After the relatively reclusive tenure of Chuck Fletcher as General Manager and President, and Dave Scott’s rare public appearances, it has been a relief to see GM Danny Briere and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones frequently communicating with fans. Just this month, Briere went on pregame with Jim Jackson and Brian Boucher to say “the plan hasn’t changed” and did an interview with Charlie O’Connor reiterating the same point. On a recent Central Division road trip, Keith Jones did an interview with All City’s DNVR, and did the same thing with NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Ashlyn Sullivan a few days later.
Even during your average weekday game, there’s a good chance one of Briere or Jonesy will make an appearance in the studio or broadcast booth for a quick interview.
While this may be the norm for other NHL front offices, the Philadelphia Flyers haven’t had management this public facing for quite some time. Even better, all the figureheads (including John Tortorella and Dan Hilferty) are unified in their messaging at every turn: rebuilding the Flyers is priority number one, and that isn’t changing any time soon.
Part of this emphasis on publicity is how far the Flyers have fallen in esteem–not only in the league, but in Philadelphia as a whole. Flyers fans have abandoned the team in droves in recent years; the team wasn’t just losing a lot, but it seemed like everyone in the front office had their heads in the sand, refusing to face the reality that the team–as constructed–was incapable of winning anything meaningful.
Now? Even with the best points percentage in the league since November 9th and a tenuous hold on third place in the Metropolitan Division, management hasn’t lost sight of what’s important: building a perennial Stanley Cup contending team. They are under no illusion that this short term success means everything is fixed.
It’s an exciting time to be a fan, because that focus on the future let’s us speculate on trade destinations for rostered players, and get excited about prospects that might move the needle or even become a top player in the league.
Of course, Danny Briere et al. still have to execute the plan. For once though, it feels like there actually is a plan–one that might just be crazy enough to work.
