Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Brière met with the media earlier Tuesday to discuss all things related to the midway point of the season and beyond, including snippets on their goaltending, trade deadline rumours, long-term plans, prospects, and much more.
Brière has dealt with his fair share of criticism all season long and while a lot of it is justifiable, he’s done a good job at sticking to his path and what he believes is for the betterment of the franchise – which in this case is a rebuild through an NHL-ready core.
The Flyers have lacked true star-power, or even just impact players, for quite some time. You might have to go back to their 2010 run to the Stanley Cup Final or their 2012 first round series victory against Pittsburgh to encapsulate exciting hockey. A lot of the prospects that his predecessors have drafted over the years haven’t panned out to the best of their abilities and it’s stunted the growth and development of the team as a whole.
The same can be said about some of the current crop of players that they’ve assembled for the 2024-25 season. A lot more is expected from the likes of Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost, Owen Tippett has shown flashes of brilliance but not on a consistent basis, and Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink have stepped it up in recent weeks after slow starts.
The heights that this team can reach might surprise even the most ardent fan because we’ve seen stretches of fantastic hockey where they can go toe-to-toe with the league’s best but then we’ve also seen stretches where they can barely enter the offensive zone with speed and purpose, let alone score a goal or two.
The plan has been in motion since Brière took over in the summer of 2023 and while there hasn’t been a whole lot of changes, especially when you compare the Flyers’ rebuild to the likes in Chicago or San Jose, it can assuredly look disappointing.
However, the message has been the same and it slightly resembles the plans of some of his predecessors like Ron Hextall, where they won’t make a trade unless “it makes sense”. Which inadvertently means that players like Scott Laughton and Rasmus Ristolainen won’t be moved for the sake of making change, it has to make sense for both the present and the future as well as the locker room and culture.
Both players have drawn a lot of interest across league-wide, not just this season but for the last couple of years, but Brière has stood firm and it doesn’t sound like he’s in a rush to make a move unless his lofty asking prices are met.
He mentioned several times throughout the presser that the aforementioned duo are not rentals and they’re very important to the Flyers as a whole. While he understands there’s a market for both, he’s likely dying on that hill, similarly to when he waited for a first round pick for Sean Walker last year – something many pundits didn’t believe was a possibility.
As we dive deeper into his press conference, one of the first things he was asked about was the goaltending situation, the three-headed experiment, and what the plan is for Aleksei Kolosov considering the headache he caused over the summer.
Brière’s response when asked about how much of the team success, or lack thereof, can be attributed to the goaltending that is last in the league in several important statistical categories.
“We have to be careful, it’s really easy to just blame the goalies. That’s the easy way out, it reminds me of minor hockey when you win a game it’s whoever scores the goals but when you lose the games it’s the goalie’s fault. There’s been some bad games, we’re not going to deny that but at the same time it’s not all on goaltending, especially lately Ersson has really taken a step … Fedotov had the rough start as well hut since then he’s been much better and he’s proven that when you take away the first three starts he’s a capable backup goalie … I thought Kolosov started really well and then on the back-end for him it’s gone the other… it hasn’t been perfect but overall I think it’s been to easy for us to just blame the goalies on that.”
Brière’s response when asked what the Flyers plan on doing with the three-goalie system, considering the easiest route would be sending the waiver-exempt Kolosov to the minors, instead of keeping him around in the press box:
“We’re looking into that, there’s a lot of moving parts, like I said a few days ago he was the backup goalie and we’re looking at different options, but now Fedotov the backup so we’re looking at different things. We’re also trying to be careful with Sam, he’s played a lot, it’s not ideal to have three goalies, we’ve realized that, but at the same time taking some load off in practice for him having three goalies in the mean time, we’re going to practice less and less, so we’re looking at different things here.”
Brière was then asked whether or not Kolosov would be open to being demoted to the AHL and if his decision to keep the Belarusian netminder with the NHL club has anything to do with his offseason stance about returning to the KHL.
“As far as I know, yes, I don’t have any reason to believe that he wouldn’t. That would be his decision but it has nothing to do with anything that is going on that he was number two at some point or that he’s number three right now, that’s all Torts, I don’t decide who plays or how much they play, I manage the team and roster and I let him coach.”
