The Flyers have major problems (duh), and neither Sam Hinkie’s advice nor John Tortorella’s honesty will solve them

Now that the Flyers have officially — or unofficially, if you take general manager Chuck Fletcher at his precise wording — begun their version of “The Process,” it seemed an appropriate time to reach out to the man who popularized the term and concept to see if he might lend them any advice.

“You know me,” Sam Hinkie said in a text message the other day. “I’m not looking to make headlines.”

So much for that. Hinkie, the former 76ers GM and local pariah/savior of pro basketball, declined to comment on the Flyers and their apparent rebuilding. The word apparent is necessary here, because one never knows when the Flyers might careen from rebuilding to aggressively retooling to giving up three draft picks for Tony DeAngelo to failing to get any draft picks for unrestricted free agent James van Riemsdyk. It’s also necessary because Fletcher, in his comments to reporters Tuesday, declined to use the word rebuild, dismissing it as just “terminology.”

Sorry, but this goes beyond semantics. Fletcher’s refusal to speak plainly suggests that the Flyers are still taking a lipstick-on-a-sow approach to the task ahead of them. Using the word rebuild actually does matter, and there’s a reason that Fletcher’s referring to the Flyers as the “fifth-most-improved team” in the NHL this season infuriated so many fans.

» READ MORE: Flyers finally wave white flag, pivot toward a Sixers-like ‘Process’

People don’t want to feel like they’re being sold a bill of goods, and by ducking the hard, real language that accurately describes the state of the franchise, the Flyers are telling everyone that they don’t understand how long and difficult the road back will be. Say what you will about Hinkie and “The Process,” but the smartest thing he did was be up front: This is what we’re doing, and this is why we’re doing it. You might not like it. It might not work. But at least we’re clear about our means and goals.

The Flyers, at least publicly, are still hedging, which creates doubt that they know what they’re doing — and rightly so. If they can’t clearly articulate a plan to improve, why would anyone think they can carry out that plan? Or that they even have a plan?

John Tortorella has not had the same trouble with being direct that Fletcher has. Just Thursday, he admitted that the Flyers were open to trading Kevin Hayes by Friday afternoon’s deadline, and in an interview on 97.5 The Fanatic, he offered a frank and unsparing assessment of the franchise before and since his hiring as head coach last June.

“I think there was a ton of entitlement hanging around our locker room where, really, quite honestly, you didn’t deserve that entitlement. You didn’t deserve that stature,” he said. “I just think that when people are there a long time — players, staff, everything — there’s a sense of entitlement.

“Listen, we’re pretty much nonexistent in the National Hockey League as far as respect. We need to earn the league’s respect, and that’s about staying together, getting the right people involved in all this and doing it the right way and understanding that no one’s above anybody else, no matter how long you’ve been there: players, personnel, staff, whatever it may be. That’s some of the stuff we’re trying to weed through here.”

Tortorella’s outspoken nature and public credibility — he’s the guy with the Stanley Cup ring, after all — have created a tail-wagging-the-dog situation for the entire organization.

» READ MORE: Flyers fail to trade pending UFA James van Riemsdyk before the NHL trade deadline

Whether it has been his intent or not, as much as Fletcher and chairman Dave Scott have resisted doing the same, Tortorella has been dragging the Flyers toward acknowledging what they have been reluctant to acknowledge: that any genuine, lasting improvement they might make won’t happen overnight. Or over-month. Or over-the next year or two. He has been their primary spokesperson, which is fine for now, because Fletcher is still the GM, and the team’s fan base is so angry with and exhausted by Fletcher that its members surely welcome Tortorella’s unique brand of straightforwardness.

But it’s possible, even likely, maybe inevitable, that come the offseason, Fletcher won’t be the GM anymore. And once he’s gone, if he’s gone, what happens to the whole “Torts is the franchise face and truth teller” dynamic? Will the new general manager assume that role? And given the perceived power that Tortorella has gained in such a short time within the organization and among Flyers fans, how many and what kinds of GM candidates would be open and willing to come here?

Those questions have to be asked not only because of Tortorella, but also because of the lingering presences of several aging franchise icons.

We’re coming up on 10 years since Ed Snider declared, “We don’t need a fresh approach.” Yet the Flyers are at perhaps the low point of their 56-year history, having made no discernible progress since Snider’s flash of anger, having never figured out how to sustain success in a salary-cap league, having just had thousands of New York Rangers fans buy up the large number of available seats at the Wells Fargo Center and commence with a hostile takeover of the place Wednesday night.

Bill Barber — who was an NHL head coach for less than two full seasons and who has no team-building track record of any kind — is a senior adviser to Scott, the voice in Scott’s ear on so many hockey-related matters. Bob Clarke and Paul Holmgren are still chiming in.

And people wonder how this franchise got here.

» READ MORE: No end in sight: Why the Flyers Stanley Cup drought shows no signs of ending soon