I was just thinking about it today and for the first time in a long time (been a fan for over 20 years of this team, light poster, but heavy follower of this forum) and I think post-draft is the first time where I've considered not following this team anymore, and maybe moving on to greener pasture, but just wanted an opportunity to share and revel with my peers in frustration a bit. Feel free to respond or not; vent, agree, disagree, but just posting this as a bit of an outlet.
I'm not nearly as cynical or critical as most on this forum to the Flyers management, even if I do agree with the general sentiment regarding their ineptitude over the last 15 years. I grew up in Chicago as a Blackhawks fan originally, and moved to the Flyers when Bill Wirtz kept screwing the team over and over again and I followed some of my favorite players to their new teams (i..e, JR, among others) due to a very passionate fan base and owner - and stuck with it, even through the dark days of Hextall and Fletcher.
However, I'm really starting to believe that the organization is cursed in some fashion - and I thought that was really going to be trending positively once Briere took over, but it's just gut-punch after gut-punch. Ignoring the list of all the things that have happened that are generally out of our control (Patrick, Lindblom, Ellis) among others of just pure bad luck (nevermind the crap management), I actually thought that we were on an upswing. Briere's first year was great, IMO - Michkov, dumping Provorov, Hayes, etc. and the draft last year was fantastic.
But I cannot help now see the implications of what has happened with Cutter Gauthier (and for the record, I don't really blame Briere or Flyers management for this) - but the problem is that the outstanding result is the same. The ripple effect that this has had again altered the direction of this franchise negatively, even if Michkov coming over early has been positive.
I don't think the Flyers passed on Buium just willy nilly; I really do believe that the agent had a hand in this - and I don't subscribe to the belief of drafting players regardless of outside factors - and I do think that teams and agents will always gravitate towrads working together if their relationship is favorable, and the opposite if it's not - and it's unrealistic to expect all teams work well with all agencies. But assuming those beliefs I outlined in this paragraph are true, and even if you were to totally absolve Flyers management (I don't, I do think they had a hand in this position we are in), if we assume that didn't happen, it's reasonable to believe our outcome for 24-25 would be:
Cutter Gauthier - one of the best prospects in the world, big, strong 2 way center (whether you believe he is a wing or not, the Flyers management drafted him in the hopes that he was a C), great shot, elite prospect, rising above his draft class on a team much needing center depth. Could have easily slotted in as #2C this year, along with the rest of our #2 or #3Cs, and emerged as the best of them by year's end.
Zeev Buium - As a result of the situation with Cutter, the team passed on an all-situations #1 d-man prospect, with historical numbers, because of relationship with agent. Again, I don't blame management for this 100% of not wanting to deal with the agent, but I can also see the other side where maybe they should have just taken him anyway unless they were given a notion that he wouldn't sign them. Don't know the full story of this, but at the end, we didn't take him.
MM - Coming over.
Instead of seeing CG, MM, Buium, three possible elite talents filtering in over the next 2 years, we get Luchanko, Drysdale and MM.
Maybe Luchanko is great - but it's still far more underwhelming than the former. The former also being a much more positive future-proof roster lineup, than the latter. And the deferral of more picks to next year just pushes all this back, and while I agree that it takes time, taking time to become great doesn't mean you don't see any improvements along the way. Now, with all the picks next year, I'm just waiting to see what will set us back next year, rather than hoping, because that's really all that's been happening.
It just seems like another setback in a myriad of setbacks.
Would love all of your thoughts, vents, agreements, disagreements, but just felt - for the first time in a long time - like writing a post on my perspective.
I'm not nearly as cynical or critical as most on this forum to the Flyers management, even if I do agree with the general sentiment regarding their ineptitude over the last 15 years. I grew up in Chicago as a Blackhawks fan originally, and moved to the Flyers when Bill Wirtz kept screwing the team over and over again and I followed some of my favorite players to their new teams (i..e, JR, among others) due to a very passionate fan base and owner - and stuck with it, even through the dark days of Hextall and Fletcher.
However, I'm really starting to believe that the organization is cursed in some fashion - and I thought that was really going to be trending positively once Briere took over, but it's just gut-punch after gut-punch. Ignoring the list of all the things that have happened that are generally out of our control (Patrick, Lindblom, Ellis) among others of just pure bad luck (nevermind the crap management), I actually thought that we were on an upswing. Briere's first year was great, IMO - Michkov, dumping Provorov, Hayes, etc. and the draft last year was fantastic.
But I cannot help now see the implications of what has happened with Cutter Gauthier (and for the record, I don't really blame Briere or Flyers management for this) - but the problem is that the outstanding result is the same. The ripple effect that this has had again altered the direction of this franchise negatively, even if Michkov coming over early has been positive.
I don't think the Flyers passed on Buium just willy nilly; I really do believe that the agent had a hand in this - and I don't subscribe to the belief of drafting players regardless of outside factors - and I do think that teams and agents will always gravitate towrads working together if their relationship is favorable, and the opposite if it's not - and it's unrealistic to expect all teams work well with all agencies. But assuming those beliefs I outlined in this paragraph are true, and even if you were to totally absolve Flyers management (I don't, I do think they had a hand in this position we are in), if we assume that didn't happen, it's reasonable to believe our outcome for 24-25 would be:
Cutter Gauthier - one of the best prospects in the world, big, strong 2 way center (whether you believe he is a wing or not, the Flyers management drafted him in the hopes that he was a C), great shot, elite prospect, rising above his draft class on a team much needing center depth. Could have easily slotted in as #2C this year, along with the rest of our #2 or #3Cs, and emerged as the best of them by year's end.
Zeev Buium - As a result of the situation with Cutter, the team passed on an all-situations #1 d-man prospect, with historical numbers, because of relationship with agent. Again, I don't blame management for this 100% of not wanting to deal with the agent, but I can also see the other side where maybe they should have just taken him anyway unless they were given a notion that he wouldn't sign them. Don't know the full story of this, but at the end, we didn't take him.
MM - Coming over.
Instead of seeing CG, MM, Buium, three possible elite talents filtering in over the next 2 years, we get Luchanko, Drysdale and MM.
Maybe Luchanko is great - but it's still far more underwhelming than the former. The former also being a much more positive future-proof roster lineup, than the latter. And the deferral of more picks to next year just pushes all this back, and while I agree that it takes time, taking time to become great doesn't mean you don't see any improvements along the way. Now, with all the picks next year, I'm just waiting to see what will set us back next year, rather than hoping, because that's really all that's been happening.
It just seems like another setback in a myriad of setbacks.
Would love all of your thoughts, vents, agreements, disagreements, but just felt - for the first time in a long time - like writing a post on my perspective.
