Flyers progress report: Evaluating Chuck Fletcher’s offseason moves at the halfway point

Heading into the offseason, Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher positioned the team for an “aggressive retool” of the roster after two straight disappointing seasons.

Instead, he aggressively committed to a similar-looking roster, picking up a few new pieces, keeping one homegrown player in the fold, and counting on the return of injured center Sean Couturier. With the hiring of coach John Tortorella, the season was poised to serve as an audition for the future rather than an immediate rebuild — a taboo concept for the team — or a legitimate push to be competitive now.

» READ MORE: Should the Flyers trade Ivan Provorov? Here’s what a potential deal could look like.

How have Fletcher’s moves aged now that the Flyers are past the halfway point of the season? We evaluated each of the organization’s offseason transactions based on the performance of the individual and on how they affect the organization’s plan long-term.

The most significant offseason move that Fletcher made was hiring Tortorella and giving him a four-year, $16 million contract. With 20 years of NHL head coaching experience, Tortorella arrived in Philadelphia with a reputation for taking underwhelming rosters on paper (i.e. the 2016 Columbus Blue Jackets) and turning them into playoff contenders through a defense-first philosophy.

Player signings aside, this decision screamed one thing about the impending 2023 Flyers season — this will not be a tank job in an effort to land projected No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard. The Flyers’ roster on paper is debatably worse now than it was at this time last season (no Claude Giroux or Cam Atkinson), but their record is better (17-18-7 in 2023 vs. 13-21-8 in 2022). Tortorella is squeezing the most out of some of his players, especially winger Travis Konecny. Konecny, whose career high is 61 points, is on pace for 97 points.

Midseason verdict: 👍 Tortorella is doing his job: putting the Flyers in the best position to win while figuring out which players ought to be a part of the team’s future. He also has been a positive influence on the development of young players like center Noah Cates and defenseman Cam York.

With Ryan Ellis appearing unlikely to play this season, Fletcher went out and acquired a right-shot offensive defenseman in Tony DeAngelo during the draft. He paid a premium — to acquire DeAngelo’s rights from the Carolina Hurricanes, Fletcher forked over a 2022 fourth-round pick, a 2023 third-round pick (conditional), and a 2024 second-rounder. Then he signed DeAngelo, who turned 27 in October, to a two-year, $10 million deal. That was a hefty haul of picks to stomach parting ways with for a team that could benefit in the future from young, low-cost talent.

Putting aside the cost, DeAngelo has come as advertised on the ice. He’s offensively inclined on a team in need of scoring (seven goals, 17 assists in 37 games) and has been a fixture on the Flyers’ underwhelming (albeit somewhat improved) power play as its quarterback. As expected, defense isn’t DeAngelo’s strong suit (minus-8, 37.22 expected goals against per Natural Stat Trick). But Tortorella doesn’t stand for irresponsible play with the puck, and in Sunday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, he benched DeAngelo midgame after he committed a couple of turnovers.

After spending the first half of the season on the top pairing with Provorov, DeAngelo has been moved down the lineup, splitting time between the second and third pairings.

Midseason verdict: 👎 DeAngelo’s production has been good, but the decision to trade away three picks for a player doesn’t make sense through the lens of long-term team building. At least his contract is movable if the Flyers decide they want to try to recoup some draft picks.

On the day of the Flyers’ season opener, the Flyers re-signed 26-year-old defenseman Travis Sanheim to an eight-year, $50 million contract extension ($6.25 million average annual value) that kicks in at the start of next season. Sanheim was one of the few Flyers who played consistently well over the course of last season, finishing among the top 30 defensemen in the league in even-strength points (30) while racking up the seventh-highest total of minutes (1,577), per Evolving-Hockey.

After Sanheim got off to a slow start (one goal, five assists, minus-6 in 20 games), Tortorella said in late December that he is beginning to take control of his game. Tortorella has been complimentary of Sanheim’s recent involvement in the offensive zone and has praised his partnership with DeAngelo for their shared ability to push the offense. In his last 22 games, Sanheim has three goals and seven assists and is plus-5. Overall, he’s putting up points at a similar clip (.36 points per game) as he did last season (.39 points per game).

