2023-24 Roster Thread 1: Entering the Starting Gate

[Beef Invictus]

Once again, absolving Chuck Fletcher of blame in the year 2023.

The claim that he'd stop supporting him if the team was bad after the first half was clearly a lie told with the assumption the team would be good.

I cannot remotely figure out why such a poor and pathetic individual ginned up so much undying loyalty.

 

[kudymen]

I cannot remotely figure out why such a poor and pathetic individual ginned up so much undying loyalty.

He said it in the self-defense manifesto he sent to Jojo. Nothing to do with actual objectivity, just desire to defend someone who is different. No matter how different. Eh

 

[FLYguy3911]

Don't forget untouchable prospect Isaac Ratcliffe.

 

[deadhead]

It took a village of idiots to mire this team in mediocrity.
It began with Holmgren, then Hextall, then Fletcher. Plenty of blame to go around.

Love or hate Torts, he's the one who tore the band-aid off and exposed the wound.
And he's the one who's set the agenda of a long-term rebuild.

What makes this interesting is there's an outside chance this team could make the playoffs next year, AFTER letting JVR walk and trading Hayes, Laughton and Provorov. Depends on three factors:
1) health of Couts and Atkinson
2) return on trades (prospects picked up)
3) short-term patches in free agency and on waivers
Couts at 100% is a game changer.

Farabee - Couts - TK
Tippett - Frost - Atkinson
??? (Lycksell) - Cates - Foerster
Deslauriers - Desnoyers - Allison

??? - York - ???
Sanheim - Risto
Seeler - TDA
Zamula - Attard

Hart/Ersson

The good news is I think Torts/Briere know even if this team squeezed its way to 95 points or so, they know it's not a SC contender and will continue to rebuild. So they're not going to make the "win now" moves that plagued this team for a decade.

 

[kudymen]

Ah yes Ron Hextall and his famous win now moves

 

[Beef Invictus]

He was handed a lot of mediocre prospects, most of whom didn't pan out, and a couple key ones got injured (Lindblom, Patrick, Allison). He had a handful of quality veterans, most at their peak (G, Voracek, Raffl, Gudas), a few solid young starters in Couts, Ghost and Laughton, and a bunch of scrubs. It was an 85-90 point team that had an up season in 2017-18 and a down season in 2018-19.

The only young players on that team to pan out were TK, Farabee, Provorov, and Sanheim.
And the pipeline was bare until this year when Frost, Cates and York arrived.

They were widely well-regarded at the time. If he failed to assess them and move them when they had value, or failed to run an adequate development process, the fault is his.

Dude was here five years. He trashed the team. The team is in far worse shape now than when he took over. Those are the facts.

 

[Fight4yourRight]

He said it in the self-defense manifesto he sent to Jojo. Nothing to do with actual objectivity, just desire to defend someone who is different. No matter how different. Eh

I can’t remember which chapter of the Book of Manifestos this was found in. Can you please provide reference?

 

[kudymen]

I can’t remember which chapter of the Book of Manifestos this was found in. Can you please provide reference?

Will check if it wasn’t deleted

 

[FlyerNutter]

Fletchers last parting gift was being too much of a cuck as usual to ensure Torts wasn’t hired.

That was his most grave mistake, but he was indeed right to be against that move. We see more, and more as to why.

 

[Beef Invictus]

It took a village of idiots to mire this team in mediocrity.
It began with Holmgren, then Hextall, then Fletcher. Plenty of blame to go around.

Love or hate Torts, he's the one who tore the band-aid off and exposed the wound.
And he's the one who's set the agenda of a long-term rebuild.

What makes this interesting is there's an outside chance this team could make the playoffs next year, AFTER letting JVR walk and trading Hayes, Laughton and Provorov. Depends on three factors:
1) health of Couts and Atkinson
2) return on trades (prospects picked up)
3) short-term patches in free agency and on waivers
Couts at 100% is a game changer.

Farabee - Couts - TK
Tippett - Frost - Atkinson
??? (Lycksell) - Cates - Foerster
Deslauriers - Desnoyers - Allison

??? - York - ???
Sanheim - Risto
Seeler - TDA
Zamula - Attard

Hart/Ersson

The good news is I think Torts/Briere know even if this team squeezed its way to 95 points or so, they know it's not a SC contender and will continue to rebuild. So they're not going to make the "win now" moves that plagued this team for a decade.

