Time For Flyers to Oust GM Clarke

Thank you, Scott Burnside. Finally, someone is vocalizing the fact that Philadelphia Flyers GM/President Bob Clarke made mistakes in his preseason acquisitions heading into the 2005-2006 NHL season. That is precisely what he did. What makes these pickups so egregious is that Clarke added them to a team that he knew had to recalibrate itself in order to compete in the faster paced NHL.

Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje. Those are two major, long-term contracts Clarke negotiated, expending precious room in a new age of a salary cap to help the Flyers win a Stanley Cup.

Really, those two outdated defensemen? Rathje and Hatcher play exactly the style of hockey that the new rules in the NHL intended to eradicate — slow, immobile, tree-chopping hackers who beat the piss out of players that camp out in front of the net on power-plays or who whiz past them at full speed on their way to a 7-1, Game 6 rout. Clarke knew the freshly-opened ice was going to be an obstacle for these two defensemen and signed them anyway.

One can only assume that Clarke thought these weathered veterans could change their styles of play accordingly, as if it were easy to do so after already spending a decade in the league in which their mannerisms were the norm.

The Flyers' first-round playoff collapse should have been all but inevitable, especially considering the Buffalo Sabres' 110 points was the third best in the Eastern Conference and certainly some of the fastest. The Flyers couldn't keep up, literally. That's Clarke's fault — he's charged with the responsibility of making sure they can.

The only saving grace of Hatcher and Ratjhe's three- and four-year contracts is that Philly has a steady cash flow, giving them the opportunity to spend more once the cap rises*. Here's to quality moves for fewer tortoises and more hares.

Clarke is renowned for making questionable transactions in the name of building a Cup-worthy Flyers organization. Here are a few (in no particular order):

Vaclav "Vinny" Prospal and Ruslan Fedetenko — Both of them were dealt and ultimately ended up with the Tampa Bay Lightning. They both won a championship in 2004. Advantage: those guys.

Jimmy Vandermeer and Dennis Seidenberg — Vandermeer went to the Chicago Blackhawks and Seidenberg to the Phoenix Coyotes. These are two defensemen made for the new NHL. They can skate, they can pass, they can shoot (Seidenberg once registered the hardest shot in Flyers training camp when he was roughly 13-years-old**), and they can play tough.

Rod Brind'Amour — He went to the 2002 Cup Finals with the Carolina Hurricanes, who lost in five games to the Detroit Red Wings, and is the captain of this year's Hurricane roster that finished second in the Eastern Conference and is now colliding with New Jersey Devils in round two of the playoffs.

Danny Markov — In another of Clarke's notorious deadline deals in which he picks up a few players whose contracts are scheduled to expire at the end of the season in order to make a final run into the playoffs, he added Markov — a mobile, quick, and shifty defensemen who had great passing and positioning abilities. He left after one partial season. His downside, however, was he spent a significant portion of this year on the Nashville Predators' injured list.

Alexei Zhamnov — Zhamnov was acquired the same year as Markov (2003-2004) and was a great passing center who saw the ice and could easily play an off-wing on the power play, as well as center the team's second line. Zhamnov landed in Boston where he'll undoubtedly look back with regret on the recently-ended regular season.

Tony Amonte — Clarke picked him up for two seasons, maybe in hopes of agitating the chemistry once held between Amonte and Jeremy Roenick during their days in Chicago and with Team USA. Much like Markov and Zhamnov, the new NHL rules are tailored for Amonte’s method of play and allow him to test the elasticity of his twilight. He was an integral component of Philadelphia’s team that lost to the Lightening (see: Prospal and Fedetenko) in seven games in the 2003-2004 Eastern Conference Finals.

Jeremy Roenick — J.R. was a solid focal point for the Fly-guys during his tenure in Philly. He was good for consistent point production and leadership and sparking the team's momentum with big, albeit often controversial, hits. He could have flourished with the Flyers if the new rules had been implemented sooner and he not been as prone to injury as drug addicts are to theft. "Styles" (Roenick's infamous nickname/vanity plate for his Benz while in Philly) is where he belongs, though, now living the life as a flamboyant Los Angeles King.

Pavel Brendl — This guy was awful from the start, regardless of being heralded as the next big thing in the NHL. His stats speak for themselves. Since making his league debut in 2001-2002, he's put up numbers of 78 games played, with 11 goals and 11 assists for 22 points, and 16 penalty minutes. Search the AHL for some of the lost productivity that Brendl promised as a top prospect (one who refused, at the onset, to start his professional career in the minors). Brendl is the kind of player who costs scouts their jobs.

Goaltenders — Only when discussing pro sports in Philadelphia can the names Garth Snow, Roman Cechmanek, Maxim Ouellette, Brian Boucher, Sean Burke, and Robert Esche appear in the same sentence. All who have passed through the hallways of the CoreStates Spectrum, First Union Center, Wachovia Center and the myriad of other corporate takeovers that have affected the name of Philadelphia's pro rink.

Lest we be too negative, Clarke does deserve a small fragment of credit. He did rid of the concussion that was Eric Lindros, who has gone on to achieve almost nothing aside from a gold medal in the 2002 Olympics, for the reliable, speedy Kim Johnsson from the New York Rangers. Although this year was tough for the defensemen, who's battling post-concussion syndrome, Johnsson has been a steady hand on the blue line and a leader in the points column for Philly for the last few seasons, playing in every game situation. The Flyers sorely missed him this playoffs.

And with the king of all moves, Clarke did acquire the best hockey player in the entire world in the form of Peter Forsberg. Forsberg missed 20 or so games due to injuries and may have to have both ankles operated on this offseason (injuries and surgeries have plagued Forsberg since he was originally drafted by the Flyers and immediately traded to the Quebec Nordiques — now the Colorado Avalanche — for Lindros in 1991), and still managed to be the key factor in Simon Gagne and Mike Knuble having career years statistically.

Ultimately, Clarke's inability to put together a squad that has meshed nicely enough to win a Cup speaks to his poor team-building skills louder than anything in his dreary managerial history. He signs the high-profile guys seemingly without considering what type of atmosphere it will create in the locker room. Clarke is a continued source of frustration for Philadelphia fans whose only reason for not targeting their malcontented disposition towards him is that he resides comfortably near the press box, looming high above rink side, looking over as the fans boo his team, which might, in a sense, be directed towards him.

* : So many bad moves in one GM's history would almost guarantee termination with any other organization. But for Clarke, that is practically impossible due to the fact that he's one of the most prominent executives of the team, purportedly holding more stock than almost of anybody other than Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider.

** : Not really, more like 21.