Briere gives inkling of what's to come in Flyers' offseason

The Flyers' GM has his third offseason ahead

Flyers general manager Danny Briere discussed the team’s head coaching search and the criteria it’ll seek in the candidates.

Nobody can say Danny Briere hasn't made tough calls with changing the Flyers' roster.

Since taking over as full-time general manager in May 2023, Briere has traded Ivan Provorov, Kevin Hayes, Sean Walker, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost and Scott Laughton, among others. He has bought out Tony DeAngelo and Cam Atkinson. And he has cut ties with Carter Hart amid the Hockey Canada sexual assault case.

That is a lot of subtraction, but now comes the next challenge for the 47-year-old GM.

Can he make the strategic additions to push this thing forward and to the fans' long-desired next level? While his first big decision won't be to the roster, his offseason moves will be telling for the direction of the Flyers' rebuild.

After hitting "rock bottom" four weeks ago, are the Flyers ready to get better? How significantly and how quickly?

These are the questions facing the organization's decision-makers.

"I think we're at a stage now where we're going to shift a little bit from subtracting from the roster into trying to start to add and help the team," Briere said last Saturday at his end-of-the-season press conference.

In Briere's first season as GM, the Flyers flirted with the playoffs, making the rebuild look expedited for about four and a half months. In Year 2, the Flyers took a step backward, forcing the rebuild into another gear down the stretch. They ended the season tied with the Bruins for the Eastern Conference's worst record (33-39-10).

"It's no secret I think that last year we probably overachieved from what the expectations were," Briere said. "This year, we underachieved, but I still feel that we're a much better team and much closer than where we finished in the standings. I've always said the players would kind of dictate that. There are guys that really took a big step forward, there are a few guys that regressed, but I don't think we're that far off."

Briere has put himself in a pretty advantageous spot to prove that. He has seven picks — three first-rounders, four second-rounders — in the opening two rounds of the June 27-28 NHL entry draft. The sheer number of selections gives the Flyers an opportunity to explore the trade route and potentially fill holes now.

"We're going to try to be creative to create some value there," Briere said. "That's the goal when you make a trade, you try to create some value for your team. It's possible we use all the picks, but there's a good chance that we look at different things. It could be acquiring a player, it could be packaging to move up, it could be pushing picks back to other years.

"There's no doubt that it's a lot of picks; seven in the first two rounds, eight I think inside the top 70. ... And then when you look down the road, in two years, when these guys start to turn pro, that's a lot of players all in the same group, so we'll try to be careful. But it doesn’t need to be done right away. If we don't like the value in return, we can make all the picks and then use those players as assets later on.

"There are all kinds of possibilities here. I think it's really exciting going into it. It's powerful to have so many picks like that. I think a lot of teams will be wanting to have discussions with us to make some things happen — teams that don’t have picks or teams that want to tweak things."

With the trade of Farabee and Frost, DeAngelo, Andrei Kuzmenko and Cal Petersen coming off the books and the NHL salary cap rising, the Flyers could tap into free agency when July 1 rolls around.

"There's a little bit of a window to add from the outside," Briere said. "We're not going to be able to fix every problem, but it would be nice to be able to, if the situation is right, add a player or two to come in and help on that front. That also should help taking a step forward."

Briere admitted outside help could come in the form of goaltending. This season, the Flyers had an .872 save percentage, the lowest in the NHL. Last season, they were tied with the Senators for the league's worst mark at .884. The trade market might give the Flyers the most options to address their instability in net.

They also know they could use more talent down the middle and on their power play.

Overall, though, Briere seems to realize the pressure of this offseason being critical to his rebuild. The Flyers have gone five straight seasons without a playoff berth, matching the franchise's longest drought. It's not about winning it all right now, but building optimism is important. Fans have been patient and so have established leaders in the locker room.

Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny even sounded a bit discouraged after last month's trade deadline. A proactive offseason with some additions would go a long way for just the psyche of the Flyers' players.

"You see teams around the league going for it and building, you see how much better the teams get compared to you, it's frustrating," Konecny said in March. "You want to be on that side of it."