Did The Philadelphia Flyers Play Their Cards Too Early?

General Manager Chuck Fletcher quickly addressed most of the Philadelphia Flyers needs this offseason but will it come back to bite him?

The Philadelphia Flyers had their roster holes to fill following the 2018-19 season. They needed a second-line centerman, Top-4, veteran defenseman, backup goaltender, and third-line winger coming into the summer. Fletcher knew of these vacancies and took little time in acquiring the players to slot into those roles, making most of his moves before the July 1st Free Agency period began. The early acquisitions of Kevin Hayes, Matt Niskanen, Justin Braun, Tyler Pitlick, and re-signing Brian Elliott left the Flyers with little-to-no wiggle room cap-space wise to bring in another player with crucial Restricted Free Agents left to ink to contracts.

Philadelphia had to watch as other teams within their division obtained talent that arguably moved the needle more than the guys Fletcher went out and got. Now, the Flyers were probably never going to get players like Artemi Panarin and P.K. Subban even if they had the space to do so due to Panarin seemingly desiring to be a New York Ranger and the infamous history between Subban and assistant coach Michel Therrien. Obviously, Subban and Panarin weren’t the only skaters available, and the Flyers still could have gotten better on paper had Fletcher decided to wait a bit.

For instance, the New Jersey Devils recently acquired former KHL MVP Nikita Gusev from the Vegas Golden Knights for a second and third-round pick, which was the same price the Flyers paid to get Braun from the San Jose Sharks. It’s worth noting that Braun has played 600 career games in the NHL while Gusev has yet to see NHL ice at 27 years of age, but Gusev certainly has the higher ceiling than Braun at this point in time. Philadelphia could’ve potentially strengthened their forward core with a potent third-line had they opted against getting one of Niskanen or Braun. I usually don’t like playing the hypothetical game; it’s just somewhat annoying to watch the Flyers stay dormant because they almost immediately spent their money.

We’ll soon find out if the moves Fletcher made were the correct ones and see if he should’ve gone with a more patient approach. In my opinion, it would’ve been smarter to stand by and let the offseason play out for a short period of time.