Sielski article in the Inky today (formatting my own): Since it is paywalled, taking the liberty of posting it here.

Blame Chuck Fletcher all you want, but the Flyers’ problems predate his arrival

The first sign of where the franchise was headed, and how much it would struggle in a salary-capped NHL, came in the fall of 2006. It has been downhill pretty much ever since.


by Mike Sielski | Columnist
Updated Jul 16, 2022

One of the more amusing aspects of the Flyers’ descent from excellence to mediocrity to sub-mediocrity over the last 18 years has been the public anger directed toward Chuck Fletcher, who became the club’s general manager in 2018.

It’s enough to make you wonder if there’s a contagious case of long-term memory loss going around. I’m not suggesting that Fletcher should have been earning any votes for NHL Executive of the Year during his tenure. But I am suggesting that, when it comes to assigning blame for the Flyers’ fall and understanding how it happened, Fletcher is an immediate and easy target. Consider two factors that can be and are often overlooked:

The most difficult of tasks

One: Fletcher works for people. He works for Dave Scott and the rest of Comcast Spectacor. And when those people hired him, they gave him a mandate to complete the most difficult of tasks in a sports league with a salary cap: to turn things around quickly.

Yes, the Flyers should have picked a strategy and stuck to it. Yes, they should have either leveled with their fans that a long and painful rebuild was ahead (the sounder, more realistic strategy) or sacrificed whatever prospects and draft picks were necessary to try to win a Stanley Cup right away. Yes, their approach instead has been muddled and inconsistent. But if you want to target those who ultimately are responsible for such an approach, you should aim higher than Fletcher.
Bob Clarke, who was GM of the Flyers from 1984-90 and then again from 1994-2006, deserves part of the blame for the situation the Flyers currently find themselves in.
Bob Clarke, who was GM of the Flyers from 1984-90 and then again from 1994-2006, deserves part of the blame for the situation the Flyers currently find themselves in.

Two: The notion that the Flyers’ decline is a recent development — that everything was going fine until Ed Snider died and Ron Hextall and Fletcher came along and the franchise lost its identity — is inaccurate. It’s worse than inaccurate, actually. It’s laughable. The first sign that the Flyers were headed for trouble, and that they’d struggle to pull themselves out of it, came in 2006, 10 years before Snider’s death, eight years before Hextall became GM, and 12 years before Fletcher arrived.

Let’s do some stage-setting first. In 2004, the Flyers lost in seven games, to John Tortorella and the Tampa Bay Lightning, in the Eastern Conference finals. That club was the consummate manifestation of the Flyers’ pre-salary cap methods. It was veteran-laden, loaded with experienced players whom the organization had recently acquired in the hope of making a playoff push. The Flyers could afford to do that then, when all they needed to spend money or make a major trade was Snider’s approval.

Then the NHL lockout of 2004-05 happened. The implementation of a salary cap loomed. To their credit, Bob Clarke — the Flyers’ GM at the time — and his assistant, Barry Hanrahan, reached out to then-Eagles president Joe Banner for insight into how to negotiate a cap. To their discredit, the Flyers either never understood or declined to follow Banner’s advice. Eight games into the 2006-07 season, the Flyers were 1-6-1. On a Sunday morning in late October that year, they announced that coach Ken Hitchcock had been fired and that Clarke had resigned as general manager.
The easy way out

Immediately after the announcement, Clarke told reporters: “I felt strongly that from the end of last season on — I don’t know if I was burned out or tired or something — but the decisions that had to be made, I was not willing to make them.” Six weeks later, once he had returned to the organization in a scouting and consulting role, he explained the reasons for his decision in more depth to the Daily News.

“The business of sports when you’re a GM is becoming bigger and bigger,” he said. “Personally, I like hockey way more than I like the business and the complications of the business. For me, I came here when hockey was the biggest part of it all, and a GM now is as much a business guy as he is a hockey person.

“I still had the enjoyment of the game, but I lost the enjoyment of what I was doing. It’s been a couple of months now. The fun of watching the game and stuff is still there for me. Talking hockey with hockey people, that fun is still there for me.”

Clarke’s successor, Paul Holmgren, took on the challenge of constructing a roster each season while under the confines of a salary cap, and he made enough big, bold moves to get the Flyers to the conference finals in 2008 and the Stanley Cup Final in 2010. But he was only slightly more inclined to balance the present against the future — the dance that any cap-era executive must dance — than Clarke was.

