Chuck Fletcher: The Hits and Misses

Now that the prayers and hopes and dreams of Flyers fans everywhere have been met with the dismissal of Chuck Fletcher as general manager, we now hope that there will be a time when our team will not longer be afterthoughts or laughingstocks. It will take years of aggressive, and possibly painful, maneuvering to fix what is wrong with this team. It will be years before this team is in the playoffs and truly competitive.

With all that in mind, let’s take a look at the Fletcher Era of Flyers history. It was short (blessedly), from December of 2018 to March of 2023. To be fair, there were some moves he made that were good. There were others that were awful. There are still more that we don’t know enough yet how they will turn out.

Before we begin, there are lots and lots and lots of deals that general managers of teams do. Many of them are inconsequential. There were a lot of trades that were just draft picks, minor leaguers, or fourth line bench players that really didn’t matter a lot. Likewise, there are a lot of free agent signings that are just re-signing rookies, undrafted prospects, contract extensions, or signing picks.

We are not going to examine every single move that he made. For example, nobody is clamoring for any opinion on 2019’s Jordan Weal to Arizona for a sixth round draft pick in 2019 and Jacob Graves. However, we will look at some of the bigger deals that have happened.

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.

Signings

It’s not that Kevin Hayes is a bad player, but we’re stuck with him for seven years at just a touch over $7 million a season. If his deal was closer to $5 million, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But that is just another deal that this team has had that hampers this team come salary cap time. They have no room to maneuver. And some of that he inherited from Ron Hextall, but moves like this do not help the team.

Likewise, he extended Ivan Provorov for six years at $6,750,000 a pop. For an average/above average defender, that is paying way too much. And when you consider that the team has several highly touted defensive prospects coming through the pipeline, this is a luxury the team can’t afford. It’s also going to make it hard to move him unless he starts performing at a higher level.

Last offseason, the Flyers re-signed Justin Braun on a one-year $1 million deal. While he is worth that price, the fact that he hasn’t played a lot makes this a million wasted. If the idea was to get younger, re-signing him and not playing him made very little season. Again, Fletcher’s failure to move Braun at the deadline has been called into question.

Trades

First, let’s look at what I call the “Chuck Fletcher Specials”. You know, the trade a guy for nobody and nothing. We saw this in the first of our three trade deadline deals this year when the Flyers sent struggling former second round pick, Isaac Ratcliffe to Nashville for “future considerations”. Man, you could’ve at least gotten a used Zamboni for him. At least then, there would’ve been something coming back.

The greatest example of this sort of failure is the deal that sent Shayne Gostisbehere WITH a 2022 second rounder and  seventh rounder in what amounted to a salary dump. We got “future considerations” in return. We’re in the future, and Arizona is still “considering” what to give us. In the meantime, Gostisbehere was traded this year to Carolina for a third round pick in 2026. We paid another team to take him from us. Horrible deal!

What made that trade worse the that the Flyers then made a trade with Buffalo that cost the team a 2021 first rounder, a 2023 second rounder, and Robert Hagg.  In return, we got Rasmus Ristolainen. So, not only did we give up a second and a seventh round pick to give up Gostisbehere, we then turned around and gave up a first rounder and second rounder to get a crappier version. Along with that, we gave up Hagg, who was an average level depth defender. And while Risto has performed better this year, ask ANY Flyers fan, you’d rather have Gostisbehere instead.

Sometimes the trades Fletcher made were just short sighted. In 2019, the Flyers traded Anthony Stolarz to Edmonton for Cam Talbot. Stolarz has become a pretty capable backup and has performed well in Anaheim. Talbot played four games in Philly before leaving as a free agent. In 2020, the Flyers traded a fifth pick for Nate Thompson. Yes, he was a good locker room presence, but he was not a solid player. He didn’t add a whole lot to what this team needed and he didn’t play all that much.

In an effort to replace the departed Matt Niskanen, the Flyers spent $3 million on Erik Gustafsson. He was seen as a guy who was a good offensive blueliner, but a poor defender. So again, a player in the mold of Gostisbehere and Ristolainen. As a Flyer, he stunk. He wanted off the team and the team wanted him gone. So, the Flyers did trade him…to Montreal for a seventh rounder. Sadly, he’s had a wonderful year in Washington and was just acquired by Toronto. But the whole deal from the signing to the trade just stunk.

The last pair of trades involved another fan favorite: Wayne Simmonds  Simmonds was definitely on the tail end of his career. The injuries just caught up with him. A lot of teams in contention could’ve used his services. Instead, he was sent to Nashville for a fourth round pick (later traded away) and Ryan Hartman. Hartman had 10 goals with the Preds and would score two goals with Philly. But then Hartman would be traded that offseason to Dallas for Tyler Pitlick. Hartman would somehow score 34 goals in 2022-22 with Minnesota. Pitlick would have one decent year in Philly before departing as a free agent.

But you would think that for a Flyers legend like Simmonds, you could’ve gotten something more. At least something that would’ve lasted more than just a few months and made an impact on the team. Alas, that didn’t happen.