After the Philadelphia Flyers finished 38-33-11 in a 2023-24 campaign where many felt they would be in the basement because of their rebuild, there has been a lot of talk about the importance of the Flyers’ culture. This has led to some non-rebuilding discussions, such as potentially extending gritty 27-year-old forward Travis Konecny to a lucrative contract, citing 30-year-old Scott Laughton as an important piece to the roster for his leadership qualities, etc.
The Flyers should value culture for their team — having winning qualities and a healthy locker room is always a good thing. At the same time, they need to look themselves in the mirror. As a rebuilder, they can’t afford to jeopardize it for a culture that, frankly, seems somewhat trivial at this stage.
Talent Will Always Be More Valuable than Culture
At the end of the day, talent wins hockey games. While the Flyers’ overachieving was likely great for their locker room and allowed the players to bond, it didn’t result in the rebuild taking a significant step forward. Individuals saw improvement in their game, but the Flyers as a whole did not have anything ground-breaking happen to them.
What Philadelphia is doing is building up its brand before it acquires talent. One of the first things general manager (GM) Danny Briere did after he was hired in Philadelphia was trade away Kevin Hayes to the St. Louis Blues, very likely because of his souring relationship with head coach John Tortorella. Traded at a sunk cost with the Flyers stuck paying half of his $7.14 million salary through 2025-26, this wasn’t exactly a move he had to make when the context was taken away.
It wasn’t the wrong move to trade Hayes, but in his case, the culture was valued more than actually building a winning core. This is highlighted by a rumor that Laughton could have been traded to the same exact team for a fortune in return per a report from Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, but Briere ultimately decided against it. Seeing as both Laughton and Hayes have had similar struggles in their past few seasons, this series of events was likely to improve the culture, and nothing else.
Briere shouldn’t be ostracized because he values culture for his team, but it got in the way of the Flyers acquiring talent to the best of their ability. Valuing winning got the Flyers nowhere in 2023-24, collapsing at the end of the season primarily due to their lack of star players. No amount of leadership or a winning past can account for this. In every single instance, getting top-end players needs to be the first order of business.
Looking Back to the Lindros Drama
While the Flyers didn’t win a Stanley Cup with captain Eric Lindros in the 1990s, he helped make them a prolonged contender. In fact, their 1996-97 team was arguably the best that the Orange and Black have assembled since the Broad Street Bullies days in the 1970s. And yet, those Lindros teams were some of the most drama-filled in the history of the franchise.
Essentially all of this drama surrounded Lindros himself. He and Rod Brind’Amour weren’t exactly the best of friends, GM Bobby Clarke treated him very harshly and even stripped him of his captaincy after he suffered a concussion, and the captain nearly died from a collapsed lung, leading to his father taking a shot at the organization and saying the team’s malpractice was intentional.
With all of that in mind, it’s safe to say those teams valued talent over culture. It didn’t win them the Stanley Cup, but they did reach the Eastern Conference Final three times from 1995-2000. This entire millennium, the Flyers have only matched that total, returning in 2004, 2008, and 2010. Despite all of the drama, it could be argued that the last time Philadelphia had sustained success was with Lindros.
Culture Can Be Built Naturally
This prior case was sort of an outlier. No, most hockey teams do not have this level of drama. However, there are still some important things to learn from both those teams and how they built their roster.
Before anything, the Flyers went for talent. They likely had no idea at the time, but trading for a future leader such as Brind’Amour killed two birds with one stone. He was ideal in the sense that he was a young, rising forward for the Blues, but he also brought an incredible level of leadership as he aged. This is something that can just come naturally.
Even when Konecny was drafted back in 2015, it was for his skill, not his locker room presence. If the Flyers don’t go out of their way to get players who can improve the vibe of their team, the personalities of the players they acquire could just mesh and result in a really positive space.
Consistent Winning Is Irrelevant to Culture
Culture doesn’t just refer to a locker room — it can refer to an organization. The idea is that winning teams are more desirable to play for, so therefore “tanking” isn’t a great method to try and build a championship team. Unfortunately, that seems to be the new wave for the top-end clubs.
The Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Chicago Blackhawks all underwent some pretty dark eras when they were building up their teams, yet have won seven of the last 10 Stanley Cups awarded. For them, culture wasn’t exactly a top priority. They got top-end players and then started to build a winning team from there.
If the Flyers regress a bit in 2024-25 and have an underwhelming record but acquire a top-end draft pick, it won’t destroy everything they have built up. It’s impossible to be good forever — there have to be lows for Philadelphia. They can’t be scared to take a step back to take two steps forward.
The Orange and Black wouldn’t necessarily be wrong to extend a player like Konecny or keep Laughton around for a little bit longer, but citing culture as the major reason for that doesn’t seem to fit the definition of what a rebuild truly is. You want likable people on your hockey team, but getting great players is far more important to start out.
