Forget a rebuild label — Flyers just need to build it right

Sitting next to Chuck Fletcher for a midseason address during January, a fed-up-with-losing Dave Scott said he wanted things fixed.

"I can tell you I'm angry," the Comcast Spectacor chairman and CEO said last season. "I know our fans are more than angry and the whole organization's angry. We're sick of losing.

"We’re going to get this right. Whatever we need to do. I don’t want to wait, I want to deal with it now."

Over 10 months later, the Flyers appear to be in a different frame of mind. Maybe a somewhat slowed, more patient frame of mind. John Tortorella is now the club's head coach and he doesn't see the Flyers being a quick fix. The 64-year-old bench boss has been honest about that from the start and hasn't changed.

"I know some other things were said out here before I came in here," Tortorella said Thursday. "It hasn't changed my thinking as far as what I think needs to be done here. This team needs to be built and it needs to be built from the footers. We're not even in the foundation. We're in the footer position as far as I'm concerned, just to try to build this foundation the proper way."

So do the Flyers feel like they're now in a rebuild? Should they publicly declare it a rebuild? Does that buzz word — and the other ones — even matter?

Transparency is pivotal for an organization. Fans drive everything. They're the biggest investors and they should know the direction.

But the Flyers don't have to call it a rebuild. They just need to build it correctly and then time can take care of itself.

"They're labels," Fletcher said Thursday. "If you look at it, we have looked at some young pieces over the last few years, we've talked over the last couple of years about needing more high-end talent and we've certainly tried to address some of that in the draft.

"You always want to compete, you always want to try to be the best team you can be, but in saying that, clearly we've tried to add some young talent.

"We'll have to see who can be a part of it going forward. But it's not like we're starting without anything coming. We have a couple of good pieces here already and a couple of good pieces that I think could be here in the next year or two."

The Flyers' fan base is smart. It's immensely passionate. It'll be able to read the team's results and process.

For management, a rebuild label might not put the club in the most advantageous position.

What kind of message does it send to the roster, which is competing to be a part of the solution?

How does it impact the Flyers' ability to attract more talent?

The fact is, the Flyers just started December. The 2022-23 season is not totally lost. Why squash it before seeing it play out.

The Flyers wanted to more competitive this season. They started 7-3-2 but then fell well short of expectations with a 10-game losing streak (0-7-3).

The skid happened to come in November. The Flyers are 8-11-5 entering Saturday and could be getting healthier this month. The expectations are not the playoffs, but they never really were, at least on the outside.

"You never expect to go winless in 10," Fletcher said.

"I hope it's not a part of the process going forward anymore. We had six key forwards out. You know some nights you're going in, particularly you get to 3-on-3 overtime against some of these teams, you know it's going to be maybe a tough result if you don't have the firepower.

"So I think you expect there's going to be some situations that are difficult, but that's why we're focusing on what we can control. ... We're making progress there, we are giving up a little less now, we are defending better 5-on-5. Clearly the special teams have to get better and I think they will. Right now, we've got to focus on giving up less, playing harder and having that identity."

When the March trade deadline gets closer, everyone will know where the Flyers stand. There's a very good chance the future outweighs the present. Those decisions — and inevitable labels — aren't here yet for the Flyers.

Scott Laughton said, as a player, you're aware of those unfavorable buzz words like rebuild and retool.

"There's been a ton of outside noise about our team for a long time, probably deservedly so, of what's kind of been said out there," the 28-year-old alternate captain said Friday. "It's out of my control. I obviously want to win here, it's a special place to me. I want to be a part of something that you can be proud of and our city can be proud of."

Can those words be frustrating?

"I don't know if it's frustrating or anything like that, but I want to be a part of something here," Laughton said. "I want to help the young guys and grow into something where we're at Christmas and we're playing the right way and we're doing the right things.

"Can't listen to really what's out there. It's our group in here. We have a lot of good players that you want to try to build around and be a part of it."

Laughton, a 10-year Flyer, knows things can sometimes turn quickly in this game.

"We've got the goalie for it," he said about starting to win now. "I think we have a pretty good D core and some guys coming up. We just have to be better in all facets of our game. It's not work ethic related I don't think. It's just being smarter in our game and being able to figure out areas of the game where we're not giving teams easy looks. Kind of giving it to them.

"Don't really focus on anything else but try to get better on a day-to-day basis and doing it that way. Because it's a long year, you look at the big picture, it eats you up sometimes."

The Flyers entered this season having missed the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since 1992-93 and 1993-94. Fletcher, in his fourth full season running the Flyers, said ownership, management and the coaching staff are "all on the same page."

"I talk to Dave Scott all the time," the GM said. "We had a couple-hour meeting yesterday and talked about everything, the different possibilities that could happen as the season goes forward.

"My focus is on doing what's right for the team going forward and that's all I do."

The next three months leading up to March will be huge for the Flyers' direction and the decisions that loom.

"Just the way the numbers are starting to trend and getting a couple of guys back, I think we have a chance to be a competitive team here going forward," Fletcher said. "What that means in terms of wins and losses, I don't know, but the vibe in the room is so much different than last year.

"I talked to Scotty Laughton there on Tuesday. I said, 'Scotty, how does this compare to last year when we went through those streaks?' He said, 'Last year, particularly the second one, you just kind of knew there was really nobody coming back.' We were fractured a little bit in terms of how we were playing, you just didn't have a lot of optimism.

"They believe they can compete every night."

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