Is Fletcher any good?

[Bazeek]

Ok, you win by naming one WOW. Signing BB was it for me. The rest, meh. I'm afraid I won't live out the Parise/Sutter contracts. You mentioned the Pominville trade, was that coming or going? Lol.

Coming in he was an exciting acquisition, and it held up well through his first full season with us. Even beyond that he was a very useful player for several seasons, his contract just ended up being a problem.

If we're talking about evaluating every trade, signing or draft pick with the benefit of full hindsight then yeah, my response would be more measured.

 

[Beef Invictus]

Just don't let him trade with Buffalo and everything will be fine.

Dear God.

Edit: he's an absolute trash heap by the way, completely pathetic.

 

[keppel146]

Dear God.

Edit: he's an absolute trash heap by the way, completely pathetic.

I think all wild fans were relieved he was gone when we saw that Risto trade

 

[Beef Invictus]

I think all wild fans were relieved he was gone when we saw that Risto trade

Watching him try to manage the team is as refreshing as drinking a piping hot jar of diarrhea.

 

[Tony253]

Lost most of the trades made so the cupboard was bare...Guerin has built it back up. He did draft Kaprizov, Greenway and Erickson-Ek in 2015 and Alex Tuch the year before.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

Watching him try to manage the team is as refreshing as drinking a piping hot jar of diarrhea.

lol

in retrospect, I was extremely charitable in this thread. I know the Flyers are banged up but they are awful.

Fletch's biggest issue is still that he can't tell a good player from a bad one. And an "elite" is not something he's capable of seeing. But he's also loyal to a fault (Nick Seeler is a Flyer and Mike Yeo is their coach) and got his position through his father, so never really had to earn his bona fides as an evaluator. Just a nice, reasonably smart guy with good contacts and a nice paycheck who doesn't make too many waves and will get fired one of these days and become an assistant VP of hockey ops for some other NHL team. (And a lot of teams could do worse!)

 

[Beef Invictus]

lol

in retrospect, I was extremely charitable in this thread. I know the Flyers are banged up but they are awful.

Fletch's biggest issue is still that he can't tell a good player from a bad one. And an "elite" is not something he's capable of seeing. But he's also loyal to a fault (Nick Seeler is a Flyer and Mike Yeo is their coach) and got his position through his father, so never really had to earn his bona fides as an evaluator. Just a nice, reasonably smart guy with good contacts and a nice paycheck who doesn't make too many waves and will get fired one of these days and become an assistant VP of hockey ops for some other NHL team. (And a lot of teams could do worse!)

The only reason he has this job is because he worked for Bob Clarke in Florida.

He has an obsession with playing dmen at wing.

He thinks butter is spicy.

 

[Victorious Secret]

Watching him try to manage the team is as refreshing as drinking a piping hot jar of diarrhea.

We're used to watching Minnesota. That as close as you get to attending diarrhea AA.

 

[Beef Invictus]

And is Yeo OK? That guy can't be filled with regular blood. He turns more colors than a city street puddle during games.

 

[Victorious Secret]

And is Yeo OK? That guy can't be filled with regular blood. He turns more colors than a city street puddle during games.

He's filled with blood of the Murfrees from RDR2.

 

[north21]

Sometimes you need a middle man to get you to better places. Let's not forget the good things CF did around here that let to better things.

Lost most of the trades made so the cupboard was bare...Guerin has built it back up. He did draft Kaprizov, Greenway and Erickson-Ek in 2015 and Alex Tuch the year before.

Cam you imagine this team with Tuch? Not that we have room but my god if we did. Lets just enjoy what we have and hopefully win a cup before we turn into trash again.

 

[Mickey the mouse]

Sometimes you need a middle man to get you to better places. Let's not forget the good things CF did around here that let to better things.



Cam you imagine this team with Tuch? Not that we have room but my god if we did. Lets just enjoy what we have and hopefully win a cup before we turn into trash again.

With Tuch

Without Dumba

 

[57special]

Well, over the next three years of cap hell we can reflect on the glory that was Fletcher.

 

[Circulartheory]

Didn't we have a GM between Fletcher and Guerin?

 

[Wabit]

Didn't we have a GM between Fletcher and Guerin?

Yep. He was thought to be the worst thing ever when he was here too.

 

[DANOZ28]

fletch always had a go 4 it now mentality which i think is a mistake. imo fletch is responsible for our cupboards missing 3 or 4 - 1sts & upto 8 - 2nds! i cant forgive him for the leddy trade either. is it possible he could learn from his mistakes? maybe but i doubt it. (history usually repeats itself!) i like yeo's passion whether or not the players do is another story.

 

[Wabit]

fletch always had a go 4 it now mentality which i think is a mistake. imo fletch is responsible for our cupboards missing 3 or 4 - 1sts & upto 8 - 2nds! i cant forgive him for the leddy trade either. is it possible he could learn from his mistakes? maybe but i doubt it. (history usually repeats itself!) i like yeo's passion whether or not the players do is another story.

Fletcher traded away 2 1sts. Pommer and Hanzel. Only Hanzel was a pure rental.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

Fletcher traded away 2 1sts. Pommer and Hanzel. Only Hanzel was a pure rental.

Traded two but Fletch retained the scouts who, after a mixed track record at best, made a terrible 1st round pick in 2011 (Phillips), had a rough 2012 draft outside of Dumba, kept making indefensible Q picks (Bussieres, Belanger, et al.), and ultimately made the Johansson pick in 2018. Whether you believe Fenton overruled Flahr and the guys or not, a lot of the same names who ran the table in 2004 remained on staff, delivering the same "average" results.

If Leipold stayed the course the Wild would very likely have Cam York instead of Matt Boldy, and I for one think it's good that Fletcher is gone, along with "his guys."

