Philadelphia Flyers general manager Danny Briere met with the media following the opening round of the 2025 NHL Draft where they selected winger Porter Martone at sixth overall, and then traded up to select center Jack Nesbitt at 12th overall. Here’s what he had to say:
On whether size played a factor in the two first-round picks:
“Not really. The priority with pick number one was to get the best player available. He’s the only winger in the first 12 picks I think today. We said it all along, ‘Yeah we would’ve preferred a center.’ But we felt we couldn’t pass up on the chance to bring a difference maker like Porter Martone to the team. With the second selection, because we didn’t get to jump in on a center on that spot, we wanted to jump in and make sure we got a center. A center that could be a difference maker, and you saw the rate that the centers were going, Jack was going pretty soon after our pick. We know that so we made the trade to try to get up and get quality over quantity in that case.
It’s a nice bonus that they’re both tall and bring us size as well. But it just kind of worked out that way. It wasn’t a plan that we had in mind going into the draft that we wanted to get bigger. It just happened that way. If you look at the draft last year after Luchanko we got some big guys with Berglund, Ruohonen, Gill. So we do have size coming up, this was just a nice bonus on top of it.”
On Martone’s path into his NHL career and if Briere saw him play at the World Championships:
“I wasn’t there at the Worlds. We had some scouts at the Worlds but I did watch the games. I think it’s fair to say, his body, the way he’s built, he’s a little bit bigger, thicker guy and a little older too. I think he’s an October birthday. So he’s a little older than most players out there. He’s a really good player already, he’s pretty close to being ready. I don’t know if it’s going to be the right thing to play him this year in the upcoming season. But we’ll see. If there’s one thing I would say it’s that in this draft in the first round, he’s close to being the most ready out of that group. To be able to select him at six for us we feel…I wouldn’t say it was a steal. We had him higher on our board with the talent but obviously everybody is looking for centers. You saw that earlier in the draft this year.”
On why Nesbitt was worth making the trade to move up:
“The package, the combination of the size, the grit, the playmaking abilities, the goal-scoring already. We saw him play in the second half of this season and he took a big step on a really good Windsor team. I saw him play a few times live as well, he was very impressive. I think he’s a little further away on his development than Porter. We’ll maybe have to be a little more patient in his case. I think he’s going to be a pretty special player who maybe has a chance at even being as high as a top six or second-line center. If he hits as a second-line center it’s going to be a huge asset down the road for us.”
On both picks having skating as an issue among scouts:
“It’s not that we don’t look at the skating, we do. We look at the strides and we don’t feel it’s a fatal flaw. It made me think of Tyson Foerster when we drafted him, that was the big knock on him, he can’t skate, he’ll never be able to play in the NHL, he’s way too slow. When you watch Tyson play now it’s not an issue anymore. Not to say he’s a speedster out there, he doesn’t stand out, his skating is not a problem. It took time and strength to grow into their bodies, especially when you’re 6’3″, 6’4″, 6’5″ in the case of those players. It takes time but we believe he’ll get over it.”
On whether you considered trading up for Martone if you thought another team with a higher draft pick was going to take him:
“We looked at it, and I got a couple of calls from other teams for our pick before (taking Martone), after the Nashville pick. It was in my mind pretty clear that Porter was starting to slide, they were calling for him, I’m pretty sure. At that point it was clear for us. We never really considered moving up because we knew we were going to get a good player, we weren’t worried about that. But we felt if Porter was there at six even though he wasn’t a center that it would be really tough to go by him. It’s not a secret, I said it from the get-go, we wanted centers. But Porter in that range was the one guy we felt we just couldn’t let go by.”
On Martone mentioning the Flyers who inspired him (Giroux, Simmonds, Laughton):
“Well it’s all part of the package. He’s got some grit, he’s got some physicality, he likes to mix in, he likes to yap a bit like TK does too. We all know Claude Giroux liked to yap as well. It’s all part of the package. It’s more than just that with Porter, he’s got a really good shot, he can make great plays on top of the size, the grit and being a disturber. I think it’s all part of what makes him special.”
On whether acquiring Trevor Zegras influenced the sixth selection and taking a winger:
“No, it did to. It gives up more options getting Trevor Zegras, another skilled guy that can make a lot of plays. It’s exciting. It didn’t change, even if we hadn’t traded for Trevor, we still would’ve taken Porter at that point, at six in the draft.”
On where the Flyers are now in terms of addressing the center issue:
“I wish they were ready to play now, I’d feel a little better. I wish we had a center that we didn’t have to wait for. The reality is they’re very rarely available, top six centers especially, even top nine, they’re tough to find these days. So in the short term it doesn’t really fix our problem. But in three, four, five years from now I think we’ll be in a much better position. Don’t forget guys like Berglund and Ruohonen that we drafted as well are kind of on their way too. We’ll see how they develop. We hope that they’re going to be in the mix as well.”
On whether the pipeline at center is good enough now for contention:
“Well it depends on how far out you’re thinking. It’s not like we have a lot of centers on the big team. Sean [Couturier] is in his early 30’s, five years from now is he going to be as effective? We don’t know. We have Noah Cates, thank god Torts turned him into a center. And with Trevor we hope that will help. But it’s not like we’re overloaded at the moment with centers. We’re still going to be on the lookout in the short-term to get some help there.”
On whether could be primed for an offensive breakout next season in junior:
“I think so, I think he’s just touching into what he can become in the second half. And this was a 17-year-old season in the OHL. Not too many players are difference makers at that age. He was at a point-a-game at his age at that size. I think next year he’ll take another step. At least we hope so, that’s what we see. We’re pretty confident that he’s just touching the tip of the iceberg for his development part. It’s not going to happen overnight. But we’re ecstatic to have the chance to have those two guys. Trying to get some sleep last night it wasn’t easy. I tried to sleep this afternoon and I didn’t get a minute of sleep. If I had known those two were the guys we were going to get I would’ve slept a lot better last night and this afternoon.”
On whether it was easy to give up the thirty-first pick with the handful of second-round picks held and whether they will use those picks.
“I do expect to. We had some offers to jump back in late in the first round or some second-round picks. We gave up a second to get Zegras, we gave up the thirty-first to move up and get Jack Nesbitt. I wasn’t ready to keep giving up picks. At some point we want to have some bullets down the road. We feel that going into tomorrow, those picks at #36 and #40 eventually will be pretty powerful. There’s going to be a lot of teams sitting tonight looking at the board and watching some names go by and think, ‘Oh my god, they’re still on.” I remember being in that spot the last couple of years and going to sleep and thinking, ‘Man this player and that player are still on the board. I wish I could get back in.’ So we’re fortunate enough to have those two picks early in the second round. I think a lot of teams wish they had. There might be somebody who’s willing to get back in and give us something good that we can’t turn down.”
On whether Nesbitt’s growth the last season helped in choosing him. And did Briere contact Konecny, Travis Sanheim and Tyson Foerster on Martone:
“Jack Nesbitt, I didn’t think he had a great U-18 to be honest. I watched him play. I thought it was a good thing that maybe some teams were going to ease off on him. But after talking to a few people, it didn’t seem to be the case. They saw what he did in Windsor coming down the stretch. He was going to go early, unfortunately. That’s why we knew if we wanted him we needed to move up.
On those three guys, I did talk to them. They were pretty fired up, I got a text from both Travises and they were really pumped. And I spoke to Tyson who was at the Skate Zone the last few days. He couldn’t say more good things about Porter and trying to convince me to take him.”
