Three games. Yeah, it’s obvious the Flyers have a ton of problems. But, like the Phillies, this is more the GM’s fault than the coach’s. In three years, Paul Holmgren has (this might become a run-on sentence) traded the captain and leading scorer from a Stanley Cup team, overpaid for a goalie and then traded his backup who went on to win the Vezina and replaced him with his mediocre backup, traded a promising young forward who had just been given a long-term contract, missed on signing big name free agents, and, with no plan B, settled on giving mid-30s players too-long contracts all while extending Zac Rinaldo and Jay Rosehill because, yeah, THEY’RE IMPORTANT.

Meanwhile, the young forwards that were supposed to be sooo promising haven’t exactly done anything yet (except for Jake Voracek), meaning that the Flyers have traded away very legitimate all-stars and missed out on even more legitimate all-stars, and are instead left with a concerning mix of slow-to-develop youngsters who just got their coach fired.

…

This team has an aging, terrible defense, no natural goal scorers (BUT HEY LET’S OVERPAY SCOTT HARTNELL!), and a goaltending situation that couldn’t have been mishandled any more than it was the last few years.

The one issue that needed to be addressed from successful teams in 2010 and 2011 was the impending demise of Chris Pronger. But nope, instead the Flyers jettisoned half of their forwards, signed Bryzgalov, traded Bob, and failed to land any of their target free agents. Solution? FIRE THE COACH.

…

So now, the Flyers are going to bring in another made man, a goon in the typical Flyers mold, to coach a team made, not surprisingly, in the typical Flyers mold. And Ron Hextall will be the GM by Christmas, thus completing the cycle.

No idea if Berube will be a good coach or not, but this team is laughingly predictable.

Now Simon Gagne and Holmgren are word-fighting over the Flyers’ (correct) decision not to offer Gagne a contract.

From the fan site – not Gagne’s official site, by any stretch – SimonGagne.com comes the translation of this French LaPresse.ca report:

“All summer, the Philadelphia Flyers kept hinting that they wanted to offer me a new contract and I even told Robert Sauvé, my agent, not to negotiate with other teams,” said Gagné. “We trusted them. We put all our eggs in one basket and we got caught. We never thought we’d be stuck in this situation at this time of the year…”

Gagné kept hoping to return with the Flyers up until recently. “When I heard [Tuesday] that they had given a contract to Dan Cleary, it was like a slap in the face. I’m disappointed. I knew that hockey was a business, but with all the positive discussions we had with the GM Paul Holmgren, I can’t believe I’m not back with them.”

Ouch.

Here’s yet another example of Holmgren angering a player or agent with his negotiating tactics. The decision not to re-sign the 33-year-old, oft-injured Gagne was the right one (-ducks– as the Type OBs hurl signed copies of old Flyer magazines at me), but, again, a player or agent is coming forward after feeling burned by Holmgren. Add Gagne to a list that includes Jeff Carter, Ilya Bryzgalov and Dan Cleary as players that were, to at least some degree, misled by Holmgren.

Gagne, especially, seems like a weird candidate seeing as though he’s widely viewed as a lifer in Flyer circles and was given another chance to wear the OB last season by Holmgren.

Holmgren, of course, had a glib response to Gagne’s comments:

“We discussed it, and it didn’t work out,” Holmgren said of offering a tryout contract to Gagne.

The Flyers could not offer Gagne a regular contract because they currently don’t have cap room.

After Cleary turned down the Flyers, Holmgren said, he decided to have the young players in the organization battle for a forward opening.

There comes a point where it’s just a business becomes the foundation upon which bad business is built. Not only has Holmgren made terrible, contradictory decisions over the past few seasons, mismanaged the Flyers to a lousy cap position and guided them out of the playoffs, but he’s also pissed off some very household names in the sport. Rarely do you hear so many players complain about misleading negotiations and other supposed guarantees. It’s now a pattern for the Flyers. And how Paul Holmgren still has a job is mind-boggling to me. He’s seemingly failing at every facet of his job except for the one that calls for him to sustain a organization tradition of never taking the long view. I mean, he made two good decisions this week, and he even mismanaged those.

His dealings with players and their agents are akin to what I would imagine it’s like when Greased Up Deaf Guy tries to fuck a football. Got it. Wait… no. There it… is. Not going to trade you. Uh oh. Slipping. Ahhhgahhhhhhh. See you all next yearrrr!

First, there was Holmgren telling Jeff Carter’s agent that Carter wouldn’t be traded. And then he traded Carter.

And then there was Holmgren telling Ilya Bryzgalov’s agent that the Flyers had no intention of buying out Bryzgalov. And then they bought out Bryzgalov.

Holmgren’s dickishness seems to go well beyond posturing and into the realm of the type of self-serving that severs business relationships.

The latest example of this communication issue comes today with the news that Dan Cleary will not report to camp he will report to camp he might report to camp oh holy shit who cares he’s a marginal player.

Here’s the timeline of the supposed acquisition of Cleary, who is about as inconsequential as it comes and we’re only talking about him because he’s a football, which Paul Holmgren may be trying to fuck:

Late Monday night: Flyers reportedly agree to a (ludicrous) three-year deal with the 34-year-old left winger. The deal won’t be finalized until the end of September because, predictably, Holmgren has the Flyers currently over the cap.

Tuesday: Holmgren laughs at your reporting, saying that “there are no promises.” Cleary will get a training camp tryout and nothing more.

Wednesday: There is a report that there is “some complication” between Cleary and the Flyers and that he won’t report to camp.

Later on Wednesday: Holmgren still expects Cleary to report to camp on Thursday– “until I hear it from the horse’s mouth.”

What we have here, again, is a failure to communicate.

It seems as though one of two things happened: Either A) Cleary thought he and the Flyers had agreed on a contract, but, because agreements with the Flyers aren’t really agreements unless they are notarized by Jesus Christ off the cross, they didn’t, and Cleary backed out, scorned and hurt by the fact that Holmgren said such an asshole thing like, “there are no promises.” Or B) there was never an agreement on a long-term deal and Cleary, facing a possible injury during camp, decided he might be able to find one elsewhere.

Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press seemed confident in the initial report, but did mention that Cleary’s leaving Detroit came down to numbers. So, it’s entirely possible that the Red Wings and Cleary were able to find a way that it might work and Cleary has decided to hold off on coming to the Flyers.

It’s also entirely possible that Holmgren is an idiot.

Either way, the Flyers may have saved themselves from another silly contract.