Part 1 of Q&A with Flyers GM Danny Briere: 2024 NHL Draft and Offseason Plans

In a matter of days, the second year of the New Era of Orange, helmed by Danny Briere, Keith Jones, John Tortorella, and Dan Hilferty, will begin for the Philadelphia Flyers. The 2024 NHL Draft will be a good place to start, namely by building off the success that was the 2023 NHL Draft.

Then comes the start of the NHL offseason immediately after, where the Flyers figure to be small players in the grand scheme of the market. Briere has made it clear that the team will be exploring all avenues when it comes to trades and signings, but in general, the front office has an outline of the way things will play out this summer.

Let’s start the Q&A with Briere with the draft, which kicks off on June 28, then move into the offseason.

Note: some questions and answers in this interview were edited for clarity. 

Bailey: You had the draft last year… do you feel you have an idea of how you want to do things now? Is there a specific philosophy?

Briere: “I want to diversify as much as possible. You need all kinds of players to build a team; you can’t have all the same types of players. I hope that I’m able to appreciate and see all kinds and types of players to help us build the best team possible. Yeah, we went with the high-end, skill guy last year with our first pick (Matvei Michkov)… you want to go with the best player available. Who knows what that will be? I don’t want to just narrow myself into that type of player. If that is, again, the best player, we’ll jump on it, but we want to be able to see and appreciate it all types of players and what they bring.”

Q: I’ve heard that some GMs, when they interview prospects, are more laid back, while others are more strict. Do you align with one of those styles, or are you more in the middle?

A: “I would say probably a little bit more towards the laid-back side. I let our staff run the interview. Once in a while, if there’s something I want to know, I might step in and ask a question. But for the most part, I let our guys run it. They’ve been doing it for years. I really think we have one of the best amateur scouting staffs around, led by Brent Flahr and what he’s done the last few years. Finding gems later in the draft, too. I’m very comfortable with the way our staff has done things and I rely on them a lot.”

Q: Does that process change, going from evaluating and talking to players to returning to the building with the Flyers?

A: “The longer they’re here, you build relationships with the players. I think it’s no secret–when I talk about Keith Jones, Dan Hilferty, and myself–we’re probably a little bit more present around our staff and coaches and players than most GMs or management teams do. Yeah, at the end of the day, the relationships we create, you get more comfortable, and it’s probably a little easier for the players to come and talk to you.

“When you meet players at the draft, you don’t have their rights, you’re limited in time, and you’re limited in, you interview 60 players, you might have three or four that you’ll select in the draft. It’s tougher to build a connection and relationship over, you know, 15 minutes. But once we do draft them, absolutely, we do dive into it. We get down to business, get to know everything about them. Try to put them in the best position possible for the players to develop and succeed down the road as a player.”

Q: You’ve already said you don’t discriminate in terms of position and going for who you feel is the best player available for the team… after everything that happened this year, are goalies still a priority?

A: “We’re certainly going to look into it. I don’t think this draft is as deep in goaltending as it was last year. I don’t… especially after spending two high picks on goalies last year (Carson Bjarnason and Egor Zavragin), I would probably say don’t expect a pick in the first three rounds on a goalie. Later in the draft, if there’s one of those guys that we like that’s still available–we have five picks down the stretch–I could see us taking a swing on a goalie later in the draft, but not early on.”

Q: Speaking of goalies, I’ve covered Ilya Nabokov a little bit and he’s an over-ager. Are you open to over-agers like him at this point?

A: “Absolutely! He’s had a great year. I think he won the championship last year. I think he’s going to go really early, probably higher than where we’re comfortable, but you never know! He’s certainly high on our list and someone that we have high regards for.”

Q: Going into free agency, you don’t expect a lot for the Flyers this summer?

A: “Look, you never know, but I wanted to preface it by saying we’re most likely not going to dip into that pool. You know, we’re not there, we’re still thinking about the future, still building this team from the ground up. We have a lot of work to do, so spending on free agency probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, on the higher-end contracts, at this point.”

Q: You have a lot of extensions you could sign on July 1,… Cam York, Noah Cates, Travis Konecny, Morgan Frost, Garnet Hathaway, Tyson Foerster. Are you planning on getting any of those done this summer?

A: “If something makes sense. We’re definitely going to look into it, but there’s also nothing wrong with letting them play and see how they keep developing. Guys like Cam York and Tyson Foerster are great examples of–for our young guys that we’re going to draft, guys that we drafted last year, guys that we’ve invested in their development–how to train, how to become professional hockey players, and you look at the big step they took last year. It was fun to see, and they’re great examples for our future Flyers to see, ‘Look, you put in the time, you take care of yourself, it pays off’.”

Q: Hathaway, out of that group, stands out as the veteran guy. Is he, or are you, open to having him stay beyond the last year of this current deal?

A: “Absolutely! He’s a player that brought us an identity with his heavy forechecking, his in-your-face type of hockey, and the way Torts wants them to play. Great leader… I really hope we find a way to keep him longer than just next year.”

Q: Have you talked with Erik Johnson to find out if he wants to continue playing and return to the Flyers?

