Former Flyer spills dirt on teammates and team culture (or lack thereof)

Do you remember Dale Weise? Probably not. He was one of those "blink and you miss them" kind of players that the Flyers pick up all the time. You know, like Louis Belpedio or Kevin Haller. They are here and then gone.

Weise, for his part, played from 2016-17 until he was traded in Feb. 2019 with one guy I never heard of (Christian Folin) for two guys I don't remember (Byron Froese and David Schlemko). During his time as a bottom-six forward, he scored 17 goals with 17 assists. He was expected to bring some veteran leadership to the team.

Before we continue, this isn't a fond tribute to a player we loved and found interesting in the past (like Simon Gagne, Oskar Lindblom, or Shayne Gostisbehere). Weise wasn't around long enough for a piece like that. He also didn't do anything memorable, like get into a super crazy fight, that stuck out. Weise was just here and did his job, albeit mediocre at best. He was somewhat of a letdown.

Now, this is where it gets interesing. See, Weise was on an episode of Slangin the Bizkit last week and crapped all over his time with the Flyers. The Philadelphia segment specifically begins around the 12:12 mark, but plenty was said throughout the entirety of the podcast.

Woah. There is a LOT going on there. A divided locker room? Lack of leadership and vision? Let's break down a lot of these things.

Is this sour grapes?

First of all, there is the possibility that this is a guy who didn't fit in with the team and is bitter about his experiences. Maybe he came in with a bad attitude, didn't jive well with his teammates. He could be one of those guys who just never fit into the Philly culture. Maybe he didn't fit the scheme or get along with the coach.

Now this does make sense. Many players have left a team, come back, and trash-talk the players they once played with. Emmanuel Acho, a former Eagle, regularly talks crap about his former team on ESPN. Former Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon talked crap about his team while he was on it.

Weise could be upset at all the hero praise and worship that Giroux and Voracek got over the years. This could be his way of getting back at them. After all, we live in an era where some want to constantly get back at people they have grudges with. Hockey teams are notorious for keeping any sort of issue in the locker room. Now that he has been out of hockey for, going on, six years, he could feel as if he can, and should, dish out the dirt.

Amongst his complaints was that he was supposed to have a "larger role" on the power play unit. In Montreal, he was a vital part of that unit. In Philadelphia, he was a rotational piece and rarely saw the puck as his other teammates "selfishly" kept the puck for themselves. Eventually, he was taken off the unit. He claims that when he signed with the Flyers, he was led to believe that it would be one of his central roles.

He was “allegedly" traded based on fears he was a bad influence on then top prospect Nolan Patrick. If anything, it was his lack of production. After two back-to-back seasons of 14 goals in Montreal, he scored eight, four, and five goals in Philadelphia. He scored none in Chicago in the 15 games he was there. And if he was such a great player, wouldn't the Blackhawks have loved to hold onto him? And speaking of the Blackhawks, he wasn't part of their Stanley Cup rosters, so not sure why he made it sound like he was a critical part of that team.

Before being traded, he was placed on waivers, and nobody grabbed him. He was not talking with teammates, and his relationship with former head coach Dave Hakstol had deteriorated. Then he was traded for scraps. That could be the foundation for what was being said. I'd be bitter too if I had my time on the team cut and was being healthy scratched a lot.

However, I do believe where there is smoke, there is fire. There are some things that he said that do make some sense and could have some validity.

Lack of organizational direction

Since Weise arrived in 2016, the Flyers had been through three general managers and seven head coaches, if you count the interims. Yikes. He's got it there. It's hard to have a team vision and direction when the administration is changing way too often for stability. Heck, I worked for one high school (as a teacher) that had three principals in four years. It's hard to know what's expected.

In a case like that, the players, if they are popular enough and don't like the coach, assume they can outlast the coach. We've seen this happen a lot. In this case, Weise was correct, as we know that the players may have tuned out Hakstol. It took a while, but the team-coach relationship crashed big time.

