Danny Brière’s ‘fire for self-improvement’ has prepared him for his dream job with the Flyers

French might be Danny Brière’s first language, but he loves a good English crossword puzzle. He enjoys challenging himself with Sudokus. And when Christmas comes around, he picks out the most complicated jigsaw puzzle he can find — usually ones with lots of trees and snow (“so it’s all green and white”).

Puzzles have always been Brière’s thing.

That’s why, when his 17-year NHL playing career was drawing to a close, Brière had an idea that his skills — puzzle solving and relationship building in particular — might be tailored to working in an NHL front office.

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Brière sees more than just the game itself, former Phoenix Coyotes teammate Shane Doan said. He is a big-picture guy, and if he sees it, he wants to fix it. Coaching typically only lets you impact the on-ice product, game-to-game, and season-to-season. Working upstairs gives you the opportunity to leave a more lasting imprint on a franchise.

There are currently two front-office job openings with the Flyers: general manager and president of hockey operations. At one time, Brière, 45, would have been interested in either role. But since being named interim general manager and replacing Chuck Fletcher on March 10, the taste of the job has him fully focused on GM and working to shed his “interim” tag.

“If it changes along the way, it changes, and someone else will come in,” Brière said. “But I have the feeling I’ll be here for a long time. That’s kind of how I’m working, that’s how I’m preparing, that’s what I’m envisioning in my plan for the future.”

Unlike Fletcher, Brière’s hockey experience stems from being a player. But he was never an ordinary player.

In 973 NHL games, Brière racked up 307 goals and 696 points and was twice named an All-Star. The 5-foot-9, 174-pound forward played some of his best hockey in Philadelphia, averaging 0.77 points per game over six seasons and building a reputation as one of the league’s top playmakers and clutch performers. Brière led the entire playoffs in scoring in 2010 while helping the Flyers reach their first Stanley Cup Finals in 12 years.

Doan, who is now the Coyotes’ chief hockey development officer, remembers Brière before all of that. He recalls standing behind Brière at a World Juniors camp and wondering how such a small player would ever make it. Doan was far from the only one to underestimate the diminutive player. But Brière was constantly finding ways to stand out.

“And he scored on a slap shot from just inside the blue line on [goalie Dan] Cloutier,” Doan recalled. “And I was like, ‘Holy cow, this kid has some big cojones on him, because he’s not afraid of any situation.’”

In Phoenix, Doan was consistently amazed by the way a young Brière approached the game. After the NHL adjusted the hash marks around faceoff circles in 1996, Doan said Brière practiced taking shots off the half-wall, trying to figure out how to utilize them to better line up his shots and passes.

“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s another level of thinking,’ " Doan said.

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As Brière moved from team to team, other teammates had similar experiences. Former Flyers captain Claude Giroux saw him as an older brother figure. Center Sean Couturier, who lived with Brière, saw him as a father-like role model, as did former linemate and current St. Louis Blue Brayden Schenn.

Even as a veteran, Brière remained a student of the game. He thought everything through about three or four times — whether it was hockey or not, Giroux said, and he was always analyzing specific plays and players, Schenn recalled.

Having made his own transition from the ice to the front office, Doan said the most important things are building relationships and figuring out how to get the most out of the people around you. Brière has always excelled in those areas.

But while his skill set was suited for a job in management, Brière’s resume wasn’t. After his playing career, he started to explore his options, shadowing then-Flyers president Paul Holmgren, helping out with rehab skates, and talking to people around the organization.

“You could tell he was kind of learning different aspects of being in the management,” Couturier said.

During this process, Brière gained experience in both business and hockey operations. In 2017, he was named president and director of operations for the ECHL’s Maine Mariners (who are also owned by Comcast Spectacor). In five seasons there, he oversaw the day-to-day operations of the club and had his fingers in everything from ticket sales to hockey ops to graphic design (Brière helped design the team’s logo).

Peter Laviolette, Brière’s coach with the Flyers, says he respects the way he has ascended through the management ranks the traditional way.

“He wasn’t gifted a job in the NHL,” Laviolette said. “He started at a lower level.”

When Valerie Camillo, president & CEO of Spectacor Sports & Entertainment, first met Brière, she was first struck by his humility.

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“He came into that meeting just as he was, like an executive working for a minor league property,” Camillo said. “And there was no bluster, no bravado about him, none of that subtext of like, so you know who I am, right?”

