Bill Meltzer: Wrap: Flyers Drop 10th in a Row, Lose 3-0 in NJ; Phantoms Postponement

Bill Meltzer: Wrap: Flyers Drop 10th in a Row, Lose 3-0 in NJ; Phantoms Postponement
- bmeltzer

This team is lost!

https://www.instagram.com...m_source=ig_web_copy_link
This is perfect.

I would tune in sporadically. Seems like I didn't miss anything.

So combined the phantoms and flyers are on an 18 game losing streak

This team is broken. Its a carryover from last season. Changing out a a few pieces, who IMO, were the most vocal against the previous coach, didn't seem to change much.....especially now since that coach is gone.

The players confidence in themselves and each other is irrevocably lost. This group simply can not play together and it needs to be blown up and started over from scratch.

This isn't on Mike Yeo, what the hell can he do?


A fire sale is the only solution. Including the incompetent GM.

When you don’t draft any top end talent for 8 years straight, this is what teams look like.

This team is broken. Its a carryover from last season. Changing out a a few pieces, who IMO, were the most vocal against the previous coach, didn't seem to change much.....especially now since that coach is gone.

The players confidence in themselves and each other is irrevocably lost. This group simply can not play together and it needs to be blown up and started over from scratch.

This isn't on Mike Yeo, what the hell can he do?


A fire sale is the only solution. Including the incompetent GM.
- MBFlyerfan

A decade of incompetence. It all has to go. Fire everyone, trade everyone with the exception of Hart, he should be the ONLY one they don’t take offers on.

When you don’t draft any top end talent for 8 years straight, this is what teams look like.
- ClaudeFather

I’m not sure it matters who they may have drafted over the last 5 or so years entering this muck of an organ-I-zation

A decade of incompetence. It all has to go. Fire everyone, trade everyone with the exception of Hart, he should be the ONLY one they don’t take offers on.
- ClaudeFather

A complete overhaul will be difficult. Right now they have too many older players that are on deals that are going to be difficult to move. They have two trade chips in Giroux and Ristolainen for the deadline. Maybe the clueless GM can recoup some of what he traded away. Why not trade Hart? He is going to be ruined by this situation like the Flyers have done to many young players.

This team is broken. Its a carryover from last season. Changing out a a few pieces, who IMO, were the most vocal against the previous coach, didn't seem to change much.....especially now since that coach is gone.

The players confidence in themselves and each other is irrevocably lost. This group simply can not play together and it needs to be blown up and started over from scratch.

This isn't on Mike Yeo, what the hell can he do?


A fire sale is the only solution. Including the incompetent GM.
- MBFlyerfan

Agreed
I lived through some bad Flyers teams and worse moments, but other than the tragic deaths of a few players, this is as bad as it gets.

Fletcher has to go, he built this failed roster and hired these coaches. But that’s not enough, the entire front office, all coaches (Flyers & Phantoms) and most of the roster need to go.

As soon as possible a new team President needs to be hired and he needs to be the one who hires the new GM and coach. Also, Bob Clarke and Paul Holmgren need to go play golf in Florida and stay out of the hiring process.

I’ve never been this disgusted with the Flyers.

A complete overhaul will be difficult. Right now they have too many older players that are on deals that are going to be difficult to move. They have two trade chips in Giroux and Ristolainen for the deadline. Maybe the clueless GM can recoup some of what he traded away. Why not trade Hart? He is going to be ruined by this situation like the Flyers have done to many young players.
- MJL

If anything it can guarantee they will be bad to get better draft picks. Take back picks and prospects on guys like Farabee TK Sanheim. Make calls on Coots and Provy, not sure what a trade for them looks like since the deals have some term and dollars. G and Risto are the obvious ones. But you move half of that after G and Risto and we are looking at a very bad hockey team next year.

When you don’t draft any top end talent for 8 years straight, this is what teams look like.
- ClaudeFather

I think this speaks to the overall organizational philosophy of going for "200 foot players". Too many guys who will be slated as bottom 6 talents. Sure, a bottom 6 talent in the NHL is among the top 98% of all hockey players on earth, but they never seemed to swing for the fences for a guy who had elite talent. Who cares if he didn't play great defense, what does it matter if you will be losing 1-0 because no one can score?

Its obvious that "Philadelphia Flyers type" players cant win in this league when that is all you have on your roster.

We need to start looking at game breakers. Guys who don't need to play great defense because we are playing in the other teams zone all the time.

A complete overhaul will be difficult. Right now they have too many older players that are on deals that are going to be difficult to move. They have two trade chips in Giroux and Ristolainen for the deadline. Maybe the clueless GM can recoup some of what he traded away. Why not trade Hart? He is going to be ruined by this situation like the Flyers have done to many young players.
- MJL

As to why not Hart, I guess you could but I’m just thinking about how long it took us to get another goalie.

I’m not sure it matters who they may have drafted over the last 5 or so years entering this muck of an organ-I-zation
- Just5

I really don’t care what anyone says. Ivan Provorov is top end talent. He also plays like 26 minutes a night. You can’t be perfect every night and only one, two or three players can only do so much. I do hot 6 days a week. By that 5th or 6th day, the practice isn’t perfect anymore.

Agreed
I lived through some bad Flyers teams and worse moments, but other than the tragic deaths of a few players, this is as bad as it gets.