Likewise, this happened after the passing of Ed Snider. The Flyers went from being owned by someone with real passion to being a number in a ledger by a corporation. That does make a difference, as Snider would never have let his beloved Flyers suck for this long. The corporation will keep doing what it is doing as long as it makes money. An owner invests his heart and soul into the team. The corporation doesn't care as much. That has been an issue for almost a decade now.

The team's management is getting better and wiser. We'll see if this is changing. However, Weise did have a point there, and it is something that every Flyers fan can agree on.

The cliquishness and selfishness

We all know about the "new guy/gal" at work who comes in and talks about all the great things they can do/have done, only to see that it is "we" who have to bail them out time and time again. Then they get resentful about it and burn bridges behind them. It starts to make for a toxic environment.

I can totally see, from his perspective, that the Flyers were cliquey. If Weise came in with an attitude, didn't endear himself to his teammates, he'd probably be ostracized a bit, too. They wouldn't include him in team things or want to hang around him. He's pointing fingers at them, but he'd really need to look at the mirror for the source of that problem, especially if he's bragging about the "Chicago Way" when he was a bit player there, at best.

Now, there have been rumors in the past that suggested that Giroux wasn't the best team leader. And yet there are numerous quotes from Shayne Gostisbehere, Sean Couturier, Wayne Simmonds, Jakub Voracek, and Scott Hartnell saying he was a great friend, a great leader, kept the team close, and would play pranks to help keep things light. Again, though, hockey teams are notorious for leaving any issues in the locker room, which is where they should be. You rarely have the drama inside the locker room that you do in the NFL, NBA, or MLB.

Giroux has put up good stats in Ottawa while the team around him has struggled. His last year or two in Philadelphia were down seasons. He wanted to go home to Ottawa, but the thing is, a change of scenery may be what he needed to get the spark up for himself. Maybe he didn't want to lead this team while it was going through yet another rebuild.

And yes, Giroux and Voracek were indeed tight. Maybe the loss of Voracek helped hasten Giroux's desire to leave Philadelphia. Maybe if Voracek hadn't gone to Columbus, he wouldn't have gotten that career-ending injury.

Perhaps Weise is upset that he never developed the relationship with his teammates that they already had before he got there. Not being able to crack in personally, compounded with not being able to crack in professionally by gelling with any of the lines, could give you a bad taste in your mouth.

As for the players being selfish, I am unsure of that. Yes, Giroux and Voracek had great stats, but other players, like Brayden Schenn and James van Riemsdyk, had good seasons too. Heck, Valteri Fillipula had more points in Philly in 2018-19 than Weise had in 2.5 years in Philly? He just didn't take advantage of the chances he had.

It's also interesting that he singled out both Giroux and Voracek repeatedly in that podcast, but also kept praising their talent. He says the locker room was divided amongst different cliques, but wouldn’t go into detail. And yet he kept going back to Claude and Jakub. Hmmmmmmm? It reeks more of jealousy to me.

So what was it?

It is a combination of things. First, after Snider’s death, the Flyers' management lost its way and is still trying to find itself. You can 100% agree with that. That would be an issue for most players. Lack of direction and consistency would be frustrating.

As far as lashing out at his teammates, the verdict there is that he didn't fit in or get along with them. That is fueling his attempts to damage their good reputation.

After the Flyers traded him back to Montreal, the team he had the most success with, the Habs immediately sent him down to the AHL. The following year, 2019-20, he spent time going back and forth between the AHL and NHL. He hasn't been in the NHL since, but did play 17 games the following year in the Swedish League.

If this were a player who played substationally longer or had put up great production in the league, I'd give him more credit. For a guy who appeared in just 32 NHL games after leaving the Flyers, and not due to injury, it is what it is: most likely the sour ramblings of a player reflecting on a lost opportunity wasted with a good and talented team that he didn't fit in with.