This has been on my things to talk about ever since the Philadelphia Flyers decided to can Alain Vigneault as head coach a month ago. Given their position right now, and their embarrassment on Saturday at the hands of Buffalo, it's time to talk about the general futility of the Flyers. For reference, I will use a quote from Bobby Clarke taken from "The Cam & Strick podcast" to frame everything wrong about the Flyers draft and development acumen.
We end up getting the second pick in the draft, and we end up drafting Nolan Patrick. None of our scouts wanted Nolan Patrick. I don’t know where Patrick should have gone, after his performances in Brandon — he’s a pretty good player. But certainly, they wanted Makar. Of course he went next. Now he’s a superstar and Patrick hasn’t played. But Hextall made that choice himself, and there were other choices that were made at our drafts that we’re paying for. We have two or three first-round picks that are never going to play, and that’s why we’re struggling. Hextall made some huge mistakes.
There's a few things here to note. Yes, Makar was a top 10 prospect entering the draft, but very few, if any, people had him going top 2. Hindsight is 20/20, but had Philadelphia truly thought Makar was their guy, why not trade down a spot or two. It was near consensus that Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier were going one and two, with Miro Heiskanen possibly sneaking into the second overall pick. As for Makar that year, he was seen as a boom or bust pick that had more questions due to level of competition, as the AJHL is a step below major junior and would have allowed him to go to college after he got drafted, which he did.
Suppose the Flyers did take Makar, now we have look at the Flyers history of developing those picks. Clarke has been in his current role as Senior Vice President since December 2006, so for the purpose of this article, I will begin with the 2007 Draft and move onwards to 2018.
In the time between 2007 and 2018, the Flyers made 85 picks, and of those picks, 21 have played more than 50 games in their career. Nine of the 21 were drafted in the 3rd round or later, and none since 2014. Only two of those picks made a significant impact with the Flyers, being Shayne Gostisbehere and Oskar Lindblom. The Flyers also had some godawful drafts, with 2009 taking the cake, as the entire draft class couldn't crack 50 games played...combined. 2010 was marginally better, but it says something about the 2013 draft class that the most games played by one player was traded (Robert Hagg with 224, and he was traded prior to this season for Rasmus Ristolainen). 2016 is already looking like an all-time bust, with Carter Hart leading the way, but likely needing a fresh start somewhere else.
That brings us to 2017, and Nolan Patrick. 70 points in 197 games, and missing an entire season to injury, it's obvious the injury bug that plagued him in his final year of junior followed him to the NHL level, and now, he's trying to resurrect his career in Vegas.
All of this has been overseen by Clarke on some level, and at some point, player development should come into question. Most of the picks that were successful don't have sustained impact (I.e. Ivan Provorov and Carter Hart) and the ones that do, those are few and far in between (Sean Couturier). Also, in relation to the 2017 draft, that too, is looking bad, with 2018 not looking so promising, either.
As I'm finishing this piece, the Flyers winless streak is now at 13 after a loss to the Islanders. Yes, it is time to blow it up, and that includes the front office. The days of the Broad Street Bullies is long gone, and it's time to give Claude Giroux a chance at a Stanley Cup elsewhere because it's not happening in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future. This is what happens when a team is merely content with just making the playoffs.
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