Sure, outside observers could easily make an educated guess as to how the Philadelphia Flyers would be approaching the trade deadline and the final seven weeks of the season. A brief look at the standings and a healthy dose of common sense was all one needed to do so.
But John Tortorella ended the need for any guesswork whatsoever. On Monday after practice, as usual, the Flyers head coach didn’t mince words.
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“I’m hoping that we understand, especially now — we’re not getting into the playoffs,” he said.
Rest In Peace, 2022-23 Philadelphia Flyers Postseason Hopes. We hardly knew ye.
So what did that admission mean for the front office’s approach to this Friday’s trade deadline?
“We’re going to sell. Right?” Tortorella added.
It doesn’t get much more clear-cut than that.
A little over two weeks ago, the public messaging from Tortorella was far different. Sure, letters were going out to season ticket holders in his name, essentially admitting that the club was in the midst of a rebuild. And the team was offering free tickets to those same ticket holders for April home games, an implicit acknowledgement that those games weren’t going to have much in the way of short-term meaning.
But just days later, Tortorella was still speaking like a coach who hadn’t given up on the postseason. At the very least, after a solid January (8-4-2 record), he saw value in pushing his club to stay in the race for as long as possible.
“I think it’s a great situation for not just some of the older guys that have probably done it before, but for me, watching the younger guys,” he said on Feb. 9. “It’s a really good situation, and it’s up to us (of) how long do we keep playing those meaningful games? Right? I hope we stay in it.”
Eighteen days later, Tortorella acknowledged that they were no longer “in it.”
“Wanted to play as many meaningful games as we possibly could. We have fought it here and haven’t been able to sustain it,” he conceded.
Why was Tortorella willing to essentially wave the white flag on the season with 21 games to go? Well, the previous week certainly played a big role.
Last week, in short, was a disaster. The Flyers lost three out of four games, including Friday and Saturday in blowout fashion. It pushed their post-All-Star February record to an ugly 2-7-1.
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“We haven’t played well enough, in the month of February, to say … we can’t look up (at the teams ahead of us in the standings) anymore. Because of our play, right? And it is what it is,” he said.
The final, crowning blow also came as a result of the Flyers’ week from hell. It just wasn’t official until Monday, when Tortorella revealed the reality behind Travis Konecny’s injury he had suffered a week prior: he would be out for an extended period of time.
“We just lost — and he’s gonna be out for a while — our best offensive player that is involved in so many different things with this team to keep us going. He’s out,” Tortorella said.
So what does Tortorella and the Flyers’ newfound, full-fledged pivot to a playoff-less reality really mean?
For starters, as Tortorella made abundantly clear, the front office is in sell mode heading into the trade deadline. James van Riemsdyk is on his way out, as is Justin Braun, most likely. The “rental” players who will be unrestricted free agents come the summer won’t be around for much longer, assuming a team in playoff contention has interest and makes a reasonable offer.
But it also means that Tortorella has to adjust his focus and motivational tactics for the remainder of the season. The carrot of a potential playoff spot can’t be dangled anymore to keep his players focused and committed to his system and preferred on-ice mentality. Now, it’s not about winning the Stanley Cup in 2022-23. It’s about pride.
“It’s hard for athletes to be towards the end of the season, and have to go through it,” he said. “But I want to see guys just play with a little bit of pride here. I want to watch that, too. Because that’s a telling tale of what we want here on the bus too in Philly, as we move forward. That’s old, younger, medium-age guys. That’s just pride of being an athlete. I’m watching that.”
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In retrospect, Tortorella suspected that the blowout defeats against Montreal and New Jersey last week had a simple explanation: the collective realization on the part of the team that its playoff hopes had disintegrated.
“Athletes can still say, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna play hard.’ But when it hits you sometimes? They’re human,” he said. “And if you just give a little bit, it affects things. And if you have three or four guys that give a little bit, it affects your team. That’s what we have to fight here.”
Tortorella’s hope? The embarrassing 7-0 loss to the Devils will serve as something of a defibrillator, jolting the team back into that necessary pride that will keep them from completely falling apart over the final 21 games. After all, culture-building remains front-and-center for the organization, both in terms of the front office’s long-term plan, and Tortorella’s own competitive mindset.
