I would not be surprised if he's playing hurt to keep the streak going. He looked good for two weeks and then all of a sudden he can't skate, or make basic plays with the puck a lot of the time.
- Feanor

Thats why he was bought out for the 2nd time...he is hanging on just to break the record..cant play a lick of defense and his offensive game appears gone also

Don't forget Morin...
- JW98FlyerFan

Morin was sheer incompetence. The guy was picked way too early. It was an effort to draft someone who looked like Chris Pronger. Even when he is healthy, he is a 3rd line defender at best.

He is +9 on a team with mostly -'s, heck you would think only he, Brassard and Bee are playing two way hockey. But yeah, the entire month of November for the entire team was forgettable.
- JW98FlyerFan

He was plus 9 in October. Has played even hockey since. So Ill give him that.

Ok so in your opinion everyone on the current team and in the minors sucks. The coach sucks. The GM sucks. Comcast sucks. Is there any glimmer of hope in your about this team?
- jd250

That is not what I said or even remotely insinuated.

This coach does suck. Could careless what he did prior as that doesn't matter.

The GM has not done a good job. Hasn't elevated this team in any way.

They have some nice pieces at the NHL level. No stars or elite level players. Have said that repeatedly.

They have some nice prospects. Nothing more nothing less. They also have a buffoon running said prospects development.

Their drafting and development is not good enough. With no cap in place I would expect a team with unlimited resources to be near the top of the league n both categories. They are not and never have been. Do they ever find any Euro diff makers?

Unlike you I live in the real world. This team is a complete mess.

Or he just thought he could successful doing that. Thought his picks wouldve been better than they turned out also.
- bradster

This is accurate imo.

Morin was sheer incompetence. The guy was picked way too early. It was an effort to draft someone who looked like Chris Pronger. Even when he is healthy, he is a 3rd line defender at best.
- iamscore2day

Id take him over yandle right now.

And Work ethic. Clarke had that hands down. Total team players and a worker. If someone made a shot one one of our players, clarke would be in there like a dirty shirt. We miss that. However it is much better than last year.
- bradster

Um pretty sure 16 had elite talent..

My speculation is upper management got frustrated by his half baked rebuild. Wanting to draft and develop and the signing of JVR, while trading schenn, but not wanting to be bad enough for good picks. it was a wishy washy rebuild. Youre either all in or you arent. And throw in his management style which went against everything that Snider stood for, the writing was on the wall.
- bradster

It does not seem like the league shares your views about Hextall. He was hired to be a GM by one of the most successful franchises in the league and one that is run by a really smart hockey guy. As for Snider, never forget that he traded away Forsberg for Lindros and rejected Bobrovsky for Bryzgalov. I blame Homer for not quitting before doing something so asinine.

It does not seem like the league shares your views about Hextall. He was hired to be a GM by one of the most successful franchises in the league and one that is run by a really smart hockey guy. As for Snider, never forget that he traded away Forsberg for Lindros and rejected Bobrovsky for Bryzgalov. I blame Homer for not quitting before doing something so asinine.
- iamscore2day

Yeah because Lindros was such a bust.

Hextall earned his firing. Nothing asinine about it. They were in a similarly terrible state three years ago, and he was into his 5th season as GM. Dead weight the new GM had to jettison included:

Hakstol
Weise
MacDonald
Lehtera
Folin
- Feanor

It took Hextall 3+ years just to get the cap straightened out and build the prospect base up. MacDonald was signed when Holmgren was the GM. Hakstol did better with less talent than AV is currently. Lehtera was taken to get the picks that got them Frost and Farabee. None of that blocked the Flyers future. The lost patience and here we are 3 years later in the same spot but worse off. Firing Hextall was a mistake.

That is not what I said or even remotely insinuated.

This coach does suck. Could careless what he did prior as that doesn't matter.

The GM has not done a good job. Hasn't elevated this team in any way.

They have some nice pieces at the NHL level. No stars or elite level players. Have said that repeatedly.

