Why Chuck Fletcher is the right hire for the Philadelphia Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers made the correct move in hiring Chuck Fletcher as their new General Manager.

After officially announcing Chuck Fletcher as their new General Manager, the Philadelphia Flyers find themselves in the right hands. Fletcher spoke to the media on a conference call on Monday, and some of the statements he made should only help Flyers fans think positively about the hire.

First and foremost, he thinks this team can still make the playoffs this season, and he’s absolutely correct in that opinion. The Flyers, on paper, have the talent to get out of the bottom of the Eastern Conference. They’ve shown at times this year that they can matchup with the best the NHL has to offer, coming back from a four goal deficit to force overtime against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Yes, they ended up losing that game, but still showed that they can keep pace with one of the best teams in the league when they click. One of the main reasons they lost that game was due to a poor performance from Calvin Pickard in-net. Pickard is now with the Arizona Coyotes, and Fletcher addressed his thoughts on the Flyers current goaltending situation in the conference call.

The longtime NHL executive stated that he would like stability in-net and to get fully healthy as well. The stability remark has long been an issue for the Flyers franchise, but he’s right in waiting for Brian Elliott to return from his injury before making some sort of move.

Elliott was nothing short of spectacular before being sidelined with a lower-body injury. In the five games he played in the month of November, Elliott posted a 1.35 Goals-Against Average with a .954 save percentage. He clearly earned the right to return to his starting position, but the same can’t be said in Michal Neuvirth’s case.

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Neuvirth can never seem to stay healthy and while I think he should get one more chance to earn the backup goaltending role, I don’t see him being durable enough to do so. This is where Fletcher’s evaluation of NHL goaltending talent could come into play.

Back in 2015, Fletcher acquired net-minder Devan Dubnyk from the Coyotes for a third round pick. Dubnyk was somewhat inconsistent during his career before arriving in Minnesota, but has since been one of the best goaltenders in the NHL. He also traded for former Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov for a fourth round pick in 2014. Bryz went on to post solid numbers with the Wild that season, leading them to the playoffs where he eventually struggled a bit.

Fletcher’s ability to find solid NHL goaltending talent can’t be denied, and he’s acquired them at a very decent price. This should only benefit the Flyers, and if Neuvirth can’t prove to be the backup going forward, I fully trust him to make the correct move to replace him.

It’s not like he hasn’t made some bad trades with the Wild, though. Acquiring center-man Martin Hanzal at the 2017 trade deadline proved to be costly, as he surrendered forward Grayson Downing, a first, second, and conditional fourth round pick in the trade with Arizona. Hanzal helped in the regular season, but was an absolute non-factor for the Wild in the playoffs that year, scoring just one point in five games.

Fletcher is an aggressive General Manager, which is what Team President Paul Holmgren and Comcast CEO Dave Scott were looking for out of Hextall this year, but that has come back to bite him at times. It does seem that he learned from these mistakes, stating he wants to see if the Flyers have solutions in-house before looking around externally.

Next. Three Takeaways from the Flyers win over Pittsburgh. dark

No General Manager is perfect, but given Holmgren and Scott’s desire for the Flyers to get better now as opposed to two or three years down the line, Fletcher is the perfect man for the job.

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