Flyers GM Danny Brière on upcoming free agency, Sean Couturier’s future

BUFFALO, N.Y. — While the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers are set to battle it out for the Stanley Cup, the Flyers are already focused on the future.

We sat down with general manager Danny Brière at the NHL’s scouting combine in western New York to discuss what the landscape looks like for the Flyers. In the first of two parts, the GM chats about the current squad, where things stand with free agency, and potential buyout candidates.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

A: No updates. We haven’t started negotiating, but I don’t expect trouble there. Not worried. We like Bobby. I think he’s taken a big step last year. He’s an exciting young player for us. He still has a long way to go to be at the top of his game, but we like what we’ve seen so far.

» READ MORE: Is Bobby Brink part of the Flyers’ long-term plans? Danny Brière thinks so.

A: We’ve had some exchange. Nothing really serious still at this point. There’s no urgency quite yet. We’ve been [busy]. We had our year-end meetings and recap and then we shifted into our pro meeting. We have the combine and amateur meetings next week. So it’ll follow that at some point. But there’s just a lot of stuff to manage after the season.

A: Nothing yet. We’re still waiting on that.

A: Yeah, he took a big step last year — the last two years, I should say. He was excellent the year before. I thought early in the season in Lehigh Valley last year, he started slow, but he got better in the second half, and when he came [up] he played extremely well for us. He’s going to be in the mix, he is going to battle for a spot on the Flyers next year. I don’t know exactly where he falls yet, that’s going to be up to him. We told [him] what we expected from him coming into camp next year and it’s really going to be up to him.

A: Yeah, very much. We’re not going to bring Marc back. Marc is going to move on and it was a tough situation last year away from his family. We liked what he brought. The development of guys like Travis Sanheim and Cam York and Zamula, not that it’s all on Marc Staal, but he had a role to play in that. With Jamie Drysdale now added to that mix, possibly Ginning, Emil Andrae, it’d be important to find someone like that in that role. And now that we know Erik — I mean, I knew him before because I played with him [in Colorado]èè, know the type of person he is and the type of leader. So we’d like very much to bring him back.

A: We read the reports. We hope. We’ve had a couple of discussions with his agent. We’re not too sure exactly where it stands. Some days it looks very positive, some days not as much. So we’re hoping something positive comes out at the end. But, I’m still in the mindset that, when we drafted him we knew he’d be away for three years before he could come over. That’s the approach that I take. If something changed, yes, we’d be happy to welcome him with open arms. But I’m trying not to get lost in that for now because there’s no guarantee and I really don’t know what the odds are.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Keith Jones and Dan Hilferty discuss the rebuilding timeline, Matvei Michkov, and more

A: As far as we know, there’s nothing there. He did tell us that it was an adjustment at the end of the year. He was up-front and honest with us and told us it was tough coming over by himself and that there were no other Russian-speaking players when he was there. His agent called us when that report came out and he said he feels terrible and he didn’t speak to any reporter. Sometimes it’s just, he might have said that to a friend of his and reported it to a reporter or whatever. As far as we understand, it’s fine. He’s still going to report, he’s going to try out for the Flyers. He’s going to play in Philadelphia or Lehigh Valley next year. That’s our understanding. We have big hopes with him for the future, so we certainly want him here in North America playing in the Flyers organization.

A: It’s all good, as far as I know now. They’ve had some talks. I think it’s really, the relationship between the two is growing. It probably wasn’t ideal, and it probably shouldn’t have gone maybe as public as it did. But I think it’s fine now. Sean’s not going anywhere. Torts is not going anywhere. So they understand that and they want the best for the team. So I have, honestly, no worries there with the relationship between the two of them. I expect Sean to come back and be the same player he was in the first half of last year and return to what we’re accustomed to seeing from him.

A: I think so. I think his training is going to be much easier, I feel. Last summer was training always on his mind that, like, ‘I’m rehabbing and trying to get ready to come back to play.’ Now, he’s getting ready for a new season, and he knows he can play. There’s no worries, he doesn’t have that in the back of his mind. And also, look, he hadn’t played in close to two years. I think it probably burned him a little bit playing on average 20-21 minutes a night on the power play and the penalty kill. Heavy minutes facing top opposition every night in the first half of the season, and I think he just hit the wall. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I expect him to get back to that level of play and hoping he can sustain it now for the full season.

A: Well, there’s a lot to evaluate. We’re still going through all of the possibilities in the structure of our cap. There’s a lot to go through. Cam wants another chance to prove that he can still play. We’re aware of that. But there are so many other questions, not just his play. It’s, what can we do with the cap? How are we positioned? So there’s a lot that we still have to figure out when it comes to that. So I don’t have an answer quite yet for you or for him.

A: Yeah, it’s been quiet on that front. Last year, I think everybody knew that I was a new GM looking to make moves. So I think teams were a lot more aggressive with me trying to figure out and that’s why something happened with Ivan Provorov early. This year, I think I fall in with all the other GMs and it’s been quiet on that front while hockey is still playing. I expect things to pick up around the draft like it always does. But at this point, there’s nothing there. And I see those names flying all over and I laugh because I haven’t had much discussions with anyone. It’s tough, I remember as a player when you see your name, but it’s part of the game and I understand that we have to deal with it. Scott Laughton, at this point, it feels like he’s been in trade rumors for the last 12 years and he’s still a Philadelphia Flyer. But it’s never easy for the players; we try to be as honest as we can with them. Last year going into the trade deadline, we were honest with Nick Seeler, with Sean Walker, with Laughton — because those were the three names that kept popping up the most. We tried to keep them in the loop of what was going on, or as much as we can. I think the players appreciate that. I know I would have as a player and I try to remind myself of that when it comes to those situations. So we’ll be in touch and their agents are reaching out when they see their names popping up. Like I said, I try to be as honest as I can with them.

» READ MORE: Flyers’ Scott Laughton is a LGBTQ+ advocate in an effort to make hockey more ‘welcome and inclusive’

A: Yeah, they probably tried. On my end, there were things that needed to be done. When I look back, I guess the best part of the Provorov trade was, it was a trade that could help every team. We needed to revamp a little bit, we needed some young assets. The Columbus Blue Jackets needed a good, strong player to take a step and the Los Angeles Kings needed the cap space. So it was a trade that was helping every team which was, I think, fantastic and that’s what you want. It’s not, I’m not trying to take advantage of teams when we discuss. I try to put myself in their shoes. What do they need? What could we accomplish together that works for both sides? And that’s why it makes it so tough, right, to find the right deal to make and why it’s so hard to make trades.

A: He’s also in the mix. We’re trying to figure out what is best for the Flyers organization as far as the cap structure that we have. So he’s also unfortunately in that mix.

A: Yes, with his agent. They are aware that we’re trying to figure that out.