Paul Holmgren, on high of getting a profitable profession as a participant for the Philadelphia Flyers, additionally served as their common supervisor (GM) from 2006-2014. Recapping a perspective on each the nice and the dangerous of his tenure as GM, the place ought to he stand in Flyers lore?
What Holmgren Did Effectively
After former GM Bob Clarke resigned following a disastrous begin to the 2006-07 season, Holmgren was thrust right into a tough place. Ultimately ending with the worst document within the league regardless of making the playoffs each season from 1994-2006, he was confronted with two choices: he may surrender on the core and rebuild or present his confidence in his gamers and construct round them. In the end choosing the latter, he arrange a enjoyable period for Flyers hockey.
Regardless of ending with the worst document within the league, the Flyers had been solely handled to the second-overall choose when the prize of the category was the most effective American gamers in NHL historical past, winger Patrick Kane. Even with that unlucky luck, Holmgren constructed his crew round forwards Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, and Simon Gagne—he was fairly profitable in doing so.
Within the 2007 offseason, Holmgren didn’t miss on a single one among his gambles. He traded only a single late first-round choose for Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timonen, immediately upgrading his top-six and buying the most effective defensemen in franchise historical past. Nonetheless, he wasn’t finished there. Signing the largest fish in free company, Danny Briere, to an eight-year deal, Holmgren reinvented the Flyers’ roster—they had been immediately shot into rivalry.
Each Carter and Richards turned stars in 2007-08, whereas Briere was a worthwhile addition to the offense. The Orange and Black clinched the postseason with 95 factors versus 56 from the season earlier than, utterly flipping the script. Within the playoffs, they went on a magical run that led to a berth within the Jap Convention Last. A crew led by a few younger gamers, the Flyers regarded like a crew that could be aggressive for years to return.
The Flyers as soon as once more made the playoffs in 2009, and that’s once they began to see the event of a younger Claude Giroux on their roster. He was one among their greatest gamers within the postseason as a 21-year-old rookie, however it wasn’t sufficient to return again to the place they had been a season earlier than. Then, the crew’s run to the Stanley Cup Last occurred, because of a splash to land future Corridor of Fame defenseman Chris Pronger within the offseason.
The Orange and Black certified for the playoffs on the final day of the 2009-10 common season, ending because the seventh seed within the Jap Convention. Overcoming the New Jersey Devils, a 3-0 sequence deficit to the Boston Bruins, and a hungry Montreal Canadiens crew, the Flyers returned to the Last for the primary time since 1997. Whereas they finally fell to the Chicago Blackhawks in a hard-fought sequence, it was an unimaginable run that made hockey in Philadelphia attention-grabbing once more.
The Flyers by no means returned to the Stanley Cup Last, however they made the playoffs in three of Holmgren’s final 4 seasons as GM. He failed at successful a championship, however he turned a moderately poor scenario into an achieved tenure. With a 307-234-73 document (.559 factors proportion) and 6 playoff appearances in eight whole seasons, Holmgren was profitable with the hand he was given. Aggressive when needed and the winner of most of his trades when it comes to a price standpoint, that’s worthy of some reward.
The Downsides of Holmgren’s Strategy
It was actually spectacular that Holmgren and the Flyers had such a fast turnaround after 2006-07, however which may have been his signal to enter a rebuild. As an alternative, he entered a retool—it restricted Philadelphia’s upside. Looking for an instantaneous answer to a myriad of points together with not having a deep sufficient prospect pool, the consequence was just some seasons of success after which a decade of the least profitable hockey in crew historical past after that.
In the long run, even Holmgren’s greatest Flyers groups had been simply not ok to compete with the juggernauts throughout that period. This primary began within the 2008 postseason when the Orange and Black went up in opposition to a younger Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin within the Jap Convention Last. Philadelphia had a 47.9 Corsi proportion (CF%), a 44.1 anticipated targets proportion (xGF%), and was outscored 14-5 at even power of their sequence with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Clearly, the 2 groups weren’t very shut—they solely grew additional aside over time, with Pittsburgh successful the Stanley Cup in 2009 partially on account of a first-round win in opposition to the Flyers.
