Ed Snider flew out to his home in Santa Barbara after Saturday’s Flyers season-finale loss to the playoff-bound Ottawa Senators.
“It was a disappointing season,” the Flyers’ chairman told CSNPhilly.com on Monday. “My reaction is we are where we are and Hexy has to do what’s necessary to improve our team.”
General manager Ron Hextall said last week he will need several weeks to evaluate every aspect of the Flyers and even the coaching staff.
Snider didn’t waver from his usual position of not commenting directly about certain players or even giving coach Craig Berube a vote of confidence to fulfill the final year of his contract next season.
“I don’t take a position on those kind of things. Ever,” Snider said of Berube.
What Snider did say, however, was that he wants Hextall to determine whether the organization has misjudged the talent level and whether it needs upgrading.
Did this group underachieve?
NHL
“Anybody that is a fan or knows the team, knows we need more than what we have,” Snider said. “I’m not sure whether we underachieved because it’s two years out of three we didn’t make the playoffs.
“So we got to look in the mirror and say, ‘do we feel we have more talent than we actually have?’ This is what Hexy has [to do]. He is very studious and has evaluated all year. He’ll be evaluating every, single day with the players. You ought to ask him that question.”
Hextall will address the media later this week.
“I got a lot of faith in what [Hextall] is going to do,” Snider added. “We spent many, many long hours together talking about his plans and quite frankly, I’m a believer.”
Snider hopes Hextall can figure out why the Flyers were such a poor road club, why their penalty kill was awful on the road and good at home, and why the team went 12-2-4 against playoff opponents down the stretch yet lost 12 consecutive games against non-playoff teams.
“It’s a mystery to me,” Snider said of the above. “Why is it that at home, we had a good penalty kill and on the road we didn’t? That’s the thing. These are very difficult things to analyze and Hexy is working night and day to analyze them and figure out the cause. You ask me the cause and I don’t know.
“I have the same thought as you had like why were so good on the penalty kill at home, so bad on the road? Why were we good against good teams and bad against bad teams? I’ve never seen that before.”
Snider said he likes the core nucleus of the Flyers.
“I’m thrilled we have what we consider is a No. 1 goaltender [Steve Mason],” Snider said. “Thrilled that we have guys like [Claude] Giroux, [Jakub] Voracek and [Wayne] Simmonds to build around. And I’m looking to see progress on some of the players who didn’t have the seasons we hoped they have.”
The Flyers need to seriously question whether some players — Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier and Matt Read — have that next level in them or whether the kind of recent seasons they’ve had demonstrates there is a plateau here.
“That’s exactly the kind of things Hextall has to determine,” Snider said. “It’s a very difficult thing. It’s one thing to say what you think someone can be and it’s another thing for them to be it. You can’t say they should do this or that. They are who they are. They accomplish what they accomplish.
“I don’t necessarily agree with you, but we all know Matt Read had an off-year and players have that from time to time. Why? All those things have to be evaluated by Hextall and decide what it all means.”
The Flyers need more high-end scoring at left wing. Snider said that doesn’t necessarily mean they need to sign someone in free agency and suggested they may have the answer right in front of them.
“I look at a kid like [Michael] Raffl,” Snider said. “Where did he get his [21] goals from? He was all over the lineup and he got 20 goals. What’s his upside? I don’t know?
“Think in terms that he also came in as a free agent, an unknown player and the progress he made. We might not need some specific things because of what he might accomplish. It’s a big puzzle. That’s why Hextall gets the big bucks.”
Interestingly, Hextall does not feel the Flyers’ window is closing quickly on them, even though their average age is 28 and some core players, such as Giroux, have already turned 27.
“No. Nope,” Snider said. “You need a mix of ages. You need veterans. You can’t win without veterans who can calm things down at the right time. Getting teams through the ways. You got to have a really good mix.”