Don’t let the Philadelphia Flyers quiet free agency concern you
A few days into Free Agency and the Philadelphia Flyers have yet to make a splash. Don’t let this diminish your excitement for next season.
For years, it seemed the Philadelphia Flyers were always major players on the free agent market. Every single offseason, you just knew the Orange and Black would be linked to each and every one of the big names on the open market. With that kind of aggressive approach comes risk, and it is exactly what left the Flyers’ stuck in mediocrity for the better part of the last decade.
All of those big-money free agent signings caught up to the Flyers, and eventually, they ran out of money and cap space. This left the team with virtually no wiggle room and forced a complete overhaul of how they would need to approach how the roster was constructed.
Once Paul Holmgren was relieved of his duties as the general manager and reassigned in the organization (sound familiar?), Ron Hextall was hired and decided it was best to attempt to offload some of the larger contracts and focus on building through the NHL Draft. The good news is, this has yielded some fantastic players and has made the future incredibly bright for the Flyers. The bad news? It tested the patience of not only the fan base but also the organization as a whole.
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Once they committed to a grassroots rebuild, the Flyers’ seemingly hit home run after home run after home run in the NHL Draft. Don’t believe me? Well, Travis Sanheim (first round 2014), Ivan Provorov (first round 2015), Travis Konecny (first round 2015), Morgan Frost (first round 2017), and Joel Farabee (first round 2018) have all already contributed for the Flyers (some more than others), and all look set to contribute for many years moving forward.
The best thing is, the Flyers’ draft success is not just limited to the first round. Nicolas Aube-Kubel (second round 2014) looks like he is set to be a really solid bottom-six forward for this team. And of course, the future (if not current?) face of the franchise, Carter Hart, was selected in the second round of the 2016 NHL Draft.
Heck, you can even point to a guy like Philippe Myers who was signed as an undrafted free agent and looks set to be a top-pairing defenseman (Top four at worst) for the next 5-10 years at least.
Do you see the point that is trying to be hammered home? The Flyers have completely altered how they operate as an organization, and it has changed the outlook of this team moving forward. Gone are the days where the Flyers spend in free agency just to spend. The entire ideology of the franchise has changed, and simply put; it is for the better.
I have seen many fans who are incredibly upset with how virtually nothing has been accomplished so far in free agency, and I just don’t understand that line of thinking. Granted, the team did sign depth defenseman Derrick Pouliot to a one-year deal worth about $800,000. His career hasn’t really panned out as expected, as the 26-year-old was a former top draft pick (eighth overall) back by the Penguins in 2012, and he really has just bounced around since then. He looks set to be nothing more than a depth piece and will probably spend much of his season in the AHL. But still, a low-risk high-upside signing like this seems to be where the Flyers want to operate; and that is perfectly okay.
Next. Tyler Pitlick’s departure creates opportunity. dark
As we continue to progress towards the beginning of the 2020-2021 season, I would expect the Orange and Black to make a marginal move to upgrade their bottom six. However, letting the younger players develop with the mix of veterans in place isn’t necessarily a death wish moving forward. If this past season and playoff run taught us anything, it is that this franchise has a grasp on how they want to operate, and it has worked darn well so far. The future is as bright as it has been in over a decade for the Philadelphia Flyers, and with the pieces in place, there is no reason this team can’t take another step forward next season.