Chuck Fletcher:
The apple didn't fall far
By John McGourty | NHL.com
Nov. 8, 2004

When Cliff Fletcher contemplates his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004, he'll take a special pride in knowing his son, Cliff, so admired his father that he followed in his footsteps. Fletcher joins the Builders' category after guiding the fortunes of the Atlanta and Calgary Flames, the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning and Phoenix Coyotes.

Chuck Fletcher currently is the assistant general manager/hockey operations for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the former interim general manager of the Florida Panthers. He's been an NHL executive for a dozen years, since shortly after his hockey career ended when he was cut from the 1989 Harvard University squad that won the NCAA championship.

So close and yet so far, it might seem, but Chuck Fletcher always had his eye on a career as an NHL executive.

"I'm very proud of my father, not just for what he did with his teams, but just how he is as my dad," Fletcher said. "He was a great influence. From the age of five on, he always included me in everything, morning skates and practices. As I got older, I started going to the games at the Atlanta Omni. Growing up, it was my whole life. All my memories center around going to school and watching the Flames play.

"As early as I can remember, I dreamed of following in his footsteps. I thought about management even more than playing. I was never a great player and an NHL career didn't seem as realistic. The goal of a front-office job always seemed more tangible to me."

Cliff Fletcher's gentle nature and good manners mask the inner steel needed to launch an expansion team in Atlanta, see it begin to succeed on-ice and with the fans, only to have it fail due to financial problems with ownership. He took that team to Calgary, had initial success, then had to rebuild while fending off the great Edmonton Oilers teams in his own division. Chuck Fletcher saw the man behind the curtain and was even more impressed.

"One of his best strengths as a leader is what makes people want to work for him," Chuck said. "He is able to deal with conflicts and problems in his own way. He doesn't let people see how problems might impact him. He always projects a strong image. He's an optimist and a pragmatic person who finds solutions. He doesn't wear the anguish on his face.

"When you see the issues he dealt with over the course of his career, that's what makes him a great leader. He keeps morale high and is always able to paint a positive picture. That keeps people excited and pointed in the right direction. It's not easy to do. I know. I have first-hand experience."

Chuck Fletcher oversees all aspects of the Mighty Ducks' professional scouting operations, assisting Senior Vice President and General Manager Al Coates in the evaluation of players to determine player assignments, trades and free agent signings. His duties also include the coordination of the Ducks' training camp, rookie camp and summer conditioning camp.

In addition, Fletcher serves as general manager of the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks of the American Hockey League, responsible for overseeing that club's hockey operations as well as the development of the Ducks' top prospects.

He spent nine years with the Panthers, seven as assistant general manager; two years as a player representative and a year in sales with Hockey Canada.

He's in his third year with Anaheim. Cliff beamed recently when he was reminded that Mighty Ducks coach Mike Babcock said two years ago that the organization was thin in talent at the minor-league level, but recently spoke in glowing terms of the infusion of young prospects.

"When Bryan Murray came on board as general manager, he brought me in and we looked at the organization," Chuck said. "We felt that we needed to improve the overall scouting and player-development of the organization. First, we hired more scouts. Then, at that time, Cincinnati was a joint AHL affiliate with Detroit. We went our own way, instead of sharing. We had our own coach, Tom Watt, to do player development. We instituted summer-conditioning and fall rookie camps and spent a lot of time and money increasing the resources of our scouting department.

"Signing the players we draft and having a place to develop them properly became our focus," he continued. "We gave them a strength and conditioning coach they never had before. We've had a good run the past two years and added a lot of quality prospects. There was a whole philosophical change after Bryan came aboard and he allowed me to be the point person for that. I am proud of what we have done. We are, arguably, in the top third in quantity and quality of prospects. That may be conservative. I feel we have shot to the top of the charts in prospects."

Just as fellow Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Ray Bourque can look at his son Chris's burgeoning hockey career with pride, Cliff Fletcher will also have a reminder tonight of two jobs well done.