Flyers Exit Interviews: Briere Focuses on Coaching Search, the Stage of Adding

Danny Briere’s first two seasons as Flyers GM have come with their fair dose of out of the ordinary. His first season, in 2023-24, featured an unlikely playoff run, as the team continued to make subtractions in the offseason leading up to it. 

This past offseason, there were more subtractions, but one big addition, getting Matvei Michkov to come over from Russia and start his NHL career. But the regular season featured plenty of subtraction again. The Flyers traded Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, and Scott Laughton. They acquired, then flipped, Andrei Kuzmenko. And with nine games to go in the regular season, they fired John Tortorella.

Before turning attention to the roster, that will be Briere’s primary focus of the offseason. The Flyers need to find a new head coach. And it will be one they expect to be here at the completion of the rebuild, making it a critical decision.

“In the short run, I think it’s fair to say. That will probably be the first thing, or the most important thing, we address,” Briere said. “To be honest, we haven’t started interviewing or really even made a short list yet. So, the last couple of days I have met with the players and went through the year-end interviews with the players. So, that’s been my last day and a half. I haven’t met with the coaches yet, haven’t met with the rest of the staff so that will come in the next few days, that will be the next step. But there is no doubt the coaching search will be an important one.”

Part of meeting with the coaching staff will be interim head coach Brad Shaw. The Flyers finished the season 5-3-1 after the coaching change, and Shaw has managed to get improved results from players he’s worked closely with over the last three seasons. Briere said that Shaw will be in the running to be the next head coach, but there is a long process ahead to determine who gets the job.

“He did a really good job coming in,” Briere said. “It was kind of a different approach than obviously Torts had, and some guys really stepped up and seemed like they were a little freer. Shawsy will be in the running and we will consider him. He’s done a good job. We’ve been impressed with him since he was here even under Torts. So, he will be in the running but again, we aren’t at that stage yet.”

One of the possible reasons for the improved play down the stretch was having a coach with a different style than Tortorella. Briere said that it’s essentially a guarantee that the next head coach, whether it remains Shaw or somebody else, will have a milder approach than Tortorella.

“I don’t think there’s very many options that are going to be as demanding as Torts,” Briere said. “So, in that regard, our guys are pretty sturdy. They’ve learned the hard way under Torts. Anybody that comes in will seem a lot milder than Torts I would expect. So, it’s definitely going to be someone who’s going to be less vocal and hard than Torts was.”

Briere also noted that while Tortorella’s biggest contributions to the team was accountability within the room, the freedom to be creative on the ice and let talent come through will be important. Players like Michkov (six goals, 12 points), Tyson Foerster (nine goals), and Jakob Pelletier (three goals, five points) had increased production with different roles, ice time, and seemingly freer play in the final nine games after the coaching change. Briere feels that playing like that could maximize the talent the roster currently has.

“We have a younger team that is just starting to come together and just starting to explore how good they can be. So those are things that you consider when you talk to a coach,” Briere said. “I really like what Torts did the last few years to be honest. He made them accountable. He was hard but he demanded a lot. The accountability part I think is really going to leave something good for the next coach that comes in. And now it’s finding a coach that can take it to another level.

“But at the same time, maybe give them a little bit more freedom to the players to try things, to let their talent come out. We saw a little bit of that with Shawsy. The last few years even before I was GM in the organization, we kept hearing, the Flyers don’t have enough skill, enough talent. That was kind of always the thing that was holding us back.”

So, what are the Flyers looking for in the next head coach? Briere had said right away that a teaching element was important. As more information has surfaced since Tortorella was let go, another aspect has certainly come to the forefront.

“First of all, I always think communication is important,” Briere said. “So that is going to be something we look into. I mentioned the day after or was it the same day we let go of Torts, someone that can come in and teach will be an important one as well. Communication and teaching are probably two things that will be at the forefront of our next coach. Just when you have a young team in place, I really think those two attributes are extremely important.”