The Flyers still went all-in all the time until Hextall took over, and it has been off-putting to witness the bitterness that Clarke, others in and around the organization, and many Flyers fans still bear toward Hextall over his actions as GM. He made his mistakes and missed on his draft picks — especially Nolan Patrick in 2017, as Clarke pointed out during a podcast interview in January — but those errors wouldn’t distinguish him from Clarke, Holmgren, Fletcher, or just about any NHL GM.

No, Hextall’s greater sins seemed to be that he cut himself off from the franchise’s old guard, from the people who had hollowed out the Flyers in the first place — that he was willing to take his time, demand some patience, and withstand the unavoidable unpleasantness that comes with rebuilding a team. Better that than where the Flyers are now. Better that than where this nosedive really began, with Clarke’s reasons for walking away once the going got tougher. It was too hard, and it wasn’t fun. Whenever the Flyers get around to burying this era of their history once and for all, if they ever do, they ought to carve those words into the headstone.

https://apple.news/AYm4De9rqTH6XoTua2hQl1A

Nothing earth shattering, just more dumping on Fletcher

Jim Benning says hello, “don’t forget about me”
- Dave21Brown

Jim Benning didn't trade five draft picks and a player to acquire a player with the same skill set one year later with a higher cap hit

Sielski is a hack

Sielski article in the Inky today (formatting my own): Since it is paywalled, taking the liberty of posting it here.

Blame Chuck Fletcher all you want, but the Flyers’ problems predate his arrival

The first sign of where the franchise was headed, and how much it would struggle in a salary-capped NHL, came in the fall of 2006. It has been downhill pretty much ever since.


by Mike Sielski | Columnist
Updated Jul 16, 2022

One of the more amusing aspects of the Flyers’ descent from excellence to mediocrity to sub-mediocrity over the last 18 years has been the public anger directed toward Chuck Fletcher, who became the club’s general manager in 2018.

It’s enough to make you wonder if there’s a contagious case of long-term memory loss going around. I’m not suggesting that Fletcher should have been earning any votes for NHL Executive of the Year during his tenure. But I am suggesting that, when it comes to assigning blame for the Flyers’ fall and understanding how it happened, Fletcher is an immediate and easy target. Consider two factors that can be and are often overlooked:

The most difficult of tasks

One: Fletcher works for people. He works for Dave Scott and the rest of Comcast Spectacor. And when those people hired him, they gave him a mandate to complete the most difficult of tasks in a sports league with a salary cap: to turn things around quickly.

Yes, the Flyers should have picked a strategy and stuck to it. Yes, they should have either leveled with their fans that a long and painful rebuild was ahead (the sounder, more realistic strategy) or sacrificed whatever prospects and draft picks were necessary to try to win a Stanley Cup right away. Yes, their approach instead has been muddled and inconsistent. But if you want to target those who ultimately are responsible for such an approach, you should aim higher than Fletcher.
Bob Clarke, who was GM of the Flyers from 1984-90 and then again from 1994-2006, deserves part of the blame for the situation the Flyers currently find themselves in.
Bob Clarke, who was GM of the Flyers from 1984-90 and then again from 1994-2006, deserves part of the blame for the situation the Flyers currently find themselves in.

Two: The notion that the Flyers’ decline is a recent development — that everything was going fine until Ed Snider died and Ron Hextall and Fletcher came along and the franchise lost its identity — is inaccurate. It’s worse than inaccurate, actually. It’s laughable. The first sign that the Flyers were headed for trouble, and that they’d struggle to pull themselves out of it, came in 2006, 10 years before Snider’s death, eight years before Hextall became GM, and 12 years before Fletcher arrived.

Let’s do some stage-setting first. In 2004, the Flyers lost in seven games, to John Tortorella and the Tampa Bay Lightning, in the Eastern Conference finals. That club was the consummate manifestation of the Flyers’ pre-salary cap methods. It was veteran-laden, loaded with experienced players whom the organization had recently acquired in the hope of making a playoff push. The Flyers could afford to do that then, when all they needed to spend money or make a major trade was Snider’s approval.

Then the NHL lockout of 2004-05 happened. The implementation of a salary cap loomed. To their credit, Bob Clarke — the Flyers’ GM at the time — and his assistant, Barry Hanrahan, reached out to then-Eagles president Joe Banner for insight into how to negotiate a cap. To their discredit, the Flyers either never understood or declined to follow Banner’s advice. Eight games into the 2006-07 season, the Flyers were 1-6-1. On a Sunday morning in late October that year, they announced that coach Ken Hitchcock had been fired and that Clarke had resigned as general manager.
The easy way out

Immediately after the announcement, Clarke told reporters: “I felt strongly that from the end of last season on — I don’t know if I was burned out or tired or something — but the decisions that had to be made, I was not willing to make them.” Six weeks later, once he had returned to the organization in a scouting and consulting role, he explained the reasons for his decision in more depth to the Daily News.

