UPDATE: News is official.
Paul Holmgren has done a commendable job as general manager over the last four years, according to Ed Snider and Peter Luukko, and as a result, they’ll be awarding him with a three-year contract extension later this week. That’s the report this morning from our friend Anthony SanFilippo at the Delaware County Times.
The Daily Times has learned through an organizational source that the Flyers are going to announce a three-year extension for their general manager Thursday, worth approximately $4.5 million.
That’s what an Eastern Conference championship, another Conference finals appearance and the best record in the East through the first half of this season has gotten Holmgren.
The Flyers’ brass would not comment on the possible extension and Holmgren himself could not be reached Monday night.
When it comes to on-ice results, it’s really difficult to argue with the success of Holmgren, who no doubt has turned the Flyers into a team that is not only a Cup contender, but a legitimate Cup favorite right now. This comes just four years after the Flyers finished dead last in the NHL — the same year Holmgren took the job.
But many of us who follow the Flyers closely, dissecting every move like it’s life and death, know that Holmgren’s made more than his fair share of questionable decisions. In terms of the salary cap, many of his decisions have certainly been head-scratching.
For me, it simply comes down to this. Most of Holmgren’s bad moves have been with regard to money and the salary cap, but I look at him as a hockey mind, not a finances guy. I imagine that when he wants to make a move, he goes up to his help and asks “Can we find a way to make this work?” Just about every single time, with maybe an exception or two over four seasons, they’ve made it work.
So while we’d all like to have more high draft picks and we’d all like to have more money to work with, the Flyers are still sitting pretty on the ice, and really, that’s all Paul Holmgren’s fault.
He wasn’t the GM when Mike Richards and Jeff Carter and Claude Giroux were drafted, but he did bring just about everybody else on the team to this organization, including the head coach who’s proven to be perhaps Holmgren’s best hire.
Bottom line: we all may have our gripes with Holmgren, and those all may be legitimate gripes, but at the end of the day, look where our team sits. They’re not first in the East to spite their general manager.
