Media availabilities are when NHL general managers can truly control the narrative they want to present regarding their teams. So with a little over 72 hours remaining before the trade deadline, Philadelphia Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher stepped into the press room in Voorhees, N.J., with the goal of hammering home one particular message about the franchise’s future.
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After 17 minutes and whopping 20 direct references by Fletcher later, the thrust of the narrative was clear: young players. The Flyers are now all about young players.
The young players on the NHL roster. The young players who still qualify as prospects. The draft picks that could become quality young players. The veterans that they’ll look to ship out by the trade deadline — for more young players.
So is it a rebuild, then, Mr. Fletcher?
“I just … it’s terminology,” he said. “I mean, are we going to gut this team? No. We’re not going to gut this team. I’m not looking to trade (Owen) Tippett and (Joel) Farabee and (Morgan) Frost and (Cutter) Gauthier and just trade everybody and start over. But clearly we have to get younger and we have to find some more young assets.”
The Flyers aren’t going to tank like the Chicago Blackhawks did last summer, trading away key under-25 pieces like Alex DeBrincat and Kirby Dach. And the word “rebuild” might still be verboten on the record for the Flyers. But if the 20 references were any indication, “young” sure isn’t. And with his comments Tuesday, Fletcher made it clear that it’s around youth that the Flyers plan to —yes — rebuild, starting with Friday’s trade deadline.
Fletcher’s message was strikingly similar to head coach John Tortorella’s words on Monday. That likely was no coincidence.
Tortorella, on Monday: “We’re not getting into the playoffs.” And later: “We’re selling. Right?”
Fletcher, on Tuesday: “We’re selling.” And later: “We’re not making the playoffs this year.”
On multiple occasions this season, the narratives presented by head coach and GM appeared at odds. Not this time. The Flyers will be sellers this week. They’ll be willing to retain salary in order to do so, Fletcher confirmed. And they want pieces for the future in return.
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“We want younger assets,” Fletcher said. “(For) some players, realistically, it’ll be some kind of pick. But prospects work well too. Some combination of both would be great.”
(Another reference to “young,” by the way.)
So who is likely to be moved by Friday?
“Most of the calls I’ve had (have) been about players on expiring contracts and the rental players, if you will,” Fletcher said. “That seems to be the main focus of most of the calls I’ve had. In saying that, we’re willing to listen on just about anything, if it makes sense.”
In other words, James van Riemsdyk — who returned to practice today after missing Monday’s session with general soreness — is a goner. So likely will be Justin Braun and Patrick Brown, if any team wants them.
But that might not be all.
“It doesn’t surprise me that there’s teams that would probably have interest in him,” Fletcher said when asked about veteran defenseman Nick Seeler, who has been the subject of scattered rumors in February. “He’s still a valuable player for us, and a player on a real good cap number ($775,000) for next year as well. So I think he’s somebody that I can tell you probably quite a few teams have had interest in.”
And given the emphasis on youth, might soon-to-be 31-year-old Kevin Hayes not fit their plans anymore, either? Could he be moved at the deadline or in the offseason?
“Yeah, potentially. It’s a fair question,” Fletcher acknowledged when asked about whether Hayes would be traded. “Again, it will depend on market and opportunity and fit. I’ve expressed to teams, ‘Look, we’re open to ideas, and we’re willing to listen on lots of different types of scenarios.’ Without addressing Kevin specifically — because I don’t know if it’s fair to single out names — clearly, we’d like to get even younger if we can. And if we can do that, then we’re gonna try to do that.”
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The Flyers aren’t going to “gut” the team — Fletcher made that abundantly clear. A full-fledged tank isn’t in the cards. But a future-focused rebuild very much is.
“I think what we’re going to try to do is probably more in line with what most of the teams in the league have tried to do the last few years. You keep some of your better assets, and if you can move a couple other players out to get younger, then we’ll do that,” he said.
The days of “aggressive retool” are doing. The days of “getting younger” are in.
“Next year is gonna be a grind, too,” Tortorella said on Monday. “This is a process, it’s going to take time.”
So how much time do they expect it to take?
