Every big move the Flyers make has Snider's stamp on it. In one sense, he's a dream CEO for the fans, because he's one of them. Like the 20,000 people who fill the Wells Fargo Center every home game, Snider wears his orange-and-black heart on his sleeve. Like the fans, Snider lives and breathes for the day when his team hoists the Stanley Cup, as it did on two unforgettable May days in 1974 and 1975.

But that desire to recapture the past continues to jeopardize the future. Grasping at the nearest straw has become this franchise's hallmark. Need a defenseman? Boom! Chris Pronger. Go to the Cup finals in 2010 with a couple of journeymen goalies? Pow! Sign Bryzgalov. He's the wrong fit for Philadelphia? Zowie! Spend millions to send him to Siberia.

Not that these moves were necessarily bad at the moment they were made. It's just that the wheel keeps on spinning without any coherent plan. The lone constant is Snider, surrounded by a front-office core of ex-Flyers, wheeling and dealing like a fantasy-league owner on his third Red Bull of the day.

-Tom Flynn of PennLive on Ed Snider. Read more on the Flyers at PennLive.