The Philadelphia Flyers have recently discovered a new gimmick of hiring former Flyers with no prior experience to key front office roles, and continued to stick to the script when they hired Patrick Sharp and John LeClair in advisor roles this week.
It’s caused quite the stir on Twitter, as fans reminisce about the good ol’ days when these players where dominant forces on the roster. But there’s a major cause for concern underlying all the feel-good hires- what qualifies all these people to run an NHL front office?
The Flyers have not officially updated their own website to reflect all the hirings and firings that have taken place within the shadowy front office (well done, Flyers!), so who is still on the books from the Fletcher regime is unclear. But based on who we know has been hired, there’s a whole lot of inexperienced former players in there and not many people who have held front office roles before.
It’s not even the “former Flyer” status that is the cause for concern, who cares whether or not someone played here? It’s the whole “none of these guys have prior experience in their roles” part that really sticks out as a red flag.
Fans have gotten very hung up on the “former Flyer” battle cry, completely ignoring the rampant inexperience that comes with the new faces; and according to some, the whole “qualifications for the job” thing is overblown anyway.
There are former Flyers like Rod Brind’Amour that have carved out a great niche as a head coach in Carolina. Three straight division titles and two Conference Finals in the last five years is a heck of an achievement. If he were to return to the Flyers organization one day, sure, he’s a former Flyer, but he’d also bring a list of credentials a mile long with him.
That’s the difference from the new-look front office group of Keith Jones, Danny Briere, Patrick Sharp and John LeClair who hold a combined zero days of previous experience under their new titles. In fact, Danny Briere’s stint as Special Assistant to Chuck Fletcher that lasted about 12 months is the only experience in an NHL front office between all of them.
Now, there’s something sexy about former fan favorite players returning to the organization and, through no more than passion alone, getting the team back on track and leading them to glory. It’s an awesome storyline and the biggest reason for the clouded judgment in the first place.
And, for what it’s worth, success is still a potential outcome to all of this. There’s probably some truth to the theory of “these players played here and thus have an upper hand on the situation compared to outside hires.”
But outside hires aren’t a bad thing… or at least they don’t have to be. The knee-jerk reaction from fans has been citing Chuck Fletcher as the cookie cutter example of an outsider, assuming anyone who hasn’t donned a winged P is an incompetent nit whit. Completely ruling out guys like Ray Shero, who steered two separate franchises through rebuilds. Forward thinkers like Kyle Dubas, who built a very solid organization in Toronto. Cowboys like Brad Treliving or Jeff Gorton who aren’t afraid to rock the boat.
Which is funny, because after Holmgren and Hextall fans demanded outside hires, fed up with former Flyers. But after a bad experience they’re all aboard the former Flyers train again. In a few years when everyone inevitably turn on Briere and co, they’ll more than likely demand an outsider once again. It’s a pattern that is going to continue into perpetuity.
At the end of the day, the Philadelphia Flyers are a professional sports franchise. A business. Now, the previous two regimes have dropped the value of the team to unrecognizable depths over the last nearly decade. While the new former Flyer hirings have temporarily cooled the anger towards the front office the fanbase possesses, it doesn’t exactly solve anything beyond some more-than-likely short-lived feel good moments.
Getting rid of Chuck Fletcher and Dave Scott opened an opportunity to find qualified candidates that have steered other franchises through rebuilds. Take a run at great minds in our sport to save the sinking ship. But they kept it all in house with Briere and Jones, then doubled down with Sharp and LeClair. They’re putting a lot of eggs in the basket of homerism holding over the fans and that the unqualified former players can come together and put in the work to turn the franchise around. It’s a major ask that may or may not work out.
Again, there’s no guarantees for success in whatever path they chose. The Flyers could’ve hired Steve Yzerman and dug up Sam Pollock and it may not be enough to save the listless team.
It’s very possible Danny Briere and the rest of the Flyers roster now employed as front office figures can turn the franchise around, but if they don’t, boy, hindsight will look pretty bad that they had the world at their finger tips and ran with a nepotism scheme that would make Trump jealous.
All we can hope is that these new front office members are actually driven to succeed and this isn’t a case of Hextall 2.0, where his status as a former Flyer preaching a rebuild and making menial moves kept fans enraptured for way longer than deserved. That’s a thought that has been brewing the the back of the mind this offseason.
In the short term, it was a smart play by Dan Hilferty and whoever else was in charge of the hiring process. It wasn’t but just a few months ago when morale was at an all-time low between the fanbase and front office, and all they had to do was replace a few former Flyers with a fresh batch of former Flyers. No acquiring main roster stars, no world class hirings, no insanely lopsided trades. Just a few familiar faces. Well executed pandering. Take a bow, Flyers front office.
As for the on-ice results of the homerism and this former Flyer experiment? Well… TBD.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com / cbssports.com / Getty Images
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