They have some nice prospects. Nothing more nothing less. They also have a buffoon running said prospects development.

Their drafting and development is not good enough. With no cap in place I would expect a team with unlimited resources to be near the top of the league n both categories. They are not and never have been. Do they ever find any Euro diff makers?

Unlike you I live in the real world. This team is a complete mess.
- hello it's me 2050

There is no cap in place for luring away scouts/analytics guys/coaches/trainers etc. But with the incestuous climate of the NHL, no one wants to rock the boat apparently.

You know the FU OS to KK by Canes this year with the $20 bonus? Well, its not just that OS in and of itself. An organization that is willing to engage in that kind of a gesture is probably a little less bound by mores and what not.

I disagree on that. I think you can win with them.

I think the questions are more with guys we thought would have more of an impact. Sanheim. What is he? Why do I feel like every game I want more from him. Konecny seems so inconsistent. Like are these guys building block players? Am i missing something? Lindblom. JVR.

I think Laughton is actually fin for his role as a guy who can move around and secondary scoring.

I guess I am just missing something.
- J35Bacher

Just an organization spinning their wheels is what I see.

Been saying Sanheim always leaves you wanting more for a while now. IMO these players just do nt match the flyers fans hype. Solid complementary types.

Id take him over yandle right now.
- bradster

Not really. And that is not the point, anyway. Would you have taken him over Ryan Pulock, Shea Theodore or Nikita Zadorov when most folks had him rated as a 2nd/3rd round talent? Homer did.

It took Hextall 3+ years just to get the cap straightened out and build the prospect base up. MacDonald was signed when Holmgren was the GM. Hakstol did better with less talent than AV is currently. Lehtera was taken to get the picks that got them Frost and Farabee. None of that blocked the Flyers future. The lost patience and here we are 3 years later in the same spot but worse off. Firing Hextall was a mistake.
- MJL

no it wasn't.
Saint Ronnie played a huge part in signing andy mac. He was for it 100%

Um pretty sure 16 had elite talent..
- Joe Nardone

thats why i said AND work ethic

It does not seem like the league shares your views about Hextall. He was hired to be a GM by one of the most successful franchises in the league and one that is run by a really smart hockey guy. As for Snider, never forget that he traded away Forsberg for Lindros and rejected Bobrovsky for Bryzgalov. I blame Homer for not quitting before doing something so asinine.
- iamscore2day

Hired with Burke as his handler.

If you did want to blow it up I think you can do it in the following ways:

1. trade Giroux at the deadline for two high picks and a prospect
2. trade Risto at the deadline for one high pick and prospect
3. trade TK at the deadline for one high pick and prospect
4. trade Brassard, Yandle, Braun and Lindblom at deadline for lower round picks
5. buy out JVR at seasons end.

I still think after all this you have enough vets on the team that you can fill in the rest with younger players, may even get lucky in the draft and get 1 or 2 top picks playing right away.
- jd250

I don't think you're going to get what you think for Giroux and Ristolainen. I would only trade Konecny or Lindblom for another roster player of similar age.

Ya. It's possible. Arrogant and so on.

But my suspicion stems from what happened before Hexy and what happened after. And all this stuff I hear about him being disrespectful to "franchise royalty". Would this franchise ever really have allowed him to commit to a full rebuild?

We will never know until/unless he writes his memoirs, I guess.
- PT21

What do you mean commit? They committed plenty to him. He just did not really do anything. It’s hard to make bad deals when you really never make any. Drafting was avg and his ability to manage people was an absolute cluster. That’s why he has big brother w him on the pens right now.

I’m not in the cf boat, but hexy was not a good GM. Respect that guy more than anyone, but he was afraid to hire anyone who would disagree with him and would not play his little nonsense games.
This is kinda known all throughout the league. Surprised folks here don’t know that….

There is no cap in place for luring away scouts/analytics guys/coaches/trainers etc. But with the incestuous climate of the NHL, no one wants to rock the boat apparently.

