After parts of 12 combined seasons of NHL hockey between Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost over the past 6 years, Danny Brière finally made a trade.
Many Philadelphia Flyers fans have been begging for the front office to make a trade for weeks now, and Brière finally pulled through. For the first time since the Ivan Provorov trade in the summer of 2023, Briere made a MAJOR move to the Flyers’ core (Sean Walker to COL does not count). This trade signified what he’s been saying to the media for the past 2 years: this is a rebuild.
When looking at the whole trade, the Flyers put themselves in yet a better position in the 2025 NHL Draft. With 7 picks now in the first two rounds (3 firsts and 4 seconds), Brière and the Flyers have almost unlimited ammo when it comes to making a major splash for a big-name player.
The Flyers have also unloaded yet another major contract signed by Chuck Fletcher with the departure of Farabee. This cap space will also be valuable for trying to make a major splash for a big name player.
Yes, I know Farabee and Frost were fan favorites, and Flyers fans tend to overrate their prospects/players, but for anyone who is upset about this trade let me look you in the eyes and say this to you: you are a part of the problem that has been plaguing the Flyers organization for years.
The Overvaluation of Players
For a long time, the Flyers were a place where prospects actually developed at a high rate. They were also an organization where if the standard wasn’t met, there would be changes made. I think this style of management from the Ed Snider years has burned into a lot of fans’ brains, making it so they think every homegrown player should develop into a star, while also calling to trade anyone and everyone when things aren’t going well.
It’s not a bad way to want your team to be run, I mean look across the street at Lincoln Financial Field. I know it’s two different sports, but the Eagles are never content even with mediocracy. It’s also not a bad thing to believe in your guys. I’ll admit it, I was higher on Farabee these past 4 years than most. Looking back on it, I think I overvalued Farabee. It happens.
Here’s the thing, we as fans want the best from our guys, and when they show flashes of greatness, we tell ourselves that the greatness is there and it will eventually be unlocked. We also expect bonding between our guys, as some of the best teams always talk about how close and connected the locker room is. The problem we run into is as a fanbase is this: we convince ourselves that players are what they aren’t, whether that’s our fault or not.
A few examples of this directly relate to Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee.
With Farabee, he showed us flashes early in his career. In his second year in the league he had 20 goals in 55 games. Just last season he had 50 points in 82 games. Now I know that level of production is not what we should be expecting from a player like Farabee at this point in his career. We did see flashes of a 1st line winger over the years, but it was very inconsistent. However, when the best player the Flyers have had over the past 15 years says that he believes Farabee would break all of his records one day, people hear that and dig their heels in.
The same can be said for Frost. Frost has never had a 50 point season in his career, but he always showed these 20-ish game stretches where he looks like a point per game player. He also starts off every single year so slowly that John Tortorella eventually benches him for a game or two. However, when a reporter who works directly for the team constantly puts Frost on a pedestal claiming he has all this unlocked potential and telling people to wait and be patient, people hear that and dig their heels in.
The Attachment to Players
The attachment to players, whether emotional or hockey related, is fine when it doesn’t get out of hand.
Running a sports team is not easy. If it was no one would ever get fired or make mistakes or be eventually run out of town by the fanbase.
Why am I bringing that up?
Well, in the years post-Snider, the Flyers as a franchise disconnected from the fanbase. The fans will tell you point blank that they felt neglected by ownership and management for many years after Mr. Snider passed. Once this “New Era of Orange” began, the connection with the fanbase came back.
We also saw the relationship between the front office and the players return. Dave Scott literally didn’t know players’ names when he was in charge here. Dan Hilferty goes down after every win and shakes the players hands with Brière and Keith Jones. Now you might be saying, “Wow, a billionaire shakes millionaires’ hands, so what?” The so what is creating that feeling of a true team and a place players want to play.
All of this restructure in the organization is great, but when the Flyers start to fall back into their old habits of keeping players around for too long, that falls on both the fanbase and the front office.
The job of the front office is simple in a broad sense: try to make the best team possible in the NHL. If that is not possible due to circumstances surrounding your team, make the moves to improve your team in the future. Not everything needs to be about making your team enjoyable for the fanbase when you’re in purgatory.
A good section of the Flyers fanbase loves Frost and Farabee. The Flyers are also not in a position to win right now. For Danny to pull the trigger on a trade with Frost and Farabee shows his commitment to making the Flyers better, not to just pander to the fanbase. The people who are upset can get over it, hockey is a business. But if the fallout from this causes Danny to not be as aggressive in the future due to possible fan pushback, that’s a problem that will be not just on Brière, but also on the fans.
The trade itself
Look, if you were to remove all names from the trade and straight up looked at the stats and assets being sent back and forth, the Flyers did well here. Farabee and Frost have names because they were 1st round picks and have played NHL hockey the past couple seasons, so removing any bias by just straight up looking at the facts and not looking the names matter. When looking deeper at the trade in this light, we see why this was a success for the Flyers.
First, the Flyers traded away two guys that were drafted TWO GENERAL MANAGERS AGO BY RON HEXTALL. Frost and Farabee outlived the entirety of Fletcher and their first full year of Brière. For them to be here for this long with little to show for it shows why the trade was needed.
Second, they traded away a $5M AAV contract through the 2027-2028 season. That free money will be HUGE for the Flyers over the next couple offseasons as they’ll have a lot more room to play with when trying to build a contender.
Third, they gained more assets for what seem like low value players. Farabee has a big contract and has been struggling since his disk replacement surgery two seasons ago. Frost never has reached his true potential in the 4 seasons he’s been on the NHL roster. On top of that, the Flyers would be handcuffed to him this offseason as he is a restricted free agent.
Fourth, they’ve brought in another Russian who has played with Matvei Michkov before. The more comfortable you can make Michkov here early in his career, the better it will be in the long run (plus Kuzmenko vs. Torts is going to be HILARIOUS to watch for the rest of the season).
Fifth, they acquired a low-risk, high-reward player in Jakob Pelletier who fills in Farabee’s place on the 3rd line better than Farabee. He’s also younger than both of the guys the Flyers are sending Calgary.
Last, they depleted their center depth. Briere has to have a trade in the chamber for a center because I doubt he’s going to run the rest of this season/beginning of next season with a center group of Sean Couturier, Noah Cates, Ryan Poehling, Scott Laughton, and maybe Jett Luchanko.
Overall, the Flyers made a statement by making this trade. They have 11% of all picks in the first two rounds of the 2025 NHL Draft, they got rid of a contract that would handcuff them for the future when truly trying to build a contender, and they officially started to move on from the core group of players that have been underperforming for the past 5 years.
This was a move that needed to be made to have the franchise take a major step forward in rebuilding their core, but if the blowback from the overvaluing/attachment crowd is loud enough to scare Brière from moving on from other core players in the future, this fanbase will never deserve another Stanley Cup.
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