“The business of sports when you’re a GM is becoming bigger and bigger,” he said. “Personally, I like hockey way more than I like the business and the complications of the business. For me, I came here when hockey was the biggest part of it all, and a GM now is as much a business guy as he is a hockey person.

“I still had the enjoyment of the game, but I lost the enjoyment of what I was doing. It’s been a couple of months now. The fun of watching the game and stuff is still there for me. Talking hockey with hockey people, that fun is still there for me.”

Clarke’s successor, Paul Holmgren, took on the challenge of constructing a roster each season while under the confines of a salary cap, and he made enough big, bold moves to get the Flyers to the conference finals in 2008 and the Stanley Cup Final in 2010. But he was only slightly more inclined to balance the present against the future — the dance that any cap-era executive must dance — than Clarke was.

The Flyers still went all-in all the time until Hextall took over, and it has been off-putting to witness the bitterness that Clarke, others in and around the organization, and many Flyers fans still bear toward Hextall over his actions as GM. He made his mistakes and missed on his draft picks — especially Nolan Patrick in 2017, as Clarke pointed out during a podcast interview in January — but those errors wouldn’t distinguish him from Clarke, Holmgren, Fletcher, or just about any NHL GM.

No, Hextall’s greater sins seemed to be that he cut himself off from the franchise’s old guard, from the people who had hollowed out the Flyers in the first place — that he was willing to take his time, demand some patience, and withstand the unavoidable unpleasantness that comes with rebuilding a team. Better that than where the Flyers are now. Better that than where this nosedive really began, with Clarke’s reasons for walking away once the going got tougher. It was too hard, and it wasn’t fun. Whenever the Flyers get around to burying this era of their history once and for all, if they ever do, they ought to carve those words into the headstone.
- PT21

The Flyers have never truly adapted to the salary cap era.

Sielski is a hack
- THE BLACK HAND

I don't quite understand why that Bobby Clarke quote is so damning. The guy was just expressing his own personal decision to step away. But everything else about the article was good, I thought.

The thing about building through the draft is, even if you make mistakes, you are still less burdened than the other approach of handing out long term contracts. If Hexy had stayed on, even if his decisions were less than stellar, we would have picked higher in 2020, and kept the 21 pick. We would likely have shed or or had for much less Giroux, Voracek, JVR, and not signed Hayes. A youngish team, with lots of cap room.

Future would have looked a lot less grim.

I don't quite understand why that Bobby Clarke quote is so damning. The guy was just expressing his own personal decision to step away. But everything else about the article was good, I thought.

The thing about building through the draft is, even if you make mistakes, you are still less burdened than the other approach of handing out long term contracts. If Hexy had stayed on, even if his decisions were less than stellar, we would have picked higher in 2020, and kept the 21 pick. We would likely have shed or or had for much less Giroux, Voracek, JVR, and not signed Hayes. A youngish team, with lots of cap room.

Future would have looked a lot less grim.
- PT21

A bad team with failed prospects is always a better position to be in than a bad team that is capped out with too many larger contracts and older players. I have made that point countless times. We'll have to see how this season plays out.

The Flyers have never truly adapted to the salary cap era.
- MJL

Yes, I agree that this is the crux of the problem. It’s not just the trades and free agency and spending to the cap. Each of those can be fine in a vacuum. It’s more the years of not enough draft picks, absence of drafting some positions and some skill sets, the misses with so few darts at times, the lack of clear development plans and support to maximize assets. It’s all of that and more. The cap era demands a certain amount of homegrown talent to be successful.

Yes, I agree that this is the crux of the problem. It’s not just the trades and free agency and spending to the cap. Each of those can be fine in a vacuum. It’s more the years of not enough draft picks, absence of drafting some positions and some skill sets, the misses with so few darts at times, the lack of clear development plans and support to maximize assets. It’s all of that and more. The cap era demands a certain amount of homegrown talent to be successful.
- NC Flyers Fan

You can't go for it every year in a cap era. You've alluded to it numerous times. The teams failure to develop homegrown defenseman. Especially RH shots has cost them time and again. Hextall did the best job at it. Fletcher had a solid group of young players when he took over to work with. The action bias has been a successful plan. Actioned themselves right into the dumpster.

You can't go for it every year in a cap era. You've alluded to it numerous times. The teams failure to develop homegrown defenseman. Especially RH shots has cost them time and again. Hextall did the best job at it. Fletcher had a solid group of young players when he took over to work with. The action bias has been a successful plan. Actioned themselves right into the dumpster.
- MJL

In reality, I think they still have a solid young core. My sadness comes from no longer believing they can properly support, prioritize and augment the group with new prospects and draft picks before again spending, spending, spending.

