The Philadelphia Flyers have been taking a well deserved victory lap when it comes to the outcome of the 2023-24 campaign. Despite a late-season losing streak killing their playoff aspirations, they still made a 12-point jump in the standings and were much better than most expected. Yet the rebuilding team still has work left to do, but as the days dwindle down before the 2024 entry draft, all seems quiet of the frontlines.
Despite their early success under Briere, the team still has plenty of glaring holes that need to be addressed in order to take steps forward in 2024-25. The problem is, between an already full roster, the salary cap choking out the team despite the multi-million dollar rise, and the good vibes the “culture” has earned the organization, it feels like there isn’t much to look forward to over the next few weeks and the roster will, more or less, get run back in its entirety.
The Flyers’ better-than-expected season put a little more pressure on the organization than they probably would’ve liked. Slogging through the first couple years to set the stage to Briere’s liking before they had to make any real decisions was probably the original goal, but that may not be the case anymore. Setting the bar in year one as a group that’s just shy of playoff contention when the roster doesn’t really resemble a team that should be competing ties his hands a little bit when it comes to how passive the organization can be during the 2024 offseason.
Is it too early for the Flyers to go out and give up a ton of assets for a superstar like Mitch Marner? Or even main roster upgrades like Jake Guentzel or Sam Reinhart? The answer, quite frankly, is yes. We can all dream and have hope that the Flyers make the biggest move the organization has seen in 15+ years this summer, but the timeline just doesn’t add up yet.
But just because it may not be “go time” for a push towards the Cup doesn’t mean the organization should be sitting on their hands during the summer. They need to sprinkle a breadcrumb or two in front of the fans to prove that they are indeed working towards an actual end goal and not just keeping things in painfully dull neutral for years to come.
It’d be a good faith move by the team. Someone like Trevor Zegras, a 23-year-old center who the franchise can build around for a decade is much closer to reality when it comes to possible moves this summer. Even if it’s just Zegras and nothing else, it’s a move that signals progress and an attempt to stick to the rebuilding gimmick while also keeping fans interested and motivated with the product.
It doesn’t have to be a $10+ million contract to a veteran that doesn’t fit the timeline or a blockbuster trade for a risky player, but it needs to be a move that has some substance and fits in with the message the team is trying to sell. And Zegras, in this case, checks the boxes of age, position and star power. It doesn’t have to be him specifically, but given the lack of rumors that have boiled up this summer across the league, he’s the best example to work under.
Looking back on the tenure of Ron Hextall and delving into some of those repressed memories should be all the reminder most fans need as to not accept complacency. He sat on his hands for the better part of four years doing absolutely nothing, watching star player after star player pass the organization by, before finally throwing a gigantic contract at James Van Riemsdyk. He was coming off a 36-goal campaign with the Leafs and he had ties to the organization as a former Flyer, but it did very little to address the biggest faults with the team at the time (like the fact they ran back the Michal Neuvirth / Brian Elliot goalie tandem). JVR’s signing came four years into Hextall’s reign as it was far too little too late to save the sinking ship after years of neglect.
It’s important the Briere regime doesn’t let it get that far. If they don’t touch the roster in any meaningful way this summer and the team ends up looking more like the the eight-game losing streak version of themselves through most of the season all the good grace they built up over the last year will come under scrutiny from a weary fanbase.
They’ve been so focused on their plentiful collection of random depth players and don’t seem overly interested in addressing their 26th ranked offense or dead last powerplay. There’s a time and a place for worrying about guys like Garnet Hathaway and Nick Seeler, but those are typically icing on the cake moves. The Flyers haven’t even mixed the ingredients together to make the batter of said cake yet.
They don’t need to assemble a Cup-caliber roster in one summer. They don’t even need to make the playoffs next season, but they need to show that they’re not going to be hands-off on the product and they are indeed chasing an end goal through a rebuild. Random low-ceiling depth players isn’t going to cut it forever. Even one addition with top six potential can go a long way for both the current and future team as well as the morale of the fans.
It shouldn’t be an outrageous ask, it shouldn’t even have to be something that’s said out loud for most rebuilding teams, but when it comes to the Philadelphia Flyers, no matter who is in charge, just assuming they’re going to do the right thing is no longer a given.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
brotherlypuck.com 