Washington Capitals: Will the Philadelphia Flyers new philosophy be more productive?

We continue our offseason look at the Metropolitan Division rivals and how they stack up against the Washington Capitals. Next up, the Philadelphia Flyers.

At a time when the Philadelphia Flyers were predominantly experienced veterans on more expensive contracts, the team decided to move Paul Holmgren into the role of team president and hired Ron Hextall as his replacement for general manager. His primary objective was to help the team build a better farm system to develop future players, as opposed to depending on veteran free agents.

While Hextall conducted his duty as expected by building up a more envious depth chart from bottom up, he failed to produce in the way the team expected on the NHL level. After being in last place the year before around Thanksgiving and holding the same position in the standings at the start of last season the Flyers felt it was time to move in a different direction. Thus, they removed Ron Hextall as general manager of the team and replaced him with Chuck Fletcher.

New GM Fletcher wasted little time as he quickly fired coach Dave Hakstol and named Scott Gordon interim Head Coach. Now is where the narrative was due to change, with Hextall being the one to help build up the prospect pool, it was now Fletcher’s job to use any means necessary to build the team up at the NHL level.

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This started around the trade deadline with the trade of Wayne Simmonds to the Nashville Predators for Ryan Hartman and a conditional draft pick. It was clear Simmonds was going to be leaving via free agency and the team wanted to get something in return before losing him for nothing. By getting Ryan Hartman, they got a player who early in his career showed some promise but was in need of a change in scenery to try and find it again.

The real job began at the conclusion of the season when Fletcher became very busy preparing the team for the upcoming season. It started with the hiring of Alan Vigneault as the new Head Coach. And continued with a number of trades, the first all Washington Capitals know in and out at this point. The Flyers would trade for Matt Niskanen in exchange for Radko Gudas, along with covering a third of Gudas’s remaining salary for the upcoming season.

Next Fletcher traded two draft picks, which Hextall would probably not have done, to the San Jose Sharks for Justin Braun. With these two moves, he filled an immediate area of need where the Flyers were lacking for veteran right handed defensemen. They have an abundance of left handed defensemen, however all are young and gaining experience, the Flyers were in need of a veteran presence to mentor the young players.

Lastly, came the biggest move of the off-season with the trade and extension of Kevin Hayes to assume the second line center role for only a 5th round pick.

There is a common theme for all the moves Fletcher has made since becoming GM, and that’s moving away from the grittier hard nose side of hockey into a more balanced and skill driven mindset. Each of the new additions sport favorable possession numbers, Niskanen career 51.7 CF%, Braun career 50.2 CF%, and Hayes career 48.1 CF%.

The additions of Niskanen and Hayes in particular depicts the new mindset, both players exhibit good offensive skills but don’t give up defense solely for the pursuit of scoring. With Braun the Flyers got a defensive defenseman who will help free up the young offensive minded defensemen, while mentoring them in the other side of the puck. Will these moves make them more competitive against the Washington Capitals?

If you look at the matchups from last season, the Capitals used their size and grit to impose their game plan onto the Flyers almost at will. The only saving grace for the Flyers in these matchups were a faster younger team, which would at times make the Capitals appear much slower. For the season the Capitals were 4-0 against the Flyers, all decisive win. The largest factor in those losses was a lack of defense and grit to the Flyers game.

In response to this, they have moved away from two of the toughest players they have employed recently in Gudas and Simmonds. The Flyers are banking on a resurgence from Niskanen, an increased defensive responsibility through Braun and a balanced approach from Hayes to offset the issues which hindered the team last year. Even though we as Capitals fans owe so much to the contributions Matt Niskanen provided the team on the way to their first ever Stanley Cup, I believe the Capitals came our ahead on the trade. Both in the sense of freeing up valuable cap space to be directed later next year, and a younger defenseman who is more on the rise as opposed to in a decline as Niskanen has been in over the last few seasons.

Next. Predicting the Capitals 20-goal scorers. dark

Another key factor in how the Flyers will fare against the Metropolitan Division will be the affect of new Head Coach Vigneault, who has had success in previous stops. In his previous head coaching positions, with the Vancouver Canucks and the New York Rangers, he helped increase the teams possession numbers and developed the teams youth into a viable core. His philosophy thrives on the cycle game which plays well into the speed the Flyers possess. The biggest question entering the new season will be how well the new Flyers built more on speed and possession will fare against an opponent equipped with a heavy lineup bent on improving team defense overall. Below are the dates we will get to find the answer:

2019-2020 Season Matchups:

Wednesday Nov. 13th @ PHI

Wednesday Jan. 8th @ PHI

Saturday Feb. 8th @ Home

Wednesday Mar. 4th @ Home

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