As available free agents disappear, Fletcher shrugs
Stare at the list of more than 100 veteran NHL players who signed free agency contracts over the last two days. Careers have been altered. Teams’ fortunes have likely changed. Local rivals like the Capitals, Penguins and Devils have significantly upgraded their rosters.
And the Flyers ... still staring at that list now ... yeah, there they are.
“If he’s in Lehigh,” Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher said of his lone veteran free agent signee, “he will help that team and help our young players get better.”
OK. So meet 26-year-old Derrick Pouliot, who reached agreement with the Flyers Friday night on a one-year, two-way contract that pays him all of $700,000 ... if and when he’s in a Flyers uniform. As a Lehigh Valley Phantom, which the AHL-bred Pouliot figures to mostly be, he’d make $425,000. Pouliot has played in over 200 NHL games, but last season he only played for the St. Louis Blues in two games and spent the rest of the season playing in that great American Hockey League town of San Antonio, Texas.
But Fletcher still likes what he sees in Pouliot, who has also toiled in the Pittsburgh and Vancouver organizations.
“He can certainly challenge and compete for opportunities at the NHL level,” Fletcher said. If so, that would mean the Flyers would have injured defensemen. But as it stands now, Fletcher seems to be seeing Shayne Gostisbehere not as the young tradebait offensive defenseman he might have been several months ago, but an optimistically healthy player ready to return to the kind of form he flashed two years ago as top-pair partner to Ivan Provorov.
Of course, that remains to be seen. But what Fletcher didn’t have to stress during a media conference call Saturday is that he doesn’t feel it necessary to panic or even feel urgency about filling the gaping hole on defense created by the semi-sudden retirement of 33-year-old Matt Niskanen, who walked away with a year remaining on his contract.
“On our defense, we have opportunities for players to take on a bigger role and expand that role,” Fletcher said. “And up front, we’re pretty deep. Our forward group is now stronger than it was at the end of last year. We have very good depth on the wing, and we’re strong in the middle provided Nolan’s able to come back and play. I don’t know that we have any glaring holes.”
Ah, but as for that Nolan Patrick guy, the 2017 No. 2 overall pick who didn’t play once last elongated season due to chronic migraine issues, it still remains to be seen if he’ll be healthy and ready by whatever time the NHL feels that coronavirus allows the league to hold training camp.
NHL Chief Spin Doctor Gary Bettman has made it official that the 2020-21 season wouldn’t start on Dec. 1 (as everyone knew anyway), but rather on Jan. 1. Even that seems optimistic. Either way, expect a shorter season whenever that start date will be confirmed, and know that even if the Flyers are something like $8.6 million or so under the payroll max right now, Fletcher isn’t likely to spend any more than he has to on other players.
Then again, he says his search is actively ongoing, so...
“I don’t know that we’re going to be able to replace Matt Niskanen in the sense of the role that he played for our team,” Fletcher said. “But we’ll continue to speak to teams around the league and speak to agents and if we can find the right player at the right fit and the right price we’ll do that. But we
certainly don’t feel we’re under any pressure to do anything just to do something.”
It was speculated that Fletcher did try to do something in the free agency skirmish, jumping in on available veteran defender Kevin Shattenkirk, who could have been a fine Niskanen replacement. But Shattenkirk signed a three-year, $11.7 million deal with Anaheim.
“We’re looking for the right player and if we can get him at the right price and that player’s an upgrade for our group, we’ll do it,” Fletcher said. “But we’re comfortable with our group, we like our team. We already have a lot of players signed and a lot of kids that we feel can push for ice time and opportunities.
“Cap space is a very valuable commodity. If we want to use it, we want to use it wisely.”
It would be wise for the Flyers’ management team to remember their club didn’t score enough in the playoffs and was woefully short of being even halfway competent on the power play, which is the main reason why they couldn’t get out of the second round.
Since then, they’ve lost Niskanen to the good life, and grinders Tyler Pitlick and Derek Grant to free agency. They re-signed some of their own (defensemen Justin Braun and Robert Hagg, backup goalie Brian Elliott), brought in a minor league defenseman to try to push Gostisbehere, and essentially keep acting like they’re somehow Stanley Cup worthy.
Of course, that’s only the public stance.
“We’re open to anything,” Fletcher said, “if it makes us better.”