Flyers General Manager Chuck Fletcher speaks during the end of the season press conference at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees Township, N.J. on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. The Flyers, 25-46-11 overall, finished last in the Metropolitan division and missed out on the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
Photo Credit: Delco Times
Free Agency has come and gone for the Flyers. They added Nic Deslauriers and Justin Braun, while Flyers’ General Manager Chuck Fletcher added Tony DeAngelo at the draft.
Fletcher says the Flyers are done, and will not make anymore moves due to the cap situation the Flyers are in. Unfortunately, that’s not what was promised to Flyers fans, they were promised an “Aggressive Retool”.
Fans feel let down, and are livid with the front office of the Flyers. They have a right to be, I mean the Flyers haven’t chosen a clear direction the team is headed. For instance, Fletcher re-signed Rasmus Ristolainen, traded Claude Giroux, bought out Oskar Lindblom, and added Owen Tippett, Tony DeAngelo, Nic Deslauriers, and Justin Braun, while striking out on Johnny Gaudreau and Alex Debrincat. The Flyers top brass just didn’t strike out on Gaudreau, they were never in on him to begin with, “We weren’t in,” according to Fletcher on Gaudreau. “We were in on the players that we signed.”
There was a player that could have been had, one whom practically was trying to choose Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Fletcher didn’t even talk to his agent. Moreover, Debrincat could have been had for draft picks, and Fletcher didn’t want to move the fifth overall pick to do such. However, in a few press conferences prior to the start of the draft he stated that the Flyers would like to add high-end talent, and they would be part of an “Aggressive Retool”. So much for that now, Flyers fans deserve to be livid. Losing out on Gaudreau marks the second time this offseason the Flyers struck out on high-end talent. On the surface it appears the Flyers front office does not want to improve this team, what was the point of buying out a fan favorite in Oskar Lindblom for a fourth liner in Deslauriers? Deslauriers’s hockey style might resonate with some Flyers fans, but the thoughts of landing a hometown hero from Salem County, NJ might supercede Deslauriers’s playing style.
The disconnect between the Flyers front office and Flyers fans was the verbiage that was promised before the offseason began, words by Dave Scott and Fletcher “Aggressive Retool”. Scott even threw the words “Blank check” out there during a presser earlier in the year. If the front office told Flyers fans they were enduring a rebuild and it would take two-three years to get back on course, then this lack of success in an offseason would be an easier pill to swallow. Instead the front office shipped two very popular players in Giroux and Lindblom away for peanuts practically. This is not a shot at Tippett or other players, but there was supposed to be a bigger picture. It was even promised upon by the front office. Unfortunately, it fell flat this offseason with striking out on two star players in Debrincat and Gaudreau.
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There is no easy way to cure this. Fletcher insists this team will be tougher to play against, unfortunately fans have a hard time seeing this through his goggles. Flyers fans are smart, they don’t forget the words “Blank check” and “Aggressive Retool”. In closing, Fletcher and the front office have a lot of work to do to repair the relationship they have between the fans and them. They have to restore trust, and I’m not so sure this is possible at this point it looks bleak.
I was livid and I have come to the conclusion that things cannot be fixed here and we have at least 7 years before you will see results from a rebuild if they started today. Now I am apethic. That’s worse than livid. I cared before and just have giving up. I have moved to being a devils fan since the stadium is not too far.
The ONLY way to fix this is for Comcast to fire everyone in management and the senior advisors. Hire a hockey person to become the new president of operations and let them hire the people they see fit. Holmgren, Lombardi, Clarke, Barber, etc…. have all interfered in the day to day operations of the club and in stone cases, have played proxy GM while Fletcher has been a bumbling buffoon in terms of his duties. The fact that Dave Scott can’t see that and is more than willing to allow this to go on is even more evidence at just how incompetent and how out of touch this staff is with reality and how the game is changing.
Fletcher is a joke he is making the same mistakes he did with the Wild. Why the Flyers brought in a a$$ clown like this in the first place never made since to me. Its like the flyers said “how can we screw up are team worse? Lets get Chuck he has already failed as a GM thats exactly what we need.” Signing a fourth line bum and Braun waa absolutely pointless. He actually made the team worse. But what do expect from an a$$ clown
I will as always watch every game this coming season I will be watching this year like I am watching a drama mini series Here is the premise A very talented passionate and outspoken coach comes to a gentrified blue collar town to coach one of the worst teams in the league His job will be to attempt to get the team to reclaim the hard working fan base that would loyally follow if he can somehow manage to overpower the corporate ignorance and disconnect that has destroyed the heart and spirit of the team after the death of their beloved owner Coming this Fall