Orange & Black / Philadelphia Flyers

возможно Гомер и компания хотели, чтобы Хекс провернул громкий трейд, Хекс отказывался согласно своей философии - ну не хотел он мараться блокбастерским трейдом кого-то из лидеров

грейт и скорзи,
я прекрасно помню лето 12 года: до него миннесота - середнячковый середнячок, после него (как леопольд лимит по своей кредитку увеличил) - стабильный участник п-о, пару лет даже в латентных контентдырах походили (правда, на практике не срослось, ну да это уже отдельная тема). за последние 5 лет команда в среднем набирает 98.4 очка за сезон. наши последний раз столько набирали при лавиолетте. так что плюс-минус бернс - это неприятно, но все же не фатально, как видим. но и говорить о царебожии тоже как-то странно: работа там шла в достаточной тесной связке с владельцем.



блокбастер - вещь двусторонняя: иногда ты обмениваешь лидера, иногда - к тебе обменивают. летом 11 года одна команда отдавала картера и ричардса, а другие команды отдавали шеннов и ворачеков.

слабо лоутон+уил+сенхайм+пик 2 раунда+пик 5 раунда на рор-а, слабо, да?

но и говорить о царебожии тоже как-то странно: работа там шла в достаточной тесной связке с владельцем.

Обмен Шенна на Лехтерю + два первых пика в перспективе один из самых гениальных обменов десятилетия.

не считаю нужным приписывать слово "условно", особенно не считаю нужным приписывать его для любителей докопаться.
этим летом что карлссона, что рора, что юнитов попроще обменивали далеко не в режиме "ты мне красное яблоко - я тебе желтое".
ворачек - хороший юнит, я не спорю. и пик в виде кутюрье - вещь полезная. но даже если опустить детали (с далеко_не_мусором за все время разок вышли во второй раунд), то становится ясно, что яблоко обменяли на пучок укропа, горсть семян и полстакана смородины. здесь нет строгих эквивалентов.
и причем тут вежливость?.. вопрос риторический, bsb, отвечать не надо.

Steve Yzerman and Ron Francis are among the candidates to fill the Flyers' general-manager vacancy, Dave Scott confirmed Tuesday.
Scott did not sound confident that Yzerman could be lured to Philadelphia

Небольшая разбивка по "в перспективе один из самых гениальных обменов десятилетия":
1. Щенн сам по себе 1-ый пик и непросто первый пик, а минимум с небольшим довеском. Подобных трейдов каждый дедлайн под десяток.
2. За 2 года почти 5-миллионного бревна получен поздний (20+) пик первого раунда. Если добавить сюда довесок от Щенна, то поздний первый пик превращается с очень поздний первый пик (под 30), а то и вовсе в ранний второй пик(первая 10-ка).

Получение фактически 2-ого пика за 2 года ($4.7M в сезон) наличия в команде бревна, еле-еле попадающего в 4-ю тройку? Как-то маловато для гениального обмена десятилетия, не?

Важно то, что Фрост и Фараби - яркие таланты, которые в будущем могут и должны стать звездами НХЛ и поднять Филадельфию со дна..... а активы в лице Моргана и Джоэля будут радовать болельщиков долгие годы.

только не азерман, нагадим в карму

The belief is that Pickard has been placed on waivers, Goulbourne sent down and Murphy is gone.

Already​ as​ of Tuesday​ afternoon the Philadelphia Flyers’ list of​ GM candidates was​ down to​ four,​ a source told​ The Athletic,​​ and that the intention was to reach out and speak to those candidates or set up interviews by the end of the week.

It was a longer list than that to begin with but Flyers president Paul Holmgren whittled it down to four specific names Tuesday to begin his process of finding a replacement for Ron Hextall.

Of course that list will likely evolve but for now it’s at four names and it’s believed former Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher is one of those four names if not the front-runner, which is no surprise. He’s got the pedigree for sure to take on that job.

But there will be other candidates as well. My TSN colleague Frank Seravalli reported that Buffalo Sabres assistant GM Steve Greeley would be on Philadelphia’s radar. TSN colleague Darren Dreger also reported former Carolina Hurricanes GM Ron Francis would be of interest.

Another candidate that would make sense to me but I’ve not confirmed whether the Flyers will reach out to him is Columbus Blue Jackets assistant GM Bill Zito who spoke with Carolina about its GM job last season and seems ready for the next step in his career.

Former Leafs executive Mark Hunter is another possibility according to some.

One source suggested Holmgren wants to make sure whoever he hires it’s not a former Flyer, that it’s important to bring in a fresh perspective without former ties to the organization.

That would seemingly rule out the idea of Chris Pronger being in consideration. I do think Pronger is GM material one day but it doesn’t appear it’ll be with the Flyers right now. And I suppose that would also rule out former Flyers goalie Sean Burke who I think is also NHL GM material one day.

In the meantime, Holmgren has asked Dean Lombardi — who is the special advisor to the GM — to stay on and counsel on the GM search. He is not a candidate himself. Lombardi has close ties to Hextall but he’s also close to Holmgren and Bobby Clarke.

Ron Hextall’s isolation contributed to disconnect with Flyers’ management



At​ the​ time of​ Ron Hextall’s return “home” to​ the Philadelphia Flyers, it​ appeared as​ though​ the hockey​ stars were​​ aligning.

