The Philadelphia Flyers opened the 2024-25 season with a 3-6-1 record in their first ten gamems, a much worse start than many anticipated. The struggle has stemmed from well known problems like their shaky goaltending, lack of center depth and overall anemic offense, all weaknesses that were not addressed during the 2024 offseason.
With the ignored flaws leading to their current unease, one has to wonder what the expectations from the front office were this season to begin with?
The word “rebuild” has once again entered the scene after being put on the back burner during the early days of training camp. The Flyers have trumpeted the battle cry of a rebuild hard ever since Briere took over, but haven’t exactly done much of recognizable substance compared to most teams under the “rebuild” mantra.
Hyping noncommittal messaging to the public so there’s a fallback option for whatever occurs during the season is fine… but internally, the Flyers front office had to have some goals and/or expectations for the 2024-25 season, but what were they? Did they honestly expect to run back a lackluster team and get not only similarly decent but even better results? Or did they know the wheels were falling off late in the 2023-24 season and were hoping for a down season?
We talked about the possibility of expecting a down season this year, and that it was rather unlikely given they handed out long-term extensions to players like Travis Konecny, Nick Seeler, Owen Tippett and Garnet Hathaway, locking up all of their potential trade assets for years to come shuts down the idea that the losing was intentional leading to a top pick and busy 2025 offseason that would propel them back to competition quickly.
The more likely explanation isn’t even that they expected the team to be good per se, but rather they invested way too much stock into the “culture” gimmick that they sold hard to the fans. Who needs talent or roster overhaul when everybody likes each other? If their goal was to keep all the sailors happy while the ship sinks, then mission accomplished.
Despite the absurdity of the logic, it’s one of the few ways to explain the fact they re-signed everybody and didn’t make a single trade or free agent signing. The front office (and probably Tortorella in particular) love the chemistry behind the scenes and put the on-ice issues as secondary.
There were some positives for the 2023-24 Flyers. They beat some quality teams during the regular season in terrific shows of heart, but there were a whole lotta negatives as well. They had a 26th ranked offense, a dead last ranked power play (for the third consecutive season) and a dead last ranked team save percentage, plus the depth issues at center have been plaguing them for years.
In reality, they were clearly hoping to win some games this season and build upon their 2023-24 campaign. But they ignored the obvious problems because there was very little external pressure on the organization to address the faults, especially after they landed Matvei Michkov.
But problems like the weak center depth and shady goaltending were well known problems at the conclusion of last season. Could they have sorted themselves out with a fresh canvas in 2024-25? Sure, but the more likely result is exactly what they’re dealing with- none of the problems sorted themselves out and Michkov isn’t great enough to put the entire team on his back and erase every single shortcoming.
Getting straight answers from the front office when it comes to battle plans is virtually impossible. Not only because they won’t openly discuss their strategy and firmly pick a direction, but because there may not be much of one to begin with. One thing we haven’t seen out of Briere yet (or from any Flyers GM over the last decade to be fair) is the ability to actually build. They’re great at selling the snake oil, but not so great at delivering and constructing a winner.
If the Flyers remain lackluster this season and walk away with a top ten pick because of it, they may be able to spin the floundering as a positive, but that forgiving attitude from the public won’t last forever. Their failure to meet even relatively low expectations like clinching a wildcard spot, or even just trying to make the playoffs at all, partnered with a continued hands-off approach from Danny Briere won’t bode well for his job security long-term.
Who knows what the front office was expecting to happen this season. But a sub-.500 start probably wasn’t what they were predicting. If better results don’t manifest as the season goes on, hopefully they’ll learn their lesson that they can’t leave their obvious wounds unattended during the summer and that the 2025 offseason is the beacon for change that’s been needed for awhile.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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