Like any good HGTV show, the best part of a rebuild is the teardown.
The hammer swung on Mike Richards and Jeff Carter after six years of two first-round exits, a DNQ, Conference Finals appearance, Stanley Cup Finals appearance , and a second-round exit. You might remember they were traded for Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, Jake Voracek, a 2011 first-round-pick (Sean Couturier), a 2011 third-round-pick (Nick Cousins), and a 2012 second-round-pick (Traded to Dallas for Nik Grossman).
Six years later it felt like the hammer was about to swing again, the Flyers had gone second-round exit, DNQ, first-round exit, DNQ, first-round exit, and a DNQ in their last six years. Brayden Schenn was traded to St. Louis for a 2017 1st (Morgan Frost) and 2018 1st (Joel Farabee) and then silence.
Wayne Simmonds would remain in Philadelphia until February 2019, when he was traded for 19 games of Ryan Hartman and a 2020 fourth-round-pick that was later sent to Anaheim for Derek Grant. Hartman’s rights would be traded to Dallas for Tyler Pitlick. Voracek would remain in Philadelphia until July 2021 when he was dealt back to Columbus for Cam Atkinson. Claude Giroux would make it to March 2022 before being traded for Owen Tippett, a 2023 third-round-pick and a 2024 first-round-pick.
The dragging of feet by both the Flyers front office and a fanbase reluctant to give up on heroes who simply weren’t good enough saw the Flyers miss the opportunity for massive return and the kind of down to the studs teardown Flyers fans are demanding now. Folks are upset that they haven’t gotten the glorious and gory team teardown, but they never wanted that moment with the Giroux core; some still cannot come to terms with Giroux being gone.
Claude Giroux
The only way to get the big hammer swings is to let go of your heroes.
Attention has turned to the current crop, fans want to trade away 25 and 26 year olds for Schenn-like returns, where the potential is better than the player.
“Knock it down and start all over!”
Why? Some delayed cathartic moment? Destroy the thing you couldn’t bring yourself to destroy earlier?
The great Flyers fan existence is one of perpetual misery. It exists to constantly look in the rear-view mirror for negatives and it’s fed by a media who can phone in tepid hot takes that support this need for negativity.
A fanbase jonesing for a rebuild but unable to see that it has been happening all along.
The Flyers current roster features seven 1st round-picks drafted since 2015. Seven 1st round-picks 26 or younger. That works out to a 1st round-pick on the roster for every draft from 2015 through 2021. All told the Flyers have 11 first-round-picks on their roster that are 28 or younger. ELEVEN. *Cue Spinal Tap GIF*
For the numbers challenged, that’s about half of the 23 man active roster.
That number does not include 24 year-old second-round draft pick Carter Hart, 23 year-old fifth-round pick Samuel Ersson, and 26 year-old third-rounder Felix Sandstrom, who have given the Flyers a depth in net that they’ve lacked for decades.
What about Bobby Brink, Tyson Foerster, and Cutter Gauthier?
Not on the list either. All three of those players have the potential to be star level players in the league. Neither are Ronnie Attard and Egor Zamula, who are highly regarded defense prospects. How about Olle Lycksell and Elliott Desnoyers? Late round picks expected to compete for NHL ice time next year.
Flyers fans, your rebuild didn’t come with a McDavid or an Eichel or a Matthews to trumpet its arrival. No, instead it started while you were still insisting there was a way to win a Stanley Cup with Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek. Credit where it’s due as the Flyers are in a much better position moving forward than many have given them credit for but that has more to do with loyalty to star players than any reasonable take on the franchise.
Could it be better? Sure but the reality is the Flyers have bounced back pretty well from draft pick misses which include the likes of Nolan Patrick and German Rubstov. Flyers fans wanted to “Love it and List it” and in some strange way it seems like that’s what has happened.
From where I’m sitting it doesn’t seem all that hard to land a star player. The difficult part always seems to be having the depth to maximize that player. As we have seen, the Flyers have been quietly assembling that depth for years now.
Coach John Tortorella seems like the right coach to rebuild the franchise’s shattered identity and to carve out a spot for that stud-level star atop the depth that we’ve been discussing. The Flyers may just be ok…but that’s not gonna sell in Philly.
Anthony Chatburn is a Contributor for HW Hockey
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