Chuck Fletcher: The Hits and Misses

Signings

Fletcher re-signed some key Flyers, which was important. Sean Couturier was signed for eight years at $7,750,000 a year and Travis Konecny was reupped for six years at $5,500,000 a year. Couturier is probably overpaid, but if he were healthy, nobody would be complaining. Likewise, Konecny’s contract is looking like a bargain compared to others on the team. Scott Laughton was re-signed for $3 million a year for five years. He might not be a scoring threat, but he is steady.

When it came to goalies, Fletcher did know how to lock them up. First, he signed Brian Elliott and Martin Jones to help tutor Carter Hart. Both of them cost the team just $2 million for a backup goalie who pretty much split duties with the young Hart during a very crucial time in his career. Likewise, Hart’s first major pro contract was for three years at just under $4 million a season.

Likewise, Justin Braun was initially given a deal that was worth $1,800,000 per year for two years after they traded for him. When Braun first arrived to the Flyers, he was a stabilizing force on a team that had a bunch of young, untested players.

Trades

Most of the time you wouldn’t think of a trade of draft picks as anything important. However, in 2020, the Flyers traded two seventh round picks for a fifth round pick. That fifth round pick became Elliot Desnoyers. It may have just been a luck of the draw, but that worked out pretty good.

In 2019, the Flyers traded big rough defender Radko Gudas to Washington for defender Matt Niskanen. Niskanen had a terrific year as he teamed up with a young Ivan Provorov. They became one of the best defensive duos in the league and took the Flyers deep into the playoff bubble of 2020. Nobody could’ve foreseen that Niskanen would’ve retired the following year. You kind of wonder what would have happened had he not quit. Maybe the team would’ve been better. Maybe Claude Giroux would’ve stayed on. Maybe they’d be in the playoffs. Who knows.

Earlier, I mentioned Justin Braun. When he first arrived, the Flyers send a 2019 second rounder and a 2020 third rounder to the Sharks to acquire him. He cost the Flyers more than Niskanen did. He never was a points getter, but he was a stable defender and had some good seasons here in Philly. Likewise, when he was traded in 2022 for a third rounder, that was a steal for Fletch. Kind of surprised he couldn’t pull off anything similar this year.

His two biggest trades didn’t pan out well, but let’s look at those. Both were in July of 2021 and looked as if they would put the Flyers over the top. I’m talking about sending Phillipe Myers and Nolan Patrick to Nashville for Ryan Ellis and Jakub Voracek to Columbus for Cam Atkinson. Both were bold moves and needed to be made.

Patrick was a huge bust and Myers never really panned out. The idea of getting Ellis, at one point a shut down defender, was great. We all thought that Ellis would’ve played more than just four games. Had he been healthy, last year and this year might’ve been different. Likewise, Voracek needed a change of scenery and had a good year last year. So did Atkinson. However, both of them had serious injuries this year. There is a good chance that Voracek is done playing.

While these two trades didn’t work out, due to unforeseen injury issues, I can’t blame Fletcher for the fact that they didn’t work out. They were bold moves that, if they had worked, could’ve seen the Flyers be more competitive. Alas, it didn’t happen, but you can’t blame him for trying. You can blame him for other things though.