I've noticed a lot of hate and vitriol thrown at Claude Giroux this off-season, especially after the extension given to Sean Couturier. I'm not absolving him from blame because the Flyers haven't had much success under his captaincy but the hate that he receives is definitely misdirected. I am aware that this will instil some backlash and negative feedback but I think the bigger picture always gets lost when discussing Claude Giroux's tenure in Philadelphia.
An argument can be made that no player is more polarizing amongst the fanbase in Philadelphia than Claude Giroux. Ben Simmons has had a rough summer but Claude Giroux has been dealing with the brunt of the fanbase for much longer. Giroux is the longest tenured captain in Flyers history, the leader in some categories and soon-to-be leader in others, and is the longest tenured player in Philadelphia sports at the moment.
His game has been in question for years largely because of how unsuccessful the Philadelphia Flyers have been under his captaincy. This could very well be one of the worst stretches in franchise history for a team that has made the playoffs 40 times in 53 seasons. Since the 2011-12 season they have alternated between making and missing the playoffs, becoming the first sports team in North American to accomplish that feat.
The argument from those against Giroux revolves around team success and the lack thereof. Since becoming the captain, the Flyers started spinning out of control. Only a few years removed from their surprise run to the Stanley Cup Finals, the roster had been uprooted and was supposed to revolve around Giroux and James van Riemsdyk.
The Flyers have been missing the playoffs and playing poor hockey every other year and even when they are making the playoffs, Giroux and company go out quietly. In his last 3 playoff appearances, Giroux has been shutdown time and time again, while only registering 14 points in his last 28 games.
On the surface those are terrible numbers and he should be held accountable for his performances. However, what people fail to remember or understand is that the team surrounding Giroux has never been up to par. He's had 5 different head coaches, 3 different general managers, and a revolving door of line-mates since 2013-14, who were either non-existent or couldn't find the back of the net consistently.
The moniker of being the "best player in the world" has never been forgotten by a large faction of fans. Peter Laviolette uttered that phrase after the Flyers eliminated the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2012 Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals. He was outstanding and helped the Flyers pull off the upset against the venerable Pittsburgh Penguins. Something his coach had uttered after a huge win, most likely fuelled and filled with adrenaline, has never left the player to this day.
The Giroux argument that gets brought up a lot is how consistent he's been since the 2010s. He's fourth in the league in that time for points, trailing only Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby, and Alex Ovechkin. An impressive feat and list to be a part of, even if he's played more games than the other 3. Let's not forget that Crosby, Kane, and Ovechkin are former first overall picks, who had the pre-draft hype of being generational and franchise altering players.
Giroux never had that title, in fact the Flyers wanted Trevor Lewis (not Bobby Sanguinetti as we initially thought) in the 2008 draft but Ron Hextall and the Los Angeles Kings beat the Flyers to the punch. He was seen as a small player with offensive capabilities but wouldn't be able to fully translate that onto the big stage. Had the Flyers given Giroux a steady and consistent supporting cast, playoff success would have followed.
Due to being on that list with Crosby, Kane, and Ovechkin, Giroux will be compared to them every time it's brought up. The biggest difference between the 4 players is that Giroux is the only one without a cup. Patrick Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks won 3 Stanley Cups from 2009-10 to 2014-15. Sidney Crosby equalled Kane's number after successfully leading the Penguins to back to back cups in 2015-16 and 2016-17. It took Ovechkin nearly 15 years but he won his first and only cup in 2017-18. Meanwhile, Giroux and the Flyers couldn't get out of the first round of playoffs from 2012-13 to 2018-19.
Teams win championships, not individuals. We are not taking anything away from Crosby, Kane, or Ovechkin but they wouldn't have been able to win a Stanley Cup without a stacked core and a deep roster. Even looking back at any of the previous champions, it is clearly evident that the Flyers have never had a team as deep, balanced, or stacked.
Crosby has had Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang since 2006-07 and along the way has had a great supporting cast which has included players like James Neal, Phil Kessel, and Jake Guentzel. Marc Andre-Fleury was great in net for a very long time and even though they never had an elite defenseman (outside of Letang), they had a good group of defensemen. Since 2013-14 they only finished outside of the top 15 in goals against average once.
Patrick Kane and the Chicago Blackhawks have had two different runs since 2013-14. In their first 3-4 years they had a deep team that was always contending for the cup with Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp, Duncan Keith, and Brent Seabrook. Corey Crawford was a staple in net and the Hawks could rely on Keith, Seabrook, and Niklas Hjalmarsson for at least 22 minutes a night. The latter half hasn't been as forgiving as the Hawks descended into a rebuild.
Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals held onto their core for a very long time. Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and TJ Oshie have been together for well over 400 games. The Capitals have been one of the most consistent regular season teams in the NHL, as they're always at the top of the standings and goals/offense.
The Flyers on the other hand have not had many consistent scorers since 2013-14. Outside of Giroux, only Jakub Voracek put up good numbers alongside the captain. Brayden Schenn had back to back 25 goal seasons before being shipped off to St.Louis but his 5 on 5 game was never consistent. Wayne Simmonds could only really find success on the power play, and it took Sean Couturier several years to finally develop into the offensive weapon he is today.
The tables below illustrate the core of each team that Giroux gets compared to (Crosby and the Penguins, Ovechkin and the Capitals, and Kane and the Blackhawks) and how they've performed since 2013-14.
Points since 2013-14:
Pittsburgh Penguins
| Player | Games Played | Points |
| Sidney Crosby | 569 | 660 |
| Evgeni Malkin | 482 | 544 |
| Kris Letang | 478 | 373 |
| Phil Kessel | 328 | 303 |
| Patric Hornqvist | 407 | 264 |
| Jake Guentzel | 299 | 257 |
| Bryan Rust | 364 | 212 |
| Chris Kunitz | 303 | 177 |
| Average: 404 | Average: 349 |
Washington Capitals
| Player | Games Played | Points |
| Alex Ovechkin | 596 | 585 |
| Nicklas Backstrom | 598 | 565 |
| John Carlson | 575 | 425 |
| Evgeni Kuznetsov | 520 | 418 |
| TJ Oshie | 413 | 300 |
| Tom Wilson | 569 | 221 |
| Marcus Johansson | 318 | 195 |
| Matt Niskanen | 390 | 156 |
| Justin Williams | 162 | 100 |
| Average: 460 | Average: 329 |
Chicago Blackhawks
| Player | Games Played | Points |
| Patrick Kane | 583 | 664 |
| Jonathan Toews | 535 | 443 |
| Duncan Keith | 585 | 316 |
| Alex DeBrincat | 286 | 229 |
| Brent Seabrook | 515 | 218 |
| Brandon Saad | 380 | 214 |
| Marian Hossa | 291 | 199 |
| Artemi Pazarın | 162 | 151 |
| Partrick Sharp | 150 | 121 |
| Average: 387 | Average: 283 |
Philadelphia Flyers
| Player | Games Played | Points |
| Claude Giroux | 610 | 567 |
| Jakub Voracek | 601 | 509 |
| Sean Couturier | 569 | 401 |
| Wayne Simmonds | 457 | 297 |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | 381 | 219 |
| Travis Konecny | 349 | 219 |
| Brayden Schenn | 323 | 202 |
| Matt Read | 437 | 187 |
| Ivan Provorov | 371 | 159 |
| Average: 455 | Average: 306 |
The offensive numbers from each team gets boosted by their best player but for the most part the core that has surrounded the Capitals, Penguins, and Blackhawks have performed admirably in their short stints. Winning Stanley Cups and constantly contending means they've all had to deal with a cap crunch at some point. Gutting out core players after winning a cup is just business.
For the Flyers, the numbers outside of Giroux and Voracek are not close to evening out with the rest. The two stars did as much as they could individually for their teams but the rest of the lineup was never up to task. Things got especially bad when Ron Hextall took over as general manager because his rebuild cut into Giroux's prime. They made the playoffs a few times during his tenure but it was evident that Giroux dragged the team in.
Goals per game rankings since 2013-14:
| Team | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 |
| PIT | 5th | 18th | 3rd | 1st | 4th | 6th | 13th | 2nd |
| WSH | 11th | 6th | 2nd | 3rd | 9th | 5th | 2nd | 3rd |
| CHI | 1st | 4th | 9th | 9th | 22nd | 8th | 18th | 16th |
| PHI | 9th | 22nd | 22nd | 20th | 13th | 17th | 6th | 15th |
Goals against per game since 2013-14:
| Team | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 |
| PIT | 8th | 9th | 6th | 17th | 20th | 14th | 10th | 13th |
| WSH | 22nd | 6th | 2nd | 1st | 15th | 17th | 15th | 17th |
| CHI | 13th | 1st | 10th | 10th | 22nd | 30th | 21st | 24th |
| PHI | 20th | 24th | 15th | 18th | 16th | 29th | 10th | 31st |
These two tables illustrate the team aspect of the game. It's often forgotten that team's win championships when talking about how good an individual player has been. The Flyers offense has never been deadly, outside of 2019-20, which makes Giroux's numbers stand out even more. To be able to score the 4th most points since 2010 and score 567 points in 610 games since 2013-14, is astronomically impressive.
