What are the Philadelphia Flyers doing?

I decided to title this piece with a question. Because this entire piece will be posed as a question, every word I write will lay the groundwork for you, the reader, to tell me what I genuinely don’t know. You, the reader, will have the opportunity to tell me what the Flyers are doing. Because I have no idea what that is.

I was asked this question by an insightful follower (whose X account you’ll be able to access in the link below), and it dawned on me… holy shit, I genuinely have no idea what the hell they’re doing. I don’t even know what they’re thinking.

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What are the Philadelphia Flyers doing?

Do you consider what they are doing currently as a rebuild or a retool?

— Michkov Fan Account (@skeough08) July 6, 2024

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So I decided to ask all of you!

Let’s start by laying out the options and defining them for everyone.

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Rebuilding

I’m going to end the silly word games and I’m going to define rebuilding in a way that we know what it is. And I’m not going to directly reference tanking, because I don’t believe they are necessarily synonymous.

Rebuilding is the act of tearing down the current build of your hockey team to gradually transform it into an entirely different build. Piece by piece, the hockey team–as you know it–are phased out. And eventually, the team becomes entirely different.

In a true rebuild, there is almost nothing that matters in the present. The present simply doesn’t matter by definition. Because you are admitting to the world that your hockey team, as presently constructed, is in desperate need of total transformation.

Notice I didn’t mention anything about the draft or top picks? Because I don’t think this is a necessary part of the conversation.

But a rebuild is essentially saying “out with the old, in with the new.”

So, have the Flyers done that? Scott Laughton, Sean Couturier, Travis Sanheim, Travis Konecny, Joel Farabee, and more are all still here. They have played key parts in former Flyers teams. How do you completely redesign the Flyers by keeping much of the same core in place?

Retooling

A retool, in my opinion, is a more immediate process but… more importantly… a more targeted process. In the case of a rebuild, you have decided that the team is utterly insufficient and the core has little to nothing worth salvaging.

A rebuild takes time because building an entirely new core of a hockey team takes time, but you’ll know damn well that it’s happening because there will be a myriad of departures in a very short amount of time and nothing worth anything will still be around by the time the smoke settles.

A retool operates under the premise that a competitive core is in place, but it’s flawed. You’ve got part of the way there to assemble the team you need to win the Stanley Cup, but further moves are required to put you over the top.

Some pieces will stay because some pieces will be deemed essential pieces of the core you’re building.

Others will go because they simply don’t fit.

And others beyond them will go because they do fit, but you need to give to get in this world.

These can work. Florida retooled and won a Stanley Cup. Vegas is a perpetual retooling franchise and they just won a Cup.

Is THIS what the Flyers are doing?

Well, maybe. But there’s a key part of the retooling process that they seem to be ignoring. At least, as far as I see it.

You identify the things you need to complete this partially constructed core, and you acquire those pieces at all costs to finish the build and assemble a competitive hockey team.

It happens fast. It, at the very least, features a lot of progress in a short amount of time. What have the Flyers identified as the thing(s) they need to complete the core they have assembled? And what steps have they taken to acquire those things?

Something Else Entirely

Is there some special third direction? I can’t think of anything besides simply competing, and I think we all agree that they aren’t doing that.

But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m missing a critical piece of information. Maybe I don’t see all the pieces being placed together even as it’s happening right in front of me.

This is where you all get the opportunity to tell me: what am I missing?

What are they doing? What the hell is going on?

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Mandatory Credit: Flyers Twitter