What We Learned: Rebuild now a necessity for Philadelphia Flyers

The easiest way for NHL general managers to avoid a hard look in the mirror is to avoid saying "rebuild" at all costs.

You can use any other term — retool, rebuild on the fly, refresh, revamp, etc. — to describe the process of taking a bad roster and trying to make it better over the course of a year or two. "Rebuild," on the other hand, evokes images of trying to lose a la the mid-2010s Buffalo Sabres or current Arizona Coyotes, trading every useful player on the roster and effectively attempting to get as close to an 0-82-0 record as you can.

But the problem for the Philadelphia Flyers, and specifically for general manager Chuck Fletcher, is that they just spent this past season trying to retool, refresh, revamp, and rebuild on the fly, and now they're in the midst of their second double-d