The Flyers defense and goaltending, as you can see, has always been the achilles heal for their success. Only having one top 10 finish and barely cracking the middle of the pack in 8 years, makes it very tough to win games and to contend for a playoff spot. The years the Flyers did make the playoffs, their goals against rank was 20th, 15th, 16th, and 10th respectively
Even so, the Flyers offense was never particularly that good either. The years they made the playoffs, their ranks were 9th, 22nd, 13th, and 6th amongst the league. Their offense was just good enough to help them make the playoffs. In those years Giroux had seasons of 86, 67, 102, and 53 points in 82, 76, 82, and 69 games respectively.
The Penguins and Capitals have had bad years when it comes to goal prevention but their offense has been so elite that they were able to combat those issues. The Penguins haven't missed the playoffs since 2005-06 and the Capitals have only missed the playoffs once since 2006-07. Kane seems to be the outlier of the 3, where even when the team is struggling and barely winning, he is producing at an elite level, which goes back to his generational talent tag pre-draft. However, it's understood that even with his numbers being so good, the Blackhawks will struggle and barely any blame gets thrown upon him.
Divisional rankings since 2013-14:
| Team | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 |
| PIT | 1st | 4th | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 3rd | 3rd | 1st |
| WSH | 5th | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 2nd |
| CHI | 3rd | 3rd | 3rd | 1st | 7th | 6th | 7th | 6th |
| PHI | 3rd | 6th | 5th | 6th | 3rd | 6th | 2nd | 6th |
The previous tables illustrated the core players and their performances, as well as the team's offensive and defensive outputs. It brings way to their divisional success or lack thereof for some teams.
The Penguins, Capitals, and partially the Blackhawks, have been able to put together some extremely successful seasons. The Capitals have either placed first or tied for first in the division since 2015-16. The Penguins have been hovering in the top 3 for all but one season and the Blackhawks, up until 2016-17, never finished below third place. The Flyers however, have seemingly been alternating between 3rd and 6th every season, outside of the lone outlier in 2019-20.
Taking their individual numbers to the side, team success is the biggest driving force as to why Crosby, Ovechkin, and Kane have cups to their names and playoff wins under their belts. Everyone knows the greatness they possess but if you don't have help, you're not going anywhere; Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews being good examples.
Defense:
| Team | Defensemen Averaging 20+ Minutes in a Season |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Kris Letang Paul Martin Brooks Orpik Matt Niskanen Christian Ehrhoff Trevor Daley Brian Dumoulin Justin Schultz John Marino |
| Washington Capitals | Mike Green John Carlson Karl Alzner Brooks Orpik Kevin Shattenkirk Dmitry Orlov |
| Chicago Blackhawks | Duncan Keith Brent Seabrook Niklas Hjalmarsson Johnny Oduya Trevor van Riemsdyk Jordan Oesterle Erik Gustafsson Connor Murphy |
| Philadelphia Flyers | Braydon Coburn Mark Streit Andrew MacDonald Kimmo Timonen Michael Del Zotto Shayne Gostisbehere Ivan Provorov Matt Niskanen Travis Sanheim |
Team defense is as important as offense and it's been one of the biggest problems for any Flyers team since 2009-10. Under Craig Berube and Dave Hakstol, the Flyers employed some ghastly defences.
In 2014-15 the Flyers rolled with Mark Street, Nick Schultz, Luke Schenn, Andrew MacDonald, Nicklas Grossmann, and Michael Del Zotto for 60+ games. In 2015-16 they had Streit, Schultz, Schenn, MacDonald, and Del Zotto once more but they also played Evgeny Medvedev, Radko Gudas, and Brandon Manning. They had nearly the same defense the following year, and the years that followed weren't far off either.
They haven't had a legitimate number one defenseman in a long time. Streit had his moment but his age and injuries caught up to him. However, playing with defensemen who brought his game down doesn't help either. Giving players like MacDonald, Manning, Gudas, Schultz, and Del Zotto big minutes, sometimes 21+ minutes, is a recipe for disaster. However somehow Giroux was able to bring some of these teams to the playoffs. They faced their fate every time because the playoffs are no place for a defensive corps like the ones previously mentioned.
The Capitals, Penguins, and Blackhawks had their fair share of defensive issues whenever they were contending but they always had at least one defensive pair that was rock solid and you could count on for big minutes, especially in the playoffs. It's a problem when Del Zotto (23:25 in 2015-16) and Streit are almost matching Keith or Letang in ice time.
