Fletcher isn’t nervous about his job after his newest blunder.
The NHL commerce deadline has formally handed, and now the Philadelphia Flyers fan base is demanding solutions.
Flyers basic supervisor Chuck Fletcher had a deal involving impending free agent James van Riemsdyk fall by means of with minutes to spare earlier than the deadline. Van Riemsdyk was one of many high forwards obtainable on the commerce deadline, and now the Flyers threat the potential of shedding him this summer season for nothing.
On Tuesday afternoon, Fletcher advised reporters the Flyers can be sellers. But as an alternative of transferring their most useful commerce candidate, they shipped off depth forwards Patrick Brown and Zach MacEwen and ended up buying a pair of late-round draft picks and an enforcer.
It was one more baffling failure on a laundry listing of gaffes by the Flyers’ GM. And minutes after Friday’s 3 p.m. ET commerce deadline, Fletcher did his finest to defend his passivity whereas talking with the media.
“I didn’t have any offers at all until about 1:40,” mentioned Fletcher. “I got a call from a team and they had a concept that if they were able to move a forward off of their team then they had interest in acquiring JvR. We talked about the parameters and what the deal would look like, and it made sense from that standpoint, but all along it was conditional on the other trade going through. And eventually the other deal fell through.”
Fletcher claimed he came upon the deal fell by means of about 25 minutes earlier than the deadline.
“We certainly made everybody aware he was available. We made everybody aware we would retain 50%. We made everybody aware that we could even take back a contract if that helped a little bit more on the cap or the cash. We talked about a different range, different ways of getting there, prospects, a pick, multiple picks, whatever it would be — conditional pick — we talked about all kinds of different scenarios. But ultimately again, I can only control my half, and there has to be a willing buyer. And until 1:40 today, we never had any type of offer, and the offer we got was conditional.”
It’s a bit curious that just one group approached the Flyers about buying van Riemsdyk. While his numbers have dipped this season, van Riemsdyk stays a strong middle-six level producer on the wing. After all, it was simply final season that he led the Flyers in objectives.
The 33-year-old has seven seasons with 20-plus objectives underneath his belt and has really stood out this season (in a great way) within the play-driving division. He’s the one Flyer with a 5-on-5 Corsi For share above 50%, and he’s logged strong numbers in quite a few different superior stat classes.
Van Riemsdyk’s companies could now not be wanted for a non-playoff group in Philadelphia, however they’d definitely be of use to a group gearing up for a deep run within the postseason. According to Fletcher, although, no group was keen to surrender even a fourth-round decide for him.
“That’s exactly what I’d been saying to teams. ‘This guy’s a good player. He can help you. I’ll give him to you at $3.5 million and let’s cut a fair deal.’”
That deal clearly by no means got here.
Now, Fletcher has his sights set on enhancing the group within the offseason, and he’d like to do this by injecting much more youth into the roster, which he additionally acknowledged throughout his media availability on Tuesday.
“Our objective is to get youthful. We do wish to add extra younger belongings. We are a youthful group this 12 months. We do have some items in Lehigh Valley and elsewhere that we predict could possibly be a part of the answer going ahead. We do have some veteran gamers on our group, mid-range aged guys, that we predict could be part of this too as we go ahead.
“We’re gonna just continue to look at every opportunity to get better. The trade deadline was one opportunity. There was not fair deals in my opinion to be made. There are some things that potentially could happen in the summer, and as we go forward, we’ll just continue to look at those opportunities.”
But will Fletcher even be round to make strikes come the summer season? With this newest misstep, there’s a professional chance Fletcher could possibly be in critical hazard of shedding his job. And given the sheer quantity of unproductive strikes he’s made as basic supervisor of the Flyers, it will be laborious for anybody to offer him one thing even loosely resembling a vote of confidence.
But that’s not one thing Fletcher is considering at this level.
“I’m not worried about my job. Whatever happens with me will happen with me. That’s up to Dave Scott,” mentioned Fletcher. “Everything I do is about doing what’s right for the Philadelphia Flyers and not taking shortcuts. And that’s in part why we didn’t make any more deals today. The deals that were presented to me were not good deals for the Philadelphia Flyers.”
The Flyers’ subsequent sport comes Sunday in opposition to the Detroit Red Wings at Wells Fargo Center, and one can logically assume followers will probably be voicing their displeasure with the state of the group all through the night.
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