A Shift from Subtracting to Adding

One of the common themes from the players was a belief that the Flyers are not too far off from being back in the playoffs. After five years without a playoff appearance, it’s exciting to hear, but also leaves plenty of skeptics.

Over the last five seasons, the Flyers have had their share of shortcomings and unfortunate events. They haven’t been able to explore many outside additions, due to a lack of cap space and assets, as well as being less of a destination with the state of the franchise. They essentially had to rebuild the reputation of the organization from the ground up, with the New Era of Orange initiative starting at an ownership level.

On the ice, the prospect of having multiple high-end players preparing to enter the mix left a lot to be desired. Michkov’s arrival and rookie-season performance was certainly exciting, but trading away Cutter Gauthier, a Top-5 pick in 2022, becomes more of a wasted opportunity to already have a second high-end prospect in place on an NHL roster.

In an effort to make that push for a playoff spot more of a reality, the team has to shift in its approach. Over the last two seasons, the Flyers have really maximized the resources they have. They enter the offseason with a projected $24.7 million in cap space. They have seven draft picks in the first two rounds, all falling within the Top 48 of the draft. So, to Briere, the time has come where a shift is necessary.

“It’s no secret that last year we probably overachieved from what the expectations were. This year we underachieved but I still feel that we’re a much better team and much closer than where we finished in the standings,” Briere said. “I’ve always said the players would kind of dictate that. There are guys that really took a big step forward. There are a few guys that regressed, but I don’t think we’re that far off. I think we’re at a stage now where we’re going to shift a little bit from subtracting from the roster into trying to start to add and help the team. 

“The last two years there has been a lot of trying to figure out what we had under our belt, where our players are, and where we are moving forward. Now we’re just starting to have our players that we feel moving forward. The exciting part for me is all the young guys that have taken a step in the last couple years. Then all of a sudden, the guys that we started drafting a couple years ago are starting to turn pro. You want that internal competitiveness to force the guys, and that was kind of my message to a lot of the players that we’re getting to a point now where the guys that we were drafting a couple years ago are starting to turn pro.”

Briere had a list of players he felt were challenging for spots on the roster right away. The season started with 2024 first-round pick Jett Luchanko on the roster. They just signed college prospects Alex Bump, Devin Kaplan, and Karsen Dorwart. Denver Barkey, the team’s third-round pick from 2023, will be turning pro next season. They acquired Nikita Grebenkin from Toronto in the Laughton deal. 

On the back end, Emil Andrae, Adam Ginning, and Helge Grans each got time in the NHL this season. Hunter McDonald remains high on the team’s list of prospect defensemen. And 2023 first-round pick Oliver Bonk is also expected to turn pro next season. Briere believes all of them can push for roster spots in the 2025-26 season. Having that many prospects in position to challenge for NHL jobs is what excites Briere.

“To me, that’s the exciting part. That was my message to the players is that three or four years ago, we didn’t have a lot of prospects. We had one prospect that was pushing to make the team,” Briere said. “Now we are starting to see guys starting to come in. The following year is going to be even more. All that combined, the guys cannot be satisfied with where they are, and I think when you start creating that internal competition it forces them to take the next step.” 

Many people will hear addition and immediately think about the possibility of being on the buyer side of a trade or signing free agents. Briere believes that the subtraction the team has done positions them to explore that option, but that they won’t be on a shopping spree either.

“The other part of it is removing or subtracting some of the contracts, which has created a little bit of cap space going into next season that we didn’t think we would have until the following summer. There’s a little bit of a window to add from the outside,” Briere said. “We’re not going to be able to fix every problem, but it would be nice to be able to add a player or two to come in and help on that front if the situation is right. That also should help.”

The Offseason Plan

So as things shift into the offseason, how does Briere plan to address the team needs. As much as the team internally feel close to taking a step toward the playoffs, there is still the lack of high-end talent and improvement needed at key positions.

