It’s no secret to anyone who follows the Flyers on a regular basis, that Claude Giroux is a vital part to the teams overall success. As Giroux goes, so do the orange and black. Giroux is the engine that runs the Flyers. When thinking of the Flyers best player of the decade there is no one even close to the player that Giroux was.
If you ask Giroux if he should be better, he will tell you he has to be better. Giroux wears his heart on his sleeve and always has been a team-first guy. However, the guy is a great Captain of the Flyers, and longest tenured Captain in Flyers history. He has tallied 223 goals, dished out 485 assists for a grand total of 708 points in 718 games played this past decade. What more does the Captain have to do to show people how good he is or has been this past decade?
“I think can make this team better. I want to win. I’m pretty pissed off at the position we’re in right now.”– Claude Giroux
From this quote why would he waive his No Movement Clause (NMC) to a rebuilding team like the Ottawa Senators. I will not dismiss any trade rumors in regards to Giroux to a contender, and even though he lives in Ottawa in the offseason he clearly wants to win now. This rumor below appears to be incorrect at least on the surface:
Some people refuse to give Giroux credit for making players around him better!!! Let’s see he makes Jakub Voracek a better player when he plays with him, Sean Couturier succeeds, Travis Konecny is better, shoot even Scott Hartnell killed it with him, and Jaromir Jagr had a great season with Giroux. Quite frankly Giroux had a great season with Jagr, as well, as Giroux posted his second best statistical season with 93 points in 2011-12. The fact is no matter who plays with Giroux players seem to always succeed, hence the reason some struggling players have been moved up to play with him (Voracek for instance multiple times).
“Well, I think we showed it last year that we can compete with any team,” Giroux said at exit interviews. “For me, we have a lot of things to work on, as for sure. But like we’re we have a young team with a lot of talent that when it starts clicking, I think we’re gonna be dangerous.”
It’s crazy to find out that Giroux has issued 686 hits this past decade. He really has tried everything just to win a hockey game. Some say when he wins a Cup, then he will get the respect he deserves. What a darn shame that is. This guy deserves respect now, and there hasn’t been a Flyers player even close to how good he has been this past decade, and for these reasons he will be a Flyer most likely next season too.
He can’t play defense by himself
Giroux is by far the .ost overrated player in Flyers history. They have won exactly nothing with him. He himself has never won anything on an individual level.
He has never “led” the Flyers to anything but one playoff failure after another. That is, when they actually make the playoffs.
He also is probably the worst captain of the team, as far as real leadership goes, in at least the last 30 years.
We saw this season, this team had no fight, no determination, no will to win.
The lack of leadership on this team falls directly on him. Giroux’s time here has been a near total disaster.
There used to be a time when it was automatic that the Flyers would be in the playoffs.
Now, it’s a cross-your-fingers deal. I hope the rumors are true and Ottawa trades for him. The sooner he goes, the sooner this organization can get back to building a competitive team.
Can’t agree with Flyerguy. What superstar has Giroux had to play with in the last 10 years? The closest you could say is a 40 year old Jagr for one year. Crosby has Malkin etc. Kane has Toews. Bergeron has Pastranak and Marchand. McDavid has Draisaitl. Would you put Voracek in that class? I wouldn’t. Couturier has been a defensive center for most of his career. In the case of leadership, unless you were with the team how would you know what is said in the locker room or to each individual player from a captain? The only ones that can judge a captain are his fellow players and coaches. I have never heard a leadership problem coming from any of those that could have made public. For 9 of his years playing here he has had terrible goaltending in front of him. This is a problem that the Flyers have had for the last ten years being in salary cap trouble so they couldn’t supplement Giroux with All Star teammates. Yet with all of these reasons he has still managed to be third in career points for the Flyers averaging almost a point a game.
@Buzz
The leadership problem is self evident in the play of the team. The Flyers were in a downward spiral for most of the season, and the same problems occur year after year and is never addressed.
It doesn’t even matter who the coach or GM is. How many seasons now have Flyers fans complained about the lack of scoring, the power play, the penalty kill, the lack of toughness, etc.?
Almost every season. How many years under Giroux’s “leadership” have the Flyers missed the playoffs?
As for blaming a lack of a superstar, that’s seems like a cowardly thought to me. Like you’re making excuses. Crosby, Kane, Bergeron, and McDavid are, by themselves and without anyone else besides them, light years better than Giroux is individually.
The same problems year after year, and yet, all you can say is he doesn’t have a superstar next to him or we have lacked goaltending?
That’s laughable. The Stars won the Cup with Jake Allen and Jordan Binnington splitting duties. Chicago won with Corey Crawford. Washington won with Holtby. The 2011 Bruins won with Tim Thomas who was exceptional only for that one playoff run.
Please stop with these excuses. Giroux is a perennial loser, plain and simple.
@Flyerguy…
Man you are way off base. You sound like the typical bottom 50% of Flyers fans who can never appreciate anything good here. G has been almost a point per game with a subpar team for his entire career. He is an elite faceoff guy, can play both ends of the ice, as well as PK and PP. I get the frustration of no cups. But you literally said he is one of the most overrated players the Flyers have had? How many cups did Londros (one of my all time favs) have? God know Lindros had talent surrounding him. 46 years brother and no cups and you literally say G is the most overrated Flyer? G has been the leader of a team that has been in a terrible rebuild for the last 6 seasons. This team has recycled coaches and multiple GMs in his tenure as well. Crazy thing… not one coach or player thar has ever left this squad has said one negative thing about him as a Captain. All that being said… with all the organizational chaos, garbage goaltending, and overrated talent surrounding him each year, he has managed to be a top 7 scorer (I believe) over the last 10 years in the league. Give the Giroux hate a break man, you sound like a pissy whiny bottom feeding Flyers fan.