|
Quick Hits and Musings: McGroarty, Tortorella, TIFH |
|
|
|
|
|
Quick Hits: June 23, 2024
1) Winnipeg Jets 2022 first-round pick Rutger McGroarty is reportedly refusing entry-level contract offers from the organization and is looking to have his rights traded. This a parallel situation to what happened with Flyers 2022 first-round selection Cutter Gauthier.
McGroarty and Gauthier are close friends and former teammates in the US National Team Development Program. Gauthier, selected fifth overall by the Flyers, went to Boston College. McGroarty, chosen 14th overall by Winnipeg, went to the University of Michigan.
While it's not entirely clear why Gauthier's relationship with the Flyers deteriorated so dramatically, at least one of the key reasons was this: He reportedly wanted to turn professional immediately after his freshman season but the Flyers were not willing to guarantee an immediate roster spot in the NHL. Keep in mind that Gauthier, a natural left winger on the USNTDP and for Team USA internationally, was making a positional switch to center in college hockey.
The Flyers felt that the player could use additional seasoning to continue working on various off-puck and technical details of playing center. At least at the time, the Flyer saw his NHL future being as a center but didn't feel he was immediately ready to compete as an NHL center. Even at wing, he needed to work on rounding out his 200-foot game. There was never a question about his scoring upside.
At some point, Gauthier -- who publicly stated he was "born to be a Flyer" immediately after he was drafted -- soured on the idea of playing for Philadelphia. He cut off communication with the Flyers, refusing even to meet with development coaches John LeClair and Patrick Sharp (both former NHL All-Stars, and LeClair a US Hockey of Famer). On January 8, 2024, Gauthier's rights were traded to the Anaheim Ducks for young NHL defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a 2025 second-round pick. Gauthier made his NHL debut for the Ducks in the final game of the 2023-24 regular season.
Postscript: The Ducks organization already has 21-year-old Mason McTavish and 19-year-old Leo Carlsson -- both top-end first-round picks themselves -- as centers on the NHL roster. As such, after all the talk and debate about grooming Gauthier to be an NHL center, Gauthier is likely to be am NHL left winger after all. He made his debut for the Ducks on the left wing of a line with Carlsson and Alex Killorn. He is unlikely to play in the bottom six solely in order to a center, especially when left wing was his natural position in the first place.
McGroarty, a left-handed shooting right winger, had a strong freshman offensive season for Michigan and an even better sophomore campaign (52 points in 36 games). Reportedly, McGroarty was also put off by Winnipeg not being willing to guarantee an NHL roster spot after his first collegiate season and made a determination that he would not sign with the Jets when they came back with an entry-level contract offer.
Whether there were other factors at work in both cases -- or whether there was any direct correlation between Gauthier forcing a trade by the Flyers and McGroarty being in the process of doing the same thing to Winnipeg -- cannot be stated for certain. It is awfully coincidental, however, especially in light of their friendship.
Do I think it's likely that the Flyers would pursue McGroarty's rights in light of their negative experience with Gauthier? No. Is it impossible, though? No, but they'd have to feel confident of being able to sign the player.
2) Flyers head coach John Tortorella will turn 66 years old tomorrow. Someone brought up a couple points regarding Tortorella that I found interesting. Tortorella has two seasons left on the contract he signed with the Flyers in the summer of 2022. Next season will be Tortorella's third year behind the bench.
Flyers management, starting with governor Dan Hilferty, has effusively praised the job that Tortorella has done over his two seasons in general and the 2023-24 campaign in particular. My own take is nuanced -- there are both positives and drawbacks to his tenure so far, as I see it -- but I'll save that discussion for a future time.
The more important topic is this: The Flyers will need to make a decision by next summer as to how much longer they plan for Tortorella to be the head coach and how much longer Tortorella himself wants to do it. Barring an extension, the 2025-26 campaign would be a lame-duck season. That's never a good situation under which to work. It's hard for a coach to be effective that way.
Tortorella has said that, in hindsight, it was a mistake to go through a lame duck season in Columbus in 2020-21 and admitted he probably should have been fired at the end of the previous season. Tortorella was never fired by the Blue Jackets. Rather, his contract simply expired and was not renewed.
For practical reasons -- and in the sake of fairness to the coach himself as well as to his Flyers players -- the organization should either have a renewal plan or a succession plan in place by the end of the 2024-25 season. The last thing the Flyers or Tortorella should want is a lame duck year four against the foreseeable backdrop of the ongoing rebuild. The Flyers readily admit they are unlikely to be Cup contenders in 2024-25 but they also state -- quite correctly -- that these next two seasons are vital to the rebuild timeline. Just as with long-term roster planning, there needs to be a head coaching plan for one year out and two years out that takes shape over the next calendar year.