If the Flyers can address some of those needs in the offseason, then sure, an improvement in the standings is highly likely. But what if the market isn’t there for the Flyers to add on a significant level? What if next season becomes more of the same until they feel ready to really take on the market? How does that influence their most important offseason decision behind the bench?

“I think it’s part of it. You try to be careful with that too. If you find the right coach that you also believe can take you there but also help you win, that’s a no brainer,” Briere said. “It will depend on who is available. I think I’ll have a better gauge for that once I start the interview process, and we start kind of having a short list to that. Hopefully, you find the coach that can do it all. Most coaches will tell you they can do it all and some have, some have not. If it’s a rookie coach, we will learn along the way so it’s going to be tough to tell.”

Many look at the Flyers abundance of draft picks and think that there are possibilities to utilize those picks for more immediate talent in trades. Briere certainly recognizes that there is an opportunity to get more creative with those picks.

“We are going to try to be creative, to create some value there,” Briere said. “That is the goal when you make a trade, you try to create some value for your team. It’s possible we use all picks but there is a good chance we look at different things. It could be acquiring a player. It could be packaging picks to move up. It could be pushing picks back to other years. There is no doubt that it is a lot of picks; seven in the first two rounds, eight I think in the top 70. That is a lot of picks. 

“When you look down the road, in two years when these guys start to turn pro, that is a lot of players in the same group, so we will try to be careful. That doesn’t need to be done right away. If we don’t like the value in return, we can make all the picks and then use those players as assets later on. There are all kinds of possibilities here. I think it’s really exciting going into it. It’s powerful to have so many picks like that. I think a lot of teams will want to have discussions with us and make some things happen. Teams that don’t have picks or want to tweak things.”

One of those picks, the Flyers own selection in the first round, is guaranteed to be Top-6 after finishing with the fourth-best draft lottery odds. That could help the Flyers get another player that falls into Michkov’s category, young high-end talent, particularly at the center position. Beyond that, the Flyers will explore another avenue for potentially adding to the roster: offer sheets. 

There is a belief that with the abundance of draft picks and cap space, the Flyers are poised to be aggressive in that market. Briere pumps the brakes on that a bit, noting that while they have the resources to utilize that tool, they need to make sure it’s for the right player.

“It is a tool that we are going to look into. It has to make sense, and the thing is when you go down that route, you have to overpay for a player,” Briere said. “I don’t know if we are that flush with money that we can really be all that aggressive, but we are certainly going to take a look at it. If it makes sense, we will consider it.”

The mention of outside help put an immediate focus on the most important position on the ice: goaltending. The Flyers finished the season with a league-worst .872 save percentage. 

It is clearly a position that needs an upgrade. That said, where will the Flyers find that upgrade? 

They have two prospects in the system drafted in the 2023 NHL Draft. Carson Bjarnason is also turning pro after a career in the WHL, and Yegor Zavragin has turned heads with outstanding play as a 19-year-old in the KHL. Both are still at least one season away, if not more, and drafting a goalie at this year’s draft would equally start a long development process.

Briere said the Flyers could also look outside the organization for goaltending help going forward.

“It’s definitely an area that we need along the way. We need some better play,” Briere said. “Maybe it’s from the outside, but it has to make sense. It’s an area that we need to be better at.”

The Flyers have Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov still under contract for one more season. Aleksei Kolosov has one more season left on his entry-level deal, after going through a roller-coaster season between the NHL and AHL. Briere said that evaluating goaltending based on the numbers can be faulty at times, since other aspects on the ice come into play, but also noted all three goalies know where the team stands on goaltending.

“The goaltending wasn’t good enough. That’s a reality, but it’s too simple to just say, blame everything on the goalie. There are other parts that weren’t good but also realize the goalies did not play to the expectations we had,” Briere said. “There’s a lot more issues that go into it. I’ve talked to all the goalies. They know they have a lot to prove, and it’s not going to be good enough to come back at the same level. If we have a chance to improve, we’re going to have to seriously consider it.”

It sounds like all part of the process of shifting from subtraction to addition, the next big step in the Flyers rebuild timeline.