The Philadelphia Flyers Lack A Cohesive Plan and Direction

Photo Courtesy of Zack Hill, Flyers PR

It’s easy to say that one of the worst seasons in Philadelphia Flyers franchise history took place during the 2021-2022 NHL regular season. As a result,  promises of an “Aggressive Retool” were brought forth by Chuck Fletcher and the Flyers management staff. 

Fletcher brought forth the viewpoint that the team needed high end talent to be added to this roster. While Governor of the Flyers Dave Scott stated  “We’re going to give a blank check, we’re going to get this right…I want it right now.”

Such statements put a belief in fans minds that the team would be looking to drastically improve the roster going forward. This was thought to be something that would take place during the Draft, the Free Agency period, as well as, throughout the remainder of the off season. 

Fast forward to July 13th, 2022 the opening day of NHL Free Agency and the additions made by the Flyers are far from ones that scream “aggressive retool”. Which had been constantly brought forth as the blueprint for this off-season. Here are the free agent signings the Flyers made below:

Justin Braun signed a one-year contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of 1.75 million dollars.

Nicolas Deslauriers signed a four-year contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $1.75 million dollars. 

Troy Grosenick signed a one-year, one-way contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $750K.

Louis Belpedio signed a one-year, two-way contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $750K.

Kevin Connauton signed a two-year, two-way contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $762,500.

Cooper Marody signed a two-year, two-way contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $762,500.

Adam Brooks signed a two-year, two-way contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $762,500.

When examining the actions carried out above by Chuck Fletcher and his staff these signings do not equate to the plan that was initially laid out to the fanbase. This plan was sold as one in which the Flyers would make aggressive moves to bring the team back to competitiveness once again. When taking into consideration the free agent signings made above such sentiments could not be further from the truth.

During Chuck Fletcher’s post free agency press conference the Flyers GM brought forth the following, 

“Right now, as an organization, the most important thing that we have to do is stabilize. We’ll be a much-improved team. We’ll be a competitive team. A lot of things that we really struggled with last year, I feel we have a chance to be considerably better at, whether it’s our goals against, our structure, our penalty kill, and our power play, in particular.”

My interpretation of Fletcher mentioning the team needing to stabilize is the realization that it could be a rebuilding season ahead. However, when asked during the press conference whether it was a retooling year or rebuilding year Fletcher firmly stated a retooling year.

Based on what’s occurred so far this off-season it appears as though the team likely wanted to retool. Due to the circumstances they put themselves into cap wise the management staff were unable to do so and free up the salary needed to make a certain signing. Which would have helped them acquire the high end talent Chuck Fletcher mentioned was so desperately needed on this roster.

In terms of the above I’m referencing Johnny Gaudreau. The Philadelphia native who it was rumored was willing to come back to Philadelphia and play in his hometown. Potentially for even a lower cap hit than the contract he signed in Columbus. Although several well connected NHL Insiders such as Elliotte Friedman, Pierre Lebrun, Kevin Weekes and John Buccigross all put out reports that the Flyers were interested in Gaudreau and were attempting to move salary to sign him. Chuck Fletcher once again did not provide transparency to the fan base when asked the question, were you ever in on Gaudreau. Where he then answered, 

“No, we weren’t in. We were in on the players that we signed.”

Which was clearly a fabrication considering all the reporting done on the fact the Flyers were looking to trade JVR to clear cap space to sign Gaudreau. Such a blatant act of miscommunication to the fanbase is something that gives people every right to be frustrated. Though it should be important to note that not all sports press conferences should be taken as gospel. Ultimately the transactions made are what we have to judge a General Manager on. 

Optically for a fan base already demoralized after a terrible season proceeding how the Flyers did was not the wisest move. As their handling of this particular situation has caused them endless backlash from even their most loyal fans.

In regards to Johnny Gaudreau and if the Flyers should have freed up the cap space to offer him a contract. Personally I don’t think signing Gaudreau would have been optimal from a roster construction point of view. Obviously he is a talented player but based on the organizational needs at the moment he was a luxury and not a need.

Looking at the most successful NHL teams my belief is that the best way to build a competitive NHL team is with Center depth, a deep blue line and solid goaltending. 3 very good centers, a very good top 4 defense as well, along with a competent goaltender is essentially the goal in my mind. So allocating a potential 10 million dollar cap hit to a winger  Johnny Gaudreau though a talented player is not what this team needs. Especially due to the fact that the Flyers already have  an abundance of organizational wing depth. Spending 10 million dollars on a player is fine in my books but when giving out a huge contract like that you must be addressing a clear cut need. The wing currently is not one for the Flyers. Though if a center or defenseman worth that money was available I would have been much more comfortable paying a player who fills one of those positions versus a winger.

