Bright: A Brand New Day For Flyers
It will go down in Flyers history as the Day of Reckoning.
General manager Paul Holmgren took his organization across the hockey Rubicon and with guts made of iron, changed the course of the Flyers’ future for the next decade.
The afternoon of June 23, one day before the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, Holmgren ripped the spine out of the Flyers by trading Mike Richards and Jeff Carter less than an hour apart, and replaced it with a younger, more talented but less-proven set of discs and cords.
The Flyers needed salary cap space to sign goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. They just needed a minor shuffle of the deck and to re-load for a run at the Stanley Cup next season. Instead, they wiped the slate clean.
For years the Flyers have touted 2003 draftees Richards and Carter as their untouchable core. And for six years they were just that. The pair experienced both highs and lows with the franchise, winning the Calder Cup with the AHL Phantoms in 2004, playing to the worst record in hockey in 2006-07 and reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in 2009-10. With Carter locked up until 2022 and Richards until 2020, the two seemed to be the chosen pair to begrudgingly and irritably lead the Flyers into uncertain waters for the next decade.
But something changed last season.
As the Flyers were swept out of the playoffs by the Boston Bruins in the second round and barely limped out of the opening series against the Buffalo Sabres in seven games, the smell of something rotten came wafting out of the organization. Rocketing up the standings to what seemed like an inevitable shot at the President’s Trophy for best record in the NHL, the Flyers started to tank downward. They fell to the second seed in the Eastern Conference and nearly dropped out of their once comfortable Atlantic Division lead, saved only by the end of the schedule.
The pistons were not pumping simultaneously and inconsistent work ethic and effort befuddled the coaching staff. It was clear that something was wrong in the state of Flyerdom.
Moving Carter, the team’s leading goal-scorer and best face-off man, can be explained as one of financial need. While also looking to recoup their $5.2 million-per-year, the Flyers received a 21-year old winger with tremendous upside in Jakub Voracek, the eighth overall selection in the 2011 draft and an additional third-round pick. It was a nice and inexpensive haul for Holmgren. Throw in the fact that they gained the ability to sign Bryzgalov and the deal was exactly what the Flyers were looking for.
However, unlike Carter, the Richards move can not be explained by need and screams of an organization looking for addition by subtraction. According to Rick Tocchet in a phone interview with Comcast SportsNet, the Flyers captain and face of the franchise arrived to Voorhees, N.J. last season just days prior to the start of training camp. As the captain and leader of the team, this is a no-no. He also cited the need for Richards to get his act together mentally. Simply put — he was a captain that didn’t act like one. And as the season progressed without injured Chris Pronger, it was evident that team leadership went missing.
At the end of last season, Richards caused a rift with the media and in turn the fans, by ignoring exit interviews and calling out specific writers on Twitter. For a team that embarrassed itself in the postseason, fans wanted their captain to stand up, decree that the season was a failure and the effort was unacceptable.
He didn’t show. Increasingly, the doubt of his ability to lead crept in.
The surprising part of the groundbreaking day for the Flyers is that in moving Richards, the team has stated that he was not the answer to bringing a Stanley Cup to Philadelphia. In moving him for futures — touted 19-year old center Brayden Schenn, gritty winger Wayne Simmonds and a second-round pick, Holmgren has taken a step back to take two steps toward a Cup in the future.
By shipping the captain out, along with their leading scorer, the Flyers and Holmgren have made a statement. With boldness and certainty, on Thursday, the organization told their fan base and the rest of the NHL that when it comes to Richards and Carter — the Flyers are better off without them.
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