A: “I think he wants to keep playing, and we’re trying to figure out how we can fit him in and if it makes sense. We saw the value that Marc Staal brought off the ice with our young players. We want to provide, if possible, that again, for our young guys. Experience in the NHL is tough to find, there’s a lot of value to it, and Erik Johnson is one of those ultimate professional, team leaders that everybody loves to have around. Can keep it light, has won a Stanley Cup; that’s a lot of value there. So, it’s something that we do have interest in.”

Q: If not Johnson, do you have other ideas of players who could be available who could fill that role?

A: “There’s a few examples of those guys, but I think Erik fits the bill that we’re kind of looking for. So, ideally, it would be here, it would be him. Last year, Marc Staal was a perfect fit in that regard. He’s not going to come back. It would be great if we could find away to make it work with Erik for, not just our defensemen, but the overall team. Just having a guy that’s a won a Stanley Cup is kind of nice to have, to teach a guy what needs to be done.”

Q: If it doesn’t work, would that open the door for a player like Adam Ginning to come in and rotate? Maybe Louie Belpedio?

A: “I don’t think Erik is in the way of that. Ginning, Ronnie Attard, Zamula will decide their ice time with their play. That’s what I want to make sure people understand. Signing Erik Johnson is not going to block those guys. Their play is going to dictate how much they’re going to play. We were very clear with Marc Staal last year that the young guys were going to get the first look, the first chance to play. If they weren’t ready, he would play more than expected , and if they were ready, probably play a little less.

“We gave Emil Andrae the look early on, had a really good camp, and it got tougher as the season got going and as the games got bigger in the regular season. But still, Zamula made his way onto the team. Marc Staal was not in the way of the development of those guys, and it’s going to be the same thing with Erik. He knows that. We’re very clear with him that if we come to an agreement, it’s going to be the same thing. He’s not going to be in the way of developing our young guys.”

Q: Shumi Babaev tweeted recently he would be talking to you guys soon about getting a deal done with Egor Zamula. Would you guys be looking at one year, maybe a few years? Where do you see Zamula right now?

A: “He’s a really interesting prospect, and he got better as the season went on. He brings something different that we don’t have a lot of. First of all, he’s got length. He’s got a really good stick. He can make plays, sometimes you’re hemmed in your own zone, he makes a breakout pass across the ice for your guy to go down and get down the ice. You don’t see a lot of that from defensemen, in general. There’s obviously risk with that, and sometimes it doesn’t work. And I think Egor has learned to manage that risk, when it’s worth it to try it and when it’s not worth it, depending on the time of the game and the score.

“He’s definitely a work in progress, but I thought he took tremendous steps last year. If he keeps going at the pace he’s going, he could be here for a long time. We’re open to different possibilities with him, one, two, three years depending on where they want to go, as long as it fits into what we want to do as well.”

Q: After signing Ginning, do you see it as him against Zamula? You have York, you have Seeler…

A: “The way we approach things, here, is that you have to earn everything. And if you earn it, we’ll make room for you. The best example is, last year we had Tanner Laczynski and Wade Allison pegged in. And then camp started and Ryan Poehling was way better than we expected. Bobby Brink came out of nowhere… we didn’t have him pegged in. Tyson Foerster we thought was going to start in the minors, maybe borderline–he was excellent.

“So we had to make room for them. They earned it. And that’s kind of the approach we have here. If you earn it, we’ll make room for you. But we also want to protect ourselves in case they’re not ready to go or, not earning it, basically. And that’s why those players like Erik Johnson come into play. We know we’re going to need him, there’s always injuries. You got to keep that in mind, too. You saw down the stretch we lost Risto, Drysdale, Seeler. That hurt us, losing all those guys, but luckily we were able to get a guy like Marc Staal coming in, and a guy like Erik Johnson, who we traded for. There’s going to be injuries along the way, and you need some depth on defense. Any position, for that matter.”

Q: Is it the same deal with Bobby Brink, where you’re open to one, two, or three years?

A: “Yeah, something that makes sense for both the player and the organization. Bobby, where I was really impressed with him was, he came in with a bang, had a little lull, went back to the minors, came back and played really well. Once we were eliminated, he went down and played extremely well. He had some games where he was the best player on the ice in the playoffs down there, and he competed hard.

“So, I expect Bobby to make the team next year, but again, he’s going to have to earn it. It’s not going to be just given to him. He’s going to have to earn it. That’s why we’ll be protected, in case he doesn’t earn it right from the beginning. We have to have some secondary option, but definitely we expect him to take another step forward. The way he played down the stretch was really encouraging for me last year.”

Q: Have you gotten any new information at all on Ryan Johansen? He’s one guy who has a big impact on the cap situation…

A: “As far as I know, he’s doing stuff that isn’t too invasive to see if it can rectify his issues. I think he’s coming in here next week to meet with our doctors and trainers, so we’re hoping to get a little more clarification on the rest of the summer and leading into camp and the season next year.”

Q: And how about Ryan Ellis? I know his issues predate your time in office here…

A: “As far as I know, there’s nothing new there. We don’t expect to have him play again. It doesn’t sound like playing again is a possibility. That’s about all I know. He’s not in the area; he moved back to Nashville and that’s where he’s doing his rehab. I don’t have a lot of information on him.”

Q: Should you need to, are you open to trading Ellis’s contract down the road?

A: “Yeah, absolutely. In season, we can put him on IR or LTIR, so it’s not that big of a deal. But yeah, if it’s something that can help another team, it’s something we can explore, for sure.”