Photo Credit: Rebecca McCormick
What to do? What to do? What to do? These thoughts have to be going through General Manager of the Flyers Chuck Fletcher’s mind night after night these past few months, rather all season long. Moreover, I’m pretty certain every Flyers fan and their mother is thinking the same thing now. Next season is a blur already and the offseason has not even begun yet, it really has the feeling of “It’s all over duh-duh-duh-da-da-da. It’s all over,” until some dramatic changes take place. Chuck Fletcher and the Flyers were really building something special here this past offseason, and then boom the inconsistent Flyers became relevant more than ever. Regardless, of injuries it became apparent that the Flyers would underperform as a fringe playoff team, even if the orange and black had a healthy Sean Couturier and Ryan Ellis. Let’s not forget that the Flyers were in the midst of a ten game losing streak when Couturier got hurt and missed the rest of the season. Injuries are no excuse, they just need better players, more talent. So why should the proud City of Philadelphia, and other Flyers fans have a reason to remain optimistic about the front office or overall direction of the club? It’s sad times right now, and it appears it may only get a fraction better next season, unless something dramatically changes before training camp begins next Fall.
For starters. the Flyers have to keep their game simple and stop forcing the puck. They have to get off to faster starts, and it’s a must for a successful season. Yes, the Flyers sustained a lot of injuries throughout the entire organization, and everyone knew it wasn’t going to be easy to overcome said injuries. However, this team looked lethargic at times, and were 0-40-1 for the season when they trailed by two or more goals, the only winless team in the NHL in this particular category for that matter. The Flyers need more muscle, they need more “F-You” as Cam Atkinson alluded last week, and they need to start taking care of the puck.
Inconsistent
One thing that we have learned this past season is that the Flyers have remained an inconsistent hockey team and they were bad defensively in front of Carter Hart and Martin Jones on a lot of nights. Some nights they started out great, and other times not so much. Just imagine if the Flyers didn’t receive good Goaltending from Hart, Jones, and Felix Sandström. I can only fathom how bad the Flyers would have been, my gosh they would be in the running for Shane Wright as the worst team in the NHL. It’s mind-boggling that year after year for the past nine seasons or so this very topic has to be discussed. How do the Flyers get off to faster starts? Why are they ill prepared to start the games?
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For the last four to five years, maybe longer, the Flyers notoriously have come out flat, and behind the eight-ball in a lot of games. It appears they lack the urgency, and they play uninspired hockey for a period or two. This has resulted in them finishing with a combined record of 50-69-19 the past two years. Something has to give to fix the problem, and almost every player should be expendable, minus the likes of Joel Farabee, Carter Hart, Ivan Provorov, and Travis Sanheim. If players want to play uninspired hockey or take shifts off, then don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Philly fans deserve better gosh darn it.
Power Play
What more needs to be written about the inconsistencies with the man advantage. Ok, the Flyers are terrible with the man advantage, and Chuck Fletcher needs to stop comparing former General Manager Ron Hextall for the lack of a power play, as well. Earlier in the season Fletcher said the past regime had a hard time figuring out the overall success of the power play, as well, no excuses the man advantage is actually not a man advantage for the Flyers. For the past two seasons, their Power Play has been horrid with a 19.2% success rate in 2020-21 (19th in the league), and 12.6% in 2021-22 (Dead Last).
Teams are sensing the extra pass, thus picking off the pass and clearing the puck out of the zone with no problem. The Flyers also do not support the puck well, forwards and defensemen, to even give their man advantage a shot. They send one forward in the zone to retrieve the puck by himself. At the end of the season last year Chuck Fletcher stated, “You also have to be careful, it’s a small sample size. It’s obviously a critical sample size. We really could have used some power play goals. Then again, you go back certain times this year, you can find ten, fifteen games, where we were clicking. Why is that? That’ll be one of the questions we have to answer and certainly we’ll look hard at.”
There is absolutely no excuse for a lackluster power play for the third year in a row. The Flyers had the 14th best Power Play in 2019-20, and Fletcher wants to get back to that team. First things first, they have to transition better, and have better zone entries for a Power Play to succeed. The Flyers do not have either of those traits at the moment.
“This season was a tough season and I have mentioned that before. There are certainly a lot of areas we need to improve upon as a team. You go back to that ‘19-20 season where we played really well and played the right way. Prior to the pause, we were one of the best teams in the league. The process was good and the results were good. We were clicking and clearly the last two seasons for various reasons, we just haven’t been able to get back to that level. Certainly, that is our goal.” – Chuck Fletcher
The Defense
What Defense? The Flyers were abysmal in coverages and breakdowns, asides from a steady Travis Sanheim and Cam York. Ivan Provorov regressed a bit throughout the first half of the season, but I thought he got a lot better in the second half of the season, especially when York played on the right side. Both Hart and Jones suffered from such with their overall numbers. Bad turnovers at the blue line, trouble with breakouts, and gap control were problems that created the inconsistencies of the overall team defense.