FIRE CHUCK!! Thanks!

In reality, I think they still have a solid young core. My sadness comes from no longer believing they can properly support, prioritize and augment the group with new prospects and draft picks before again spending, spending, spending.
- NC Flyers Fan

Exactly.

How many players on the roster are “Fletcher guys” & how many are “Hextall guys”. I’m not saying Fletcher is great but this mess is 90% on Hextall screwing up this organization. Fletcher was handed a turd
- Fopa21

Awww sh!t now you gone an done it

In 9 NHL seasons, how has Ristolainen wanting to win more than anyone helped the teams he has been on to this point? We'll start with that,


My favorite talking point for Ristolainen. He brings an element that we need. If that element is a completely mediocre overpaid player who we can give another team a 1st and 2nd round pick for. Then I guess he does.
- MJL

Look, there were times that Risto looked like the dumbest player on the ice, I give you that. But I also got to see the things Risto does do well, and if Torts can put him in a position to exploit those good things, I think he has a chance to be very solid. Like I said he will never be a top pairing D-man IMO, even though he has the tools, simply because he does not have the smarts to go with those tools. But moving on from Risto, the larger point here is that Fletcher needs to be replaced, there is no defense for this off-season! I told you if Fletcher did not have a good off-season I would hammer for it, and I am. The only thing I can hope for now is another last place finish and a chance for Bedard. Hopefully at that time a new GM will be in place also.

Look, there were times that Risto looked like the dumbest player on the ice, I give you that. But I also got to see the things Risto does do well, and if Torts can put him in a position to exploit those good things, I think he has a chance to be very solid. Like I said he will never be a top pairing D-man IMO, even though he has the tools, simply because he does not have the smarts to go with those tools. But moving on from Risto, the larger point here is that Fletcher needs to be replaced, there is no defense for this off-season! I told you if Fletcher did not have a good off-season I would hammer for it, and I am. The only thing I can hope for now is another last place finish and a chance for Bedard. Hopefully at that time a new GM will be in place also.
- jd250

You said this last off season. You said he had a chance. Didn't happen. What does Ristolainen do well?


Speaking of what you told me. You told me that Fletcher was not going to be moving draft picks this off season to win now. I told you you were wrong. Now I know you'll deny this. Here is the reality. The only reason why you are no longer supporting Fletcher is because even you are smart enough to realize that the evidence is so overwhelming against Fletcher, that there is no possible way to support him. If there was any grey area at all. You would still be supporting him. I hope at some point you realize that everything I told you in our interactions has proven to be true. Will you finally learn?

Still waiting for answers on how Chiris Stewart is doing as a player development coach. Can’t seem to find any information.
- PLindbergh31

Think Billy MeltZ wrote here that he was out. But Chuck aquired another fresh from Minnesota Wild Deslauriers! So Chuck got aroused bigtime again with his Minnesota fetish. 🥳

Pretty funny gofundme setup to raise money for a billboard demanding a new owner for the Flyers: https://gofund.me/79e5cdb5

You can't go for it every year in a cap era. You've alluded to it numerous times. The teams failure to develop homegrown defenseman. Especially RH shots has cost them time and again. Hextall did the best job at it. Fletcher had a solid group of young players when he took over to work with. The action bias has been a successful plan. Actioned themselves right into the dumpster.
- MJL

wipe your chin. Simply amazing how you just continue to slip in praise whenever you can.

Solid group of young players who are average. Yippie.

Burke with a solid move in acquiring Petry.

wipe your chin. Simply amazing how you just continue to slip in praise whenever you can.

Solid group of young players who are average. Yippie.
- hello it's me 2050

I was not a big fan of Hexy when he was GM of the Flyers, but I have no doubt the Flyers would be in a better position now if they had stayed with him.

I was not a big fan of Hexy when he was GM of the Flyers, but I have no doubt the Flyers would be in a better position now if they had stayed with him.
- Dkos

I’d rather have Hextall now also but Hextall’s fatal flaw was thinking he could have it both ways. He needed to commit to a full rebuild years ago or go all in on his roster and he did neither. You don’t just retool teams that barely scrape by. And you certainly don’t go trading young core pieces away (Schenn) for prospects and expect it to not make an average team worse.


There’s no reason why Comcast can’t afford to go pluck some smart assistant GM from a small market team. Pull somebody that works for Yzerman or Jarmo. These Flyer rehashes and buddies of Clarke need to stop. Absolutely zero interest in Briere from me.