To that end? Expect Tortorella to be preaching a defense-heavy approach over the season’s final quarter, particularly with Konecny injured. He plans to be drilling that mentality into the heads of the players the rest of the way.
“Players don’t like hearing defensive stuff, talking about defense,” he said. “But we have to think about that, in order for us to survive and be able to compete in the last quarter.”
And now — while it was always a priority — the focus turns even more towards the development of the youth within the organization. Expect the Flyers to take advantage of their four post-trade deadline call-ups to give longer looks to key prospects. Elliot Desnoyers, who made his NHL debut on Saturday, won’t even have to wait that long — the Flyers called him back on Monday, and Tortorella confirmed that he would be staying for Wednesday’s game at least, praising Desnoyers’ work in the 7-0 debacle. He won’t be the only prospect to get a shot in the coming weeks.
“There are other people that I’m really interested in,” Tortorella said. “But that’s the conversation (GM) Chuck (Fletcher) and I have to have.”
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Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Flyers will be calling up every notable prospect en masse. Sam Ersson, for instance, was sent down after Saturday’s game and didn’t return with Desnoyers on Monday. That was no accident, as at least for now, Tortorella and the front office seems to feel that Ersson will benefit more from carrying the load for a Lehigh Valley Phantoms team in the heart of a playoff race than getting the occasional spot start in Philadelphia.
“I coached in the American League two years, went on two long runs there, one year winning a Calder Cup. It did unbelievably great stuff for development of young players,” he said. “That’s important for this organization right now. That’s why Erss is down there now. He’s going to be that goalie down there in the minors when they play.”
So yes, some of the notable prospects will stay down in the minors, playing the only meaningful professional games that the organization can offer them. But Tortorella’s pivot in rest-of-season mentality was still notable. Now, it’s all about “future” over “present,” with wins and losses and overall record not a primary focus. Instead, the focus will be on development and evaluation.
“What’s our (final) record going to be anyway? It doesn’t matter for me,” Tortorella said. “It’s just (about) being a pro, and I’m gonna watch that.”
Trade deadline tidbits
- Tortorella wasn’t exactly making a feverish sales pitch on behalf of the front office when it came to JvR, who sat out Monday’s practice due to a minor nagging injury. “I think his play has dipped,” Tortorella said. “But I think he adds value towards just what you said, as far as some of the intangibles, when you’re dealing with a young team.” Van Riemsdyk is expected to return to practice on Tuesday — if he’s still on the roster by then.
- As for Tony DeAngelo, who popped up in an Elliotte Friedman trade rumor on his 32 Thoughts podcast? Tortorella affirmed that he sees DeAngelo as a “big part of trying to get us on the right track,” and DeAngelo said that he wasn’t very worried about getting shipped off his hometown team at the deadline. It’s certainly possible that teams are calling on DeAngelo — Friedman theorized Carolina might have checked in, which would make sense if the Flyers were open to retaining some of his cap hit, given that the Hurricanes never wanted to lose DeAngelo, they just didn’t think he was worth $5 million per year. But my guess is that DeAngelo stays in Philadelphia for now.
- As I reported on Monday morning, the Flyers discussed the possibility of acquiring Denis Gurianov for van Riemsdyk, before Gurianov was ultimately sent to Montreal for Evgenii Dadonov. Given that Minnesota is also interested in JvR — Michael Russo reported as much on Sunday — it’s fair to wonder if they might have the same line of thinking surrounding another reclamation project in Jordan Greenway, who is very much on the market. Greenway is 26 and has two more years left at $3 million, so he’s not a player with a ton of market value at the moment, given he has just six points in 43 games this season. But he brings size and physicality to the table, which would be especially intriguing to the old-school minds with influence in the Philadelphia brain trust, and he was a Fletcher draft pick in 2015. Just some food for thought, if the Flyers are intent on getting back a possible future piece from a van Riemsdyk trade.
(Photo: Brett Holmes / Icon Sportswire)