Ultimately, it isn’t even about Johnny Gaudreau and the fact he was not signed. The concerning part about this off-season so far is how things were handled by the Flyers. There seems to be no actual direction or cohesive plan present when assessing and looking at the moves the team made. Singularly I don’t mind the moves the team put forth but cumulatively it just doesn’t make much of any sense at all. 

For example, if the team wasn’t going to actually complete this aggressive retool why sign Tony DeAngelo and give up assets to acquire him. I like the DeAngelo move from a hockey perspective. That trade alone does not move the needle for this team and make them better. Sure it solidifies the defense core but adding one player of DeAngelo’s caliber is not enough to make this team a legitimate playoff threat at this point. So why were cap space and assets used to bring him in if no other significant additions would be made. Due to the above and the Oskar Lindblom buyout it further cements that the Flyers stating they were never interested in signing Johnny Gaudreau is a pure posturing type statement. As it’s obvious the two moves I mentioned were likely directly correlated to the team trying to sign Gaudreau. Fletcher and staff just could not make the necessary JVR trade to do so. Which illustrates the corner Chuck Fletcher backed himself into with cap mismanagement over the last few seasons (ex. signing Rasmus Ristolainen).

Not to mention, the fact that Lindblom’s buyout money ended up being allocated to Justin Braun and Nic Deslauriers. If you weren’t going to be able to sign Johnny Gaudreau why buyout Lindblom who is a potential bounce back candidate for next season. As he would have likely contributed much more than Deslauriers will moving ahead. 

In my mind the Flyers were indeed trying to pull off this aggressive retool. When their 2023 first round pick was demanded to be included in a JVR trade that’s when the team realized they were backed into a corner and could not do much. At that point though all of these other moves such as the DeAngelo trade and signing, as well as, the Lindblom buyout were already made. So it begs the question as to why the due diligence was not completed beforehand in relation to Fletcher and his staff figuring out if a JVR deal could actually be realistically made without giving up a prime asset. 

The structure of these moves in sequence, and the lack of Fletcher’s ability to pivot and use the salary freed up to sign other actual potential difference makers is completely baffling. For instance, instead of spending Oskar Lindblom’s buyout money in that manner they did there were numerous interesting high upside signings that could have been pursued instead. Such as Dylan Strome, Dominik Kubalik, Sam Steel or Ondrej Kase. However, the creativity is simply not there from this management staff to target these types of players or so it seems. 

The key issue appears to be that Chuck Fletcher and the Flyers management staff want to try and do it all. They ideally would like to be a competitive team but they also are interested in adding high end talent through the draft. In today’s NHL landscape accomplishing both at once is a rarity. Consequently, this is where the problems with this team and it’s direction stem from. There is no clear cut direction or actual plan in place on how they want to build and structure this team moving forward. It can be easily seen with the failure of signing Johnny Gaudreau. 

Despite what the team states they were in on trying to sign Gaudreau and they just could not pull off the moves to get it done. The problem is though once a move like that can’t be made there needs to be some sort of alternative course and it is clear the Flyers had no idea of what that was. Not to mention the puzzling fact that if such a move could not have been pulled off how did it take hours before free agency began to finally come to grips and realize that. 

Once again pointing to the fact that there seemed to be no actual concrete plan in place for this off-season. If there was a plan it certainly wasn’t a realistic one based on the circumstances the team put itself in salary cap wise. The most inexplicable aspect of this all is still the fact that management is trying to sell this as an “aggressive retool” to the fans when it clearly is not. While it’s also clear that it is not a rebuild either because the team was actively trying to trade JVR and sign Johnny Gaudreau. 

Considering the above, the team operated in some type of middle ground in which they aren’t aggressively trying to add high end talent, but aren’t actively trying to rebuild. Almost cementing them into mediocrity. Being firmly in the middle of the pack is not a place you want to be in the NHL. Unfortunately, with what has transpired it seems to be where this organization is headed. This is even more worrying because high end talent is a lot harder to acquire in the middle of a draft than at the top of it. I firmly believe if the Flyers laid out a plan and actually effectively stuck to it whether it be a rebuild or retool the fan base would have accepted that. The inability to actually execute a legitimate course of action in terms of building this team and lay out a coherent plan that logically seems sensible has been non-existent to this point in the off-season.

Overall, the actions carried out by Chuck Fletcher and the Philadelphia Flyers management staff in the past two weeks can only be described as alarming to say the least. There is no semblance of a plan in place or any actual traces of one based on how the team has been operating. The unfathomable aspect is Fletcher and company attempting to sell the fanbase on their directionless activity and how it was all a part of their “vision” for the Flyers. Evidently, the upper management at Comcast likely realizes this lack of direction and the adverse fan reaction to the franchise at this point in time. One has to hope that this places Chuck Fletcher and his staff on the hot seat going. In my opinion I find it hard to believe Fletcher will still be the General Manager heading into next off-season. All of the above only lays out why that may possibly be the case.