Within the Flyers’ look within the Stanley Cup Last in 2010, they had been additionally simply not nearly as good of a crew because the Blackhawks. Not solely was that arguably Chicago’s most stacked on-paper roster of the three championships they gained from 2010-2015, however they outplayed Philadelphia, too. With a 47.5 CF%, 48.9 xGF%, and being outscored 20-16 at even power, it’s evident that the higher crew gained.
We will at all times look again and take into consideration if just a few issues modified, however the actuality is that the Flyers didn’t have the expertise required to win the Stanley Cup—they’d a worse even-strength xGF% than their opponent in all however one among their playoff sequence from 2008-2010. They did have a few nice runs, however just about every thing went proper for them to occur within the first place. For the reason that run to the Last, it has been a downward spiral for the Orange and Black even with Giroux’s emergence in 2010-11 and the crew reaching their greatest document within the common season since 2002-03. Swept within the second spherical by the Bruins, they had been nonetheless wanting being within the dialog with the NHL’s greatest.
After that sweep, that’s when Holmgren’s method received considerably unusual. Proper as Giroux was beginning to blossom into one thing, that’s when Holmgren determined to utterly alter the roster round him. Wanting again, he most likely ought to have gone all-in for the budding celebrity—Pronger and Timonen, the Flyers’ two greatest defensemen, had been each of their mid-30s coming into the 2011-12 season. As an alternative of giving Giroux a crew to win with, he opted to downgrade his roster as a substitute of improve it.
Buying and selling Richards and Carter away for a cumulative package deal that the majority notably included Jakub Voracek, Sean Couturier, Brayden Schenn, and Wayne Simmonds, you’d most likely assume that Holmgren gained this commerce on paper. Nonetheless, the Flyers had an evidently minimal window to win a Stanley Cup that utterly pale the second that deal was made. With the additional cap house, Holmgren signed goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year, $51 million contract to improve from rookie netminder Sergei Bobrovsky—we’ll get again to this later.
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Whereas the Flyers had been an important crew in 2011-12, they suffered a monumental loss that ended primarily any hope of a championship—Pronger suffered a career-ending harm. Giroux completed fourth in Hart Trophy voting and scored 14 factors in six video games within the first spherical of the postseason in opposition to the Penguins, however it was solely sufficient to delay their inevitable playoff exit—they fell to the Devils in 5 contests.
Following that playoff run, every thing fell aside for the franchise. Their brief window of alternative slipped away in a short time, with two of their solely three defensemen (Pronger and Matt Carle) with a constructive relative xGF% (xGF% Rel) in 2011-12 not enjoying one other sport for Philadelphia. Even with the continued progress of gamers like Voracek and Simmonds the next season, Giroux was unable to hold the load with among the worst goaltending within the league led by Bryzgalov who was purchased out that offseason—Bobrovsky, who was traded to make room, gained the Vezina Trophy.
The 2013-14 season was Holmgren’s final as a GM earlier than he turned President after which a Senior Advisor. He had yet one more probability to take the trace that the Flyers simply weren’t ok to compete for a title even with Giroux at his peak, however he as a substitute gave a five- and six-year contract to Vinny Lecavalier and Andrew MacDonald respectively—the previous struggled and was traded to the Los Angeles Kings, whereas the latter was purchased out. This semi-aggressive method might have been influenced by then-80-year-old proprietor Ed Snider, who earned the suitable to not oversee a rebuild—he sadly handed away in 2016. No matter who initiated the method, it didn’t set the Flyers up for future success.
As an alternative of probably being an important crew by this level, the Flyers had been mediocre at greatest. Whereas Holmgren was gone in 2014-15, his influence was nonetheless being felt. Philadelphia had no depth, no true first-pairing defensemen on their roster, and had one of many worst prospect swimming pools within the league. Ron Hextall didn’t do an important job as the subsequent GM, however he was put in a tough scenario and considerably unsurprisingly failed. He suffered from a variety of indecisiveness, however his case was not helped by his predecessor.
Whereas the reply as as to whether Holmgren was or poor GM for the Flyers is as much as perspective, there have been undeniably some positives and negatives to his tenure. Regardless that he hasn’t been the GM in a decade, the influence of his time remains to be being felt at present—Briere, who he signed, is now serving in his previous position.