Goaltenders since 2013-14:
| Team | Goaltenders Playing 25+ Games |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Marc Andre-Fleury Matt Murray Tristan Jarry Casey DeSmith |
| Washington Capitals | Braden Holtby Philipp Grubauer Pheonix Copley Ilya Samsonov Vitek Vanecek |
| Chicago Blackhawks | Corey Crawford Antti Raanta Scott Darling Anton Forsberg Cam Ward Robin Lehner Kevin Lankinen |
| Philadelphia Flyers | Steve Mason Ray Emery Michal Neuvirth Brian Elliott Carter Hart |
Without a stable goaltender or goaltending tandem, it's going to be damn near impossible to win a Stanley Cup. Sometimes all you need is one strong post-season (Jordan Binnington) but the Capitals, Penguins, and Blackhawks have generally had consistent goaltending.
For the Blackhawks it's not been the case recently but whenever they were contending, Corey Crawford was lights out. Marc Andre Fleury spent 12 seasons in Pittsburgh, making the playoffs in all but one, and winning 2 Stanley Cups. Same goes for Braden Holtby as he spent 10 seasons in Washington and had some Vezina-like seasons.
The Flyers had decent to good goaltending at times, especially when Steve Mason was at the helm. However, the team in front of him couldn't stop the opposition, couldn't score goals, and the defense was non-existent. Michal Neuvirth and Brian Elliott were a decent tandem as well but could never stay healthy. Add the injuries onto the swiss-cheese-like defense and it's no surprise the Flyers could barely make the playoffs, even with Giroux producing year in and year out.
A picture gets painted of Giroux that his individual numbers don't matter because of the team success. Part of that can be true but looking at the team that was he given and the neglect from his management in helping him during his prime, Giroux shouldn't be getting as much hate and vitriol as he's getting.
That's the territory with being the best player on your team but when you barely have a competent team around you, what is to be expected? He should never have been compared to Crosby in the first place. Laviolette was so overjoyed with their series win that he ended up casting a dark cloud over the rest of Giroux's career.
Crosby, Kane, and Ovechkin are superior players and everyone knows that. Giroux is a great player but he was never supposed to be a generational/franchise altering talent. He exceeded expectations and followed up on his great junior numbers with consistently good NHL production. Ovechkin had Backstrom and Kane had Toews, that's not even mentioning power play units that would've included players like Kuznetsov, Carlson, Oshie, Green, Hossa, Keith, Sharp, Panarin, and DeBrincat.
On top of that, their defences and goaltending proved to be just as helpful when it mattered, while the Flyers could barely keep the puck out of their net. When MacDonald, Manning, Schenn, Del Zotto, and Gudas are your big minute munching defensemen with goalies made out of glass behind them, there's only so much the offense can do.
Giroux has done as much as he could with the teams given to him and whenever they made the playoffs, they had no right in even making it. They got exposed come playoff time and the games and series' weren't even close. His playoff numbers have been bad since 2011-12 but when the other team only has to focus on one line, it makes the shutdown job that much easier for the opposition.
Giroux will never get the respect that he thoroughly deserves and it's becoming more and more evident as the days go by. His contract expires in the summer of 2022 and the Flyers definitely have a decision on their hands. Chuck Fletcher and company just extended Sean Couturier to an 8 year deal and shortly after said they're going to wait for the season to end to start negotiating with Giroux (something he wants as well).
He'll be 34 in January and his best seasons are most likely behind him but he can still be the team's top point producer. He was tied with van Riemsdyk and Voracek for the team lead last year and should be back at the top this year alongside Couturier. He won't command as much money as he's currently making, which should make the extension that much easier to offer.
It's clear from his on-ice play, his new contract, and the comments from Fletcher himself, that Couturier will become the face of the franchise in no time. Whether that will be in the summer of 2022 or a little after the fact, will come down on whether of not Fletcher wants to bring the captain back. If his on-ice production falters then they might let him walk or offer him a very short term deal. If he once again leads the team in points, then there's no reason not to bring him back into the fold. It's tough seeing the Flyers moving on from Giroux, but it's not 100% likely he returns either.
Giroux has been a phenomenal player throughout his tenure in Philadelphia but the lack of success will forever hang over his head. Hall of fame players like Mats Sundin and Paul Kariya never won cups either. Paul Kariya barely had any success in Anaheim and it wasn't until he went to Nashville that he consistently made the playoffs. Sundin had a good supporting cast but was also unable to help get Toronto over the hump. The team around you matters a lot more than your individual abilities and numbers. Denying that Giroux wasn't given help is irresponsible and wrongful hate.
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