 games. The Flyers would later trade the draft pick for Derek Grant. Hartman was traded for a first-round pick the year previously at the trade deadline as well. The thought was that he still carried that value and he could add some physicality to the mix.
This is nothing to do with Chuck Fletcher, but Simmonds had more trade value the previous season and more specifically at the 2019 NHL Draft. He was coming off of a 24-goal season and was relatively cheap. It is better to trade someone a season too early than too late.
Current Rating: C. Hartman was traded to Dallas the following offseason for Tyler Pitlick and the Flyers traded the pick. Simmonds was very underwhelming in Nashville and he signed as a free agent with New Jersey in the 2019 offseason. This was a trade that really did not work out for anyone, but it was probably hard for Fletcher to get much value for Simmonds since he was having his worst year in Orange and Black.
6/3/19 – The Flyers trade a 5th round pick to Winnipeg for the negotiating rights of Kevin Hayes. Fletcher signs Kevin Hayes to a 7-year, $7.142M per year contract
Context: The Flyers needed to make a decent sized splash to help the core of Giroux, Couturier, etc. The Flyers had a need for a 2nd line center. The trade was great. Fletcher had almost a full month to negotiate a new contract with an unrestricted free agent and only had to give up a 5th round pick. This was pre-COVID salary cap so that Hayes contract was reasonable at the time when teams estimated that the salary cap would rise about 1-3 million per year.
Current Rating: B. I know the Philly Faithful loves Hollywood Hayes and the Flyers had a need for a center with size and good production. Hayes is in year three of his seven-year contract. He has 73 points in 125 games, which is good for 0.58 points per game and about 48 points in an 82-game season. That is slightly underwhelming production for his cap cost. His production is also likely to decrease in the later years of his contract. Hopefully Hayes continues to play good two-way hockey combined with solid point production.
6/14/19 – The Flyers trade Radko Gudas (PHI retains 30% of salary) to Washington for Matt Niskanen
Context: Trade is one for one. At the time, this made almost no sense. The Flyers traded an analytics darling and cheaper right-handed defenseman in Gudas for an aging Niskanen, who cost more and was older. Niskanen had 25 points the previous season, where Gudas had 20 points and almost zero time on the power play. Niskanen had more pedigree as a defenseman who played on teams that went deep into the playoffs.
Current Rating: B+. This turned out to be a steal for the Flyers. Fletcher did not look at the spreadsheet and looked at fit. Niskanen was a perfect pairing with Ivan Provorov. Niskanen enjoyed a great year with Philadelphia. Gudas had an underwhelming year with Washington and moved on in free agency after the season. Unfortunately, Niskanen retired after the season and left a massive hole in the lineup that Fletcher is still trying to replace.
6/18/19 – The Flyers trade their 2019 2nd round pick and 2020 3rd round pick to San Jose for Justin Braun
Context: This trade came 4 days after the Niskanen trade and if you thought people were unhappy with the Niskanen trade, the Braun trade infuriated Southeastern PA and South Jersey like Ron Hextall made the trade himself. Braun was coming off a very down year in San Jose. His point totals went from 33 points in 2017-18 to 16 points in 2018-19. He was also being paid as a middle pairing defenseman with his cap hit being $3.8 million against the cap. Plus trading two higher draft choices for a guy who looked to be on the decline was panned by pretty much everyone.
Current Rating: A-. Another good pick up for Fletcher. Braun is a 3rd pairing defenseman but can play up in the lineup and has looked good with Ivan Provorov in the early 2021 season. Fletcher resigned him to a two year, 1.8 million per year deal. He is now being paid as a 3rd pairing defenseman. Braun has 8 points in 13 games for the Flyers this year and looks like an integral part of their veteran leadership group. The only way this trade gets a lower rating is if one of those draft picks become everyday players.
In closing, Fletcher did very well with his original moves for the Flyers. He took his time in assessing what the team looked like and needed after taking over as general manager, which shocked a lot of people because of how badly the Flyers performed early in that season. Hopefully Fletcher can continue to make levelheaded moves and move the Flyers into consistent Stanley Cup contention.
