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Will the Flyers make the 12th overall pick or trade back? Will they use the 12th pick to move up or stand pat and make the selection? “We’re looking to move up, we might need to move back, but it has to make sense,” Briere said of the Flyers draft strategy. “Everything is on the table for us. We are not stuck in one mode of trying to move up or move back.”
Many things are on the table for the Flyers at the draft, but much like last year, the Flyers are open for business. They will wheel and deal if it makes sense. Briere said the Flyers will not trade just to make a trade, only to make the team better, “I could kind of sit back and enjoy my days up until yesterday. You guys gave me a lot more work to do,” Briere said jokingly.
“We are still looking to acquire assets that are going to help us in the future,” Briere continued. “We know where we are at as a team. It was awesome what happened last year playing games that mattered all the way to game 82 even though we missed. But we realize we are not a Stanley Cup contender yet. We still have lots of work, and the future is still what we are targeting that was the plan. We acquired assets to help us for the future.”
Briere admitted that they do not know if Matvei Michkov is coming or not. Rightfully so, he doesn’t want to go anything to jeopardize the relationship he has in the KHL and SKA, in particular, “If they tell us he’s coming on September 1st, we will jump on it. The mindset for us is we are going into next season without him,” Briere said.
In the end, there was nothing earth shattering about his pre-draft/free agency presser. Actually, I don’t see them buying out Cam Atkinson or Cal Petersen, “We don’t expect to do much on free agency day. We have a lot of dead money on our books.” Keith Jones nearly said the same thing last week, so I find it kind of shocking they would buy either player out, knowing it would create more dead cap.
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Unfortunately, the Flyers, like other teams have not received clarity from the league, in regards to Restricted Free Agent Carter Hart. Briere said the Flyers are still waiting on direction from league if they need to extend a qualifying offer to Carter Hart to retain his rights. Hart is out indefinitely because of the Hockey Canada sexual assault case, and that case may not wrap up until sometime in 2025.
What happens from now until the draft or free agency is anyone’s guess. All I can say, is that the Flyers’ are “Open fir business” if a trade makes sense, per Briere.
