Photo Credit: The Flyers
Now that the dust has settled following the Ivan Provorov trade. Danny Briere and some of the top echelon in Dan Hilferty and Keith Jones have proven that the orange and black are indeed in the midst of a “Rebuild”, rather than a “Retool”. What can Flyers fans expect to see from the General Manager Danny Briere for the rest of the offseason?
Expect the Flyers to use pick #22 as leverage to move up in the draft. Draft capital is one way to help to speed up the rebuild, even if the orange and black keep all 10 picks of the 2023 NHL Draft. However, if the right deal comes up, some of these said picks could be used to obtain an NHL ready player or a closer NHL ready player.
“Well, part of it is that we are in a rebuilding stage. We felt that the picks and the direction that we wanted to go in, it was really enticing. Very exciting,” Briere said following the Ivan Provorov trade. “We have a chance to really kind of start building the team the way we want it, the right way that we’ve talked about. I think it kind of starts with that. It wasn’t an easy decision. Ivan has been a really good soldier for the Flyers for a lot of years. A lot of sweat, a lot of hits he’s taken, a lot of pucks he’s blocked. He’s really poured his heart out into the Flyers. It wasn’t an easy decision. For us, what we were looking at is young guys and picks. We’ve said it from the beginning, so that was the major reason behind it.”
Briere continues, “At this time, we felt that the assets we were getting to build the team we want to build in the future. That was critical and you have to give up good players and good assets in return. You don’t get first round picks for players that don’t have interest from other teams. You’ve got to play ball with both sides, and we have to give up a good player for that.”
Flyers fans can expect to hear rumors for every player to include the likes of Scott Laughton, Travis Konecny, Carter Hart, Noah Cates, and Joel Farabee. In addition, if and when Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson come back healthy, expect to hear their names as part of some rumored trades, as well. That’s just the position the Flyers are in, however, they cannot trade every player. Some players, a core has to be defined as part of the rebuild, “We’re open for business. We’ll listen if it makes sense. If the value is there for us, definitely. That’s kind of the luxury of having a lot of picks, and unfortunately, in the situation we’re at when you finish a little lower in the standings, you have better picks. It’s good and it’s bad. You have to suffer for it. Nothing’s off the table on our side.”
“We want to give our young guys a look,” Briere continues. “A bigger look. Cam York had a tough training camp. He went down, put his time in in the minors, really came back rejuvenated and was a great player for us. He’s obviously an important part of the future for the Flyers. Egor Zamula, like you mentioned, Ronnie Attard and Emil Andrae – there’s other young defensemen that are coming up that are still in college or juniors that will also get looks eventually. I’m not saying right away next year but eventually. I mean it’s exciting and you don’t know sometimes, you look at last year where a guy like Tippett got the chance to play more and showed what he was capable of. Same thing with Morgan Frost, Noah Cates, Travis Konecny – so a lot of the young guys took a big step forward, especially upfront last year with having more opportunities. We hope we can do the same in the future with our defensemen. Now, there might be some nights where it’s going to be tough but we want to see and have a clear idea of where our defensemen can stand. Hopefully, we give them the chance to show us that.”
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The Flyers are going to subtract this offseason in a big way. Look for Kevin Hayes to possibly be dealt at the draft, and possibly more prospects could also be on the move. It’s going to be a busy few months of movement, so stick with us Flyers fans fir all the up to date coverage of your favorite team.
NHL Draft
All indications are pointing towards the Flyers drafting a Forward at #7, so I think they will pick a Defenseman at #22, if Danny Briere does not use this pick as leverage to move up in the draft.
Some Defensemen that might be available at #22 are:
Mikhail Gulyayev
Dmitri Simashev
Oliver Bonk
Lukas Dragicevic