It wasn’t just the defensemens’ fault. The Flyers forwards did not do them justice, and grazed into the zone without cause. At times Flyers forwards would skate gingerly into the zone, not looking to take a body, or remove a player from the goal crease.
The Flyers, for their cause, did get better, while becoming much more organized and structured under the direction of Interim Head Coach Mike Yeo, to his defense. But the damage was already done. In reality the defense shouldn’t be this bad, but Keith Yandle realllllly struggled throughout the entire season, and that had some effect on Ronnie Attard, Nick Seeler, and Kevin Connauton. The Flyers became handcuffed with Yandle’s Iron Man Streak, and couldn’t bench him due to bad play.
I hate picking on Yandle, but these type of plays have happened all year to every Flyers defensemen over and over again:
Will
The Flyers appeared lifeless at times, especially when things go South. They just sit back and take these defeats with showing little heart at times. Asides from Zack MacEwen, no on took matters into their own ends trying to inspire the team, or give the team a bite. This has to change, and it starts with the locker room. I believe this is on the players, not Mike Yeo, nor former Head Coach Alain Vigneault.
Have I always agreed with Yeo’s lineup decisions…no, especially with his usage of Oskar Lindblom at the end of the season. However, this team is too darn talented to be this bad. The Flyers have switched coaches time and time again, it’s time for the players to take responsibility for once.
Kevin Hayes, Sean Couturier, and Ryan Ellis
Hayes was inconsistent this year, as expected. However, in the last 20-25 games of the season we saw flashes of the old Hayes from two years ago. A healthy Hayes is a must for next season, as Fletcher said the team would endure an “Aggressive Retool.”
If Hayes comes into camp out of shape, this Flyers team would be in trouble, especially with both Couturier and Ellis coming back from injuries. All three of these players are vital for the overall success of this club, whether they like it or not.
“Up front, a healthy, strong, Couturier makes a difference. It’s going to be very difficult to get a number one center this summer. Sean is healthy, we believe he is. He’s 30 years old next year. I believe it’s his 30-year-old, age 30 season. He’s a pretty good hockey player, Look, we need to score more goals. We need to look at our power play. Who do we have internally that can help there? Where do we spend the money? Right now, you could look at every area of our team.” – Chuck Fletcher
“I mean Ryan Ellis is exhibit A. If by early July, it looks like he’s continuing to make great progress, that’s a pretty significant addition to your team.” – Chuck Fletcher
Carter Hart
Carter Hart entered the 2021-22 season looking to recapture his great 2019-20 season. Hart had a good rebound season, not from a statistical standpoint, rather if people saw him play they would realize he kept the Flyers in many games. In addition, he also won them games they should not have won in the first place. Hart was faced with a defense that looked lethargic and lost at times, sometimes non-existent. However, he does need to be better, and Hart knows it.
It’s been a weird year to say the least for Hart. This was not the best year for a young netminder that was faced with an AHL lineup night after night. Hart can and will play better, he is the franchise netminder of the Flyers for a reason.
“Like Carter, I think our goaltending did their job this year,” Fletcher said at his season ending press conference. “Our goaltending wasn’t the reason we struggled defensively, let’s put it that way. I mean players like Konecny and Farabee and obviously Travis Sanheim took a pretty big step this year, and Carter Hart.”
What Should Fletcher Do?
Fletcher should approach this offseason looking to offload some hefty contracts, like James van Riemsdyk. Believe it or not, there is a market for a 20-25 goal scorer named van Riemsdyk and one of those teams are the Arizona Coyotes. This is exactly the team I think he will be traded to, and I believe the Flyers could end up with an up and coming player like Lawson Crouse (RFA, he also made $1.75 million), Nick Schmaltz (4-years-left $5.85 million per), or Travis Boyd (2-years-left, $1.75 million per). Fletcher said part of the “Aggressive Retool” is to get younger, with using the youth for short-term and long-term help.
Fletcher continued, “Certainly, part of it is we need to get younger; we have to get more talented. We have to get faster. We have to aggressively look at trades, free agency and can we add a couple players to supplement what we have here and make this team better.”
