Flyers Doomed with Holmgren as President

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Paul Holmgren being the President of the Philadelphia Flyers is a total joke. How is he even still a part of this franchise? The guy buried the Flyers with his “philosophy” with horrible contracts, a depleted farm system, and zero payroll flexibility. He’s never won anything as an executive. Yet, he decided to relieve Ron Hextall of his duties as Flyers General Manager.

Paul Holmgren, one of the worst GMs in the history of Philadelphia sports, is going to select the next GM of the Flyers. Let that sit in. This guy.

The guy who traded Sergei Bobrovsky for a 2nd round pick and two 4th round picks. The franchise that hasn’t had a stud goalie in thirty years traded a 2-time Vezina Trophy winner for draft picks.

Paul Holmgren is the guy who signed Ilya Bryzgalov to a 9-year $51M dollar contract.

Paul Holmgren traded James van Riemsdyk for Luke Schenn.

Paul Holmgren gave Andrew MacDonald a 6-year $30M contract.

Paul Holmgren gave a 34-year-old Chris Pronger to a 7 year extension that qualified as a 35-plus contract, which meant there was no way to get out of the contract even if Pronger retired.

But, yeah, this guy is the one who fired Ron Hextall.

When Holmgren left as GM, the Flyers had farm system ranked in the bottom five of the NHL. Hextall built it up to a top 5 farm system. Holmgren reiterated at the press conference today that Hextall has left them with cap space and that the “prospect cupboard is full.”

And they fired him?

Holmgren said that it “felt time to look for a new voice with a different mindset that can push the team to a new level.”

Wasn’t Hextall doing that? He, admittedly, rebuilt the farm system. The Flyers will finally have some cap space after this season thanks to Ron Hextall. It only took five years to dig out from the brutal contract hell that Holmgren left him.

There was one telling moment in this press conference today.

Comcast-Spectacor CEO David Scott said:

“I boiled it down to one question. Do I think that we can do better as a team now, not two years or three years from now, but now. And I think that answer is yes.

Scott also mentioned this:

“we are very focused on the trade deadline coming up feb 25 and we think there could be some opportunities out there and frankly we don’t want to miss out.”

Let me go out on a limb and interpret this for you. The organization has learned nothing from the patience of the 76ers. They want to return to the ways of the old, which means trading prospects and picks for aging veterans beyond their prime and with jacked-up contracts so they can make failed runs at Stanley Cups i.e. Paul Coffey, Dale Hawerchuk, Keith Primeau, Adam Oates. Hextall probably refused to go along with that and was relieved of his duties.

The 2015-16 76ers could have done better than 10-72 in the now, but they remained on course. Three years later they are one of the best teams in basketball.

Paul Holmgren is picking the next GM. He was asked today “what qualities are you looking for in the new GM?” Holmgren’s answer is “that’s a difficult question to answer.”

This franchise just cannot move on from the past. They had a GM with a plan, who by the way was part of a Stanley Cup winning front office, and the organization just couldn’t muster the patience. Guys who have never been a part of winning anything in an NHL front office think they know better than Hextall.

I don’t know who is the bigger joke as a GM betweenJerry Jones and Paul Holmgren. This franchise is laughable as long as Paul Holmgren is President.

Oh, by the way, Dave Brown…DAVE BROWN…is the HEAD PRO SCOUT! And, Bobby Clarke, who also left the team in shambles as GM, is still Senior VP of the franchise.

Let that sink in.

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