You said this last off season. You said he had a chance. Didn't happen. What does Ristolainen do well?


Speaking of what you told me. You told me that Fletcher was not going to be moving draft picks this off season to win now. I told you you were wrong. Now I know you'll deny this. Here is the reality. The only reason why you are no longer supporting Fletcher is because even you are smart enough to realize that the evidence is so overwhelming against Fletcher, that there is no possible way to support him. If there was any grey area at all. You would still be supporting him. I hope at some point you realize that everything I told you in our interactions has proven to be true. Will you finally learn?
- MJL

Here is the problem MJL, every stance you take comes from negativity. If you state someone will fail enough times and trash every single move he makes, you are bound to be right eventually. Its just like playing a number at the roulette wheel, if you have enough cash and time, the ball will finally land on your number eventually.

Yes, the evidence now is overwhelming, the resigning of Braun and this Nicolas Deslauriers guy to 4 years pushed me over the edge! But just to be clear, I stated my hope was that JVR would be traded to clear some space and enable a younger player a chance at a roster spot. That did not happen. I also stated I hoped the Flyers would not make any dumb trades and use up all the cap they had. That did not happen. I also stated I hoped the Flyers did not trade the #5 pick and used to pick a good player. That at least did happen. However trading another 2nd round pick was just something else that irked my greatly. 3rd round picks or later I don't care about as much, but 1st and 2nd round picks I do care about, and getting a player like DeAngelo when this team needs to give their younger players a chance to play and develop so we can see what we have, just made no sense. This really irked me as well. Its the same thing that happened under Hextall, there is no commitment with this franchise one way or the other, and unfortunately " A George divided amongst itself cannot survive ":-) It seems to me the Flyers have one foot in the ocean and the other in the pool, they want to get younger and rebuild but they also want to stay relevant and try to compete at the pro level. We saw this did not work under Hextall, and it looks to me like that Flyers will have a 2nd straight season in last place. It just does not make sense to me. Other franchises make a decision and formulate a plan, and then execute it. This franchise is all over the map, and that is embarrassing!

You can't go for it every year in a cap era. You've alluded to it numerous times. The teams failure to develop homegrown defenseman. Especially RH shots has cost them time and again. Hextall did the best job at it. Fletcher had a solid group of young players when he took over to work with. The action bias has been a successful plan. Actioned themselves right into the dumpster.
- MJL

I would hope at least now you will admit that the group of "young players" Hextall accumulated were not as solid as we had hoped. This group lacks a great many things, speed and top end talent are two very big gaps IMO.

Provorov has regressed greatly from his rookie season, both on the ice and off the ice. Farabee is a nice player but not worthy of top line status. O'Brian can't stay on the ice at BU. Allison is hurt all the time. Sanheim is just OK. Hart can't seem to stay healthy either. TK is just OK. Laczynski hurt as well. Frost .. not looking good so far. Cates we'll see soon enough.

Patrick, Ratcliff, Laberge, Rubstov, Twarynski, Ginning, NAK .. "Trash!" as my son would say.

So it is what it is, and its not an impressive young group.

You said this last off season. You said he had a chance. Didn't happen. What does Ristolainen do well?
- MJL

I think Risto does a good job of separating people from pucks and winning board battles, and then getting the puck up to the forwards. Just too many times this year those forward would almost immediately turn the puck over causing Risto to be stuck on the ice for longer shifts. You yourself commented many times that the Flyers zone break out scheme was a mess and I agree with you. My hope is Torts will fix this at least and you will finally see Risto with better defensive metrics. In the end, it will not matter, this team is destined for last place in the Metro, since every other team got significantly better than the Flyers did. Its time to tank for Bedard! My hope is in a new beginning, a new front office, and franchise player to build around!

I’d rather have Hextall now also but Hextall’s fatal flaw was thinking he could have it both ways. He needed to commit to a full rebuild years ago or go all in on his roster and he did neither. You don’t just retool teams that barely scrape by. And you certainly don’t go trading young core pieces away (Schenn) for prospects and expect it to not make an average team worse.


There’s no reason why Comcast can’t afford to go pluck some smart assistant GM from a small market team. Pull somebody that works for Yzerman or Jarmo. These Flyer rehashes and buddies of Clarke need to stop. Absolutely zero interest in Briere from me.
- hereticpride

Did Hextall think he could have it both ways or did he realize that the organization would never tolerate a full rebuild? I say the latter. Look at how they treated him for what he tried to do. They would've put out a bounty on him and hung a wanted poster if he tried a complete rebuild.