The Flyers unfortunately will be interested in obtaining the services of Nazem Kadri and Johnny Gaudreau, regardless of how the team is shaped up cap wise. Both of these players are looking for long-term deals, in the area of around $8-9 million per year. The Flyers will not be contenders next season, the worst thing Fletcher could do is sign a top prized free agent with a long-term hefty contract for nothing.
Fletcher needs to be smart and steer clear of adding long-term contracts, it’s a must. Hayes, Ellis, and Couturier are enough in terms of long-term contracts and ones that Fletcher probably can’t move right now (Ellis and Couturier due to injuries). I’ll say this again, please do not add any more long-term contracts, as the goal next season is to make the playoffs from what it appears following Fletcher’s presser this past week. It may be a bit different if the goal was to win the Stanley Cup.
What I envision is the Flyers moving their top draft pick back in the draft to gain more draft capital, or possibly immediate help with the likes of a younger budding prospect. If you said this to me a month ago I wouldn’t have believed it. However, Fletcher had some interesting things to say on the youth at his season ending presser that I could actually see this coming to fruition, especially since there is no generational talent in this draft. There is good talent, not generational though:
“Young players are going to be a big part of it (“Aggressive Retool”), Fletcher said. “If you look at last offseason for example, at that point Morgan Frost was coming off of surgery and we weren’t expecting him to be able to make the club. Cam York had, I think, 5 NHL games. Laczynski was injured. Wade Allison quickly became injured. Tyson Foerster got injured early. A lot of our younger players were not really in the position to compete. We signed veteran players. We signed Brassard, Yandle, Nate Thompson, and picked up Patrick Brown and MacEwen on waivers. We simply didn’t have the young depth to compete. A critical part of what we do going forward, whether it is for short-term or long-term success, will be to integrate more youth into our team.”
It’s time for Fletcher to get creative. The Flyers need top six help. Well try to acquire a Nick Schmaltz from Arizona, or Josh Norris from the Ottawa Senators. Kevin Hayes has played out of position since he was obtained. Hayes is not a 2C, but the Flyers have been forced to treat him as such. He’s a 3C, so it would be nice if Fletcher could obtain a 2C this offseason. Yes, I know it’s not easy, but these are the type of moves a good GM makes at a certain point to make their team better to contend.
I do not believe Claude Giroux comes back to Philadelphia, especially after this comment by Giroux, “I love Philly and for two, three days there, it was pretty tough. But sometimes that’s the business side of it, and you just have to move on.” It appears Giroux has moved on and that’s great, it would be good for both sides if they stayed separated from one another. Giroux was great here in Philly, but that ship has sailed, leave it in the past.
The good thing that Fletcher said is he expects the youth to progress this offseason, and have a good shot at earning spots next Fall. He will rely on them to take the next step, seasoned youth with the likes of Morgan Frost, Wade Allison, Tanner Laczynski, Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, Ronnie Attard, Ivan Fedotov (He mentioned as a backup to Carter Hart), and of course Cam York.
On the defensive side of the puck not much has to be obtained, after a great presser from Ryan Ellis. The team should know more about his diagnosis in July, to see if he has improved. His goal is to be ready and 100% for Training Camp in the Fall.
As it stands right now, Cam York had evolved into one heck of a player for the Flyers, so the Flyers are afforded the luxury of obtaining only one defensive piece this offseason, seeings that Ellis gets healthy:
Provorov, Ellis
Sanheim, Ristolainen
York, XXXX
The Flyers will be against the cap, especially with the new contracts kicking in for Joel Farabee and Couturier. Unfortunately, the Flyers are looking at a defenseman that would only be making $750,000-$1.5 million tops for a third pairing role that Yandle obtained this season. Some intriguing names could be Ian Cole, Andy Greene, or Erik Gudbranson.
Coaching
The first order of business for the Flyers is hiring the right coach, that’s just it, the right coach. They will have a coach before the NHL Draft commences on July 7 and lasts through July 8.
It appears the Flyers are inclined to hire a safe coach from what I’m hearing from sources. What I mean by that is one with NHL experience. Look for the Flyers to take a long look at David Quinn, John Tortorella, Rick Tocchet, Jim Montgomery, Bruce Boudreau, or Mike Babcock. The Flyers would have to seek permission to interview Boudreau, and it is a possibility now that Boudreau will not make a decision on his future with the Vancouver Canucks right now, per Elliote Friedman. Apparently, Boudreau likes the Canucks but he is seeing if another team comes calling (Offers more money) for his services.
I firmly believe the Flyers already know who they want as a Head Coach. They have had 5-6 months to compile a list of attributes that would fit this team. They have to, and must nail this coaching hire. This organization will now be on their fifth Head Coach in six years. It is now time for the players to share responsibility for the lack of success, it can’t be coaching problems all the time.
