Dave Scott apologized for the Flyers’ wretched season. Drowning in a sea of empty seats, Scott promised that things will get better. Scott, in an unusual midseason state-of-the-team address from a CEO, sympathized with fans who are angry that the Flyers are the worst version of themselves in their 54 years of existence.
But the major message of Scott’s midseason accounting was clear: General manager Chuck Fletcher is on the clock.
Tick, tick, tick.
This might have been unintentional, but that’s the reality. Fletcher built these Flyers. Scott says the Flyers can win next season.
“I don’t really see this as being a 3-, 4-, 5-year rebuild at all,” Scott said. “We’ve got a core group to build on. I think as we look at the reality of it, two, three pieces we’d be great. ... We should get this right, we should be in it next year.”
And what if they don’t get it right? What if the expected returns of Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis, Joel Farabee, and Kevin Hayes do not produce a team that makes the playoffs in 2023?
Scott didn’t address that eventuality.
Asked directly about Fletcher’s job status, Scott replied, “I mean, right now, Chuck is my guy.”
Scott said that with real conviction. He likes Fletcher’s inclusive, understated management style. He appreciates Fletcher’s candor. Inclusiveness and candor were issues with Ron Hextall, whom Fletcher replaced early in the 2018-19 season as the Flyers sought to end a six-year stretch without a playoff series win. He replaced Hextall with the directive to win immediately, and the team won a playoff series the next season.
They missed the playoffs last year. They have 34 points through 43 games and are certain to miss the postseason again.
Much is made of the culture Fletcher nurtures in the Flyers offices, and Scott swore he’d double the analytics outlay and put millions more into the Flyers’ practice facility and Wells Fargo Center. But new treadmills and a dozen more numbers nerds won’t compensate for the bad decisions Hextall and Fletcher have made.
Tick, tick, tick.
Both tarried too long in moving big-money franchise cornerstones Jake Voracek and Claude Giroux. Fletcher finally traded Voracek in July. Fletcher sounds eager to move Giroux, too, by the March 21 trade deadline; he’s already spoken with Giroux’s agent. This isn’t the first time Captain Claude has been shopped, but in the past Giroux has refused to consider waiving his no-trade clause.
“Ultimately, that’ll be his decision,” Fletcher said.
This should have happened six years ago, in 2015. Then, it should have happened four years ago, in 2017. Now, it might finally happen.
Now, it’s too little, too late.
Tick, tick, tick.
Scott and Fletcher are convinced they’re a few lucky breaks from NHL relevance. This team recorded a 10-game losing streak early this season, which cost Alain Vigneault his job. Fletcher hired Vigneault.
They are in the midst of a club-record 13-game losing streak, which they’ll try to end Saturday when the Los Angeles Kings visit. There’s little evidence that they will. They’re being coached by interim solution Mike Yeo, one of Vigneault’s assistants, who seems fated to carry the burden of the rest of the season no matter what.
“We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out here,” Fletcher said. “The best time to make those decisions is in the summer, the offseason.”
Yeo also is a Fletcher decision. He has not been a solution.
There’s little doubt that Yeo won’t be next season’s solution, either. Whoever replaces him will be Fletcher’s decision, too.
Tick, tick, tick.
Fletcher indicated that both Couturier, the team’s best player, and defenseman Ellis, their biggest offseason acquisition, might miss the rest of the season with unspecified injuries that could require surgery. The cavalry ain’t coming.
Really, rescue shouldn’t be necessary.
Injuries and COVID-19 have cost the Flyers a league-high 222 man-games this season, but injury cannot be blamed for 23 losses in two separate streaks. That’s a talent issue.
Big veteran defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen cost them Robert Hagg as well as their 2021 first-round pick, and a 2023 second-rounder, and he’s underproduced, with an expiring contract.
Ivan Provorov, considered an ascending star when he signed his six-year, $40.5 million deal in 2019, has plateaued; he has 42 points and is a minus-4 in 92 games over the past two seasons. So has forward Travis Konecny, who signed a six-year, $33 million deal in 2019.
These are Fletcher’s deals.
Tick, tick, tick.
There are plenty of other issues, most of which center on the lack of talent ... which means, Fletcher misevaluated the talent that exists. He and Scott realize that, even fully healthy, the Flyers can’t compete with the likes of the Lightning, Bruins, Capitals, and Penguins.
“There’s no question we need more top-end talent,” Fletcher admitted repeatedly.
But here’s the thing:
Fletcher, for the moment, has convinced his boss that the Flyers have enough veteran talent and young potential to contend, with a little luck and a little health and two or three more pieces.
Dave Scott has given Fletcher 14 months to prove it.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
