In the Flyers introduction of new interim General Manager Danny Briere, the former player was able to clear up some much-debated topics amongst the fans regarding the direction of the team. Here’s what we heard:
“Rebuild” not “Fire-Sale”
Firstly, the cordial Briere was quick to echo sentiments that came from Flyers Chairman Dave Scott that the team is in the middle of a multiple-year process that is going to take time. He outright called the Flyers situation a rebuild, while former General Manager Chuck Fletcher was always hesitant to use the term. However, Briere stressed that a rebuild doesn’t mean the team is in full fire-sale mode either and that was interesting. This is the first time the Flyers have openly admitted that they are in a rebuild in their history, and frankly, there’s no easy way out of it other than to their develop younger players, in addition to taking advantage of some high-draft selections at this point.
One would imagine that Philadelphia would continue to hold onto some of their youngish veteran players in Travis Konecny, Ivan Provorov and Carter Hart provided said players don’t mind staying through the rebuild. Moreover, the Flyers need to be blown away by an offer to pry any of these players away, but others like Kevin Hayes and even a struggling Travis Sanheim may find themselves in new cities by this summer if the Flyers could acquire some desirable draft capital for them.
Bill Barber, Bobby Clarke, and Paul Holmgren remain apart of the team in senior advisor roles and their involvement (and perhaps overreach) with the club has been under a lot of scrutiny of late. Further, Briere didn’t have much to offer on that front. However, it did raise a worthwhile question.
How much influence does the old guard truly hold over the Flyers decision-making?
On the other hand, Briere seemed steadfast that he has own process and holds his own opinions of players within the organization. If he and the new president of hockey operations are simpatico, and given the proper leeway to make decisions here, they should be able to correct course. Yet, if reports of the senior advisors wielding much more power than they should are true, this could be a very big if.
Briere and Who?
So far, names such as Chris Pronger, Eric Lindros, Eddie Olczyk, Robert Esche and Ray Shero are being floated as possibilities for the club’s president role. One would imagine that the ideal candidate would have robust experience in both a front office capacity, in addition to having a strong understanding of the day-to-day interworking of the hockey operations. Moreover, having someone who can serve as somewhat of a conduit between Comcast the business and it’s hockey team would be essential to making the whole thing work. The President of hockey operations is every bit as important as the general manager, if for no other reason, is because they’ll have a direct line to the executives in the ivory tower, communicating where the team is going and ultimately, what they’ll need to do to return to perennial contention.
The Flyers return to action Tuesday, when they open a season-long seven game homestead, beginning with a meeting with the Vegas Golden Knights.
