The Flyers have fallen to 13-22-8 on the season, and are dangerously close to becoming the fifth worst team in the NHL if they lose Saturday and Buffalo beats Arizona. Today, I had to sit down and listen to Chuck Fletcher and Dave Scott basically tell us things we already knew in a pretty boring press conference to say the least.

Sean Couturier and Ryan Ellis

Sean Couturier was seen skating in sweatpants this morning at the Flyers skate zone, but is still rehabbing an upper-body injury. Fletcher said both Couturier and Ellis could possibly miss the rest of the season and simply stated, “I think it could go either way with both players” when asked about the possibility of returns.

Not that my opinion matters here, but if this continues, the logical thing would be to shut those two down and get them as healthy as possible for training camp next fall. I mean for crying out loud, the Buffalo Sabres are about to pass the Flyers in the standings, it’s embarrassing at this point.

The real “Flyers” thing would be to bring those two back hobbled, only to win four or five more games and lose out on a higher draft pick.

Claude Giroux

I’m glad this topic was brought up today in some capacity because it’s something I and a lot of other Flyers fans have been thinking about lately. It’s at the point now where the Flyers are setting franchise records for losing streaks, so the conversations are going to naturally start happening. 

A player who is 34-years-old and was drafted 16 years ago shouldn’t be your number one source of offense. Claude Giroux has been the top goal scorer on this team nine times (tied JVR last season) since being drafted in 2006. There are only three season since 2010-2011 where Giroux wasn’t first on the team in points.

2019-2020: Konecny

2016-2017: Voracek

2014-2015: Voracek 

Chuck basically confirmed it’s ultimately going to be Giroux’s decision on whether or not he wants to be traded, especially with the fact that he has a NMC in his contract. He also noted the trade deadline is still two months away and they’ll “continue to have talks” on the situation until it’s time for a decision.

Dave Scott

It’s pretty fun watching Dave Scott sit up there and try to speak like he actually has any idea what’s going on in terms of the day-to-day hockey operations. This guy listed the “core” and didn’t mention Carter Hart, the one player that just so happens to be the only reason you’re not bottom-three in the league right now. 

Scott mentioned during the press conference this “will not be a 3-5 year rebuild”, then looked at Chuck Fletcher for reassurance to make sure what he read on the notecards five minutes before the conference began was accurate. 

It’s never a good day when you have to watch this guy sit in front of a mic and pretend he knows anything about hockey or the city of Philadelphia. 

Scott was then asked about the attendance issues and he acknowledged when you don’t have a good product on the ice, combined with the fact they’re not winning, it’s going to impact attendance. That was probably the most accurate thing he said the entire time and the only reason he’s noticing the attendance issues is because the cash stopped coming in (not that it was in the first place).

“Re-Tool”

Chuck mentioned that Flyers will “aggressively retool,” and with Dave Scott’s “this will not be a 3-5 year rebuild” comment, I don’t see the Flyers blowing this up completely as of now. Obviously, they’re not going to tell us everything they’re thinking and show their hand, but the idea of completely blowing it up seems to have died down as of late. 

When asked about Giroux’s situation and trade deadline time, Chuck mentioned “teams that are clearly going to make the playoffs are often looking to add guys on expiring contracts.”, so we’ll see if that means a guy like Rasmus Ristolainen will be a hot commodity come deadline time. 

Chuck did say today he knows he pays a big price for Rasmus Ristolainen, and added in “the goal when we traded for him was to keep him.” 

Flyers on Expiring Contracts

Since Chuck said he’ll be “aggressively retooling”, I wanted to go through all the expiring contracts at the end of this year that could be trade bait. 

• Claude Giroux (UFA in 2022): $8.25 million – NMC
• Zack MacEwen (RFA in 2022): 825,000
• Rasmus Ristolainen (UFA in 2022): $5.4 million
• Justin Braun (UFA in 2022): $1.8 million 
• Keith Yandle (UFA in 2022): $900,000 – NTC
• Martin Jones (UFA in 2022): $2.0 million

Claude Giroux is obviously the #1 guy on that list, but I think Ristolainen could bring back a 1st round pick from a team looking to add a big body defenseman with some offensive upside for a cup run. 

Justin Braun and Martin Jones are two veteran players that would be nice additions to playoff teams. Edmonton is looking for a goalie and while I’m not saying Jones would be the answer to all their problems, I could see Edmonton think he is. 

Yandle and MacEwen are long-shots but I tossed them in because there’s always a chance. 

Mandatory Credit: STEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer - Inquirer