Fletcher has to go, he built this failed roster and hired these coaches. But that’s not enough, the entire front office, all coaches (Flyers & Phantoms) and most of the roster need to go.

As soon as possible a new team President needs to be hired and he needs to be the one who hires the new GM and coach. Also, Bob Clarke and Paul Holmgren need to go play golf in Florida and stay out of the hiring process.

I’ve never been this disgusted with the Flyers.
- BiggE

Let’s not let Hextall off the hook, he has immense blame in this as well. Fletcher sucks beyond belief tho, he blew it big time.

At it's heart, hockey is a pretty simple game:

Control the puck, make a play, attack the net, repeat.

Flyers fail at step one, forget the rest of it.

I really don’t care what anyone says. Ivan Provorov is top end talent. He also plays like 26 minutes a night. You can’t be perfect every night and only one, two or three players can only do so much. I do hot 6 days a week. By that 5th or 6th day, the practice isn’t perfect anymore.
- SuperSchennBros

He’s awesome on a beautiful sunny day but the minute there’s clouds or rain the guy is a middle of the road D man. He’s way too inconsistent to be considered top end talent. He also went an absolutely loaded draft and a few guys right after him can be argued were the better players. It was the safe route as usual, take the 200 foot guy as folks have mentioned.

Current roster players I’d hold onto:

Hart
Farabee
Frost
Couturier (the length of his deal means you won’t get fair value, so I’d keep him)

That’s it other than the prospects in LHV, Junior & overseas

Sure, you won’t be able to move them all, but all should be made available

Agreed
I lived through some bad Flyers teams and worse moments, but other than the tragic deaths of a few players, this is as bad as it gets.

Fletcher has to go, he built this failed roster and hired these coaches. But that’s not enough, the entire front office, all coaches (Flyers & Phantoms) and most of the roster need to go.

As soon as possible a new team President needs to be hired and he needs to be the one who hires the new GM and coach. Also, Bob Clarke and Paul Holmgren need to go play golf in Florida and stay out of the hiring process.

I’ve never been this disgusted with the Flyers.
- BiggE

Agreed, but the house cleaning should be done before deadline. I don't trust Fletcher to make any deals for this teams future ( return for a G or any trade for that matter). My 47 years as a fan, I have never felt this team is in a worse place than it is now. Disgusting

Let’s not let Hextall off the hook, he has immense blame in this as well. Fletcher sucks beyond belief tho, he blew it big time.
- ClaudeFather

Yeah, I’d fire Hextall again if I could!

I will echo the sentiment above and reinforce that not only should the GM go, but the old guard alumni that have run this organization into the ground need to finally be put out to pasture.

Hey guys it was a good run. But the 1970s is a long time ago and it’s well past time for you to go. Thank you for your service and enjoy your remaining years playing golf in Florida. Just stay the hell away from this team. This goes for Holmgren especially.

He’s awesome on a beautiful sunny day but the minute there’s clouds or rain the guy is a middle of the road D man. He’s way too inconsistent to be considered top end talent. He also went an absolutely loaded draft and a few guys right after him can be argued were the better players. It was the safe route as usual, take the 200 foot guy as folks have mentioned.
- ClaudeFather

He's being miscast as a shutdown-capable, mail-carrying guy. Hard to blame him, he's all this teams got.

I think this speaks to the overall organizational philosophy of going for "200 foot players". Too many guys who will be slated as bottom 6 talents. Sure, a bottom 6 talent in the NHL is among the top 98% of all hockey players on earth, but they never seemed to swing for the fences for a guy who had elite talent. Who cares if he didn't play great defense, what does it matter if you will be losing 1-0 because no one can score?

Its obvious that "Philadelphia Flyers type" players cant win in this league when that is all you have on your roster.

We need to start looking at game breakers. Guys who don't need to play great defense because we are playing in the other teams zone all the time.
- MBFlyerfan

The 2017 draft is a perfect example of this. Yes, most scouts had Patrick in the top 3 but they also agreed that his skating was only average and that he was more likely to be a high end 2C rather than a game breaker. A GM with a better understanding of today’s game would see the top end skating ability of Makar and Heiskanen and would have gone in that direction.

Agreed
I lived through some bad Flyers teams and worse moments, but other than the tragic deaths of a few players, this is as bad as it gets.

Fletcher has to go, he built this failed roster and hired these coaches. But that’s not enough, the entire front office, all coaches (Flyers & Phantoms) and most of the roster need to go.

As soon as possible a new team President needs to be hired and he needs to be the one who hires the new GM and coach. Also, Bob Clarke and Paul Holmgren need to go play golf in Florida and stay out of the hiring process.

I’ve never been this disgusted with the Flyers.
- BiggE

One correction: Homer hasn't had anything to do with hockey ops hires since he was the GM. As club president, he was pretty hands off in that regard with Hexy when Ron made the hires he brought in. Since stepping down as team president, Paul has been in semi-retirement. He'd in an advisory role but mostly is there to opine when asked for imput. He really isn't involved day-to-day anymore, although he does keep up with what's going on.

Clarkie is close with Chuck Fletcher and is more involved that he was for some time before that just in terms of being around more often.

Bill Barber and Dean Lombardi are also in advisory roles in the org but neither make decisions. Chuck hired Mike Connelly this past summer as an advisor related to player development. Brent runs the scouting/development/Phantoms side.