“You know, that’s difficult to say right now. I mean, we’re not looking to take shortcuts right now,” Fletcher said. “Again, I think we’ve got a lot of young players have stepped into our team this year.”
That is going to be the norm moving forward.
“Most years, it seems like you had one or two young players pushing,” he continued. “This year between (Noah) Cates and Tippett and (Cam) York and (Wade) Allison and Frost, all these guys are starting to establish himself as NHLers. I think the goal next year would be … can two more kids push their way onto the team? There’s a group of six or seven where that those two could come from. But we want to keep getting younger.”
Getting the message? Seeing the word “young” or “younger” popping up enough for your liking?
It helps to explain why Hayes — who despite clashing at times with Tortorella is still pacing for a career-high 64 points — is very much available, which Fletcher didn’t even try to deny. He’ll be 31 in May. He very much does not fit this pivot to a youth movement, if (as expected) it takes quite a few years to bear real fruit.
“I’m not sure on the timeframe (for contention), “Fletcher said. “I’ve seen some teams flip it pretty quickly. Probably depends on how well you draft, and how well you develop, and that’s going to be our focus.”
Which leads to the next pertinent question: if the Flyers are rebuilding, what is the rebuild plan? An emphasis on youth is more of a philosophical pivot, after all. What is the plan behind it?
Basically, it remains what I laid out last week.
- Tortorella’s culture fully takes hold.
- Get more high-end talent.
- Fix the cap situation.
Trading Hayes largely fits into Step 3, given his $7.14 million cap hit for the next three years, in addition to a bit of Step 1, given his disagreements with Tortorella this season. And make no mistake, Step 1 remains front and center in Fletcher’s mind — he found a way to fit that into his 17-minute availability as well.
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“Torts and the staff have been working hard on building the standard, and trying to re-establish the Flyer identity of being a hard team to play against,” he said. “Defensively, we’re getting better. I mean, clearly we have work to do. It’s going to be a longer process than maybe what we want, but I think we’re starting to build the right way and integrate a lot of young players into our team.”
But as always, it goes back to “young players.” And that’s because they appear to be the Flyers’ answer to the glaring weakness of their plan: How will a team that completely lacks high-end talent yet refuses to bottom out actually get it?
“We need more high-end talent. We’ve been saying that for a while,” Fletcher said.
OK, so how are they going to get it?
“Over the last 12 months, we’ve added Tippett and Cutter Gauthier, and that’s a good start,” Fletcher said. “I think both kids have a chance to be quality offensive players in this league. We’ll have another chance at the draft to get a real top player. We’re excited about that. And we’ll just keep chipping away at adding young players. If we can find undervalued assets somewhere that are struggling that we can bring to our team and can maybe flourish here, we’ve got to look at that.”
Develop existing young players. Find a future star with their 2023 first-rounder. And just keep trying to acquire more and more, whether via the draft or reclamation projects from other clubs. That’s the plan. With no Connor Bedard likely on the way to save them, they’ll just keep “chipping away,” as Fletcher put it. Keep taking shots at players with high-end upside and hope that Tortorella can mold them into the stars the Flyers so desperately need.
Will it work? There are obviously big reasons to be skeptical, some of which reared their ugly heads on Tuesday.
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For starters, there was Fletcher’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it implication that the 24-year-old Tippett still has star-level potential. Tippett has taken a nice step forward this season, and looks like a valuable piece. But he’s on pace for just under 25 goals at age 24 — that doesn’t exactly scream “destined to be a top player on a Stanley Cup contender.” If he’s part of the sales pitch as to how the Flyers will be accumulating star talent, it’s not exactly the most compelling or believable one.
Then, of course, there was Fletcher’s bigger clunker comment of the day, which played as an unfortunate sequel to his tone-deaf contention in December that the team was just five points out of a playoff spot and quickly reminded the online portion of the Flyers fan base why faith and trust in Fletcher to turn the team around is so low.
“I can throw numbers all day … on a points percentage basis, I think we’re the fifth-most improved team in the league,” he said. “That’s nice, but we’re still not good enough.”
