Philadelphia Funk
I’ve always been a curious individual, especially as it pertains to sports. I live for New York sports and as most avid fans do, they pick apart what’s wrong with their team even if nothing remotely exists. But last night I was curious with another teams direction. I saw the orange and black flying up and down the ice, and the orange crowd just waiting to celebrate. But they didn’t. And I thought to myself, how did they get here? Just 7 years ago I watched this team on national television come an overtime away from Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Remarkable what time can do. And then I finally begged the question to myself that I simply just could not understand…what direction are the Philadelphia Flyers going?
A trip down memory lane. 2010 was a magical season in Philly. The team JUST made the postseason as they beat their rivals, the New York Rangers, in the last game of the season in a shootout to claim the #7 seed. From there, pure fire. They upset the 2 seeded Devils but ended up losing star forward Jeff Carter to a broken foot in Game 4. Even without him though, they did the unthinkable, unimaginable. Down 3 games to 0 vs the Boston Bruins in the 2nd round, they won 4 straight. The conference final saw them cruise past the 8 seeded Canadiens and earned their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final since 1997. They would lose to Chicago in 6 games.
Let’s begin here. Following that magical run in 2010, the team looked prime for greatness. They had a die hard captain, a goal scorer and hall of fame defenceman who despite his age, played very well. Then the rumors. Rumors swirled around Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, the teams 2 biggest and brightest stars at the current time, also close friends, about how they partied non stop and even favored it over their dedication to the Flyers organization. STILL, the Flyers paid them both handsomely. After a 2011 season that saw them swept by eventual Stanley Cup Champion Boston, then General Manager now President Paul Holmgren made a decision. This decision would ultimately send 1 franchise into turmoil, and another into stardom.
In the span of just 1 hour, Holmgren traded both Richards and Carter. Richards first, to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds and a 2nd round draft pick. Carter was dealt to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Jakub Voracek, a 1st round pick (Sean Couturier) and a 3rd round pick (Nick Cousins). The LA Kings would eventually also trade for Carter from Columbus, reuniting him with Richards, where both men would win 2 Stanley Cups.
Now essentially, the deal doesn’t look bad. If anything, both these trades for Philadelphia helped make 2 of its huge stars in Jake and Wayne. BUT, the aspect of how it went down is quite concerning. If you take away the partying rumors, it’s left to believe that they were traded due to their contracts and making cap space for goalie Ilya Bryzgolav, who was signed to a 9 year 51 million dollar deal, one of the worst in NHL history. Just 2 years after his deal, Ilya would be bought out by Philly. Add the fact that they traded eventual Vezina trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky to make room for Ilya, this is easily 1 of the worst GM decisions in recent memory in any sport.
Paul Holmgren traded 2 key aspects who loved to don the orange and black because he felt he had too. He signed Ilya because he felt he had too. He traded Bob because he felt he had too. And it is a general managers job to make key decisions, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. But to continuously swing and miss and then be promoted, is astonishing. The only good thing this man has done was draft Claude Giroux and even that now, looks skeptical. I only say it looks skeptical because of the teams and his recent play. These trades would be fine if their was success behind them and for awhile there was. But this season, the 16–17, has turned for the worst.
Since his 86 point season in 2013, Giroux has down spiraled. This year is his worst, registering 42 points, just 12 goals and staggering -19. As the team captain the only thing he’s consistently been able to do, is make the playoffs, as which in his playing days, he’s never missed. And that’s a HUGE thing. But it looks as if his time will run out this year. The team is 6th in a stacked Metropolitan division. They did go on a 10 game winning streak earlier this year, but as it always seems to happen, it fizzled, and they haven’t been able to pick themselves up since. So the question is, do they panic?
With Ron Hextall as the team GM now, he has a decision to make with the trade deadline just a few short days away. Is it crazy to think that trading away 1 of the big 3 in Giroux, Voracek or Simmonds, should happen? Clearly this core just isn’t clicking anymore. In any other circumstance I would say it’s no time to panic. But if you look at the metropolitan division, their are 4 really really good teams and then bad teams, but somehow the Flyers are right smack dab in the middle. Even the farm system among professionals have them ranked in the 13–18 spots, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE. And in sports, their is nothing worse than being mediocre. You either want to be the cream of the crop or the last of the litter. There should be concern here.
There are other options for Philadelphia than to trade any of the stars. They could stick it out, admit defeat and attack in free agency. Unless he’s traded and signs an extension, goalie Ben Bishop should be their primary target. This team hasn’t had a #1 goalie since their GM suited up and perhaps that is all the problem. The fact that no player on this team has a positive on the ice can be attributed to poor goalie play. They do have 2 young bright spots at defence in Ghost and Ivan and young goalie Anthony Stolarz flashed some nice goaltending earlier in his call up. But after those 3, it teeters off quiet a bit.
The basis of this conversation is simple, where does this team stand? It’s almost as if Hextall and Holmgren don’t even know and that gets incredibly dangerous because you are unsure what to add or subtract. Are you in a rebuild? Can you contend? They are stuck in the epitome of limbo hockey and for Philadelphia, it couldn’t be more confusing or worse. The other 3 franchises in the city who bleed sports are all in rebuilds and have made that abundantly clear. Holmgren lays in his decisions of his past and now hands the torch to Ron. Does Ron go ahead and make the same choices Paul did when he traded Richards and Carter? It’s a revolving door of laughter that takes an established hockey franchise, and puts them in a place they should be nor deserve to be. Since I’ve been alive the countless amounts of poor decision making, inability to evaluate talent and endless pit of money dumping into guys who don’t contribute continues to pile up.
So which is it? Will you trade 1 or even 2 stars AGAIN to make a future Flyers team? Or will you continue to “just” make the playoffs and nothing more? Scraping at the bottom of the hockey barrel where “just” is good enough. The time is now to make a pivotal decision for your franchise. Be the Philadelphia Flyers, or continue to be a shell of what they used to be?
