Flyers introduce new GM Chuck Fletcher
VOORHEES, N.J. >> By switching general managers, the Flyers got younger, although newcomer Chuck Fletcher is only three years younger than outgoer Ron Hextall.
Technically, the team’s front office also got more experienced, as Fletcher’s one job as general manager in Minnesota went about twice as long as Hextall’s oneoff stint as the top guy here. But then, both of them spent years elsewhere developing as front office forces, essentially negating any thoughts of an experience advantage for Fletcher.
Besides, the job Hextall did in rebuilding the Flyers’ system in recent years has drawn acclaim from other general managers around the league ... including this guy who used to run the Wild now sitting in Hextall’s barely chilled chair.
So maybe you had to dig a little deeper to see the reason why team president Paul Holmgren and CEO Dave Scott made the change in the first place.
“When you dig in deeper,” Fletcher said in his introductory press conference Wednesday at the Skate Zone, “I certainly want to acknowledge the job that Ron Hextall did. The cupboard is full, there are a tremendous amount of prospects. This year we have nine draft picks, we have an extra third and an extra seventh. We have cap space and we have good players. Beyond that, it’s a great organization with a lot of great people that I’ve been meeting with in the last two days.
“There’s everything here to be successful and that’s our goal and that’s what we’re going to do. It’s set up for success. The history. The city...”
...Even the same head coach that Ron Hextall personally recruited.
“Change is part of everybody’s daily life,” holdover head coach Dave Hakstol said. “I think we’d all probably be lying a little bit if
“There’s everything here to be successful and that’s our goal and that’s what we’re going to do. It’s set up for success. The history. The city...”
— Newly appointed Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher.
we didn’t say the last week hasn’t been a hard one. But change is part of life, so you handle it with good perspective.
“One of the biggest parts of all of this is so many good people around, and as you go through so many hard changes you look to have positives come out of them.”
One positive will be standing right next to Hakstol during games.
The Flyers, having fired another loyal front office soldier in Chris Pryor and Hextall-hired defensive assistant coach Gord Murphy Thursday, began filling those vacancies Tuesday by bringing in longtime defensive assistant coach Rick Wilson, a kid of 68 who had helped Ken Hitchcock win a Stanley Cup nearly 20 years ago in Dallas. He’s forged a certain reputation everywhere he’s gone.
Holmgren called him “kind of legendary” Wednesday. That word is usually only used by the publicity and public address people around here.
Anyway, that call was mostly Hakstol’s, with Holmgren’s sign-off. As for the new GM, Holmgren stressed again the hire is his, no matter how long a time he’d helped mentor Hextall over the years.
Still, an obvious question remained even as Fletcher was chatting up the news cameras and digital recording devices. What’s changed?
“You have to build your team through the draft,” Fletcher said at one point. “That has to be the core of your team, there’s no other way to do it. We all can’t go out and buy 20 players. It has to be built through the draft and hopefully that homegrown talent believes in your identity, believes in your culture and besides bringing talent they bring those intangibles to the rink every day.”
Consider his approach to building similar to what Hextall has already long started, then. Additionally, Hextall’s approach to trying to incorporate an analytics department, something that was probably overdue here, along with a strong commitment to sports science and dietary control has helped bring the Flyers out of the management dark ages.
Fletcher was doing some of that in Minnesota before he was shown the door after nine years in April. As for trying to get the team back on track in a win-sooner mode, Fletcher repeated what he’d said in an interview upon his hiring Monday, that “the first order of business is to look for inhouse solutions.
“I think you have to give people a chance,” he added. “Players, staff, everybody. If we can get this thing going the right direction, maybe we don’t have to go out and be aggressive.” Oh. An aggressive GM tone
is precisely what Holmgren and Scott had hinted Hextall was a little slow to embrace. But just so his words weren’t confused with anyone else’s, Fletcher thought to add: “I’m a big believer that you need all three phases to build a championship team; mainly the draft, but you also have to use trades and free agency. You have to have good people, everybody has to be pulling the same way. I do think culture is very important in any organization to be successful. And hopefully you have good health and you can get a bounce or two along the way, but build a good team and be consistently good for a long time.”
Having rebuilt the farm, the indication was that Hextall may have seemed overly reluctant to as much as give up one little lamb from it in exchange for a prized horse.
Especially a horse in goal?
“I talked to (Hextall) last July or early August about that,” Holmgren said about
the Flyers’ ongoing crease chaos. With lingering health questions surrounding currently injured (again) goalies Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth, Holmgren said, “If they were (healthy), we’re going to be OK ... but they haven’t been healthy. And then (reserve goalie) Alex Lyon got hurt and Stolie (Anthony Stolarz) got hurt, and now it seems like he’s healthy ... if they’re all healthy we’ve got more points in the standings for sure.”
But there may have been a disconnect in two areas between old friends Hextall and Holmgren; namely whether the brass felt Hextall was doing enough to pursue trade options to fix what needed mending ... roster size, contract value and salary cap concerns aside, of course.
Also whether Hextall was trusting the people around him enough to share the heavy burden of the club underachieving which always seemed to weigh on him.
“Would Ron have gotten
more aggressive as he felt closer to achieving the ultimate goal?” Holmgren said, “probably would have. I just felt a fresh set of eyes at this time and a fresh voice at this time was just a decision I felt I had to make.”
But with that being done, and to listen as Fletcher met the media and referenced his bosses and staff members Wednesday, a lot of what he said certainly seemed to be excerpted from the same Hockey Management Training in the 21st Century book from which Hextall preached. Maybe with a little kinder, gentler approach to the staff members part of it, though.
“It’s a different set of eyes and a different voice pushing the organization forward,” Holmgren added. “You heard Chuck speak. I think he uses his people. I think Ron used his people too, to a degree. I think Chuck probably uses his people more extensively, I don’t know. We’ll kind of find out as we go along here.”