Hextall had the requisite Flyer DNA – appearing in 499 games for the team that drafted him in 1982 – with a feistiness that belied a cerebral nature that was refined, honed working as an assistant to GM Dean Lombardi in Los Angeles as the Kings won two Stanley Cups.

“I believe in hard work, I believe in will, I believe in battles, that’s really what Flyer hockey is all about,” Hextall said as we sat in the team’s practice facility in Voorhees, New Jersey, three years ago.

“That’s not going to change, certainly under my watch. The game has evolved and we have to evolve with the game. So Flyer hockey now compared to the ‘70s, is it different? Of course it’s different because the game is different. But the foundation that this organization’s all about, hard-nosed, gritty, battling hockey is not going to change.”

In the end, it turned out to be a better story than it was a fit.

With all his good work in moving the team into a better position vis a vis the salary cap and adding promising young players to a formerly bereft pipeline of prospects, the Flyers seemed to lose their way on the ice, prone to wild swings in levels of play.

That inconsistency became this team’s identity the past three years even though twice, in 2016 and 2018, the team defied skeptics by qualifying for the postseason, both times ending in first-round defeats. And in a town where, if you aren’t winning then you better be giving the fans something else in terms of on-ice product, well, the Flyers team built by Hextall was found wanting.

Many thought this year’s Flyer team would be better than a year ago, but they haven’t been, and this week’s sudden move to fire Hextall made it clear there was a disconnect between upper management and the GM.

Those familiar with the team’s structure said Hextall managed to isolate himself within an organization that prided itself on valuing input from every part of the team’s hierarchy.

“Everyone had a voice,” one source familiar with the organization told The Athletic.

That was less the case with Hextall, the source said.

“I think Hexy was a little more go in the office and lock the door guy,” the source suggested.

That’s not to say the team didn’t make mistakes prior to Hextall’s hiring.

They haven’t won a playoff round since 2012 and, since the Cup years of the Broad Street Bullies in 1974 and 1975, have qualified for the final six times, but only twice in the past 30 years, getting swept by Detroit in 1997 and losing to Chicago in 2010.

But when they made mistakes, they were collective mistakes.

At least that was the sense among the staff.

And maybe that’s part of the learning curve for Hextall.

Some guys are meant to be assistants, whether that’s an assistant coach or assistant GM, and sometimes you have to learn what it means to take the next step.

The problem is those learning experiences are very public; they can be humbling and they can be revelatory.

“I’m not saying he can’t be a No. 1 again,” the source said. “But it appears he struggled going from a two to a one.”

Hextall seems too smart for this to be his only shot at being an NHL GM.

That it didn’t work where he wanted it to so badly might end up helping him if the door opens again. That he will, over time, make this experience, no matter how difficult and disappointing, work for him.

Not that that will be much solace for Hextall or for the Flyers who must once again move on in the hopes of finding that elusive right fit.

When your Stanley Cup drought is at four-plus decades and counting, there’s lots of work to be done, and when you have been searching for answers to the Stanley Cup question for this long, it means Hextall isn’t the source of all that ails the Flyers.

“I guess I’m surprised it’s the GM at this time of the year,” said former Flyer and longtime analyst Keith Jones. “But at the same time, it’s a franchise that has been predicated on winning, that’s what the foundation of the team is.”

And if you’re not winning, Jones added, “it’s about the style of play.”

But give the organization credit for identifying what they believed was a structural problem and taking steps to address it.

The path of least resistance is to wait and hope things get better, hope that what you think you see really isn’t there.

Certainly firing head coach Dave Hakstol, Hextall’s signature hire in 2015, would have been an easier move than firing a general manager midseason, which is something that rarely happens.

And certainly firing Hakstol would have been easier than firing a local legend like Hextall.

But that’s not how this played out.

To be sure, Hakstol now appears to be living on borrowed time as team president Paul Holmgren did little to suggest that Hakstol is the long-term answer behind the Flyers’ bench. Ultimately the decision on whether Hakstol stays will be made by the new GM, Holmgren said Tuesday.

It’s fitting that Holgren, who served as the Flyers’ GM before transitioning to team president, was the point man for this shocking change, as he is the one who went after Hextall to first hire him as assistant GM in 2013 and then made him GM in 2014. And some of Hextall’s early work was to undo the salary cap havoc created by Holmgren’s moves.

Yet it’s clear that, over time, there became a disconnect between Holmgren and Hextall, which was at least a factor in Hextall’s firing.

Holmgren made it clear they want to fill Hextall’s post sooner than later and that they are looking outside the club to find the next Flyer GM.

That means Lombardi, who came back to the Flyers last season as senior advisor to the general manager, will not be in the running, although he was asked, according to colleague Pierre LeBrun, to assist in the search for Hextall’s replacement.

Whoever takes on the post — Hall of Famer Ron Francis, former Minnesota GM Chuck Fletcher, former Toronto executive Mark Hunter, or any of the handful of candidates Holmgren has on his short list, according to LeBrun — should expect to hit the ground running.

There won’t be a languorous honeymoon in a town where expectations have not been met.

As Jones noted, the only message that seems to be sent by this move is that the process of taking steps towards being a contender is taking longer than upper management believed it should.

This next person “is going to need to be more willing to work with the ones around him,” Jones said. “That’s the underlying message that was sent.”

Chris Pryor [assistant General Manager and Director of Player Personnel] and Gord Murphy [assistant coach] are out!