The simple fact of moving on from Chuck Fletcher was more than enough for the Philadelphia Flyers faithful. As President of Hockey Operations and General Manager, Fletcher brought this team to new lows, primarily due to a myriad of injuries to top players but also a mismanagement of the salary cap – which was a Flyers speciality.
When Daniel Brière took over as the interim, there was a considerable amount of moaning and groaning. That specific crowd was vehemently against the move generally because he was a former Flyer – a problem that has persisted since the dawn of time – and because he was under the tutelage of the ousted Fletcher.
Keith Jones was named President, John LeClair and Patrick Sharp were brought into the fold for developmental reasons, John Tortorella earned himself a seat at the dinner table, and Dan Hilferty took a page out of the late Ed Snider’s handbook of how to be a proper executive.
The Flyers had spent a considerable amount of time and effort in restructuring the front office and the hierarchy. Fletcher was gone, Dave Scott retired, and Valerie Camillo walked as well. It was truly a “New Era of Orange” however, despite all the shuffling and reshuffling, we still needed to see what they would do on draft day, free agent frenzy, and of course the 2023-24 season.
There was not a soul that covered this sport that gave the Flyers an iota or a sliver of hope that they would be anything other than a bottom-10 club. Most had them toiling in the basement with Chicago and San Jose and some of them had the Flyers ranked 32nd out 32 teams. There was also a large populace that didn’t think they were going to be a playoff team but they’d be in that 17-22 range – not exactly where you’d want to be come draft day but they had enough talent to not be a bottom feeder.
What has unfolded since has been a revelation for the entire hockey world, including the city of Philadelphia. Currently sitting with a 32-23-8 record, the Flyers have already surpassed last year’s win total, are 3 points away from matching, and if fate is on their side they will accrue their highest win and point totals since 2018-19. Granted, they were on pace for a fantastic season in 2019-20 but it was cut short due to COVID.
It took the Flyers 81 games to reach the 30-win mark last year, something that took them just 57 games this year. They have stumbled a little since going 25-14-6 in their first 45 games – 7-9-2 since – but they’ve had to battle through a tough stretch of injuries and inconsistent scoring, all the while still holding onto the third spot in the Metropolitan Division standings. The media has fallen in love with Tortorella as of late, as every time the Flyers have a nationally televised game all they do is gush over the head coach – and rightfully so.
The Jack Adams Award is Rick Tocchet’s to lose at the moment, but Tortorella could make a great case for his 3rd trophy if he can steer them through their upcoming gauntlet. The Flyers have Florida, Tampa Bay, San Jose, Toronto, Boston, Toronto, Boston, Florida, Carolina, and the New York Rangers upcoming and if the Flyers manage to survive by playing to their strengths and not teetering away from their system, they should be positioned to make the playoffs – which makes the case that much greater for Tortorella.
Tocchet of the Vancouver Canucks is the odds-on favourite right now, followed by Paul Maurice of the Florida Panthers, Rick Bowness of the Winnipeg Jets, Peter Laviolette of the New York Rangers, Peter DeBoer of the Dallas Stars, Kris Knoblauch of the Edmonton Oilers, and Tortorella of the Flyers.
The Canucks have been just as big of a surprise as the Flyers have been – maybe even more – as they currently sit atop of the Western Conference standings and are on pace for the best year-to-year improvement points-wise. Last year, they finished with a 38-37-7 record for 83 points and they have surpassed those marks with 18 games still on the docket with a 40-17-7 record.
Maurice has led the charge for the reigning Eastern Conference Champions of 2022-23 with the best record in the NHL at 43-16-4, Bowness took a problematic locker room in Winnipeg and whipped them into shape with the 3rd best record in the West, Laviolette has kept the Rangers afloat with 3rd best record in the East, DeBoer is on pace to shatter his previous season where the Stars won 47 games, and Knoblauch took a downtrodden Oilers team from the bottom to the top with a ridiculous 35-11-1 record since taking over.
All these teams have star power, winning pedigree, and being loaded with depth in common. The Panthers, Jets, Rangers, Stars, and Oilers were all fantastic teams last year and had high expectations coming into the 2023-24 season. On the other hand, the Canucks were not supposed to be as good as they are right now and the Flyers were not supposed to sniff playoff hockey for at least another 2 years.
Usually the award goes to a coach of one of the top teams in the NHL, as was the case when Tortorella last won it in 2016-17 when he dragged a bereft-of-talent Columbus Blue Jackets squad to third in the Metropolitan Division with 50 wins and 108 points. Cam Atkinson led the team with 62 points, Sam Gagner was fifth in points with 50, Scott Hartnell was 9th with 37 points. So it is very possible that if he can continue guiding the Flyers to winning hockey, he should at the very least be a finalist.
As for Daniel Brière, the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award is going to be tricky but he has changed the complexion of this team on a whim. He didn’t make any bold moves over the summer – his biggest signing was either Ryan Poehling or Garnet Hathaway – but he kept the Cutter Gauthier fiasco under wraps, received a young right-handed shooting defenseman in return, and as the details unfolded it showed that Brière has the respect of his counterparts unlike his predecessor.
Brière’s main objective this summer was ridding the team of the toxicity and cloud of negativity and he did that by trading Kevin Hayes to St. Louis, buying out Tony DeAngelo, and shipping Ivan Provorov in a 3-team trade for a bevy of picks, Helge Grans, Sean Walker, and Cal Petersen.
He then turned one of those picks into Oliver Bonk at the draft, had already selected Matvei Michkov with 7th overall pick – after having meetings behind closed doors with the Russian phenom to ensure he was the right fit – and has now turned Walker into a first round pick for 2025. He stuck to his guns of a high asking price and found a suitor in large part because he weaponized the cap space by taking on Ryan Johansen’s contract.
Brière also extended Owen Tippett to an 8-year extension, Nick Seeler to a 4-year extension, and his two signings in Poehling and Hathaway have played pivotal middle-of-the-lineup roles in establishing Flyers hockey and success on the penalty kill.
The Flyers now have 2 picks in the first and second rounds of the 2024 and 2025 drafts, all their third and fourth round picks as well, 2 in fifth round in 2025, and all their picks in the 2026 draft with the exception of a fifth rounder. That on top of a pipeline that has added Michkov, Bonk, Denver Barkey, Alex Čiernik, Carson Bjarnason, and Egor Zavragin.
Similarly to Tortorella, he’s going to have to contend with some of the executives of better teams in the NHL for this award, but he should be right there with them after the work he’s put in this season.
