The Philadelphia Flyers moved Daniel Brière from running the day-to-day operations of the team’s ECHL affiliate, the Maine Mariners, to the role of a “Special Assistant to the General Manager,” whatever that means. Anyway, it’s a promotion for the former player that has not yet been made official but has been widely reported on.
Most recently, it was confirmed by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek, as they also touched on just what exactly that role will be within the club.
“As I understand it, [Brière] is probably going to be involved in, part of the discussions, touching everything the Flyers and Chuck Fletcher do from here on in,” Marek said on Monday’s 32 Thoughts podcast.
Friedman then went into detail about how the move for Brière to take a more solidified front office position happened sooner than he would have thought, having originally projected the management move to happen at the end of the season.
Obviously — and Friedman points this out as well — Philadelphia having to make some key franchise-altering decisions in the coming months and before the March 21 trade deadline, puts a massive focus on making the coming days right. Including Brière in these conversations show that this will be a more long-term position and hopes are that he will be around whenever these moves for future assets (if that is the path the organization is going down) come to fruition.
It is going to be an increasingly interesting rest of the season for the Flyers, and this move within the organization provides at least more of a long-term vision for what the foundation will be. On the roster, there is nothing but uncertainty; on the bench, no one knows who will be coaching here next season; but now with Brière in the fold, there is at least a solid option to lay down a base and work up from there.
Let’s just hope it all pans out.
