Avoiding the “Matt Read Factor”

If there is anything you can say about the Philadelphia Flyers, they are loyal to their players. I can’t remember who said it, but I remember seeing a former player around Alumni Weekend and he said something to the effect of “When you are a Flyer, you are a Flyer forever. You are family”.

This team has gone through great lengths of maintaining relationships with its players; hiring many of them in a variety of capacities and using many as team ambassadors in the community. Whether you were an all-star player or someone who played a few years here and moved on, the Flyers do a lot to keep in touch and take care of their own.

While this is a wonderful thing for fan and community relations, it can be detrimental to the team. How long do you hold onto a player? When is it time to move on? Last year, we saw the team part ways with Claude Giroux. We also saw them cut ties with Oskar Lindblom. Both were emotional, but for different reasons. Giroux because he has been a fixture on this team for over a decade; Lindblom because of his battles with cancer. Recently, former Flyer Wayne Simmonds was put on waivers by the Toronto Maple Leafs and part of me wanted to see him in orange and black again.

When looking at this Flyers team, I am brought back to about 10 years ago. The Flyers had a bunch of young guys that they were looking to step up. Among them was Matt Read.

I got nothing against Read. He had a great rookie year, posting 24 goals in 2011-12. He was a decent third or fourth line player. He was a Flyer. But he never really improved. He scored only 20+ goals one more time; 22 in 2013-14. He was an ok player, but never did anything to really stand out. He never built on his rookie season. Again, he wasn’t a bad player, but he never gave the Flyers any reason to keep him.

However, keep him they did. He spent seven years as a member of the Flyers. He scored 87 goals; with 1/4 of them in his first season. He would eventually not be re-signed by the team. He signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Wild in 2018 and would play in 12 games and score one goal.

Despite his breakout season, he never achieved that level of success. Yet, they kept hanging on in hopes that it would come back. It didn’t. Instead of trying to trade him away, even for a low level draft pick, he was left to walk out with no compensation coming back.

The Flyers are in a state of transition right now under Coach John Tortorella. There are a bunch of players that the Flyers have right now that they’ve been waiting to produce and/or stay healthy. Morgan Frost, Wade Allison, and Tanner Laczynski are among the more notable names. Frost started off strong with a two goal performance on opening night. Hopefully he can keep up this level of performance consistently.

It’s a catch-22 of sorts. Sometimes the Flyers have given up on young players, with Patrick Sharp being a great example. However, sometimes they have held on too long. Samuel Morin, a player who was embattled with injuries is an example of this.

Hopefully this year, Tortorella will see growth and improvement in the young players. The ones who don’t meet up to his expectations can be sent back to Lehigh Valley for some “seasoning”.  If they can’t perform to what he wants or expects, maybe find some team to partner up with and make a trade. Sometimes a change of scenery is all a player needs. John LeClair found that out when he was shipped from Montreal to Philly. He went from being a steady role player to borderline-hall of famer.

This year will change many things for the Flyers. Hopefully these changes will all be good.