The Philadelphia Flyers have worked quickly to replace their outgoing General Manager after firing Ron Hextall earlier this week, and will meet today with Chuck Fletcher to discuss the role. Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that it “sounds like it’s Fletcher’s job to lose” and notes that the goaltender and center positions will be first on the agenda with whoever is given the job. Fletcher was let go by the Minnesota Wild in the spring after nearly a decade as the team’s GM, and is currently serving as an advisor for the New Jersey Devils.
Fletcher brought a lot of regular season success to the Wild during his tenure there, but is perhaps best remembered by the fact that the team was unable to progress past the second round of the playoffs. Part of that was blamed on never having a true superstar to lead them to the Stanley Cup, though they did have a pair of superstar-level contracts. Fletcher’s biggest move in Minnesota was signing Zach Parise and Ryan Suter to matching 13-year, $98MM contracts in July of 2012, deals that wouldn’t even be allowed under the new CBA. Those contracts, while given to very good players, have essentially hamstrung the organization in terms of what they are able to do in free agency and on the trade market, and tied their fates directly to Parise and Suter’s health and production.
In Philadelphia, it could be argued that they too have a pair of contracts that are limiting the organization. Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek take up a combined $16.525MM in cap room, and again while very good players—or perhaps in Giroux’s case, superstar indeed—they haven’t been able to push the Flyers over the top. James van Riemsdyk was signed to another massive contract this summer but has been limited offensively, and the team has not been able to find a goaltender anywhere.
If Fletcher does come in, finding an answer down the middle and in net is an obvious first task. But whether he would attempt to solve that problem this season or wait for the summer is unclear. The Flyers are currently tied for last place in the Eastern Conference, but aren’t so far away from a playoff spot that they need to throw in the towel just yet.