The Flyers Just Don’t Get It

by Posted on

The Flyers just don’t get it. When someone has failed disastrously as a Holmgren has as a General Manager and President, you usually ask them to quietly resign or you fire them. You do not keep them around.

That’s not what the Flyers did this week. Paul Holmgren is stepping down as President but will be a senior advisor. Why? What the hell is he going to advise on? How to become and stay irrelevant? Holmgren, with the help of his predecessor Bobby Clarke, led the Flyers to Jokesville in the NHL. The joke, back in the day, used to be that every team made the NHL Playoffs, implying that the teams that did not were the dreck of the league. That’s where the Flyers are, barely sniffing the Playoffs and if they do, they get bounced in the first round.

This would be like the 76ers or Brooklyn Nets bringing on Billy King as a Senior Advisor after leaving both of those franchises in shambles.

Do you know who the Phillies have as a Senior Advisor? Pat Gillick, the guy behind the 2008 World Series Championship team. They don’t have Ruben Amaro, Jr as a Senior Advisor after overseeing 5 pathetic drafts. That’s basically what the Flyers just did.

Do you know who is a Senior Vice President of the Flyers? Bob Clarke. Another failure as an executive that the game passed by.

Holmgren was a good player. He seems like a good dude. However, he’s a terrible hockey executive and shouldn’t have any voice in the room. Same with Clarke, but they do. That’s the Flyers way.

Don’t think that the likes of Clarke and Holmgren will still have a voice in the room, regarding the strategy of the franchise, after these title changes? There is always this article from the Bucks County Courier Times titled, Bob Clarke helped convince Paul Holmgren that Chuck Fletcher was right choice

If the Flyers want to show loyalty to the likes of Holmgren and Clarke, they should be hockey ambassadors in the community and that’s it. The same way that Mickey Morandini and Tommy Greene are Phillies’ ambassadors.

Hopefully, Chuck Fletcher knows what he’s doing. If he does, he will change the locks on the door to the Flyers’ war-room, and keep that door locked during the drafts and all trade discussions. That’s the only true way forward.

We all know that ain’t gonna happen.

But, hey, we have Gritty.