It began with Clarke.

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

I'm still confused how Torts is the one that tore the bandaid off and exposed the wound.

You know who did that? The fanbase. Not John Tortorella.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Torts didn't do shit. All he did was whine and refuse to do his job after putting in place a system designed for an age where the two line pass rule was in effect.

 

[deadhead]

I'm still confused how Torts is the one that tore the bandaid off and exposed the wound.

You know who did that? The fanbase. Not John Tortorella.

The fan base did nothing. You really think anyone reads this board?
The ST holders went along with the program the last decade.
Torts was the first one to come out and declare the "emperor has no clothes."

 

[Hollywood Cannon]

The fan base did nothing. You really think anyone reads this board?
The ST holders went along with the program the last decade.
Torts was the first one to come out and declare the "emperor has no clothes."

You know who did nothing? Tortorella. Every thing that he's done is out of self preservation. Anyone with half a brain knows that tying their wagon to Fletcher and this front office would put them square in the crosshairs. Cool, he said that the team sucks. Great stuff. They also put out a letter that he didn't write. Once again great stuff. We've known all of that for years.

The fanbase made it so that the organization couldn't wait any longer. They didn't show up. They allowed Rangers fans to come in here and cheer like it was Madison Square Garden. They booed Fletcher and Company. Weird that it's been reported that the organization thought that they could get to the offseason before doing anything but the fanbases forced their hands.

That right there is more than Tortorella has done.

 

[Curufinwe]

Myers was so bad after Fletcher took over that he... signed him for 3 years at $2.55m.

That signing happened one year and three days after Chuck became GM.

The fan base did nothing. You really think anyone reads this board?
The ST holders went along with the program the last decade.
Torts was the first one to come out and declare the "emperor has no clothes."

The building has been mostly empty for two full seasons now.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

5th most improved team

Hang it from the rafters

 

[Chicken N Raffls]

I'd say the Emporer has no clothes moment was when Chick Flicker pulled off a whopping two whole nothing trades at the busiest deadline I've ever seen. Shit the bed with JVR. The whole league saw it. Actually got national mentions. This fanbase was livid, but even other fanbases took notice. Nobody outside of Philly gave a f*** about TORTS saying there was more work to be done than he first expected.

 

[Beef Invictus]

I'd say the Emporer has no clothes moment was when Chick Flicker pulled off a whopping two whole nothing trades at the busiest deadline I've ever seen. Shit the bed with JVR. The whole league saw it. Actually got national mentions. This fanbase was livid, but even other fanbases took notice. Nobody outside of Philly gave a f*** about TORTS saying there was more work to be done than he first expected.

He became a league-wide laughingstock.

Going back over JVR's actual on-ice performance he was actually a solid player last year. It should have been a slam-dunk value trade. It's an unbelievable failure.

 

[bennysflyers16]

Tell me more about this Virtual Strip Club !

 

[tictactoe]

And this is without Svechnikov ...

 

[Beef Invictus]

Tell me more about this Virtual Strip Club !

I promise it has to be terrible

 

[Magua]

He became a league-wide laughingstock.

Going back over JVR's actual on-ice performance he was actually a solid player last year. It should have been a slam-dunk value trade. It's an unbelievable failure.

Teams in the summer asked for the Flyers assured top 10 1st for 1 year of a perfectly cromulent JVR, retained. Nothing screamed “Kick Me” like that. Fletcher’s last 2 years were basically a scene from Casino.

 

[Chicken N Raffls]

He became a league-wide laughingstock.

Going back over JVR's actual on-ice performance he was actually a solid player last year. It should have been a slam-dunk value trade. It's an unbelievable failure.

Could this have been the second mistake?

 

[Beef Invictus]

Teams asked for the Flyers assured top 10 1st for 1 year of a perfectly cromulent JVR. Nothing screams “Kick Me” like that.

It's completely disrespectful and shows the massive scorn everyone holds for Fletcher. They saw no reason to do business with him if they couldn't rob him, because they knew they could.

 

[BringBackHakstol]

Reading this torts as christ fan fic never gets old

Theres a reason literally only one person believes this