Onto trade deadline plans and what the future holds, Brière didn’t hold back and opened up a little more about some of the conversations he’s been having and some of the actions they’re taking as we approach the all-important trade season.
“Nothing has changed, it’s still the same for us, if there’s something that makes sense for the future then I’ll look into it. I’ve had a lot of different conversations, around the league I think everybody is in the same spot, looking at what the options are and they’re preparing for the deadline. There’s many reasons for that, why it seems that it always happens closer to the deadline, don’t expect anything different this year but we’re in different conversations and we’re setting things up for crunch time, that’s what happened last year also. But we’re always listening and if something makes too much sense for the future of this organization we’re going to take it.”
Brière’s response when asked if trading for a centre is of the utmost importance and whether or not they would make a bigger splash to address their biggest weakness up front:
“What I can tell you about that is that we’ve tried and that we’re trying and we’re looking at what’s out there. The reality is that there’s not a lot of high-end centreman in this league and when teams have they want to keep them or the price is crazy. So, we’re not willing to give up on our future at this point. Yes, I realize it’s a glaring need and we need to upgrade but it has to make sense and I understand you guys want some work and you’d like to have a trade to keep you busy,. the reality is that if we force something after two weeks we can’t press undo and start from scratch again. So we’ve got to be sure before we make a move but believe me, we’re trying and looking at everything that is out there and that is available. We’re even asking questions about guys that aren’t available just to check in and make sure.”
When asked about giving an update on some of the prospects, Brière didn’t hold back on what many people around the hockey world were talking about as well, which was the handling of certain Team Canada players at the World Juniors.
Brière wasn’t too keen on how Jett Luchanko and Oliver Bonk were used and most of it had to do with how they were used instead of how sparingly they saw the ice – in Luchanko’s case:
“We were disappointed in the role they gave him but when you look at the role they gave him, he performed great. We have higher expectations for him and he’s probably the best skater in the World Junior tournament and he barely played, so that’s out of our control unfortunately but in the role that they gave him, he was excellent.
“Bonk … it’s kind of the same thing, he had a big role but they put him in positions that is not really what is going to be his strength, which was really weird to us, but again we don’t have any control over that. Overall I thought he had a really good tournament in what we expect from him, shutting down the opposition and playing against the top lines and the tough matchups, so we’re excited for him to turn pro next season …”
Emil Andrae made a really good impression on the Flyers earlier in the season and his demotion back to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms was highly criticized. Brière gave us an update on the Swedish defenseman as well as two more prospects in Helge Grans and Hunter McDonald.
“Emil has been injured in the last week to 10 days, I believe, we’re hoping that he returns this weekend. Grans has been playing very well down there, McDonald is coming around, getting better and better. So, I don’t know what the timeline is for those guys but they’re going in the right direction and they’re playing high minutes, heavy minutes in a really good league.”
Ristolainen’s improved play has been a talking point all-season long and with several teams intensifying their interest in the Finnish defenseman, Brière wants to reiterate their plan moving forward and how they won’t just be dealing him for the sake of making a move, especially because he still carries term.
“I don’t know yet, there’s teams that have called to inquire but Risto has been so good for us and he’s not a rental. Now for us, there’s no rush to trade him, we finally have him healthy, we finally have him playing extremely well, to find a right-shot D like that and to play in your top-four and to play as physical as he does, they’re tough to find. We have him here for us too, we get excited thinking about the kind of return we can get but I’m not shopping him, I’m not trying to get rid of him, he’s a big asset for us and it would be a big hole if we lose him, so I really don’t know where it’s going but I can tell you we’re not shopping him and we have received some calls.”
Two very important forwards heading into the trade deadline and the offseason – if they’re still around – are Frost and Farabee and how they fit into the organization’s plans. Both players have been scratched at various points this season but even John Tortorella has talked about how important they still are to the team’s present and future standings.
Brière has been encouraged by their recent play and believes that they have to tread very lightly in trade talks for either player considering their age and potential.
