Evaluating Danny Briere’s first offseason as Flyers general manager

Danny Brière has strong convictions, coach John Tortorella said when Brière was named Flyers interim general manager. He’s a man who loves a good puzzle, Brière said, describing himself. He’s someone who sees the big picture and wants to work toward it, said Shane Doan, a special adviser to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In the three months since the Flyers’ season ended, Brière has put all those qualities to use, trying to unravel the mess the Flyers are in and get them on track for a rebuild.

While Brière made it clear he wasn’t starting a “fire sale,” he’s made some big trades and had the Flyers involved in rumors of others. At the same time, he’s held steady through free agency, not giving away valuable capital for a short-term solution.

With just more than two months before the Flyers report back for training camp, here’s an evaluation of how Brière has done.

In 2022, Brière had a seat at the Flyers’ draft table as special assistant to GM Chuck Fletcher. A year later, Brière was sitting in Fletcher’s spot.

For a first-time general manager, Brière did not hold back. On his very first pick, he took a big swing, taking a risk on the biggest question mark of the draft, right winger Matvei Michkov. As a Russian player with a KHL contract, Michkov’s path to the NHL is murky, but so is any player’s. A homegrown prospect could suffer a career-ending injury. Assuming Michkov doesn’t experience any obstacles or injuries, Brière added a top-three talent from one of the best draft classes in history with the No. 7 pick.

» READ MORE: Flyers draft: Our emoji reactions to Matvei Michkov and each of the Flyers’ 10 draft picks

Brière’s next pick, at No. 22, was safer. Oliver Bonk has a more traditional path ahead of him. He’ll return to the OHL’s London Knights next season. He is projected to be a guaranteed NHL defenseman. He was a pick with a high floor but lower ceiling.

The first round was a microcosm of the rest of Brière’s draft. He balanced big swings with safer bets. It’s hard to know how the draft will pan out since there are years before most of the players’ NHL debuts, but at first glance, it looks like a good one. As an organization that’s fallen hard from success, the Flyers can’t play it safe if they want to return to their former glory.

For years, the Flyers banked on Ivan Provorov turning into their No. 1 defenseman. At 26, that time should have been now.

But over the past few years, it’s become clear that it wasn’t in the cards. While Provorov halted his regression this season, he didn’t show he could be the difference maker a team needs its top-pair defensemen to be.

On top of that, he seemed more removed from his teammates. He made comments in press conferences about other people making mistakes rather than taking accountability. At team events, he was pictured off to the side. And when the Flyers held their Pride Night, only one of his teammates knew before warmups that Provorov planned to boycott it.

Brière showed the guts to move on from the player the Flyers had invested so many resources and so much hope into over the past seven years. On top of that, he got a hefty return in the three-way trade he pulled off as his first big move as general manager.

There’s a reason we graded it an A.

The returns for Kevin Hayes and Tony DeAngelo don’t look great. They certainly weren’t blockbuster deals like the Provorov trade. But when you consider what Brière was working with, he probably did the best he could.

Early on, Tortorella made his thoughts clear on Hayes. Even when Hayes was named an All-Star, Tortorella didn’t have much praise for him. Tortorella insisted any differences between him and the locker-room favorite veteran were made up, but then he and Hayes would tell very different stories. Tortorella also made a public statement through Hayes’s decreased playing time and shift to wing. And then Tortorella made his opinions even clearer in private, based on Hayes’s comments at exit interviews.

The St. Louis Blues noticed it all. Their general manager, Doug Armstrong, spoke to The Inquirer the day of the trade and said their interest was piqued when they started seeing reports that things were rocky for Hayes in Philadelphia.

Whether or not Tortorella’s displeasure with Hayes was fair, the fact that it was public gave Brière little ground to stand on when he headed into negotiations. The dissent between Hayes, who was beloved by his teammates, and his coach made finding him a new home imperative. And even though Brière made it clear he thought Hayes was a valuable commodity, he had to settle for a sixth-round pick for the sake of the happiness of Hayes, the locker room, and Tortorella.

The Flyers got even less for DeAngelo. Despite trade rumors, they weren’t able to finalize anything and had to buy the defenseman out instead. All they got was freed-up cap space — and, once again, less strife in the locker room.

Unlike Hayes, who had close to a career season, DeAngelo’s statistics tanked under Tortorella. Like Hayes, he was scratched and benched multiple times. But it all came to a head at the end of the season when Tortorella scratched DeAngelo for the final five games for an undisclosed reason.

That, once again, was a public statement to the rest of the NHL that DeAngelo had to go if Tortorella was sticking around. Brière wasn’t able to pull off the trade, and the Carolina Hurricanes got DeAngelo for a cheaper deal once he became a free agent.

Nothing that happened here was optimal, but it also wasn’t optional. DeAngelo and Hayes had to find new homes.

Brière joked about how exciting it was to see all the fun names he could add to his roster in free agency, but he kept to his promise of building for the future rather than short-term success.

Brière did add a few big names in Marc Staal and Garnet Hathaway, but he did so at a bargain without giving up future capital. He signed Hathaway, 31, to a two-year deal and Staal, 36, to a one-year deal.

While both are experienced and successful, both are older and won’t block a younger player from gaining experience. Both said in their interviews that they were clear that the Flyers are rebuilding and looked forward to helping with that process. They will be able to teach a very young roster how to be professionals.

Brière also added depth with Ryan Poehling, a 24-year-old free-agent center from the Pittsburgh Penguins, on a one-year deal. With the short contract, it’s an opportunity for Poehling to prove himself without much cost to the Flyers. He, along with Hathaway, are also players the Flyers could flip at the deadline for more prospects and picks.

The Flyers also signed to bridge deals two of their restricted free agents, Cam York and Noah Cates, who are important pieces of their future. They have not yet come to an agreement with Morgan Frost.

For a guy committed to saving capital for the future, Brière was able to add some pretty impressive pieces at little cost to the organization.

Brière has done what he set out to do. He’s been patient. He’s focused on building for the future through picks and prospects. And he’s started to untangle the mess.

The worst parts of Brière’s offseason have been the Hayes trade and the failed trade and ensuing buyout of DeAngelo. However, he didn’t have much to work with there.

» READ MORE: Ranking the Flyers’ top 5 prospects after the 2023 NHL draft

Whether Tortorella’s likes and dislikes are what the Flyers should be building around is yet to be determined. But since they’re committed to him for the near future, Brière had to clear out the players Tortorella could not get along with.

There’s still more to do to get the Flyers back into contention, but Brière has gotten them off to a good start. For that reason, Brière’s offseason is currently graded a B.