Flyers GM Danny Brière confident team is ‘going to get a good player’ in next week’s NHL draft

The NHL draft is quickly approaching and will mark the second draft of the Flyers’ rebuilding plan under the new regime.

The front office took a big swing a year ago by selecting Matvei Michkov with the seventh overall pick. They have 10 selections in this year’s draft on June 28, highlighted by the No. 12 overall selection.

General manager Danny Brière met with the media Thursday to discuss his draft philosophy, recent trade speculation, and the Flyers’ plans with their restricted free agents. Here are the main takeaways from Brière’s remarks:

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The Flyers stood pat at No. 12 overall in the draft lottery, but that doesn’t mean they’ll stay that way in Vegas next week. According to Brière, everything is on the table — even moving back.

“If we move up, we might have to give up a pick or two. But if the value is worth it to move up, to give up a pick on the back end to pick a player that we really love, we’ll jump on it,” he said. “On the flip side, if there’s a clump of players that we feel comfortable with, we might try to move back to acquire more assets.”

Having 10 picks in both the 2024 and 2025 drafts, he said, gives the Flyers more flexibility in how they can move. The parity of this year’s first round also opens things up.

“There’s a lot of good players, especially in the top probably 16, 17 of the draft,” Brière said. “We’re [going to] get a good player. That’s how we feel. It might be the same player at seven, eight, nine, that we might get at 12 and maybe at 15 or 16. It’s really a tough one to predict. Probably more than in the past.”

When it comes to his philosophy at the draft table, Brière said that early on he’s looking for the best prospect available, whereas deeper in the draft is when he will try to focus on organizational needs.

“I hope that we can diversify and kind of bring all types of players,” he said. “Smaller, bigger, faster, more hockey sense. Those are probably some of the things we look at. The hockey sense is an important one. The speed is a very important one. Position, we try to diversify as much as possible.”

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Last year, in the lead-up to Brière’s first draft as general manager, he traded Kevin Hayes to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for a sixth-round pick. The rumor mill was buzzing on Wednesday with speculation that he might be similarly active this week, as unconfirmed reports swirled about a trade in the works between the Flyers and the Ottawa Senators.

Brière downplayed those reports on Thursday, while also emphasizing that the Flyers are still open for business.

“I wouldn’t say there’s anything imminent in our case at this point,” he said. “But I expect things to keep ramping up. If it makes sense, we’re going to jump on it.”

According to Brière, the Flyers also don’t expect to “do much” when free agency opens on July 1.

“The reality is we have a lot of dead money going into year two in my tenure,” he said. “But that was the plan. Also, we acquire assets to help us for the future, picks and stuff. So this summer is going to be tough. Next summer should ease up a little bit more, but still going to be a little bit of a crunch. But looking further towards the future, I think it’s going to hopefully get easier as the cap rises, [and] hopefully again next summer.”

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Brière confirmed that the Flyers intend to extend qualifying offers to the Flyers’ restricted free agents — Egor Zamula and Bobby Brink — with the “one caveat” being Carter Hart.

Hart, who is also a restricted free agent this season, was granted an indefinite leave of absence from the Flyers for personal reasons on Jan. 23. He, alongside four other players from the 2018 Canadian World Junior team, was later charged with sexual assault in connection to an alleged incident in London, Ontario. NHL teams with any of those players under contract this past season — the Flyers, New Jersey Devils, and Calgary Flames — received salary-cap relief from the league.

Hart and his codefendants are awaiting a trial date, which could be sometime in April 2025. The five players have not been suspended by the NHL, and Brière said the Flyers are still waiting for guidance from the league before determining if they will extend Hart a qualifying offer.

“As of right now, the status quo would be that whatever rights the CBA set forth for clubs and players will adhere,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a joint news conference with commissioner Gary Bettman on June 8. “We’ve talked generally with the players association about the possibility of revisiting that on some basis, but have no commitment with regard to that, so it’s quite possible that clubs will have the decision of qualifying or not as of the end of the month.”

Bettman then answered affirmatively to a question clarifying that the decision to qualify the players was up to the clubs.

“I did see that,” Brière said when asked about Daly and Bettman’s comments. “But we haven’t received any guidance. That was said publicly. We haven’t been told to do that yet. So we’re still waiting from for guidance from now as far as what we can do, what it is, and how it works out.”

Restricted free agents who are not extended qualifying offers by June 30 will become unrestricted free agents.

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