The Philadelphia Flyers achieved what they set out to do in the 2024 NHL Draft, and are happy with the picks they were able to make, according to GM Danny Briere.
"We're happy," Briere said after the draft concluded on June 29. "There's a couple guys that dropped that we had much higher; we were actually trying to move up to get them and it worked in our favor. We were able to get them much later than we had on our list, so we're extremely happy."
The Flyers did their fair share of trading to move both up and back in the draft order, and while some fans weren't entirely clear on what the front office's vision was, Briere explained that all of their selections were made with their overarching rebuild plan in mind.
"We've had the chance to upgrade the next year," he said. "The tough part is to be patient...I think it's clear that we're still trying to do it the way we planned from the beginning. That was the plan, and we're following that, but there's no doubt—sometimes it's tough to stay patient."
The biggest aim in this year's draft was to "secure [the] centerman position a little better," a feat achieved by using three of their first four selections to acquire centers.
"In [Jett] Luchanko's case, we liked him from the beginning, and he just kept getting better and better as the season went on," Briere said. "His stock was climbing. [Jack] Berglund played really well at the [U18 World Championship]...The way he played certainly had something to do with it."
For only his second draft as general manager, Briere is feeling confident about the business that was able to get done—not just for this year, but to position the Flyers well in the 2025 NHL Draft as well.
“I definitely felt a lot more comfortable," he said. "The first time around, things are happening fast. Today, it was interesting to see—because in the past few years we were never really that involved in the second round of the draft—we had 51, we were trying to get another one. It was a good lesson to see how active it can be when you have picks in the second round...I saw how valuable it is to have early second-round picks, because guys who have the first 10 in the second round were getting hounded by a lot of people.”
Draft aside, there were naturally also questions about what the Flyers were planning to do during the free agency window.
"I still expect [free agency] to be slow," Briere admitted. "It can always change, but I expect it to be slow. Even with buying out Cam [Atkinson]—we had no choice but to buy out Cam just to put us in a decent position. We're not out of the woods with the salary cap, so don't expect much."
On Flyers players eligible for receiving qualifying offers, which must be done by 5:00 p.m. on June 30, Briere only said, "That's exactly what we'll be discussing tonight. We're still talking to [the players'] agents, trying to make something happen. We'll have a better answer on July 1."