I also found this interesting, although lacking in context by itself. Over the entire course of Tortorella's prolific NHL coaching career, the median for all clubs -- President's Trophy winners, the last place team in the entire league and every club in between -- is a shade below 1.1 points per game during the regular season. Naturally, the per-team average in the NHL has increased compared to previous eras because of all the three-point games in the league.
Specific to Tortorella's teams in Tampa, New York, Vancouver, Columbus and Philly -- an array that includes a Cup-winning season, several Cup contending years with the Rangers and a number of also-rans -- his clubs have averaged 0.9 (rounded up from 0.88) taken on the whole. Basically, his teams overall have achieved about what would be expected -- not long-term overachievers or dramatic underachievers but in line with their talent and depth in the bigger picture.
Again, this is hardly scientific. There are all sorts of ways to add context, such as comparing immediate predecessors and successors who had comparable rosters. It is interesting, however, that Tortorella's long-term bottom-line results in regular seasons have been right about what one would expect: neither overachieving nor underachieving when taken beyond a season here or a season there for rosters that have pretty much spanned the gamut of high-end clubs, playoff but non-contending teams, bubble teams, and non-playoff expectation squads. His
corresponding results overall have been pretty much right at the median.
3) Today in Flyers History: June 23
* 2001: After years of various NHL teams -- including the Boston Bruins, New York Islanders and Florida Panthers -- holding the rights to Czech Extraliga and Czech national team star Jiri Dopita but being unable to convince him to come to the NHL, the Philadelphia Flyers became the first team to succeed. They traded a 2001 second-round pick to Florida for Dopita's rights and soon signed him to a contract.
Dopita, by now 32 years old, was convinced by friend and former teammate Roman Cechmanek to come to Philadelphia. Cechmanek, 29, was coming off a Vezina Trophy finalist season with the Flyers as an advanced-age "rookie". Meanwhile, the multi-championship HC Vsetin club on which Dopita and Cechmanek were longtime teammates, was experiencing financial issues.
Also at the 2001 Draft, the Flyers traded down in the first round, swapping their pick with the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Ottawa's first-rounder, a 2002 second-rounder (later flipped) and a 2001 seventh-round pick (used by Philly on hulking Swedish defenseman David Printz). Ottawa selected Tim Gleason with the swapped first rounder from Philly, while the Flyers chose Jeff Woywitka.
2007: The Flyers trade up at the 2007 Draft to select defenseman Kevin Marshall in the second round. Philly sends to the Washington Capitals a 2007 third-round pick acquired in the Peter Forsberg trade with Nashville (Phil Desimone) and a 2008 second-round pick (Dmitri Kugryshev).
* 2011: On June 23, 2011, the Flyers made dual blockbuster trades that sent Mike Richards to the LA Kings for Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and a 2012 second-round pick (later traded to the Dallas Stars for Nicklas Grossmann) and Jeff Carter to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Jakub Voracek, the eighth overall pick of the 2011 NHL Draft (Sean Couturier) and a 2011 third-round pick (Nick Cousins).
Working on an article for the Flyers official website in 2021, I spoke at length with Paul Holmgre for the 10th anniversary of the blockbuster series of moves. Homer gave a detailed account of how everything went down that day and the process by which the Flyers selected Couturier with the first round pick acquired from the Blue Jackets.
The Flyers scouts seriously considered a couple of defenseman -- now-retired scout Simon Nolet recalled Jonas Brodin being atop the Flyers' best-available prospect list at the final pre-draft meeting, while others have said it was a tossup between Dougie Hamilton and Brodin with Couturier also a possibility. Holmgren, the team general manager at the time, spoke up in the final meeting and strongly suggested that they rethink the strategy because the team had just dealt two centers in Carter and Richards and Couturier had entered his Draft year as the consensus top overall prospect before he was set back by a bout of mono and had a largely similar year production wise rather than showing increased dominance.
Another round of debate followed and the consensus pick shifted from Brodin or Hamilton to the big center.
2012: The Flyers trade left winger James van Riemsdyk to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a one-for-one swap for defenseman Luke Schenn.
2014: The Flyers trade left winger Scott Hartnell to the Columbus Blue Jackets for R.J. Umberger and a 2014 fourth-round pick (subsequently flipped to LA).
2017: On a Draft Day deal made during the first round. the Flyers trade center/left winger Brayden Schenn to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for a 2017 first-round pick (Morgan Frost, 27th overall), a 2018 first-round pick (Joel Farabee, 14th overall) and veteran forward Jori Lehterä.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»