Flyers’ GM on Hayes’ Future, the DeAngelo Feud, Changes

In his season-ending news conference Monday, interim general manager Danny Briere talked about a wide range of topics.

Among them:

• For Tony DeAngelo, a defenseman living in coach John Tortorella’s doghouse, it was “not a fun situation” because of the way his season ended.
• There is no timeline as to how long he expects the Great Rebuild to produce a Stanley Cup contender.
• Changes will be made this summer, and a Kevin Hayes trade is still murky.
• Briere doesn’t know when the Philadelphia Flyers will name a president of hockey operations — Ray Shero is believed to be the leader in the clubhouse — and he hasn’t been told when the GM search will end.

Those were the highlights as Briere, 45, spoke at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees.

The interim general manager’s tag is expected to soon be lifted, and Briere and assistant GM Brent Flahr are making plans for the draft and exploring potential moves.

The Flyers have lots of depth at right wing; they could look for a left winger, a center, and a defenseman in the offseason.

Coach John Tortorella made it clear Monday he was not happy with the defense, saying there were “no locks” on the blue line.

The Flyers finished with the NHL’s seventh-worst record. They have lots of needs. Briere was asked what position was No. 1 on his off-season wish list.

“It’s a little too early to dive into that,” he said. “I haven’t looked at exacty what positions (need the most help). At this point, we’re far from free agency. We’re trying to kind of gather information. There’s going to be some changes.”

Talent at RW

With Cam Atkinson back next season, the Philadelphia Flyers have lots of talent at right wing. Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Wade Allison and Bobby Brink are other right wingers.

Tippett could be shifted to left wing. He played there occasionally this season.

“On the left side, we might need some help there,” Briere acknowledged. “But, again, we’re not looking to go sign a big-time free agent with lots of term at the moment. We want to give our young players the opportunity to develop.  We want to see what we have before kind of blocking some of the young guys.”

Where does he see Kevin Hayes and defenseman Ivan Provorov fitting into the rebuild? Hayes will be 31 next month. Provorov is 26, and a veteran of seven seasons, but has has not lived up to the expectations he carried when he was drafted No. 7 overall in 2015.

Briere, perhaps trying to inflate their value, called them “two great players. Guys that have played well, have had great careers up to this point. We’ll see what happens.”

As for Hayes, who finished with 18 goals and 54 points, Briere said 6-foot-5 centers of his quality are “not easy to find.”

Hefty contract

But Hayes’ contract — a $7.1 million annual cap hit for the next three seasons — will make it difficult to trade him unless the Philadelphia Flyers eat some salary.

They could also buy out his contract.

“He’s got a lot of value,” Briere said. “I know at times, it might have not been the way he wanted the season to go, but we can’t forget he’s still a really good player.”

In the second half of the season, Tortorella dropped Hayes to the third line and greatly reduced his playing time.

“We’ll figure out what needs to be done with Kevin, and if he’s here or somewhere else,” Briere said, adding that at the moment, “we are assuming he’s going to be part of the team next year.  We’ll see as the summer develops, and if there’s different opportunities there.”

As for DeAngelo, Briere wouldn’t go into specifics as to why Tortorella made him a healthy scratch over the last five games. He has one year left on a contract that has a $5 million cap hit.

“Tony had an up-and-down season,” Briere said. “There were times where he was dominant, and there were times he was struggling. So it’s going to be a big summer for him. We’ll see how that goes, but it’s definitely not a fun situation at the moment for him the way things ended.”

Briere made it sound as if Travis Konecny — who scored a career-high 31 goals and has two years left on his contract ($5.5 million annual cap hit) — will remain in Philadelphia.

There’s a chance he tries to deal him while is value is extremely high, but Briere believes Konecny, who is only 26, will be an important piece even if the rebuild takes a while.

“He’s still young enough that he can be part of the rebuild,” Briere said.

No estimate

Briere, who said Tortorella was “very impressive” in his first year in Philadelphia and that he was “proud” of how hard the team competed, didn’t want to estimate how long the rebuild would take before the results were positive.

“I don’t have a number,” he said. “I really don’t know.”

He said he was excited about the young players’ progress, but injected some caution.

“We got excited at the at the end of the season because we’re playing better, we’re winning games, our younger guys are playing better and better,” he said. “But what happens next year if we come back and there’s a regression there? We’ve seen it many, many times over. So I want to be careful. I don’t know exactly where we are in the process.

“I wish I could give you a timeline, but I’d be lying,” he added. “I don’t know if it’s two years, or five years, or eight years. I really don’t know at this point.”

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