Letter of Complaint to Paul Holmgren

Holmgren served as Assistant GM from 1999-2006.

The Flyers had until June 1st to sign many of their prospects to deals to keep them within the rights of the organization. Of those left unsigned were Joacim Eriksson, Simon Bertilsson, Nicola Riopel and David Labrecque. This cements the theory that Paul Holmgren has very little clue of how to develop talent.

It is very hard to be angry at a guy who has brought in guys like Chris Pronger and Andrej Meszaros and re-signed core players like Claude Giroux, Jeff Carter and Mike Richards. But this is getting old.

The depth in the Flyers Organization is nearing an all time low. Paul Holmgren has traded 27 draft picks in just five years since becoming general manager. Through sell on young talent and consistently neglecting the draft the Flyers prospects system has become one of the worst in the league.

A small bit of confusion was planted in Flyers fans minds when Paul Holmgren traded Micheal Ratchuk, a captain at Michigan, to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Stefan Legein, who quit hockey after being drafted. The next season he traded his top pick in the 2010 draft Michael Chaput, also to Columbus.

Even trades at the NHL level have been suspect at times. The trade that sent Scott Upshall and a 3rd round pick to Phoenix for Dan Carcillo was absolutely terrible and reared it's head to hurt the Flyers as they fell in the first round to the Pittsburgh Penguins later that year.

Once again, it is very tough to call Homer out on anything. After all, he took a tragic situation and turned it into a perennial winner. The one problem, and I'm sure I'm not alone on this, would be his constant neglect to the farm system.