The Philadelphia Flyers are rebuilding… or at least that’s been the battle cry for much of the last calendar year. It’s the second time they’ve embarked on the journey of a “rebuild” over the last decade, and the question as to whether or not they can do it right this time looms large over the organization. And the early case against them has shown that when it’s time to put those words into action, the front office hasn’t exactly done a great job laying the foundation for their future.
Development isn’t black and white. There’s no hard line between who should be in the NHL and AHL. And especially under the guise of a rebuild, integrating the promising young guys the organization quite literally suffered for into the main roster lineup should be a given. But that just hasn’t been the case.
At least at the end of the 2022-23 season they played musical chairs with a couple roster spots, giving guys like Tyson Foerster, Olle Lycksell, Elliot Desnoyers, Egor Zamula, Ronnie Attard and Adam Ginning a chance to play in the NHL, even it was just a few games. But during the 2023-24 campaign, they haven’t even given that much rope to the prospects.
Bobby Brink, Emil Andrae and Tyson Foerster made the Flyers’ roster out of camp to much surprise, but the good times were short lived. Andrae played four games during October in a limited role before he was demoted, Bobby Brink was on the roster until late-January, but was a regular scratch and played depth minutes for the most part when he was dressed. Foerster is the only one still on the roster, and his transition hasn’t been as perfect as originally hoped.
The problem is, any prospect getting sent to the AHL has been a one-way trip down. There has yet to be a case of one of the demoted players making a return, in any kind of meaningful capacity, to the NHL. Tyson Foerster is really the closest example of a “second chance” as he had an eight-game sample with the Flyers during the 2022-23 campaign and earned a full-time spot in 2023-24.
Players like Olle Lycksell and Bobby Brink have been recalled a couple times, but only play and insultingly low amount then ends up scratched indefinitely before getting sent back. And players like Wade Allison and Emil Andrae got demoted and haven’t even been considered for another call up.
And in Brink’s case, he was recalled, scored two goals in a game-and-a-half then had a defensive mistake and hasn’t seen time away from the fourth line in multiple games since. That’s not development, that’s punishment. The short leash of John Tortorella cutting the legs out from a young player who was otherwise playing well. He’s not a patient man… unless, of course, you’re one of his favorite veterans, in which case make all this mistakes you want punishment-free.
So why is the guy with a zero-tolerance policy for young player’s mistakes leading the rebuild anyway?
When integration doesn’t occur, the Flyers subsequently self-sabotage themselves when it comes to knowing what their young guys can bring to the roster. And it seems to be perfectly on display when it comes to the defense ahead of the deadline. The Flyers are fighting for a playoff spot and don’t want to trade Sean Walker or Nick Seeler because they don’t know whether or not Ronnie Attard or Emil Andrae can make suitable replacements in heated games. But they don’t know what those two have because they never gave them an opportunity during the less tense part of the season to adapt to the NHL level.
Attard’s contract converts to one-way status next season. Which means he would need to clear waivers before getting sent down again. That hasn’t stopped the front office from demoting players anyway (Allison, Laczynski, Sandstrom) but theoretically that means he’s a main-roster staple in 2024-25. And yet, he hasn’t played a single NHL game in 2023-24, only suited up for a pair in 2022-23, and has just 17 total games under his belt with 15 of them coming at the end of 2021-22.
They’re putting prospect development on the back burner in the name of building a culture, but half the point of building a culture is to, theoretically, pass it on to the young players, who will carry the banner after the coaches and front office leaders are gone. Building a culture that is going to live and die with the 30-year-olds the roster is mainly composed of doesn’t make any sense for the longterm success of the franchise.
It’s easy to write the tweener prospects off. In fact, it’s become quite the popular trend on social media from the Kool-Aid drinkin’ segment of the fanbase that wants to justify every single otherwise questionable move Danny Briere makes. “Prospect X isn’t in the NHL? They must not be good enough!”
And the front office seems to very much echo the stance “Who cares about the kids, the team is winning without them” considering they’re totally fine casting aside the future for the mirage that is the 2023-24 season.
But that’s the whole point of development. Very few prospects just show up and have a huge impact out of the gate without the growing pains of adapting to the best league in the world. The team needs to be patient and see through *at least* a full season with the player before any base judgement can be made. And there hasn’t really been a prospect sans Foerster that has been given that kind of positive treatment.
It’s a very Hextall-esque approach to just keep the kids in the AHL long past their due date then enter a start-and-stop adaptation process to the NHL in favor of veteran players. But this time instead of Travis Sanheim and Oskar Lindblom fighting Andrew MacDonald and Jori Lehtera for a spot, it’s Ronnie Attard and Bobby Brink fighting Nick Seeler and Cam Atkinson. Is the caliber of veteran higher? Sure. Is the damage to the future the exact same? Yes.
It shows absolutely zero ability from the organization to develop in the first place. You make it or you don’t. And even if you deserve to make it you still don’t. And even if you somehow actually make it, you’ll be benched in favor of a washed up veteran.
Danny Briere and the Flyers calling for a rebuild then spending the year one by one removing their prospects from the main roster in favor of low ceiling, random 30-year-olds taking their place has not gone unnoticed. And obviously his vision in totality will not be understood right away. Again, to throw it back to Hextall, there were obvious faults at every step of the way, but it was easier to just assume that everything would work itself out sooner or later than to cast doubt on “the process.” It’s a mistake that can’t be made the second time around, and thus the growing concern for the way the coaching staff and organization as a whole handles their prospects this season when the faults and errors in development won’t come fully into light for years to come.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: cbsnews.com / kplctv.com
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