The most divisive thing within the Philadelphia Flyers fan base is whether or not this current rebuilding plan is going to work. Instead of going with the typical rebuild in the NHL, where a team trades just about everything valuable on their team or any player over the age of 25, to then absolutely suck for at least three or four seasons, draft very high to get elite prospects and then build their new team around that, the Flyers did something much more unorthodox.
The Flyers decided to keep their team largely in-tact and the front office led by Danny Briere decided to do more trimming around the edges. There was a fair amount of rebuilding trades — moving Ivan Provorov, trading Sean Walker when the team was in the playoff mix, and the Scott Laughton trade are the obvious ones — but if the Flyers decided to do more of a traditional rebuild, players the likes of Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim would have been immediately sent elsewhere for whatever package of picks and prospects they could get.
Now, the Flyers have found themselves in an interesting spot. They are still one of the youngest teams in the league and coming off a season of overperformance and a solid playoff appearance for where they are at. It is clearly a step forward and now for next season, there are true expectations. Maybe not of playoffs, since it’s not like they are a lock and other teams could potentially leapfrog them in the division standings — but they should at least take a step forward and have their young players maybe take larger roles.
How they got to this point has still been a hot debate and now general manager Briere has been able to say a little bit more on why they went down the path that they did.
Flyers ‘never believed in a complete teardown’ rebuild
In a recent interview with RG, Briere touched on a variety of topics but it all really kicked off with the talk of the rebuild and how and why the Flyers went with a different plan than normal. Instead of doing what the San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks, and countless others have done, why did they think it was best to keep some players around and not go all-in on the future?
“When we started this, it was a rebuild, but it wasn’t a complete teardown. We never believed in a complete teardown, where you try to lose on purpose,” Briere said. “We just feel that that’s very dangerous for the identity of your team, and we feel it’s really hard to get out of that once you’re going into games, and you know there’s no hope, you know management just wants you to lose to have a better draft pick. So, that’s always the line we were playing with, we didn’t want to get below that. We wanted to remain [ambitious] and put out a team that’s competitive and develops players that want to win every single night, and have the expectation to win. It’s just a dangerous way to go when you have to rebuild the identity of your team as well.”
We’ve heard the reasons before, since from the beginning the Flyers have been clear that they are not going to be doing the full teardown, but now that they’re slightly coming out of it and aiming a bit higher, Briere seems to be more open with what their plans have been.
The visualization of them not wanting to go down below a certain “line” feels like a good way to put it and have it be so, so clear. They didn’t want to sink so low that it becomes extremely hard to come out of it. Even a team like the San Jose Sharks with their literal generational talent and other several top-10 selections, still didn’t make the playoffs in a terrible Pacific Division and might only make the playoffs this upcoming season because of that terrible Pacific Division.
That is a team that sunk so deep below that supposed line, and have now powered through the muck and sludge to come out of it several years later, and still, nothing is promised. Instead of putting themselves in quicksand, they decided to hover over it, sink a little bit lower, but remain at a certain level so that when they needed to turn it around, they could do it so easily.
It’s not perfect but that’s their thought process. Add in the little bit of context that they want to keep a certain culture in-tact and not create a bit of a loser mentality in a Sabres-esque way, and that basically sums up their plan.
But what about these specific players? Are they the right group to consider this rebuild a success?
Briere ‘feels lucky’ to acquire some of the talent he did
Briere continued to touch on the specific players and how they fit into the rebuilding plan. Are they good enough to do so and do they play the right position?
“As far as finding the right players that you want for the future, we were also fortunate that we had some really good veterans to kind of lead the way and buy into what we were doing, you know — (Travis) Sanheim, (Travis) Konecny and (Sean) Couturier — to lead our group through a couple tough years.
“We were also fortunate in the draft to pick up a guy like Michkov and a guy like Martone, where they fell down a little bit from probably where they should have gone, and that gave us the chance to have two really good young players. Yeah, they’re not centers or No. 1 defensemen, but you look at the teams that win, and see there’s different ways to win. Carolina didn’t have a super high-end No. 1 center and still won the Stanley Cup this year,” Briere said.
“So, If we have the chance, we’re certainly looking and we’re trying, and I think the offer sheet this summer showed that. But at the same time, we feel we have a really good group of players that are growing and moving in the right direction to remain competitive and to try to make the playoffs again this season.”
That’s really everything, isn’t it? The Flyers went ahead and were fine with that leadership group of veterans up top, keeping them in-tact. Then they really did sort of luck into drafting players like Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov — two wingers who realistically should’ve gone higher if we were to rank the players in their classes based on just pure talents. But, then with what they have done so far leaves them with a couple massive holes for the future at No. 1 center and another top-pairing defenseman along with Sanheim.
But, Briere then makes the argument about the Carolina Hurricanes and their extremely consistent success and how it has led them to a Stanley Cup, and they did it all without those things. They just have a bunch of very, very good players and won with that mentality. It seems like the Flyers are trying to do the same — and maybe even have those two young wingers be better than any forward the Hurricanes currently have, when they reach their potential.
Either way, how they got here has been extremely contentious since some fans would have loved for them to go the way of the 2014-15 Buffalo Sabres and trade just about anyone who is capable of scoring a goal or stopping a puck. That just wasn’t going to be the Flyers’ plan as they wanted to avoid the misery of heading into a season knowing they are going to be one of the worst teams in the NHL.
We will just have to wait and see if it was the right call.