» READ MORE: How the son of late Flyer Dmitri Tertyshny came to know the dad he never met

Midseason verdict: 👍 As the salary cap rises, Sanheim’s deal will look better when he reaches the latter stages of his career and his performance dips. It’s a leap of faith to sign any player of Sanheim’s age to a long-term deal when the Flyers’ future competitiveness and direction is a question mark, but Sanheim has started to show that he can be a good fit under Tortorella in the immediate future.

Fletcher handed out his longest-term free-agent contract in the offseason to winger Nicolas Deslauriers, a 31-year-old fourth-liner with a penchant for fighting. The deal marked the longest and most lucrative contract of Deslauriers’ 10-year NHL career at four years, $7 million ($1.75 million AAV). Fletcher justified the contract at the time by claiming that the market for Deslauriers was “aggressive” and that players like him are “are hard to find.”

The bottom line is that Deslauriers was added to make the team harder to play against in the traditional sense. Deslauriers is playing the role, leading the league in fights (eight) and penalty minutes (68). But he’s not the only tough guy on the roster — winger Zack MacEwen and defenseman Nick Seeler also have been known to drop the gloves when the opportunity arises.

Midseason verdict: 👎 Deslauriers is a role player capable of making marginal offensive contributions (two goals and five assists in 42 games). The commitment to him for four years at a relatively expensive price tag does not bode well for the team in the long term.

In a low-risk, low-reward move, Fletcher opted to bring back 35-year-old defenseman Justin Braun on a one-year, $1.75 million deal as added depth on the Flyers’ blue line. Originally slated to be on the third defensive pairing, Braun provided value during the 2021-22 season (61 games, 16 points, plus-3), filling in on the top pairing alongside Ivan Provorov with Ellis limited to four games by a pelvic injury. The Flyers were even able to flip him to the New York Rangers at the trade deadline for a 2023 third-round pick.

This season, Braun’s role on the ice has been less significant. He has split time between the second and third pairings through 33 games (no points, plus-1) and has been a healthy scratch in nine games. His average ice time has been reduced substantially from 20 minutes, 2 seconds last season to 16:12 this campaign.

Midseason verdict: 👎 He’s one of a handful of veterans on a young team and his salary-cap hit ($1 million) is a relative drop in the bucket. However, Braun isn’t the defenseman he was in the prime of his career, or even a year ago, and he can’t get in the lineup right now.

Fletcher brought nine restricted free agents back into the fold in the offseason — Wade Allison, Jackson Cates, Morgan Frost, Hayden Hodgson, Linus Högberg, Tanner Laczynski, MacEwen, Isaac Ratcliffe, and Owen Tippett. He did not extend qualifying offers to three others — forwards Matthew Strome and Maksim Sushko and goaltender Kirill Ustimenko.

Midseason verdict: 👍 With low cap hits and low terms, all of these nine signings were no-brainers. Four 2022 restricted free agents currently are making an impact on the Flyers (Allison, Frost, MacEwen, and Tippett). The Flyers’ most expensive restricted free agent, 23-year-old Tippett at two years, $3 million, also has been their most impressive of the bunch. Acquired at the trade deadline as part of the deal that sent Giroux to the Florida Panthers, Tippett has eclipsed his career high in points with 23 (13 goals, 10 assists) in 37 games and has taken strides toward solidifying an identity as a power forward in the Flyers’ top six.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Noah Cates starting to add offensive production to his responsible all-around game

Allison and MacEwen have been valuable role players in the bottom six, and Frost has shown more consistency in his offensive game over the last month (four goals, five assists in 11 games). Frost still has more to prove, but he’s on a one-year, $800,000 deal and the Flyers can part ways with him if they feel he’s no longer a good fit for the team moving forward.

Down in the AHL, 23-year-old Ratcliffe has been a disappointment with just three points in 20 games. Twenty-six-year-old Hodgson (somewhat head-scratchingly) started the season on the Flyers’ opening-night roster and was quickly demoted to the Phantoms after one game. He has three points in 23 games with the Phantoms.