There’s a case to be made that this wasn’t that bad of a comment, even if they’re actually only the seventh-most improved club in that regard. After all, Fletcher acknowledged that the year-over-year improvement wasn’t anywhere near enough to push the team into true contention. The problem is more that it’s a stat that just never needed to be cited in the first place, given that it was destined to be interpreted as Fletcher yet again trying to put lipstick on a pig.
And that’s not even mentioning the very real concern that Tortorella, given the recent stories surrounding his relationships with some of the young and talented players already on the roster, might not be the best option in 2023 to develop high-end talents into legitimate stars. There’s no guarantee he is.
That said, the Flyers do now have a plan. Heading into the trade deadline, they’re as close as they’ve ever been to openly admitting that a rebuild is happening. (It is.) Fletcher and Tortorella are on the same page publicly in terms of an overarching philosophy. And the front office appears committed to getting as many young players with plausible upside as possible in the hope that at least a couple take the leap into stardom.
No, they’re not tanking. But they are rebuilding — betting that a combination of the youth on the NHL team, the youth in the pipeline, youth yet to be drafted, and youth yet to be acquired can fix the Flyers, with Tortorella as the chief developer of said youth.
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“We do want to get younger, and we want to continue to get better,” Fletcher said. “It’s not easy to do, but we’re going to work hard at it.”
Will any of those younger players develop into stars, justifying the Flyers’ decision to eschew a blow-it-up tank in 2022-23 and instead embark on their “chipping away” approach to a rebuild?
That’s the true unknown of Fletcher and the Flyers’ newly chosen narrative and plan. And only time will provide an answer.
Odds and ends
- Fletcher acknowledged that Travis Konecny will miss at least three weeks with his upper-body injury, but wasn’t ready to rule him out for the season yet. “It’s going to be more than two weeks. I’d say week to week. We’ll probably have a good update in maybe three weeks’ time,” he said.
- In Sean Couturier updates, Fletcher spoke optimistically of his progress post-second back surgery, as Couturier continues to skate and ramp up his off-ice rehabilitation. But he tossed cold water on the possibility of a Couturier return in 2022-23. “Is there enough runway for him to play this year? I don’t know,” Fletcher said. “The back is feeling great. He’s missed a lot of time. Can we get him into hockey shape with the time remaining? I’m not sure. But I think we’re pleased with the progress.”
- Fletcher named Egor Zamula, Adam Ginning and Ronnie Attard specifically as end-of-season call-up options who have “probably all earned the right” to get a look at the NHL level before 2022-23 comes to a close. But there is an organizational belief that the prospects will benefit from participating in the Phantoms’ chase for an AHL playoff berth (they’re four points ahead of Bridgeport in the race for the final Atlantic Division spot), and the Flyers will only have four post-trade deadline call-ups (not counting emergency injury recalls), so it’s possible not all of the deserving players will ultimately get a look.
- The reference to a group of “six or seven” prospects who they expect to be battling for around two NHL roster spots next season was an interesting one. My guess at the six or seven: Gauthier (if he signs after his freshman season at BC), Zamula, Attard, Ginning, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink and Samuel Ersson, if they’re not already penciling the Swedish netminder into the backup job for 2023-24.
- Fletcher said he would meet with Gauthier’s camp at the end of Boston College’s season to decide whether he would be turning pro, but that in fairness to BC, he would not go into further details while their season is ongoing.
- Fletcher was also asked about Dan Hilferty, who was hired as Comcast Spectacor CEO on Feb. 14, a title formerly held by Dave Scott. Fletcher confirmed — as I reported two weeks ago — that Hilferty has not usurped Scott — who remains Spectacor’s chairman and the governor of the Flyers — as Fletcher’s direct boss, and the Hilferty hire would not have any direct immediate impact on the Flyers day-to-day operations. In fact, as of Tuesday morning, Fletcher had yet to meet Hilferty — who will focus on the business side of Comcast Spectacor and have little input on hockey operations-related decisions, as they remain under Scott’s purview. But Fletcher noted that he expected to meet with Hilferty for the first time later Tuesday.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)