Flyers hire Dan Hilferty as Dave Scott’s new “Partner”
In a move that may or may not mean something, Comcast Spectacor–parent company of the Flyers–has hired Dan Hilferty as its CEO.
Now, what exactly is Hilferty going to be doing here? Well, apparently, he’s going to be Dave Scott’s new “partner.”
Flyers Hire Dan Hilferty to be Dave Scott’s “Partner”
I mean, plan the parade. Drop everything and start planning the parade, because the Flyers’ ascension begins NOW!
All of this is to say that there’s approximately a 99.99% chance this means absolutely nothing and that we’re simply throwing another empty suit in the dark room full of empty suits who accomplish very little in regards to Flyers hockey. Let’s establish this right now: this is probably nothing.
But this would be totally boring to cover if I didn’t at least try to speculate on how things might be affected by the move going forward.
Let’s start here: Dave Scott is entirely disinterested in hockey. He was thrown into a position he has no interest in, working as the de-facto owner of a team he has no passion for. That’s an awful position, and a tedious one.
Were I Dave Scott, I would want to find someone as quickly as possible to do my job for me that actually cared about this job. We could call this person a partner. I could keep my title, and continue collecting my checks, while this other guy does all the work and makes all the decisions.
Did that happen here? I have no idea. I’m not in the room. I’m not some special insider. But it’s a pretty simple reading of tea leaves to get here.
Assuming that’s true, Dan Hilferty is likely the ultimate decision maker of everything Flyers related. As long as he doesn’t plunge the company into financial ruin and bring about a nightmarish hell scape of unending despair, then Dave Scott isn’t going to step in.
And since the company is already in relative financial ruin, and the nightmarish hell scape is already here, we might as well just say that Dave isn’t going to intervene in any meaningful capacity with Dan doing whatever he wants.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Or nothing? Again, the answer is likely nothing. But I’ll take this the extra step for nothing more than reading material.
The most impactful decision that ownership can make is by pivoting into the direction of a full-throated rebuild. The current owner, Dave Scott, has trepidations for financial reasons. A rebuilding hockey team means receding profits. The old hockey guard around him–Bob Clarke and folks–have never conducted a proper rebuild in their lives. They’re adamant that such a thing isn’t actually required, and yet… it is required.
So we’re currently in some odd, directionless tailspin. We’re in hockey purgatory, and we can move it out of it simply by… moving. Pick a direction. The direction has essentially been picked already.
It’s a rebuild.
We just need someone who has the balls to say it.
And if this Dan Hilferty fellow truly is a “tenacious Flyers fan” as he says in his press release, then he’ll see the writing on the wall and he’ll greenlight what we all know needs to happen.
On its own, that press release is worth staggeringly little. He might as well have used the word “voracious” instead of “tenacious,” because they’re all equally highfalutin but meaningless. Likewise, this whole thing is almost certainly meaningless.
But, hiding under the surface, there’s a possibility that this is actually an interesting and substantial development.
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