Another masterpiece of a commerce deadline by Chuck Fletcher.
All eyes have been on Philadelphia Flyers winger James van Riemsdyk as the three p.m. ET NHL commerce deadline approached Friday afternoon. On an expiring contract, the seven-time 20-goal scorer was one of many likeliest gamers within the league to be dealt to a brand new crew. And for a second, it appeared the Flyers had a deal in place to accumulate belongings for him.
Until they didn’t.
The Flyers have been reportedly on observe to commerce van Riemsdyk to the Detroit Red Wings. But with minutes to spare, the deal fell by.
Instead, the Flyers traded depth ahead Patrick Brown to the Ottawa Senators for a 2023 sixth-round choose.
Van Riemsdyk, the identical participant the Flyers failed to maneuver over the summer season, retaining them from clearing cap house and pursuing All-Star ahead Johnny Gaudreau, will end out the rest of his contract with the Flyers.
A merely outstanding blunder by Flyers basic supervisor Chuck Fletcher. And that is simply the most recent of his unthinkable gaffes.
Hired by the Flyers in 2018, Fletcher has taken quite a lot of warmth in recent times due to his extremely questionable administration selections. In the summer season of 2021, he basically payed the Arizona Coyotes to take Shayne Gostisbehere off his arms by attaching a second and seventh-round choose to the as soon as dynamic defenseman. He then subsequently acquired Rasmus Ristolainen from the Buffalo Sabres for a primary and second-round choose, who he later inked to a wide ranging five-year, $25,500,000 contract extension.
The incompetence has solely worsened for the reason that finish of the 2021-22 season. After opting not to pursue the aforementioned Gaudreau, who, as a South Jersey native, was not shy about eager to signal with the Flyers at a reduced charge, Fletcher as an alternative selected to re-sign 36-year-old defenseman(?) Justin Braun (who has performed in simply 40 video games this season) and ink fourth-line robust man Nic Deslauriers to a four-year, $7 million deal, which features a modified no-trade clause.
Fletcher certain has “aggressively retooled” the Flyers. And at this level, all he’s created is a hockey crew that’s turn out to be the unquestioned laughingstock of the NHL.
Tuesday afternoon, Fletcher spoke to the media to put out his plans for the commerce deadline. His message was clear — he needed to promote. His objective was to accumulate draft capital and younger gamers in any approach potential.
Instead? They nabbed a pair of late-round draft picks and Brendan Lemieux.
What a haul.
At this level, if you happen to even have an oz. of endurance left, you might be questioning how lengthy will it take for the Flyers to turn out to be a aggressive membership once more. Fletcher did his greatest to reply that query on Tuesday.
“I’m not sure on the timeframe,” he stated. “I’ve seen some teams flip it pretty quickly.”
The Flyers won’t be flipping out of this catastrophe rapidly. In reality, issues will most likely proceed getting worse earlier than they get higher.
And when issues do begin getting higher, Chuck Fletcher most definitely gained’t be the person behind it.
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