It’s a little funny, because this isn’t necessarily a question that should be posed about a general manager in a losing season. Selling at the trade deadline should be one of the easier tasks for a general manager and the Philadelphia Flyers have an abundance in expiring contracts that could fetch something, literally anything. However, as we draw closer to the March 21st deadline, mum’s the word about what the Flyers are planning on doing and where they stand outside of all the Claude Giroux rumours. Based on his past 3-4 years, do we feel comfortable moving forward with Chuck Fletcher, not only for the deadline, but also beyond?
Fletcher is not one to shy away from making trades and “big” ones at that. I say that because even though it should be a foregone conclusion that the Flyers are sellers, you never truly know with this organization and with a general manager like Fletcher in charge. They love to flip the script and do things their way; even if it can seriously jeopardize their future. Since becoming general manager of the Flyers and replacing the once-venerable Ron Hextall, Fletcher has orchestrated 24 trades, with 16 of them listed below having an impact on the everyday NHL roster.
2018-2019
The Flyers traded Jordan Weal to the Arizona Coyotes for Jacob Graves and a 6th round pick
The Flyers traded Christian Folin and Dale Weise to the Montreal Canadiens for David Schlemko and Byron Froese
The Flyers traded Anthony Stolarz to the Edmonton Oilers for Cam Talbot
The Flyers traded Wayne Simmonds to the Nashville Predators for Ryan Hartman and a 4th round pick in 2020
2019-20
The Flyers traded a 5th round pick in 2019 to the Winnipeg Jets for the signings right of Kevin Hayes
The Flyers traded Radko Gudas (30% retention) to the Washington Capitals for Matt Niskanen
The Flyers traded a 2nd round pick in 2019 and 3rd round pick in 2020 to the San Jose Sharks for Justin Braun
The Flyers traded the signing rights of Ryan Hartman to the Dallas Stars for Tyler Pitlick
The Flyers traded a 5th round pick in 2021 to the Montreal Canadiens for Nate Thompson
The Flyers traded Kyle Criscuolo and a 2020 4th round pick to the Anaheim Ducks for Derek Grant
2020-21
The Flyers traded Erik Gustafsson (50% retention) to the Montreal Canadiens for a 7th round pick in 2022
The Flyers traded Michael Raffl (25% retention) to the Washington Capitals for a 5th round pick in 2021
2021-22
The Flyers traded Philippe Myers and signing rights of Nolan Patrick to the Nashville Predators for Ryan Ellis
The Flyers traded Shayne Gostisbehere, a 2nd round pick in 2022, and a 7th round pick in 2022 to the Arizona Coyotes for future considerations
The Flyers traded Robert Hagg, a 1st round pick in 2021, and a 2nd round pick in 2023 to the Buffalo Sabres for Rasmus Ristolainen
The Flyers traded Jakub Voracek to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Cam Atkinson
Some of His Bigger Minnesota Trades:
2012-2013
Minnesota Wild traded Matt Hackett, Johan Larsson, 1st round pick on 2013, and a 2nd round pick in 2014 to the Buffalo Sabres for Jason Pominville and a 4th round pick in 2014, who he then signed to a 5-year extension worth $28 million with a full no-movement clause and a modified no-trade clause in the final 3 years.
2013-2014
Minnesota Wild traded Torrey Mitchell, a 2nd round pick in 2016, and a 2nd round pick in 2014 to the Buffalo Sabres for Matt Moulson and Cody McCormick
2014-2015
Minnesota Wild traded a 2nd round pick in 2017 to the Buffalo Sabres for Chris Stewart
2016-2017
Minnesota Wild traded Grayson Downing, 1st round pick in 2017, 2nd round pick in 2018, and a 4th round pick in 2019 to the Arizona Coyotes for Martin Hanzal, Ryan White, and a 4th round pick in 2017
2017-2018
Minnesota Wild traded Alex Tuch to the Vegas Golden Knights for a 3rd round pick in 2018, and an agreement to choose Erik Haula during the expansion draft
Minnesota Wild traded Jason Pominville, Marco Scandella, and 4th round pick in 2018 to the Buffalo Sabres for Tyler Ennis, Marcus Foligno, and a 3rd round pick in 2018
Present
As we can see, Chuck Fletcher had an okay start as general manager, orchestrating the moves he had to make in a lost season. Other than the trade for Cam Talbot, he was getting rid of salary or expiring contracts, which is something similar to what the Flyers should be looking to do in 2 weeks. His days as a Minnesota Wild general manager were a lot different and had shades of Paul Holmgren. He had no regard for his future assets as he was constantly dealing his first and second round picks for mid-range players that never lasted more than one season, outside of the lucrative deal he gave to Jason Pominville upon acquiring him from Buffalo. His scouts were even visibly and vocally upset with him when he traded for Martin Hanzal because of the package involved. The Wild were constantly looking for ways to get past the second round but never could, which is essentially why he was let go and was what brought him over to Philadelphia.
The following season, finally settled and entrenched as the chieftain of the Flyers, he made some big moves to try and compete as soon as possible. The trade for Kevin Hayes was expected because of the dire need for a top-6 centre. The market wasn’t necessarily filled with many qualified candidates and to extend Hayes the Flyers had to deal with market value and a few other teams circling the situation like vultures. In the end he signed him to a lucrative 7-year deal worth a $7.14 million AAV. He also shelled out very good future assets for the defensive-minded Justin Braun, who has been a feature ever since, and bit the bullet on the expensive Matt Niskanen, which at the time worked like gangbusters.
The Flyers were content with their team after their second round defeat in the bubble to the New York Islanders. They had taken them to 7 games and were seemingly on the up-and-up with a new coaching staff entrenched and the pieces of the puzzle fitting in nicely. However, things took a turn for the worse in 2020-21 after making no moves as the Flyers crashed and burned in the shortened season. They cut bait on expiring contracts in Michael Raffl and Erik Gustafsson and got whatever they could get.