She was impressed by the way he blended analytical and creative thinking, gut feeling, and statistics. He also was eager to learn.

At Camillo’s urging, Brière enrolled in the two-year general management program at Penn’s Wharton School of Business, attending college at the same time as his sons. Laviolette joked that they could all do their homework together.

“He’s someone that even in his post-playing career has brought that same grind, that same competitiveness, that same fire for self-improvement,” Camillo said. “And he’s done it in unglamorous ways, right? Like, he’s gone to school.”

With sports growing more complex, it’s become even more important for team leaders to be comfortable analyzing data and financials, Camillo said, and Wharton helped set that foundation for Brière as he studied finance, marketing, and quantitative analysis.

Brière also gained experience in scouting, management, and development with the Mariners, giving him an intimate understanding of how different aspects of a front office have to work together.

“Then, all of a sudden, I was asked out of the blue to interview for the Montreal Canadiens GM role,” Brière said. “I didn’t see it coming.”

Through the interview process, Brière was forced to “put my GM hat on,” as he provided his evaluations of players and explained his team-building strategies. The process got him thinking about the possibility of becoming an NHL GM.

It got the Flyers thinking, too. Shortly after, they named Brière “special assistant to general manager,” on Feb. 8, 2022.

Working under Fletcher, Brière combined his experience as a player evaluating the game through the eye test with his study of analytics. This included working with the analytics department to create a first-of-its-kind project for the Flyers involving winger Travis Konecny. The results? A career season for Konecny, who scored 30 goals and saw his shooting percentage improve by 9%.

» READ MORE: How analytics have fueled Travis Konecny’s breakout season with the Flyers

When the Flyers decided to move on from Fletcher last month, Brière was promoted on an interim basis. It wasn’t a move that surprised Giroux.

“I think he’s always been trying to evaluate teams and trades and all that stuff,” Giroux said. “And I think he’s just a smart hockey guy. He’s been around a lot. … So I think he’s always been around, always intrigued by the business side of the game.”

After years of observing the pieces, it’s finally Brière’s turn to put the puzzle together.

The complex set of puzzle pieces the Flyers currently possess, from a mediocre prospect pool to their tight cap situation, might be daunting for some, but Brière is someone who goes looking for the hardest jigsaw he can find.

Brière assumed the interim role at a pivotal time for the Flyers. For the second year in a row, they are guaranteed a top-10 draft pick. It’s the first time since 1991 and 1992 that the Flyers will pick that high in consecutive seasons. They also face key decisions on several highly paid veterans who have long been part of the team’s core but who may no longer fit the organization’s new direction.

» READ MORE: Danny Brière discusses rebuild timeline, key veterans’ futures, and more in his exit interview

But with John Tortorella having just completed his first season as coach, a new chairman in Daniel Hilferty, a new GM (in all likelihood Brière), and a still-to-be-hired new president of hockey operations, the Flyers are clearly trying to turn the page. They’re no longer straddling the line between trying to win now and building for the future, something Brière stated clearly at his first news conference when he said he’s not afraid of the word “rebuild.” He has a vision, and getting the organization on board with the idea of a long process was essential.

While he still has the “interim” label for now, Brière has been instructed to act as he sees fit in what is essentially a real-time tryout. His decisions in the upcoming draft and in free agency, assuming he’s hired on a full-time basis, will have an impact for years to come. That excites Brière, and he said he feels it might give him a leg up.

The Flyers don’t expect the hiring process to “lag,” Camillo said. But with Brière at the helm now and potentially long-term, the players trust they’re headed in the right direction. Brière has first-hand knowledge of what it takes to succeed in the playoffs, Couturier pointed out, and that adds to his credibility.

“With Danny, only time will tell, but I’m pretty confident he’s got the tools and hockey IQ to succeed as a general manager,” Couturier said.

Brière has long envisioned the bigger picture for his career and methodically worked his way into position to seize the opportunity when it came. That opportunity, the interim GM position and potentially the full-time role, has given him a chance to do the same with the Flyers: picture a brighter future and lay out a step-by-step path to make it a reality. While he has no specific timeline for the team’s rebuild, he’s in it for the long haul, he said, if the Flyers will allow him to see the process out.

“It was important to me to have the chance to do it the right way,” Brière said. “It’s important to have a little bit of a reset and think about the future and not just be a team that’s going to get into the playoffs. [It’s] more I want to try to build a team that whenever they get to the playoffs, they’re going to be a team that’s going to be a contender for years to come.”