It’s been a long decade for the Flyers. Especially the last three seasons, that have been consecutive showings of the worst stretch in franchise history. After the Flyers took a loss to the winless San Jose Sharks on November 7, they have won five straight since, their first streak of that length since the 2019-20 season, including hard-fought games against two of the best in the league in Carolina and Vegas.
The short-term victories are nice, but with the team overachieving, it has called into question the future the organization is aiming for.
Rookie GM Danny Briere spent the summer unafraid to use the word “rebuild,” dropping it everywhere during his media tour. It was a welcome change of pace from his directionless predecessor. Even though his offseason moves did leave something to be desired, a few young guys made the roster to start the season and it seemed like there was a plan in place to start building for the future.
The team was not necessarily constructed like a typical rebuilding squad, which was only reinforced when Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson came back at full health. The adding of solid depth players, plus the returning vets surrounding a roster full of decent players with upside, and it’s not overly surprising they on-ice results have been better than expected.
Now, as American Thanksgiving approaches, the Flyers give the illusion of being a potential playoff squad, whether they actually deserve it or not. But they’re working hard and seeing results, which has been steering them further and further away from their promised rebuild.
Even with things coming up better than expected, it feels highly unlikely the Flyers fully abandon their “rebuilding” stance and activity attempt to add talent and win. Yet winning and retaining the services of the few decent players on the team goes directly against the goal of building a better, sustainable future.
There have been growing voices on social media that have essentially said “the Flyers don’t need high end talent, they can just play like this” which is… just flat out untrue. It’s not impossible to win a championship with a sturdy defense and a lackluster offense, the LA Kings did it twice, but it’s also not the norm either.
It’s a rather insane stance to insinuate, given we’re not that far removed from the Ron Hextall era, where being a bubble team with lackluster drafting and refusal to bring in outside talent screwed them for years to come.
It rings back to the 2017-18 Flyers. A few players had overachieving seasons, they made the playoffs only to get annihilated by the Penguins in the first round. Rather than deciding it was time to build, they put a feather in their cap and ran the roster back in near entirety (after spending a ton of money on a lackluster James Van Riemsdyk) and they got crushed in 2018-19 so badly that it cost Hextall and Dave Hakstol their jobs.
There’s still nearly 3/4 of the season left to be played, so there’s a chance this win streak is just a forgotten blip on the radar with an impending collapse by the time April rolls around. But there’s also a chance that the Flyers stay at this level for the remainder of the campaign and fight tooth and nail for a playoff spot for the rest of the season.
There’s nothing wrong with the Flyers winning. But if it’s the route they stay on for the remainder of the season, then the organization needs to pivot to accommodate the unexpected success. The 2024 offseason will turn from a yard sale to a casino where Briere will have to be a high roller to bring in some legitimate talent for the team to have sustained success.
If the Flyers want to win and more or less cast aside any vision of a classic rebuild, that’s fine. Maybe the team doesn’t need to be gutted and built from scratch, realizing they’re closer than they let on. But if that’s the case then Briere and co. in the front office can’t be afraid to add during the summer, because throwing away an attempt at building the team through the draft is a not great strategy.
If they have no interest in building through the draft, but also refuse to spend money on William Nylander in free agency, or give up picks and prospects to acquire a top restricted free agent like Elias Pettersson… then what’s the plan? Because running it back is not an acceptable answer. A hard working, low ceiling team under Tortorella’s tutelage is just replicating his time with the Columbus Blue Jackets, which is not the “rebuilding” outcome they should aiming for.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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