All that brought us to this past summer, where once again, trying to figure out the ins and outs of their disastrous fall from grace, Chuck swung even harder in 2021 than he did in 2019 by acquiring Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Cam Atkinson; all through trades and all before or during the NHL draft. He wanted to get things done as soon as possible and in doing so he shelled out some valuable pieces, not forgetting the “salary dump” of Shayne Gostisbehere to the Arizona Coyotes, which cost them a 2nd round pick.
In return for the 3 players the Flyers shelled out a 1st round pick, two 2nd round picks, a 7th round pick, Philippe Myers, Nolan Patrick, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Jakub Voracek. Now, in saying all that, the writing was on the wall for the latter 3 names as they had clashed with the coaching staff and were rather vocal, something the Flyers didn’t like. Fletcher backed his coaches and decided to try and rid the team of their negativity.
As the season has rolled on, the Voracek for Atkinson swap has been the only positive to note from the off-season of plentiful changes. Adding in the free agent signings of Martin Jones, Keith Yandle, Nate Thompson, and Derick Brassard, Ryan Ellis has been injured all season and Ristolainen has done well for who he is but he will forever be tied to his lofty price tag. His MO for the summer was camaraderie and leadership, with the former having more of an importance than anything else. Brassard hasn’t been bad but oft-injured, Thompson has been injured for most of the season, Yandle hasn’t worked out the way they had imagined, and Jones was brought in over better backups (for the exact same price) because of his relationship with Kim Dillabaugh.
The departed haven’t necessarily fared any better except for Gostisbehere and Voracek. Gostisbehere has returned to form in Arizona with far less pressure and a coaching staff that is utilizing him to the best of his abilities. He has 10 goals and 36 points in 56 games, playing close to 22 minutes a game, and is only a -4 for a Coyotes team at the bottom of the standings. Voracek has found his scoring winger to whom he can pass to all game in Patrik Laine. Voracek only has 3 goals on the season but a whopping 40 assists in 55 games. He only has 103 shots on goal, as he has seemingly embraced and been embraced by his pass-first mentality, something that Philadelphia urged him to forego at times.
Meanwhile the other players have fared exactly as we expected or a little less. Robert Hagg has been his usual self in Buffalo, nothing too flashy but a sturdy and tough bottom pair defenseman. He has 1 goal and 7 points in 45 games, while playing 17 minutes, and has 86 hits and 84 blocks. Phil Myers has only seen 25 games worth of action, spending a lot of time as a healthy scratch and only adding 3 assists to his totals. The young defenseman averages only 15 minutes a game and has seemingly lost the favours of his coaches in Nashville. Nolan Patrick has had his injury issues flare up in Vegas as well as he has only suited up for 18 games, scoring twice and adding 4 assists.
Trade Deadline and Beyond
For obvious reasons, Giroux is going to eat up most of the media attention regarding the Flyers since he’s going to be one of the more sought after rentals for contending teams. Plenty of teams have expressed their interest, Giroux’s agent was given permission to seek out teams, Fletcher has named his price, and now we essentially wait for March 17th to come and go as that will represent Giroux’s 1000th game, all with the Orange and Black.
Rasmus Ristolainen is by far the most valuable trade asset in the Flyers arsenal since he’s a right-handed shooting defenseman, expiring contract, and the Flyers will most likely retain some salary to easily facilitate a deal. However, it remains to be seen what the club does in relation the hulking defenseman because Fletcher has said time and time again that he intends on bringing him back into the fold for the foreseeable future. The Flyers don’t want to cut bait on the defenseman they paid a pretty penny for, they reportedly offered him a few contract proposals to which he rejected, and they are still firing on all cylinders with less than 2 weeks remaining to get a deal done.
With the Flyers planning another re-tool and foregoing a “lengthy” rebuild, it will be interesting to see how Fletcher approaches the deadline. Players like Martin Jones, Keith Yandle, and Derick Brassard have all been on the trade block for a few weeks now but there’s belief that it’s slim pickings for the trio. Jones is probably the most valuable of the three and if the Flyers are willing to cut their demands from a 4th round pick to a 5th round pick, they can get a deal done.
The sole thing to keep an eye out for and potentially worry about is the desire to hold onto certain players because they’re afraid of not having enough NHL-calibre players post-deadline. That should not be a worry because the season has been lost for months now and this would be the best time to give a proper sample size of games to AHL players like Isaac Ratcliffe, Morgan Frost, Cam York, and Egor Zamula. Better to know what you have when they’re trying and vying for a spot in 2022-23 than have them languishing in the minors, while playing value-less players in the NHL.
It seems that Flyers general managers fare well at the beginning when the pressure isn’t heightened. The heat turns up when things either get really bad or when they’ve done really well and they start going against their better judgement by making ill-advised deals. We saw that from Paul Holmgren after their run to the Stanley Cup in 2010, Hextall’s issue was more so about patience than anything else but the James van Riemsdyk deal seemed very non-Hextall-like, and after their run to the second round in the COVID bubble and then following it up with an abysmal showing in 2020-21, Fletcher has gone back to his swing-at-everything-mentality and it could cost the Flyers dearly moving forward.
The blank cheque statement still rings clearly as Dave Scott entrusts in a man that left Minnesota floundering for years and hasn’t done much to right the ship in Philadelphia. The next 3 years for Minnesota is going to be epitome of cap-hell with all the dead money from the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter 13 year deals that Fletcher orchestrated in the summer of 2012. You just never know what to expect with Fletcher and company and based on his track record, mostly with the Wild and partially with Philadelphia, the doubt some fans have and will have is understandable.
