"The devil is gone" - Philadelphia Flyers fans celebrate firing of GM Chuck Fletcher

By Ankit Kumar

Modified Mar 10, 2023 17:10 GMT

Today, the Philadelphia Flyers made an official announcement through their Twitter account about Chuck Fletcher's dismissal as the GM. His firing was anticipated due to growing discontent over how he handled the trade deadline last week.

On December 3, 2018, Fletcher was named the ninth general manager in Flyers history. For nearly three and a half years, he was a GM. Prior to being promoted to president of hockey operations and serving as an alternate governor, he served as the club's general manager at first.

Since the announcement, it appears there's been a lot of talk on the internet surrounding Fletcher. A person named Joe considered Fletcher a good hockey man but he favored his dismissal as the GM. He expects this move to be positive for the Flyers. He was not alone with such a statement, many others reacted to Fletcher's dismissal quite exuberantly. Some even called it "good riddance," while others seemed happy that he was gone.

While many have criticized Fletcher for his reckless and intangible management of the Flyers and for trading its valuable player. Some welcomed the Philadelphia Flyers' decision to appoint Daniel Brière as the Interim General Manager. He was previously the club's Special Assistant to the GM.

Philadelphia Flyers' Ex-GM Chuck Fletcher's tenure.

In December 2018, a week after the Philadelphia Flyers fired Ron Hextall as their general manager, Fletcher was brought on board. During the postseason that COVID-19 interrupted, the team finished in fourth place in the Eastern Conference and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. In Fletcher's first full season as general manager in the 2019–20 season, Philadelphia made the playoffs.

But the Flyers were never able to bounce back. Instead, over the last few seasons, the train has veered terribly off the tracks. With a 25-46-11 record the previous season, the Flyers were the fourth-worst team in the NHL. Alain Vigneault was sacked as head coach during the season, and Dave Scott (governor of the Flyers) promised to give Fletcher a "blank check" to make things right in January 2021.

The Flyers will be hiring for two different roles, according to Scott, who stated that the team will reorganize its hockey operations division by splitting the president of hockey operations and general manager positions.

The Flyers' chairman claimed in a news release that the team recognizes it will be a "multi-year process" to get back to where it wants to be: a Stanley Cup contender.