Flyers general manager and team president Chuck Fletcher spoke via video conference on Saturday with members of the local media. Fletcher discussed the team's offseason to date, which has been very quiet through the first two days of free agency season. The only addition so far has been an NHL depth/ AHL starting blueline signing to add Derrick Pouliot to replace Andy Welinski.
All three of the Flyers unrestricted free agent forwards this offseason signed elsewere on the first (Tyler Pitlick to Arizona, Derek Grant to Anaheim) or second (Nate Thompson to Winnipeg). Fletcher said that he'd spoken with Pitlick's agent but the two sides could not come to terms.
By inference, Fletcher appeared to indicate that, dealing with a flat salary cap, he was not willing to extend a 75% raise ($1 million to $1.75 million) to match what Pitlick received in a two-year contract offer from the Coyotes. The GM mentioned Nicolas Aube-Kubel as a top candidate for an expanded NHL role in 2020-21. He also mentioned incoming rookies Tanner Laczynski and Wade Allison along with Swedish import Linus Sandin.
Overall, Fletcher was rather guarded and kept things close to the vest in answering questions about how he plans to address plugging the right defense vacancy on the top pairing with Ivan Provorov, dealing with the need for a third-line center, the status of 10.2(c) restricted free agent center Nolan Patrick, the Philadelphia future of Shayne Gostisbehere and other queries.
Basically, Fletcher covered all bases as areas he'd be comfortable going over the remainder of the offseason: signing a free agent, making one or more trades (especially as capped-out or over-the-cap teams are compelled to trade quality players for cap relief), or standing pat and hoping that young players on the roster successfully step into larger roles. He said he is open-minded to any of these three possibilities, as long as it's "the right fit at the right price" for options 1 or 2. He also talked up the depth that's in-house in case nothing significant happens.
Regarding Patrick and the third-line center role, Fletcher said that Patrick continues to progress. This has been the standard answer that's been given for much of the last year, although with more concrete info this time in that Patrick has been skating and scrimmaging in Brandon, Manitoba, with a group led by former Flyers forward Ryan White. Patrick will come to Voorhees ahead of training camp, meet with Flyers team doctors, and put in on-ice and off-ice workouts. From there, it depends on how he feels and how well he holds up once he gets into competitive contact drills.
What if Patrick isn't ready or able to return for the start of the season? Fletcher said that Scott Laughton is an option, and that Claude Giroux can still take shifts at center as well as left wing. Fletcher then said Morgan Frost can compete for the spot "down the line"; which is either an indication that the GM still doesn't think Frost is ready for a full-time NHL role or it's meant as a direct challenge to the player to step up in camp and convince Alain Vigneault and Fletcher that he doesn't need to go back to Lehigh Valley for further seasoning.
Regarding Gostisbehere, Fletcher said that he feels the 27-year-old is still capable of bouncing back to form after back-to-back down seasons that, at least in part, were affected by injuries. Fletcher noted that Ghost was a top-four defenseman in the Flyers' rotation earlier in his career, including his career-best 2017-18 season when he regularly played alongside Provorov (note: this role continued early into 2018-19 but a struggling Gostibehere was moved down in the rotation by mid-November).
I took all of these pronouncements with a grain of salt. Every GM tries to project that he's dealing from a position of strength, and the comments in talking up "Ghost" were made in a context of Fletcher repeatedly insisting that he feels no pressure to make a move for the sake of making one.
In reality, Gostisbehere could still end up being traded, depending on whether another blueline acquisition is made. If no one is brought in from the outside, Phil Myers may slide up to the Provorov pairing and Gostisbehere would compete for a starting spot. However, Fletcher seems to privately understand how risky that approach would be. What if Myers isn't ready for the type of minutes that the retired Matt Niskanen played? What if Gostisbehere continues to have more downs than ups, as he's experienced the last two years?
Fletcher was asked by Charlie O'Connor what he would say to Flyers fans who are disappointed that the team has not made a big splash coming off a breakthrough season last year. No names were mentioned, but the clear inference was making an all-out push to lure top UFA defenseman Alex Pietrangelo to Philadelphia or trying to revive trade talks with Winnipeg for sniping winger Patrik Laine.
"Making a big splash doesn't necessarily mean you make your team better," Fletcher replied, noting the flat cap, the 2021 Expansion Draft and the need to re-sign their own restricted free agents (which, in 2021, will be headlined by Carter Hart and Travis Sanheim).
The GM did say, if the right player could be found, he would be willing to re-think the team's current strategy for the Expansion Draft. At present, the Flyers are well-covered for the Expansion Draft in terms of which 3 defensemen (Provorov, Sanheim, Myers) and which 7 forwards (Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Oskar Lindblom, Nolan Patrick and another non-exempt forward of their choosing) would be protected from selection by Seattle.
Fletcher said that the Expansion Draft strategy is not necessarily a deal-breaker if the team can sufficiently upgrade for the 2020-21 season. There is time to adjust, if need be. However, the GM reiterated that it would have to be for a clear-cut upgrade to the NHL roster.
Pietrangelo is currently on a reported two-day visit to Las Vegas, where the Golden Knights showed him the team's state-of-the-art training facility and took him around the city. Day two will likely involve discussion of hockey and financial matters. The Golden Knights are a Cup contender but are also bumping up near the cap ceiling and would go significantly over the cap if they sign Pietrangelo. While the team has been not-so-secretly trying to unload Marc-Andre Fleury's salary, they may alternatively have to trade position players they'd otherwise prefer to keep.
Regardless of Fletcher's statement about how making a big splash not necessarily improving a team. Pietrangelo is unarguably the one player on the free agent market who not only would check all of the boxes in replacing Niskanen on the ice but be an outright upgrade.
It would be shocking -- and quite disappointing -- if the Flyers haven't at least done their due diligence in contacting with agent Don Meehan to see if his client would have interest in coming to Philadelphia (the Flyers would need some additional cap space). However, the Flyers are never mentioned among the finalists to land Pietrangelo. The only notable free agent the national media tied to Philly was TJ Brodie, who ultimately signed with Toronto. Thus, at least from all outside appearances, the Flyers did not receive an indication that Philadelphia was on Pietrangelo's short list of potential landing spots.
Fletcher has repeatedly preached patience this offseason, and seeing who becomes available. From my perspective, that is OK so long as at least the Niskanen vacancy is addressed in one way or another by opening night.
To make it clear: I'm not comfortable with an entirely in-house approach to BOTH the RD1 and C3 spots. Going status quo on one or the other may be OK to see how it's works out internally and then perhaps using some banked cap space later in the season. Addressing NEITHER need proactively and crossing your fingers at two different vital points in the lineup would not an attractive option to take into next season.