Meet John Tortorella, the real General Manager of the Philadelphia Flyers
Meet John Tortorella, GM of the Philadelphia Flyers – There’s been an ongoing debate about whether or not the Flyers are actually rebuilding. Those who believe they aren’t will say that the team has not properly committed to a rebuild as they understand it. And those who believe they are say that a rebuild does not have one strict definition, and that it can happen in a multitude of ways.
The response is generally: “it’s not a real rebuild if you don’t follow the stated blueprint.”
And the response to that is something along the lines of: “True, but we should give Daniel Briere and Keith Jones time to prove or disprove the efficacy of their unique plan. They’ve only been here for (X) months.”
The conversation generally devolves from there, but the truth is that both sides of the argument are actually half-right.
Those who say the Flyers aren’t rebuilding are correct when they suggest the Flyers aren’t following the traditional blueprint of a rebuild, but they’re wrong to say that there isn’t a plan in place that does indeed resemble a rebuild.
Those who say the Flyers are rebuilding are correct that there’s a unique plan in place that’s different from the traditional strategy that teams employed, but they’re wrong to say that Daniel Briere or Keith Jones are the progenitors of this plan.
This plan predates either Briere or Jones’ position within the Flyers. It predates Hilferty, too. In fact, this plan was first put into effect when John Tortorella was hired as head coach on June 17th, 2022.
It was John Tortorella who initially spoke the word “rebuild” into the Flyers’ lexicon.
He’s gotten a tremendous amount of credit for this, as if he was the forward-thinking visionary who recognized what needed to happen while Chuck Fletcher remained hopelessly blind.
Then-Athletic and current-PHLY writer Charlie O’Connor had this piece published on December 2nd of 2022.
By December of his very first year, Tortorella provided quotes like this:
“I love the opportunity that we have here, to build something from really the ground up,” Tortorella said. “And when you’re feeling some pain — and we’re gonna feel more pain, we’re gonna go through a lot of pain — when you start feeling that pain, do you change your thinking and panic and readjust how you’re going to go about it? That’s the important part for us in this organization. Just stay with it, no matter how much pain you’re going through, stay with it. Because when you get on the other side, that foundation is going to be strong, you’re not going to be knee-jerk and back and forth.”
Charlie wrote this, lauding Tortorella for having the vision of the team that the fans had and excoriating Chuck Fletcher for just not getting it:
“OK, Tortorella may have used the word ‘build’ instead of ‘rebuild.’ But at long last, a key figure with the Flyers is finally admitting that the situation can’t be resolved with a relatively quick fix, that they’re at the grassroots, that it’s going to be a multiple-year process to return the club to respectability.
So is it a rebuild now, Chuck Fletcher?
‘Again, there are labels,’ he responded about 45 minutes later in a separate session. ‘I think if you look at it, we have worked at some young pieces over the last few years, we’ve talked over the last couple of years about needing more high-end talent, we’ve certainly tried to address some of that through the draft. So we have certainly tried to be aggressive in adding some young talent. And we’ve tried to find a way to add some pieces here to keep us competitive. So I’m not sure what the label is for that.‘
There isn’t a label for the “middle ground” path described once again Thursday by the Flyers general manager. And that’s part of the problem.
Tortorella, to his credit, isn’t sugarcoating things. As the new face in the organization, what he sees is a situation that isn’t going to get better anytime soon, a situation that will require years of hard work to fix. In other words, he’s talking to the fans as if they’re also watching the games, and also understand a hard truth: the Flyers just don’t have the talent to compete for anything meaningful. He’s being honest with them.“
Now, is this an attack on Charlie? Am I one of the people yelling at him for various reasons online? Is this me personally excoriating Charlie, as if he wrote something wrong? No. Not at all. Charlie spoke into life the feelings of fans in 2022.
Likewise, am I defending Chuck Fletcher? Absolutely not, he needed to lose his job before that article was written.
However, people fail to appreciate the gravity of the story that was unfolding right before their eyes.
John Tortorella is ostensibly a head coach, and yet, he’s being propped up against the general manager who hired him? His own quotes are being used to bury his ostensible employer?
Why is this being tolerated by Chuck Fletcher? His head coach is specifically undermining him, and providing quotes to reporters for pieces that are used to influence his decision making. And that’s just… allowed?
If Chuck Fletcher was the ultimate decision maker, Tortorella’s employment would have ended on December 3rd of 2022. But he wasn’t. That much was made obvious with later events.
On March 11th of 2023, Charlie O’Connor wrote this piece:
The piece featured this quote:
“That said, if Brière is indeed a near-lock for one of the two jobs, it makes it even more imperative that the second position goes to a true outsider.
Not a former Flyer. Not the son of a Flyers great. Not a good friend of Clarke or Holmgren. And not someone beholden to the expectations and limitations of Flyers culture.
The old guard had its day. Old-school Flyers culture had its day.
But if ownership will take the plunge, this could be when it is finally allowed to be replaced with something new — something that just maybe, might be able to serve as the philosophical foundation for a winning team.
Because if there’s anything the last three years in particular have shown, it’s that Flyers culture and its remaining stewards cannot be relied on anymore.”
Again, Charlie breaths life into the feelings of fans everywhere with his words. At the same, he perfectly described the significance of the Flyers’ choices in who they’d hire as the next President of Hockey Operations, and General Manager.
If this is a true rebuking of the old guard, then they’ll do something different. They’ll hire someone they wouldn’t have previously thought to hire. This was an opportunity for the front office to tell us if things have changed.
They hired Keith Jones.