You brought up several concerns about the current product being displayed ‘on the ice’. I would like to address some concerns ‘off the ice’.
The Draft, which has become nothing more than drafting Projects…not Players…who are nowhere near ‘NHL-ready’ when we select them. The few who play in the NHL make a minimal impact, but rarely have any long-term success. The drafts over the past 10 years have proven that. Where we fail miserably in the draft, that team who plays in the western part of the Commonwealth draft quite well…no matter what round or where they select in a round.
The Front Office…which has become a haven for ex-Flyers, who have no business being there. The Head of Scouting and Player Development are…wait for it…ex-Flyers. There are several others throughout the club.
Coaching: also made up of ex-Flyers over most of the past 35+ years. Having Rick Tocchet as our next coach will do nothing to help this team, and… we don’t need another ex-Flyer who won’t add any value to the club.
GM: see item 3. Another ex-Flyer waiting ‘in the wings’…perish the thought. Making matters worse: not comprehending the salary cap.
Free Agents: Big names get tossed around every year… and we do nothing ( due to that pesky salary cap ).
Quite sad how this once-proud franchise is now an afterthought in the Philly sports scene.
I hope there is a sense of urgency to address the problems with this club. Someone of a higher Authority better get a clue…FAST
First get Fletcher out of here I think the fans would accept a rebuild like the Rangers had if management said they’re going in that direction. How many years have they only been playing one or two periods in a game? Hate to bring this up but how can the Penguins continue to call players up from WBS and they look like they’ve been playing up all year? As for the coach please don’t recycle another NHL coach go after the coach from Sweden I think his name is Rickard Gronborg.
Good point. The Pens (and Rangers) almost always draft players who are ready to contribute…very rarely do I see their draft picks becoming career minor leaguers ( an area the Flyers have cornered)
The Flyers organisation (Comcast), only care about one thing, making money. They have done nothing to improve this team on the ice for several years, yet they created a mascot to distract those in attendance of the games from the horrible team on the ice. It’s very similar to when the Phillies created the Phanatic in the early 1970’s to distract the fans from that lousy Phillies team.
Comcast has also raised the ticket prices each season, installed a deafening scoreboard with extra affects like flame throwing to entertain the crowd. In the meantime the attendees at the games have watched a slow, weak, inconsistent team that gets outplayed at home as much as it does on the road. The Comcast Flyers are not the Philadelphia Flyers any more.
Chuck Fletcher was hired because of the legacy from his father Chick Fletcher gained as the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs-Calgary Flames-and Arizona Coyotes. Chuck Fletcher is not like his father at all. Chuck Fletcher is a mediocre GM at best, his legacy is from his near decade as the GM of the Minnesota Wild. During his reign in Minnesota the Wild were a middle of the road team, when they made the playoffs they never advanced past the first round. Chuck Fletcher is a poor judge of talent. The Comcast Flyers (Dave Scott), is entrusting their future on a man with a poor record behind him.
The fact that Fletcher is including the return of the injured veteran players (Couturier and Ellis), as added improvements for next season’s roster should tell the fans that he has no plans at all to improve this team at all. If you own a demolition derby car, then put a fresh coat of paint on it and new tires, it will still break down. The Flyers roster is a disaster. It should be scrapped, and the rebuilding (that term always makes me laugh when referring to this team, rebuilding from what? They have been awful for a decade.
Choosing a coach like John Tortorella would probably make some of the fans laugh at the beginning, since most of us want to see some of the players who’ve been pampered (Provorov-Konecny), yelled at and cursed out by the HC. It won’t do any good at all, the team will just turn on the new coach the same way they turned on Vigneault-Laviolette-Hackstol-Berube etc.
The Comcast Flyers need to hire a coach like Rikard Gronborg, who is good with younger players, but isn’t afraid to discipline the players as well as guide them.
When Provorov laid down his opinions during his exit interview should be a reason to cut ties with him and trade him asap during the offseason. Provorov has been expected to be a 1st defenseman for this team, but he relies too heavily on who his partner is, if he was a 1st d-man he would elevate the play of his partner. Travis Sanheim is the Flyers best d-man, followed by Cam York, Provorov is a 3rd defenseman at best, and with his attitude he should be expelled from the team. This team doesn’t need players in the locker room like him.
I know that Dave Scott (Comcast) will be pushing Fletcher to acquire a big name talent from the league, but that will just advance their salary troubles further. It may cause some of the fans to purchase tix to see Guadreau play for his hometown team, but it’ll be another failure by this franchise.
