The Philadelphia Flyers are moving in a new direction. The team announced Friday morning that they are parting ways president and general manager Chuck Fletcher.
In coordination with the firing of Fletcher, former Flyers forward Danny Briere will serve as the team’s general manager on an interim basis.
“This morning, we released Chuck Fletcher from his President and General Manager responsibilities,” Dave Scott, Chairman of Comcast Spectacor and Governor of the Flyers, said in a press release. “We are grateful for his hard work and dedication to this organization, and we wish him nothing but the best moving forward. Chuck faced significant challenges during his time as President and General Manager, including some that were outside of his control, but we have reached a point at which we must move in a different direction and look to the future under new leadership.”
According to the release, Briere will oversee the hockey operations department after previously serving as a Special Assistant to the General Manager over the past year. Briere also played for the Flyers for six seasons after signing with the team in the 2007 offseason.
“Flyers fans deserve a better team than what they’ve seen on the ice over the past few seasons, and a clear plan to return this team to Stanley Cup contention,” the statement continued. “We know that this will be a multi-year process, and we are committed to doing it right, because we want to put this franchise on a path toward winning the Stanley Cup, period.”
During Fletcher’s tenure with the franchise, the Flyers put together a 141-145-48 record. Philadelphia currently sits in seventh place in the eight-team Metropolitan Division with just a 24-30-11 mark (59 points).
While Fletcher was at the helm, the Flyers reached the postseason once in four campaigns, with the only time coming in the 2019-20 season. The Flyers were eliminated by the New York Islanders in the Second Round in seven games while the NHL held the playoffs in a bubble due to COVID-19.
There were several questionable moves put into motion by Fletcher during his time as general manager. During the 2022 offseason, the Flyers acquired defenseman Tony DeAngelo from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for three draft picks and immediately signed him to a two-year, $10 million contract extension. DeAngelo has has 10 goals and 24 assists with a -28 rating and has been benched on multiple occasions by head coach John Tortorella this season.
Leading up to last Friday’s trade deadline, Fletcher failed to make any significant moves, including choosing not to trade veteran forward James van Riemsdyk. Van Riemsdyk is slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
