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The 2023 NHL trade deadline came and went on Friday afternoon. When all was said and done the Flyers made two secondary deals for draft picks but general manager Chuck Fletcher was unable to move veteran left winger James van Riemsdyk. JVR, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, will depart with nothing coming back to Philadelphia.
According to Fletcher, he received a phone call about JVR at about 1:40 p.m. on Friday from an unnamed club (reported by the likes of Pierre LeBrun and Elliotte Friedman to be the Detroit Red Wings). The trade was conditional on the Red Wings first being able to move out the contract of a roster player in order to be able to take on van Riemsdyk's contract at a prorated $3.5 million cap hit with the Flyers absorbing the other $3.5 million of the player's remaining $7 million AAV deal.
At 2:30 p.m., half an hour before the deadline, the Flyers were informed that there would be no deal. Fletcher repeatedly insisted that he'd exhausted every possible avenue with potential buyers and there were no offers from other clubs or counteroffers to Flyer proposals until the afternoon on deadline day. The GM resisted the notion that he'd either misread the market with an excessive ask relative to the demand or that he'd been too passive in waiting for other teams to come to him.
Fletcher said that he made clear to potential trading partners that he was willing to absorb the maximum 50% of JVR's cap hit allowed under the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Additionally, the GM said, he made clear that he was willing to take on an existing NHL contract to provide further assistance.
I asked Fletcher to clarify the parameters of what kind of contract he was willing to absorb. The GM confirmed that it had to be an expiring deal. The only way he'd have considered taking on a contract beyond the remainder of this season would have been if it was if it was for a player he felt could help the team in a meaningful way next season.
Fletcher was also asked about the level of fan anger at being unsuccessful in getting a pick or prospect -- even beyond round 2 or a longshot reclamation project (such as the experiment with Justin Bailey back in 2018-19 during Fletcher's first year as Flyers GM) -- against the backdrop of fan frustration with missing the playoffs for three consecutive seasons and four of the last five seasons. Even more pointedly, he was asked if he's concerned about his job security as general manager and president of hockey operations.
Fletcher circled back to the fanbase messaging part of the equation a couple times (see the full video below). Regarding his own job security, Fletcher said he's not worried about that part but that it would be Dave Scott's decision to make if the executive felt a change in the organization was needed.
In regard to trade talks regarding players who are not on imminently expiring contracts -- Kevin Hayes, Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, etc. -- Fletcher said there were discussions ahead of the deadline but that nothing got close to being completed. He was not impressed with the trade ideas from potential partners. He understood that immediate salary cap concerns were also limiting. Fletcher said that he plans to circle back again on certain proposals during the offseason and thinks the timing might prove to be more fruitful then.
The Flyers made two deals on Friday:
* On Friday morning, the club activated Zack MacEwen and Tanner Laczynski from IR to the active roster. A few hours later, the Flyers traded MacEwen, an impending RFA they were apparently not planning to tender a qualifying offer, to the LA Kings for a 2024 fifth-round pick and impending UFA agitating winger Brendan Lemieux.
Fletcher said that the deal he was aiming for was only the draft pick. However, LA made the deal contingent on finding a taker for the out-of-favor Lemieux. Fletcher offered to take Lemieux as well as the pick and the deal was done. Lemieux will get a 20-game audition in Philadelphia to either get a new contract offer or potentially interest other clubs if/when he reaches unrestricted free agency.
Fletcher's rather stark candor in admitting that he really didn't have much pre-trade interest in acquiring the oft-controversial and penalty-prone Lemieux did not suggest he was particularly optimistic of Lemieux finishing strong enough to earn a new contract offer but it can't hurt to take a look.
Note: The fact that Fletcher did not offer Detroit to take the player they needed to trade in order to consummate a JVR trade suggests that the unnamed player is not on expiring deal this season. I will attempt to get further clarification.
* Roughly 10 minutes before the deadline, the Flyers announced that they had traded checking center/winger Patrick Brown, a faceoff and PK role player, to the Ottawa Senators for a 2023 sixth-round pick. Fletcher said he had two offers on Brown: the pick or a minor-league prospect, Fletcher was not interested in the offered player so he preferred the pick instead.
Today, Fletcher will be speaking at a town hall meeting with season ticket holders. It could be a pretty heated event, given the pulse of the fanbase. Yesterday's press conference was pointed in terms the questions asked but was thoroughly professional and cordial. Tonight, emotions may be running higher: not just because of the non-return on JVR at the trade deadline but for the prolonged period of struggles, the overrun of Rangers' fans in the Wells Fargo Center stands the last two times the Flyers have played New York in Philly, and other areas of fanbase discontent.
Fletcher will be the one in the line of fire. That goes with the GM turf, however.
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