You know the FU OS to KK by Canes this year with the $20 bonus? Well, its not just that OS in and of itself. An organization that is willing to engage in that kind of a gesture is probably a little less bound by mores and what not.
- PT21

Disagree as money talks....

BUt wait, think about this for a moment. What timeline? Couts is signed for 8 years. Ellis for 6 more years. Farabee for 6 years. Hayes 5 more years. Anyone you draft now if they are good will be playing at the NHL within 3 years and if they are really good (i.e. you hit on your high picks) will be ready to go in year 1. You still have time to draft and develop a good team within 3 years, and you can augment with good trades and signings because will all the young players playing you have more cap space.
- jd250

Remember when you were justifying trades of top picks by saying they won't play for 3 years and it's time to win now? Now it's you still have time to draft and develop a good team within 3 years.

It took Hextall 3+ years just to get the cap straightened out and build the prospect base up. MacDonald was signed when Holmgren was the GM. Hakstol did better with less talent than AV is currently. Lehtera was taken to get the picks that got them Frost and Farabee. None of that blocked the Flyers future. The lost patience and here we are 3 years later in the same spot but worse off. Firing Hextall was a mistake.
- MJL

All true but we are where we are. CF has to figure this out. WE have had some bad luck with injuries but the defensive lapses on this team show a refusal to work hard all of the time. In a league where the best teams work really hard, these guys are inconsistent. Last night is another example. They did not show up in the 1st period. And did not bear down in the third. Playing one good period a night will get your A** beat consistently. Still think we have enough talent to play better than this.

Itll be interesting what they do with malkin and letang. Pretty sure their contracts are up. Cant trade them if you want to make noise in the playoffs.
- bradster

ride them out. i dont care if its foolish or nostalgic.

Too many players on this team have been non-entities. It seems they never have any space on the ice in all three zones when they have the puck. Ive been watching closely to try to put my finger on why this is. It just seems like they are a team full of slow decision makers. They catch the puck, and hold it, and are slow to decide what they will do with it next, in the meantime the opposition has time to close on them and disrupt what they are trying to do. This happens especially on the PP.

Its like when they get the puck they are going through this checklist of things in their heads instead of just reacting? Is that the coach in their heads? Is that the player?

Its just crazy how slow and indecisive they are as a TEAM.
- MBFlyerfan

That's what I see too. Too much thinking. Maybe they need to wear ladies undergarments like "Nuke" LaLoosh?

My suspicious speculation is that Hextall was not allowed to do the full rebuild. There was pressure on him to modify the rebuild by staying competitive at the same time.

In the two decades plus I have followed this team closely, he is the only Flyer's GM who had some semblance of foresight and rationality. The rest were from the... "well, this is not working, so lets try that" mold.

Would his plan have succeeded if I am right and he was allowed to run a worse team and therefore draft higher? Would it have succeeded if was allowed to run out the Jake+Giroux+JVR contracts and hit FA in 2022-23 with 3/4 more top level prospects and 25+ mil to spend?

Gee, I dunno. But I feel we would have been in a far better position than we are in now.
- PT21

Yes, even if Hextall would've completely failed, which we don't know because he wasn't allowed to see it through. The team would be in a better position today than it is now in terms of the future.

What do you mean commit? They committed plenty to him. He just did not really do anything. It’s hard to make bad deals when you really never make any. Drafting was avg and his ability to manage people was an absolute cluster. That’s why he has big brother w him on the pens right now.

I’m not in the cf boat, but hexy was not a good GM. Respect that guy more than anyone, but he was afraid to hire anyone who would disagree with him and would not play his little nonsense games.
This is kinda known all throughout the league. Surprised folks here don’t know that….
- Joe Nardone

I said what I meant, didn't I?

As someone else pointed out, a guy who is one of the most astute minds in hockey, a guy who deferred his own salary to get stakes in a team, which he has sold to make about a billion bucks, who has mentored persoanlly Crosby to maturity, hired him. Like you, he has even played the game.