Replacements For Flyers’ GM Chuck Fletcher And Assistant GM Brent Flahr If They Are Dismissed

Photo Credit: The Carolina Hurricanes

With yet another overtime loss dealt to the struggling Philadelphia Flyers (this time by way of the San Jose Sharks this past Saturday) this writer thinks it’s safe to say that the majority of the fan base here in the tri-state area are fed up with the prolonged mediocrity this team- and its management- has made them endure over the last 15-20 years. It’s time for a real change. While most teams are getting younger, faster, and more skilled, the Flyers are stuck in the past filling their lineup with over-the-hill veterans who are well into their thirties and thus well past their prime. The same could be said for their general managers (GM). The game (like technology) is rapidly changing and if you’re unwilling or incapable of changing with it you will be left behind! Case in point: teams, like never before, are studying new formulated stats and analytics that are now helping them to build better franchises. While the Flyers’ GM Chuck Fletcher (54-years-old) and Assistant General Manager (AGM) Brent Flahr (47-years-old) may not be “old” by any means, they do seem to be antiquated/set in their ways just the same. With that in mind, the Flyers could stand to benefit from a full-on rebuild from the ground up. Before any new construction can commence though, they will need some new foremen. Firing both Chuck Fletcher and Brent Flahr would provide the team a fresh start and allow them to bring in the kind of guys that have the knowledge and wherewithal to come in with an entirely new blueprint to go about reconstructing this team’s roster.

General Manager

It just so happens that one such name that they should be looking at in order to replace the soon-to-be-vacant spot (General Manager) left behind by Chuck Fletcher is none other than Philadelphia native Eric Tulsky. If you have not heard that name before it’s because Eric (who is currently the Carolina Hurricanes’ Assistant General Manager) comes from a different background than most in his position. No, he’s not a former NHL star recently retired. He, believe it or not, is a chemist who possesses a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Ph. D. from UC-Berkeley. After obtaining those degrees, he spent most of his pre-hockey managing career studying Nanotechnology. By now you may be saying “how did an actual genius get involved with hockey?” Well, like previously stated, this Philadelphia native was a fan of the sport and Tulsky (a then-Flyers fan) found out that there could be a lot of math and statics used to study the true worth of a player. So, Eric then began publishing his own innovative hockey statistical analysis online. Yes, he got his start as a blogger. His work must have impressed someone in the Hurricanes’ organization because some seven years ago now Carolina was able to talk him into joining them as a full-time hockey analyst.

Over the years, Tulsky would continue to make a name for himself within the organization by looking at stats that other teams either dismissed, ignored, or may have never even heard of before. Eric has been able to help select the right players to bring into the fold given the “Canes” owners’ extremely tight budget. Think of it as Tulsky being like hockey’s own Paul DePodesta (a.k.a. Peter Brand) as he was renamed for the movie Moneyball in which actor Jonah Hill portrayed him. The Oakland Athletics’ GM Billy Beane enlisted the Harvard graduate DePodesta to help him to look past the old school traditional stats which larger- more lucrative- teams were concentrating on in order to find players who could be brought in on the cheap but still be trusted to excel on the field.

But Eric is not only good with analytics and statistics: He is good when it comes to managing the financial side of things as well. It has been said that Tulsky played a big part in the team signing veteran forward Jesper Fast to a three year $ 6 million dollar contract which pays him a mere $2 million dollar per season; as well as bringing in the towering 6’6 Anaheim Ducks right-hand-shot defenseman Jani Hakanpaa at the deadline who, at the time, was only making a measly $750,000 a year but finished third in the entire league in hits (with 215) and was top 40 in blocked shots.

That’s not all though: Tulsky has been part of a management group who coaxed head coach Rod Brind’Amour (who won the 2021 Jack Adams Award-given to the coach who attributed the most to his team’s success) to a new contract of just $1.8 million a season when he could have gotten $5+ million on the open market. Not to mention that, after making the playoffs three years in a row, the frugal Hurricanes lost a bunch of players to free agency this past season. The biggest of whom was their number one defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who signed with the New Jersey Devils this past off season for $63 million over seven years (a $9 million dollar a year cap hit). They also lost their budding star, restricted free agent goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic as they did not have the money to pay him a long-term deal, so they traded him to the Detroit Red Wings.

