Toronto Maple Leafs: Ranking All 32 NHL General Managers
By Jeff Borsuk
The 19th Ranked GM – Chuck Fletcher (Philadelphia Flyers)
Chuck Fletcher has been an executive in the NHL since 1993 and has held some type of management position for seven different NHL organizations. He became the Philadelphia Flyers GM in December of 2018. Fletcher is the son of the current Senior Advisor to the Maple Leafs, The Silver Fox Cliff Fletcher.
The Good – Chuck Fletcher clearly understands the value of a strong blue line. He has ensured that this is the backbone of his teams. Fletcher has done an excellent job in signing his defensemen. He inked Travis Sanheim to a two-year bridge deal with an AAV of $3.25M. Ivan Provorov was signed for six years with a cap hit of $6.75M, Phil Myers for three years with a $2.55M AAV, and Justin Braun for two years with a $1.8M cap hit.
The Bad – As much as Fletcher deserves credit for securing a solid defensive core, he should be questioned for backing the Brinx Truck into Kevin Hayes‘ driveway. Fletcher gave the team’s second line center $50M over seven years. That’s an AAV of $7,142,857. This season, Hayes recorded 31 points on 12 goals and 19 helpers in 55 contests.
The Ugly – The 2019 NHL Entry Draft was headlined by Jack Hughes being the first-overall pick. The Flyers had the 14th overall selection and Fletcher decided to use it on American defenseman Cameron York. It’s too early to tell whether this was a horrendous decision as there is still great hope that York can be one of the team’s cornerstone players. However, in order to draft York, they needed to pass on the best pure scorer in the draft, Cole Caufield. The Montreal Canadiens scooped up Caufield with the very next pick, much to their delight.