“And you talk about centremen and being tough to find, we have to be careful about a guy like Morgan Frost. I like where he’s trending, I like how he’s played in the last 15-20 games, but he’s taken a step forward and it’s good to see. Joel certainly had a rough little spell lately but him coming back into the lineup, I thought he played extremely well the last two games.. he’s back to making subtle little plays that you don’t see in games, he was doing that earlier in the season even though he wasn’t really getting rewarded with points as much as he would have liked but he went through a little spell in the last month and a half where things were not clicking and his play fell off but the way he’s played the last few games is the Joel we need and expect to see. So, again we have to very careful with a 24-year-old that is still growing and learning the game.”
Perhaps the biggest headline going into the summer is what the Flyers are going to do with their quartet of upcoming RFAs. Frost, Foerster, Noah Cates, and Cam York all need new contracts and with around $17 million to play with – including the estimated projections of $92.5 million. Brière surprisingly mentioned that he’s yet to engage in contract talk with any of them as they’re in a wait-and-see mode.
“We haven’t had any discussions on contract or contract extensions with any of them this point, so there’s really no updates on that front.
“Yes, we don’t have any unrestricted free agents, I believe … so it’s ongoing evaluations on those guys and I would expect them to be part of the future at this point, yeah.”
One question that was posed that might be on the mind of many within the fan base is whether or not the Flyers would expedite the rebuild based on how they’re currently playing, how close they are to a playoff spot, and Matvei Michkov’s immediate impact.
While it might be tempting to make a bold move, considering the players that are currently available, Brière very much wants to stick to the path that he’s blazed and will continue to die on the hill that a trade will only be made if it “makes too much sense”.
The future is of the utmost importance and the Flyers front office is looking ahead to what they can achieve in 2027. 2028, 2029 and beyond. However, they have to set the right platform in the present to be able to become the contenders they seek to be in the near-future:
“As long as it doesn’t hurt the future, it’s something we’re going to consider. That hasn’t changed and for us the future is still the key and we’re looking ahead and we’re looking forward. The Players are going to decide in the moment how far they wanna push it and it’s been awesome to see, we talked about Cates’ line, we’ve talked about Konecny and Tippett coming around, Jamie Drysdale has been playing a lot better, so there’s a lot going on. I know it’s not easy being patient, and believe me there’s days even myself that i have to control myself because you get excited by some of the things you see from your players but the part that hasn’t changed is that we don’t want to build a team that’s going to make the playoffs one year, miss the playoffs, make the playoffs, we’re trying to build a contender that is going to have a chance to win down the road for many years to come and not just try to make the playoffs but become a contender that has a chance to win the cup, that goal hasn’t changed.”
Finally, Brière touched on one of the more important topics in Laughton. His name has been mentioned ad nauseam for over half a decade but the Flyers have held onto him like a coveted jewel. His impact on and off the ice has become a contentious point for those wanting to get the most out a Laughton trade.
His value is known all throughout the league but this is the final year that the Flyers can technically maximize his value on the market due to his contract expiring at the end of next season. Nevertheless, Brière doubles down on his importance while also reminding us that if the asking price is met, a deal might get done:
“Absolutely, Scotty still has an extra year on his contract and he’s not a rental, so he’s important to the dressing room and I think his play has really kicked in the last 20 games. I didn’t really love his start of the season but I can go on and the team as a whole, we didn’t have a great start and it was tough to start out west, it took us a few weeks to get going and part of that is a guy who is one your leaders in the locker room in Scott Laughton has a lot to do with that, he’s critical to our culture but again if there’s something that makes too much sense, it’s our duty to listen and to do the right thing for this organization moving forward. All the players, I tell them all the same thing. I’m not trying to get rid of Risto or Scott Laughton, but it’s our duty to listen and do the right thing for the organization.”
Brière’s press conference didn’t necessarily reveal anything that we didn’t already know but it was important because we were reminded of what the plan is moving forward.
He mentioned a few times that the trade deadline will more or less resemble what they did last year, meaning if their asking prices are met, a deal could be expedited, otherwise they’re standing pat until at least the off-season where they will have a treasure chest of picks at their disposal.
The ultimate goal has always been about being a consistent contender rather than just trying to make the playoffs. Patience is extremely difficult when you factor in the wasted seasons between 2013 to the present day. However, let’s see what Brière has up his sleeve as we enter a very critical juncture of the season.
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