On April 19, the general manager (GM) of the Philadelphia Flyers, Danny Briere, held an end-of-season press conference with the media. Philadelphia finished their 2023-24 season with a 38-33-11 record, just four points shy of a playoff spot despite being in a rebuild.
Briere spent over 30 minutes with the media, talking about the past, the present, and the future. What were some takeaways from that?
Flyers Don’t Have a Plan to Add Top-End Talent
When asked about how the Flyers were going to add high-end talent to their roster, Briere didn’t give a great answer. Head coach John Tortorella explicitly stated “I think we still need to add talent,” in his presser with the media, so it is clear that both of them know the challenge ahead of them. The plan for getting that talent is not really solidified, or at least not being made clear to the public.
With the Flyers not having a high-end draft pick this season, acquiring great players won’t be too easy. Considering their roster is about average, they probably won’t be contending for a good pick in the future unless big changes are made. Not only did Briere never discuss trading players like Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Scott Laughton, and more to try and contend for said pick by bottoming out a bit, but he also never said how he would go about getting elite players if it wasn’t through the draft.
“It’s extremely tough to do,” Briere said in regard to getting talent. He said “We’re going to be looking for it,” and alluded to the team’s first-round pick this season which has an 85.7 percent chance to be 12th overall as a way to get talent. He said that he’d inquire about what other teams have to offer, but didn’t give a concrete answer.
Briere deserves to have some leniency, but it’s a bit concerning to see that he doesn’t really have a plan in place to get good players. He repeatedly dodged questions around the process of rebuilding, giving vague answers or pivoting to things that didn’t have to do with the question entirely.
When asked if he would sell, he talked about pending free agents Marc Staal and Denis Gurianov as players who are unlikely to return instead of higher-end players like Konecny or Sanheim. Maybe he doesn’t want to reveal too much, but it seems as though he doesn’t have an actual plan in place to get elite players. Having another average season like the Orange and Black just had is most likely not going to get them anywhere.
Drysdale Might Need Surgery
In just about the worst-case scenario, Briere stated that 22-year-old defenseman Jamie Drysdale could need core surgery this offseason. The youngster has battled injuries throughout his career, even having one at the end of February that put him out of the lineup through most of March.
The reason why a potential surgery would be bad is that Drysdale, a raw defender at this stage, needs all the time he can get to train and prepare to be an asset to the Flyers’ roster. In 2023-24, he simply wasn’t that. He had his good moments, but the team had better numbers without him on the ice than with him.
Related: Flyers 2023-24 Player Grades: Jamie Drysdale
If Drysdale needs surgery, he will miss some of his offseason and might not even be 100 percent entering 2024-25. Training and learning the Flyers’ system has to be a priority for him. That won’t be possible if he misses a whole offseason. The youngster needs a lot of work to polish his game, so entering next season without spending a lot of time bettering himself could lead to another subpar showing.
Briere Expects Current Roster Players to Improve
Briere didn’t state in absolutes whether or not he’d be adding to the roster this offseason but did say another signing like Ryan Poehling or Garnet Hathaway might be in order. Those two were great bottom-six forwards for the Orange and Black, so it would make sense for him to want to add players like those two again.
When the younger players on the team came up, specifically Morgan Frost, Bobby Brink, and Tyson Foerster, he said that he expected the team to improve “internally,” for the 2024-25 campaign. The Flyers have quite a few younger players who quite possibly haven’t reached their ceiling yet, so this mindset makes sense.
Briere repeatedly stated that he would not be trading young players for veterans, but he also didn’t say that he expects to miss the playoffs next season. With the team just barely missing the postseason, his idea is that some significant — or even minor — strides could take the Orange and Black to the next level.
Even though Tortorella said that the plan is for assistant coach Rocky Thompson, who ran a Flyers’ power play that finished with the worst scoring rate in the NHL since 2020-21, to stay on the team, Briere wants improvement. The Flyers could theoretically continue their woes on the man advantage, but the idea is that someone like Cam York could become an even better top-pairing defenseman, Frost can become a more consistent second-line center, and players like Foerster and Brink can be legit top-six contributors. Essentially, a bad power play can be offset by all-around improvement.
Now, Briere and the Flyers will be monitoring their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate Lehigh Valley Phantoms in their quest for a playoff berth. They need one more point in their last three contests to do so. There isn’t much work for him or the rest of his management to do for the next couple of months except observe and have some discussions within the organization. Action will have to stall for just a little while before the draft starts and the trading window opens up.