Tag: Chuck Fletcher

From a mid-January start with some early positive results to one final win/loss to the New Jersey Devils in mid-May to conclude the 56-game campaign, here are five takeaways from the season.

An MCL sprain has kept Carter Hart sidelined since his last appearance on April 15. On Thursday morning, GM Chuck Fletcher announced that Hart will miss the remainder of the 2020-21 regular season.

Depending on how his offseason goes for the Philadelphia Flyers, Chuck Fletcher might end up seeing his way out the door if he isn’t careful.

Now it’s about playing for pride. It’s about playing for jobs. It’s about giving a damn that you even have the opportunity to play. That’s what the Flyers face over the next few weeks. Their playoff hopes are dashed. An eventful offseason likely awaits. So it’s up to the players still here following Monday’s deadline to compete in these games, to show a sense of pride.

Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher addressed the moves made by the team on trade deadline day, trading Michael Raffl and Erik Gustafsson and re-signing Scott Laughton, while also starting to take a glimpse into what should be a busy offseason.

Less than an hour until the trade deadline, Scott Laughton is here to stay with the Flyers, signing a five-year contract extension with an average annual value of $3 million. The Flyers also dealt defenseman Erik Gustafsson to the Montreal Canadiens for a 2022 seventh-round pick.

Less than 24 hours before the trade deadline, the Flyers were left with a stunning defeat to the Buffalo Sabres, the NHL lowest team in the standings, handed a loss by lowly Buffalo for the second time in two weeks. It was the most fitting of endings for a team that has continued to get in their own way all season.

When it comes down to it, the loss that determined this perfectly defined the season – fall behind, rally back, struggle on special teams both ways, come up short. It should be no surprise that it was another loss to the Bruins, a team that has had their number all season and that has dashed their playoff hopes before, did it again. 

Wednesday night’s game in Buffalo was the fourth time this season the Flyers were handed a 6-1 defeat. This one was by far the worst though, because this one helped the Buffalo Sabres, the NHL’s last-place team in the standings, snap an 18-game winless streak. It was a new low for the Flyers, and a fitting way to cap off a month that progressively got worse. 

The Flyers may be sitting fifth in the East, three points out of a playoffs, still very much mathematically alive. But their defense is in shambles. Almost every core player that was expected to produce on the higher end offensively has shown struggles. The goaltending has been questioned. To put it simply, the Flyers are a mess right now, and it’s become clear that the current system is just not working.

Times like these leave the masses calling for action of any kind. You certainly got that on Tuesday from the Flyers. Less than 24 hours after completing a comeback win over the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3, in overtime, the Flyers made an interesting move, placing defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere on waivers.

Monday’s game was a battle royale of mediocrity. This was a game that probably played out exactly as it should have in both result and process. Yes, the Flyers are a better team than the Sabres. The standings certainly reflect that. But for 40 minutes, they weren’t close to that, so much so that they not only once again dug a hole to the worst team in the league, requiring another frantic third-period rally, but they also had to shorten the bench to do it.

Sam Morin’s first NHL goal was the difference in this game, one the Flyers absolutely needed to have. It doesn’t solve all their problems and it remains to be seen what effect this has on the team moving forward. But this could be their last chance to take a positive moment, a moment that can bond a team, and turn the season around.

After another lopsided defeat to the Rangers that eerily resembled last week’s 9-0 embarrassment, this time an 8-3 margin, the statements made this week mean very little. This team is fractured beyond repair. It likely requires some sort of significant change. And the worst part is that in a year where there is so much uncertainty and hesitancy to take action, the Flyers might be stuck.

GM Chuck Fletcher didn’t gloss over the cold hard facts of where the Flyers rank in various categories. He called out the puck management problems. But his most telling response came when he was answering a question regarding Erik Gustafsson that ultimately transferred over into the defense as a whole.

After allowing the first two goals of the game to put themselves in another hole, the Flyers gave up another goal in the first two minutes of the second period. The game was essentially over right then and there, because the 18 minutes that followed were not just the worst the Flyers have played this season, they were historically bad.

Thursday’s game was just another example of how ugly it’s been lately. Washington didn’t have to look their best to put a stranglehold on this game. And on a night when Washington, Boston, and the Islanders all picked up two more points in the standings with wins, the Flyers fell just a little farther behind in the race. Those points are costly no matter when they are lost.

The Flyers were back on Tuesday for practice with a limited group and more players are expected to rejoin the team on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s game against the New York Rangers. The Flyers also had five games rescheduled by the NHL in the wake of COVID-19 caused postponements.

If you thought it couldn’t get any worse than that, the Flyers had another thing in store for you on Saturday. A close game on the scoreboard unraveled again and the Flyers were left to pick up the pieces from another embarrassing effort and loss. It presents a lot of questions as the team moves forward, watching their start of three wins in four games completely fade away.

The start of a new season is finally upon us. The Flyers make their return on Wednesday night when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins. Before they do, let’s take a look at 10 storylines that will be worth watching as the season progresses.

What Alain Vigneault has brought in that time has been refreshing. For the better part of a decade, the Flyers lacked a coach that seemed to challenge a steady core group of players, that didn’t demand the same excellence the fans did, that was satisfied with a participation award in the playoffs, but never advancing. That’s not Vigneault’s style.

Seven players from the 41-man training camp roster were placed on waivers for the purposes of going to the AHL or taxi squad that will allow the Flyers to make recalls much easier in this unprecedented season.

It’s been over 650 days since Nolan Patrick played in a game. With Chuck Fletcher, Alain Vigneault and Flyers teammates all sounding hopeful to get Patrick back for this season, his condition will still require careful monitoring and expectations for his on-ice performance should be curbed.

For the second straight week, Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher addressed the media. There were some typical announcements, one on an injury update for a goalie prospect and the news that the training camp roster would be released on Saturday. But there was also a very unexpected nugget that Fletcher revealed: Sam Morin is switching to left wing.

Take the emotion of playoff hockey and bottle it up into a 56-game schedule where you play the same seven teams all season and it’s a recipe for rivalry. The 2020-21 season schedule will be the strangest we’ve seen so far, but it has a chance to restore some divisional rivalries for the Flyers.

Shortly after the NHL released the schedule, Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher spoke to the media, covering a range of topics surrounding the 2020-21 roster and how the Flyers will manage things in a shortened season.

The Flyers were relatively inactive in free agency, adding newcomer Erik Gustafsson on the blue line, but not making any other significant additions. Perhaps that’s because the significant additions that could come may be internal.

Defenseman Mason Millman has signed an entry-level control with the Flyers, GM Chuck Fletcher announced.

The Flyers announced that they have re-signed Myers to a three-year deal worth $7.65 million, a $2.55 million average annual value.