Briere says nothing is off the table this summer to improve Flyers

Whether through trade, offer sheets, free agency or the NHL Draft, general manager Danny Briere says the Flyers are looking at ways to fill some holes.

If you heard Danny Briere speak during the team’s exit interviews on Saturday afternoon, one thing should be clear. Nothing is off the table in terms of trying to improve before next season starts. Whether it’s trading at the NHL Draft, using the bevy of seven picks to acquire talent, making a dip into free agency on July 1 or possibly offer sheets, the Flyers general manager is open to everything. The main idea is to be better next season than how the 2024-25 season wrapped up.

“It’s no secret I think last season we probably overachieved from what the expectations were,” Briere said. “This year we underachieved but I still feel 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’s guys that really took a big step forward. There’s a few guys that regressed. But I don’t think we’re that far off. 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. The last two years I would say was trying to figure out what we had under our belt. Where were our players and where were we moving forward.”

Briere said the move towards adding talent stems from the fact how the younger Flyers have developed. In addition, the team has a bit more cap flexibility with the rise in the cap ceiling and some contracts coming off the books. So the idea of being open for business in the summer of 2026 has been accelerated to this upcoming offseason. As well, Briere says there’s a lot of prospects who are starting to knock on the door wanting to make the cut when training camp rolls around in September.

“The exciting part for me is all the young guys that have taken a step in the last couple of years and all of a sudden the guys that we started drafting a couple of years ago are starting to turn pro,” Briere said. “You want that internal competitiveness to force the guys. And that was kind of my message to the players, to a lot of the players. We’re getting to a point where the guys we drafted a couple of years ago are starting to turn pro. I have a list here of the guys that are pushing for a job: Luchanko, Bump, Dorwart, Kaplan, Barkey’s turning pro. We traded for Grebenkin. That’s six guys that are pushing that didn’t really have a role until the trade deadline. On defense Ginning, Andrae, Grans, McDonald, Bonk is turning pro. Those are all guys who are pushing for a spot as well.

“To me that’s the exciting part, that was my message to the players. Three, four years ago we didn’t have a lot of prospects, we had one prospect who was pushing to make the team here. Now we are starting to see guys come in. And in the following year there’s going to be even more. So all that combined the guys cannot be satisfied with where they are. I think when you start creating that internal competition it forces them to take the next step.”

Briere feels the offseason won’t resolve every problem the Flyers had this season, but adding one or two pieces should move them in the right direction a bit quicker.

“The other part of it is removing or subtracting some of the contracts have created a little bit of cap space going into next season that we didn’t think we would have until the following summer,” he said. “So there’s a little bit of a window to add from the outside. 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 — to add a player or two to come in and help on that front. That should help taking a step forward. It’s definitely an area we need along the way. Some better play and maybe it’s from the outside. It has to make sense but it’s an area we need to be better at.” 

As far as offer sheets, Briere said it’s something that they’d look into. But it wouldn’t be something they’d dive into headfirst. “It’s a tool that we’re going to look into,” he said. “It has to make sense. The thing is when you go down that route you have to overpay normally for a player. I don’t know if we’re that flush with money that we can be really all that aggressive but we’re certainly going to take a look at it. If it makes sense we’ll consider it.”

Another option — and perhaps the most obvious one — is the fact Philadelphia has seven picks in the opening two rounds of the NHL Draft in June. Eight picks in the top 70. “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 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.

“When you look down the road when these guys start to turn pro that’s a lot of players all in the same group. 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 could make all the picks. And then use those players as assets later on. So there’s all kinds of possibilities. I think it’s really exciting, I think it’s powerful to have so many picks like that. I think a lot of teams will want to have discussions with us to make some tthings happen. Teams that don’t have picks or teams that want to tweak things.”

So, in short, the Flyers’ personnel may have a few new faces when the 2025-26 begins. Briere might have his work cut out for him. But he seems to have a few avenues he’s willing to explore to fill some holes.