The Flyers approached Friday's NHL trade deadline with basically one thing to accomplish: trade James van Riemsdyk, who is on pace for 18 goals this year and whose contract expires after this season, for literally anything. Any other move would be gravy.
Ideally they wanted to maximize van Riemsdyk's value as a veteran contributor heading towards a postseason contender, a still-capable goal scorer who could return a middle-round draft pick this year or next. But no matter what, you had to get something in exchange for a reasonably valuable piece.
Folks, they did not do that.
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The 3:00 p.m. deadline came and went, and van Riemsdyk remained on the team. After this season he will be a free agent and the Flyers could lose him for nothing.
Unsurprisingly, Flyers fans seemed to reach a breaking point with the inaction on van Riemsdyk - particularly after an apparent deal with the Red Wings materialized and subsequently fell through - and took to Twitter to voice their frustration:
Yeah, so they don't seem too happy.
It's not Chuck Fletcher's finest hour, and his four-plus year tenure as the Flyers' general manager has not been trending in the right direction. Between the baffling Shayne Gostisbehere trade, his decision to trade for and then extend Rasmus Ristolainen, the iffy Tony DeAngelo decision, and now Friday's whiff on a van Riemsdyk deal, the swings and misses are stacking up against him.
NHL
The Flyers have the third-fewest points in the Eastern Conference and eighth-fewest in the National Hockey League with 20 games left in the season. It'll be a slog to the finish line, and the organization is decidedly facing an uphill battle this offseason and over the next few years.
Yeesh.