While substantial losses like these would normally cause some teams to crumble, Tulsky saw it as a challenge and set out to find affordable replacements who could produce the same kind of stats. With most of his defense (Dougie Hamilton, Hayden Fleury, Jake Bean, and Jani Hakanpaa) now gone after last season, Eric and the Canes chose to bring a very underrated 24-year-old right-hand-shot defenseman Ethan Bear, veteran defenseman Ian Cole (who holds a career +123 average), and the recently-released New York Ranger Tony DeAngelo, who signed for just a million dollars this year and has since scored 24 points in 26 games played so far this season. So, with a rebuilt defense, he then moved on to goaltending where not one of the three goalies Carolina had on the roster last year returned this season. Instead, the Canes decided to bring in two 32-year-old veteran netminders Frederik Anderson and Antti Raanta. With Anderson able to win an incredible 18 of his 22 games started this year while posting a 1.97 goals against average (GAA) and maintaining a .929 save percentage, he has fans saying Nedeljkovic who?

But what might have been the most impressive move this off season that Tulsky was heavily involved in was the restricted free agent offer sheet the Hurricanes were able to sign Montreal’s 21-year-old center Jesperi Kotkaniemi to; A move that few teams have ever been successful at pulling off. While this deal may have been only for one year, it has allowed them to not only remain dominant in the Metro Division this season, but to retain this young player’s rights moving forward as well.

Assistant GM

As good as Eric Tulsky may potentially sound as a replacement for Chuck Fletcher, he will certainly need help. As Eric knows all too well, a general manager is often far too busy worrying about signings, re-signings, and daily roster moves etc. to even have time to think about the future until the season is over. So, Tulsky will need someone with a keen eye for talent who can focus more on the future as to who the team may want to draft or sign in the upcoming free agency period. For that job, there may be no one better at the moment than the 35-year-old Ryan Hardy who (until recently) was the general manager of the United States Hockey League’s (USHL) Chicago Steel. In just three years’ time it would seem he has mastered this art, considering that the teams he constructed went a combined 116-39-8-2 during that time span. The Steel were able to win two Eastern Conference titles, two Anderson Cups (which is given to the league’s regular season champion), and one Clark Cup (League Championship) under his watch. With that kind of success, it should come as no surprise to hear that Hardy won the USHL’s Manager of the Year award two out of three years he was with Chicago Steel.

Through his great scouting and the team’s ever-increasing number of accomplishments, there’s no doubt that a number of NHL teams wanted to try and obtain a player or two of his for their own team come the NHL Entry Draft. This led to the Steel breaking records for the amount of players being selected in one draft from a particular team. Last year alone the Steel had eight players taken, which were highlighted by Owen Power, Matthew Coronato, and Mackie Samoskevich being drafted in the first round. With other notables like Josh Doan (son of former NHL star Josh Doan) taken in the second and defenseman Jack Bar taken in the fifth. As well as having eight players selected in the 2020 draft with notables like: Brendan Brisson being taken in the first, Sam Colangelo being taken in the second, Ian Moore in the third, and Sean Farrell being taken in the fourth.

Acquiring Hardy will not be an easy task either. With Ryan being able to achieve this level of success as a general manager in such a small amount of time, the Toronto Maple Leafs recently came calling and offered him the job of Senior Director of Minor League Operations. He agreed to take this position which equates to him being the GM of both their American Hockey League Toronto Marlies and their East Coast Hockey Leagues Newfoundland Growlers.

Both of these accomplished individuals have been able to achieve so much in just a short amount of time. Tulsky has innovative new ways to find talented, yet underrated players other teams have overlooked, and Hardy has an unmatched ability to see potential in a prospect before they are able to fully cultivate it. Together, they just might be the perfect combination for the Flyers’ front office moving forward. The only question is how long will both Dave Scott (Chairman & CEO of Comcast Spectacor) and Valerie Camillo (President of Business Operations for the Flyers) wait before they decide to move on from their current antiquated managers and seek to then hire these two individuals who are pioneering the way clubs are now building their franchises