Report: Flyers hire Chuck Fletcher as GM

While he won’t be mandated to make a major move right away for a Flyers team that on any odd day can look either lost or competitive when it comes to postseason wishes, Chuck Fletcher will apparently have the green light and the right connections to make significant changes to the club’s direction.

Fletcher has reportedly been hired as the club’s next general manager and its first without previous ties to the organization since Russ Farwell was hired by then-club president Jay Snider in 1990.

The Philadelphia Inquirer was first with the report of Fletcher’s hiring, citing an anonymous club source.

If and when the move is confirmed by team president Paul Holmgren, the Fletcher hiring would have come at a convenient time, as three-time Stanley Cup winning head coach Joel Quenneville is still available to listen to pricey offers.

Fletcher, 51, a Harvard graduate and the son of Hockey Hall of Fame executive Cliff Fletcher, is actively serving as an advisor to the New Jersey Devils under GM Ray Shero. Fletcher had been dismissed earlier this year after a six-year stint as general manager of the Minnesota Wild. Before then, he served several seasons each as an assistant GM and hockey operations director in Pittsburgh (under Shero) and previously in Anaheim.

But he got his start in Florida with the expansion Panthers in 1993, hired as an assistant by new GM Bob Clarke, who had always had a close relationship with Cliff Fletcher.

When Clarke returned to Philadelphia to take over his old GM role there in 1994, new Panthers GM Bryan Murray kept Fletcher on, and he was part of Florida’s run to the Stanley Cup finals two years later. He also went to Cup finals with the Ducks and Penguins.

Along the line, Fletcher forged close ties with Quenneville, who was hired by then-Toronto GM Cliff Fletcher as a player-coach for the AHL’s St. John Maple Leafs. It was the last season of a 14-year playing career and first foray into coaching for Quenneville, who was let go by the Chicago Blackhawks this season after an enviable 10year run of success there that included the three Cups.

As an NHL head coach Quenneville has 890 career victories.

Although Flyers president Paul Holmgren, who could not be reached for comment, praised current Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol and said there are no immediate plans to replace him, he also said such a decision would lie with whatever general manager he hired.

Fletcher also was close to Mike Yeo, who coached for him in Minnesota before becoming the head coach in St. Louis two seasons ago. Yeo was fired from the Blues last month.

While discussing the firing of his longtime colleague Ron Hextall last week, Holmgren had said the two grew apart because of differing hockey “philosophies.” Holmgren depicted himself as an aggressive general manager during his time in the Flyers’ chair, when he made moves such as trading Mike Richards and Jeff Carter on the same day, and filing an offer sheet for then-restricted free agent Shea Weber that may have broken a code among league GMs not in favor of such legal tactics.

Fletcher also showed to be an aggressive GM early on in his tenure in Minnesota, when he landed the two hottest free agents of that summer, Ryan Suter and Zack Parise, then gave them 13-year, $98 million contracts.

Among those he outbid ... Paul Holmgren of the Flyers.