I would rather see Comcast sell the franchise to an owner who knows and cares about hockey, or to replace Dave Scott with a CEO who knows about the game of hockey. Fletcher should be fired as well, he was a bad hire from the start, and looking at the state of the team/franchise shows me that he will do nothing to correct this team in the future.
The first thing that needs to happen is that the senior advisors (Clarke, Holmgren, Lombardi), Dave Scott, Chuck Fletcher, Brent Flahr, and Ian Laperriere all need to go. They’ve helped contribute to the mess. The team has cratered drastically under Fletcher and he has burned through draft picks, cap space and players only to finish as the third worst team in the NHL with a maxed out cap and financial penalties to boot (they aren’t going to be able to spend to $82.5 million for the 2022 – 2023 season as they were over the cap by $300k this year due to bonuses paid out). His mismanagement of the roster has been exceptional. And don’t get me started on the coaching search or lack of urgency or even plan as to what he wants in a head coach. How does a GM not know what they want in a head coach. It’s incomprehensible how this imbecile continues to operate the way he does and continues to remain employed.
The medical staff also needs to go. How many players have been injured, came back and then immediately got injured again? They have no clue what they’re doing. Fire the medical staff and bring in a competent group of medical people and trainers.
As for the draft, the Flyers are one of the better drafting teams. I’m not worried about that. The problem with Philadelphia is what they do after the draft. There is literally no development plan for players. If a young guy makes the team they’re played in a third line role in order to ‘earn their stripes.’ Their strengths aren’t developed – it’s always “you need to check and play defense” while any bit of offense is practically coached out of them. Konecny is a great example of that. He’s struggling not because he can’t play, but because they’ve coached all the skill out of his game and he’s struggling to put everything back together. As for Provorov, his situation is much different. He jumped right out the gate and showed he could be a potential number one. However, they threw too much too soon at him. When Provorov struggled and started developing bad habits, instead of cutting back his ice time to reflect and simplify his game, they played him even more, leading to more mistakes and bad habits. Provorov is still young enough to turn it around, but having a really good coach to get him back on track is a must.
They really need to decide what they’re doing in Lehigh Valley. Are they developing or are they trying to build a winning team? If they’re going to focus on developing, then the young guys there need to be playing the prominent roles and the veterans need to support the young guys. That’s not happening in Lehigh right now. They need a guy in there who knows about how to develop players. Look at his like Benoit Groulx or Kris Knoblauch (who was once an assistant here). Those guys take late round players and undrafted free agents and have developed them into prominent players on the big club. Laperriere is neither of those coaches. The Flyers need to find someone who understands the development process and understands the role.
As for the big roster, the good news is that we shouldn’t see Yandle, Thompson, Brown and MacEwen on this roster next year. I get that everyone loves the ‘hustle’ and ‘energy’ that MacEwen brings, but he offers little else. The outdated thinking that he needs a roster spot is laughable. Use that fourth line for a line something like Laczynski/Ratcliffe/Lindblom. All three can skate, have good size and can play physical. They also have decent skill, so you’re looking at a line that can potentially put up 45 to goals a year between the three of them. As for the rest of the forwards, JVR has to go and they should be doing Atkinson to the highest bidder. If Hayes starts whining about that, he can add his name to the list of players being moved because the big money is gone and the limited movement clause kicks in – he can be traded. And I get the Flyers want to make a ‘big’ splash this year, but they’re in no position to make a big splash. They need to see that this is going to be a real young club and they need to build on that. Make Couturier the captain and build the lines as follows:
Farabee – Couturier – Konecny
Laughton – Savoie – Allison
Cates- Frost – Tippett
Lindblom – Laczynski – Ratcliffe
I put Savoie in there because he’s probably the best offensive player this draft and this club needs offense. Let him play and not worry about making mistakes. As for Allison, I fully expect that a new medical staff will make all the difference in terms of keeping him healthy. Every one of his injuries took way too long to recover from. I get that he was injury prone, but how much of his injuries were misdiagnosed by the medical staff originally?
As for the defense, this is probably the best groupings going forward:
Provorov – York
Sanheim – Ellis
Zamula – Ristolainen
This club is a mess from top to bottom and the product on the ice is a direct result.
As long as Fletcher is there; the Flyer Organization is going no where. In response to the guy who said the Flyers Draft well; my response is: ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Their drafting is horrible. And that stems from not being able to judge Talent. Also; they have ZERO Vision on what type of Team they want to put out on the ice that coincides with the 2023 NHL. Look for ALOT of empty seats at the Wells Fargo Center in the coming years. These imbeciles are just getting warmed up. In 3 years i fully expect them to resemble the California Golden Seals. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if they dont.