The President of Hockey Ops is a former Flyer, and former Flyers broadcaster. Nobody on the planet could be considered more of an insider than Keith Jones. Likewise, as Charlie admitted, Danny Brière is an insider. A former Flyer who climbed up the ranks of Comcast Spectacor.
Again, I’m not picking on Charlie. What he said was prescient. It was true then, and it’s true now. In fact, it’s more true than ever.
The Flyers confirmed that, despite their slogans like “A NEW ERA OF ORANGE,” the firing of Chuck Fletcher did not indicate a radical change in thought.
That’s because Chuck Fletcher had stopped being the general manager almost a year before he was fired. He had lost his authority on June 7th, 2022. When John Tortorella became head coach and Shadow-GM of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Daniel Brière and Keith Jones were patronage hires, yes. But they were actually the best people to carry out a job. They are the two ideal candidates to serve as figureheads, while decisions about the fate of the hockey team are made by those with real authority.
The concept of John Tortorella having decision-making authorities isn’t anything new.
In fact, as early as October 2022, there were already being pieces written about how John Tortorella is being placed at the helm of a “hard reset” for the Flyers.
What has John Tortorella done since then? Well, he’s “figured out who’s a part of it.”
In the summer of 2023, the first off-season since Tortorella was hired, there was a mass exodus as promised. Those who were not going to be part of this were indeed sent off to other teams.
- Ivan Provorov was sent to the Blue Jackets.
- Kevin Hayes was sent to the Blues.
- Tony DeAngelo was sent to the Hurricanes.
- Cutter Gauthier was sent to the Ducks.
Most of these names are people who really weren’t wanted around here to begin with, so Tortorella’s role in their departure is well publicized. Everyone uses their exodus as a feather in his cap. These are scalps the Flyers’ champion rightfully claimed.
The one interesting inclusion is the person who allegedly requested a trade for no apparent reason. William.
His departure was placed entirely on him, but I find Tortorella’s behavior where that kid is concerned to be odd. Not only does he personally want to avoid talking about him, which is fair, he’s extremely uncomfortable when you ask him about William. He sounds stressed. He sounds like someone with something to hide.
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He lashed out, lamenting that his own fans were engaging in “a bunch of bullshit.” And his tone was hardly placid. It was hard and frenetic.
Look, let’s not beat around the bush. “Cutter” is softer than butter out of the microwave. We don’t need to debate that.
So we know what Torts did, don’t we? The Shadow GM got on a zoom call with his two figureheads, and he excoriated William well past the point of professional bounds. He made it clear that someone so soft would never be “part of this.”
He made it clear that William would only be wanted if he conformed. So, he requested a trade from an organization who didn’t want him.
Since then, very few people have actually left the team. Those long-time Flyers that remain on the team will remain on the team in perpetuity. Flyers for life, because they passed the test. They’re going to be “part of it.”
“It” isn’t a rebuild, in the traditional sense.
Just as the “building” that Tortorella implied long ago wasn’t about a resurrection of a hockey team. It’s the resurrection of Flyers culture.
John Tortorella was chosen by the Alumni, the very same people whose day was hoped to be over, in order to spark new viability into their old culture.
Ivan Provorov didn’t fit into the culture. If I had to guess, it’s because he wasn’t enough of a team player. For what it’s worth, I didn’t think he was a particularly good hockey player, and don’t lament his departure.
Kevin Hayes didn’t fit into the culture either. He’s a great guy, but he’s too personable and too nice. He just isn’t “A Flyer” to the Minister of Culture.
Tony DeAngelo probably lashed out at Tortorella and suffered the consequences, but we’ll never know.
Travis Konecny is “A Flyer,” so things like his age as compared to the team’s viability to compete don’t actually matter.
Owen Tippett is “A Flyer,” so things such as the overabundance of wingers and a dearth of centers don’t actually matter.
Nick Seeler is “A Flyer,” being on the wrong side of 30 years old is immaterial. Ditto to Garnett Hathaway.
If John Tortorella thinks you’re “A Flyer,” if you perpetuate the old Flyers culture, then you have a lifetime contract. The organization functions like a mafia. They take care of their own, and they answer to nobody.
Something is being rebuilt, alright. The culture of the Flyers Mafia. The hockey team? Who gives a shit about that?
Some people see Joel Farabee as someone you can trade in order to acquire assets, or a player, in order to take a step forward in their goal of winning more hockey games. Well, bad news. Farabee is “part of the family.”
John Tortorella said as much himself: “The guy cares. His name’s being bounced around during the [trade] deadline and all this; he wants to be here. I am not going to give up on it.”
That’s right. Torts speaks for the GM. He is the GM. The one you’re not supposed to know about.
Rasmus Ristolainen has had his name “bounced around” as a candidate to be moved in a deal that would improve the hockey team’s long term outlook. Well, it’s been strongly implied by our illustrious Shadow GM that Rasmus won’t be going anywhere. In fact, he’s teeing up the next media blitzkrieg.
Did you catch it? It took me a minute to understand the full implications, too. See, nobody “hates” Risto. Especially not in the media.
As Bill Meltzer confirms, just about everyone who covers this team has nothing but good things to say about Risto’s play over 2 seasons now. And that includes me. But that isn’t the point.
The point is… if you want to trade Risto? It’s because you hate Risto.
Risto is “part of it.”
Risto is “A Flyer.”
And if you’re “A Flyer,” it doesn’t really matter if you’re on the wrong side of 30 and you could be dealt for assets to aid in building a future hockey team.
If you’re “A Flyer,” then nothing else matters. Because that’s what rebuilding the culture means. It means the Old Boys Club has a new coat of paint.
You might call it the Old Boys’… New Era of Orange.
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