Flyers fire GM Chuck Fletcher, name Danny Briere interim replacement

The Philadelphia Flyers have fired general manager Chuck Fletcher and promoted franchise great Danny Briere to the interim job, the latest front-office shakeup for an organization that has not won a Stanley Cup since 1975.

Fletcher, who was also president of hockey operations, was fired a week after he failed to make any major moves at the trade deadline.

The Flyers, who had just one playoff berth during Fletcher's 4-½ years on the job, play Saturday in Pittsburgh. Philadelphia is 24-30-11 this season under first-year coach John Tortorella and well out of the playoff race.

Briere, who helped the Flyers to their last Stanley Cup appearance in 2010 when they lost to Chicago, is considered a rising star in the organization's front office and was promoted last year from his player development role to special assistant to the GM.

The Flyers haven't won the Stanley Cup since consecutive championships in 1974 and 1975, and have advanced to the second round only three times since that 2010 run.

"Flyers fans deserve a better team than what they've seen on the ice over the past few seasons, and a clear plan to return this team to Stanley Cup contention," Scott said. "We know that this will be a multi-year process, and we are committed to doing it right, because we want to put this franchise on a path toward winning the Stanley Cup, period."

Fletcher went all out in 2021 with a series of moves that didn't really payoff. His trade for defenceman Ryan Ellis and the free-agent signing of forward Cam Atkinson yielded nothing because of injuries, and the same happened with rich contract extensions to Joel Farabee and Sean Couturier.

Scott noted as much, saying Fletcher faced significant challenges, "including some that were outside of