Philadelphia Flyers Hall of Fame: Candidate Power Rankings

Paul Holmgren

For almost 50 years, Paul Holmgren has enjoyed a nearly uninterrupted association with the Flyers. He’s been a player, coach, general manager, and executive. Yet…

As I wrote on the occasion of “Homer” stepping down two years ago, the guy is basically a living, breathing embodiment of everything that’s gone wrong with this franchise for almost half a century.

No, I’m not blaming failure after failure on Holmgren, although he definitely needs to be held accountable for some things. But when you consider that he was drafted by the Flyers the week after the team’s second Stanley Cup win and has been around for nearly everything else since, it really makes you think of him as some sort of reverse Forrest Gump where everything he touches falls apart.

Heck, he even took his show on the road to Hartford for a few years in the ’90s, and look how that went before he came back home to Mr. Snider.

You have to respect the way that Paul Holmgren has been willing to run (or skate) through a wall for this franchise for a long time, and I do thank him for the time he’s put in. But I don’t personally need to see his name hovering like a specter over Flyers ice for all eternity.