 

[57special]

fletch always had a go 4 it now mentality which i think is a mistake. imo fletch is responsible for our cupboards missing 3 or 4 - 1sts & upto 8 - 2nds! i cant forgive him for the leddy trade either. is it possible he could learn from his mistakes? maybe but i doubt it. (history usually repeats itself!) i like yeo's passion whether or not the players do is another story.

That didn't happen in a vacuum. Leipold was on board that train, if not the conductor. Remember, Parise and Suter, together with Koivu, and a bunch of nice prospects(MiG, Dumba, Brodin, coyle, Nino, Zucker....spurgeon and Haula were afterthoughts)were supposed to lead this team to the promised land.

 

[Wabit]

Traded two but Fletch retained the scouts who, after a mixed track record at best, made a terrible 1st round pick in 2011 (Phillips), had a rough 2012 draft outside of Dumba, kept making indefensible Q picks (Bussieres, Belanger, et al.), and ultimately made the Johansson pick in 2018. Whether you believe Fenton overruled Flahr and the guys or not, a lot of the same names who ran the table in 2004 remained on staff, delivering the same "average" results.

If Leipold stayed the course the Wild would very likely have Cam York instead of Matt Boldy, and I for one think it's good that Fletcher is gone, along with "his guys."

Scouting is mixed results for every team. Really if you look at Fletcher's scouts they are miles ahead of what VAN has done, and yet everyone is on the trust in Brackett train.

On the same note those same scouts drafted: Tuch, Kahk, JEE, Greenway, Kaprizov, Kunin, and Duhaime in a 3 year window.

 

[Saga of the Elk]

Scouting is mixed results for every team. Really if you look at Fletcher's scouts they are miles ahead of what VAN has done, and yet everyone is on the trust in Brackett train.

On the same note those same scouts drafted: Tuch, Kahk, JEE, Greenway, Kaprizov, Kunin, and Duhaime in a 3 year window.

I hear you but even the hits are mixed results (Kunin over Chychrun and Debrincat?) other than the huge home run of Kaprizov, who is here thanks to Bill Guerin and despite Fletcher.

 

[Wabit]

I hear you but even the hits are mixed results (Kunin over Chychrun and Debrincat?) other than the huge home run of Kaprizov, who is here thanks to Bill Guerin and despite Fletcher.

Guerin was just in the GM seat when Kaprizov's KHL contract ended. It could have been Fletcher, Fenton, or a random fan at the X that gets the ELC signed.

I said Chychrun when that draft was happening, but Kunin wasn't a reach or anything. MN was stocked at LD in the AHL and NHL and was short on centers. Really after Kunin and Chychrun the rest of the 1st round hasn't amounted to much. It's nowhere near the Phillips over Rakell debacle, or FJ out of left field picks.

So far that 2016 draft class has turned out to be a really weak overall. If it was redrafted today Kunin probably goes in the 15-20 range so it might not have been the perfect pick, but it wasn't a bad pick.

Cat (39oa) is too far of a reach for me to complain about not picking 15oa. Kunin has battled injury issues his entire career, so that hasn't helped.

 

[TaLoN]

I hear you but even the hits are mixed results (Kunin over Chychrun and Debrincat?) other than the huge home run of Kaprizov, who is here thanks to Bill Guerin and despite Fletcher.

Our top defensive pair of Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba.
Our best center in Ek.
The entire GREEF line for that matter...

 

[Prior]

Our top defensive pair of Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba.
Our best center in Ek.
The entire GREEF line for that matter...

Identified Spurgeon as well which was probably their best move as a front office.

I didn’t mind Fletcher. Certainly wouldn’t call him a great GM nor would I call him terrible for this franchise. During his time here he built up the prospect pool to a point it had never been before, granted we can still quibble over where those prospects eventually landed in their overall development. But that was still seen as one of the best pools in hockey. He also made the franchise relevant again. Signing the Parise and Suter deals played a role in that but it still needs to get done and I don’t know how he can account for the NHL deciding to penalize those deals in hindsight after they okayed them.

He also was always willing to make a move. Question whether it was the right move to make or they gave up the right assets but there are times you need that in your GM.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Our top defensive pair of Jonas Brodin and Matt Dumba.
Our best center in Ek.
The entire GREEF line for that matter...

Minnesota has never had an issue with drafting and developing defensive forwards and defensemen. It's the goal scorers that they have had a lot of issues drafting and then developing. I think Granlund and Zucker were the two biggest hits that Fletcher made, but that was early in his career.

From 2009-2017 when Fletcher was let go:

Kris Foucault
Jere Sallinen
Erik Haula
Anthony Hamburg
Mikael Granlund
Brett Bulmer
Johan Larsson
Jason Zucker
Dylen McKinlay
Zack Phillips
Mario Lucia
Tyler Graovac
Rphael Bussieres
Adam Gilmour
Christoph Bertschy
Louis Nanne
Kurtis Gabriel
Avery Peterson
Alex Tuch
Chase Lang
Reid Duke
Pavel Jenys
Joel Eriksson-Ek
Jordan Greenway
Kirill Kaprizov
Luke Kunin
Brandon Duhaime
Dmitry Sokolov
Ivan Lodnia
Mason Shaw
Bryce Misley
Andrei Svetlakov
Nick Sawney

That is a pretty big list of misses; and most of them never developed into top 6 forwards. Haula only developed once he was outside Minnesota and then you have Zucker, Granlund, Kaprizov - possibly Eriksson-Ek as the next guys that developed into top 9 forwards. I don't know if it was a development issue or a draft issue, but that's a lot of forwards that never really contributed to Minnesota.