Phanatic Hockey Editor
In a season-ending press conference that lasted suspiciously under 30 minutes on May 14, Flyers general manager Danny Briere said a lot without giving away too much.
Admittedly, just four days after the conclusion of a season that clearly energized fans, players and decision makers alike, Briere wasn’t going to have too many bullets in the chamber.
The future looks bright after a surprise post-Olympic run to secure a playoff berth and then a satisfying six-game dispatch of a fading longtime rival. Then again, how many times have we seen this before?
It’s easy for Briere, retroactively, to say the unstated goal from the start of the season was for the Flyers to make the playoffs. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. All my Latin scholars and West Wing fans can look that up.
But now that goal became reality, what next? Make the playoffs for a string of seasons? Win one round and have a better showing in the second? Win two rounds? Who stays and who goes? Who knows? The shadow?
Instead of taking a risk and perhaps letting slip some internal discussions or shallow thoughts on the matter, he stonewalled.
“It doesn’t,” he said when asked if a trip to the second round altered the master plan. “If there’s a chance to help improve the team, something that makes sense for the long run, yes, we will jump on it. As far as I’m concerned it’s the same thing. We’re in a growth part of the rebuild. What has changed is the experience our guys have gotten.”
Sitting up close, Briere’s demeanor betrayed nothing but revealed nothing. I realize poker faces are required for the job, but after we lived through the robotic Chuck Fletcher era, which followed somnolent Ron Hextall pressers, is it too much to ask for the current GM to act like he doesn’t need a jolt from a 9-volt battery attached to somewhere sensitive?
Maybe it's the way the organization needs the job portrayed, as Paul Holmgren's stoic, steely-eyed public demeanor belied some pretty serious emotions stuffed down just below the surface.
Briere continued in his quiet, understated manner: “I don’t wanna lower expectations, either. I think they believe they can make the playoffs again. They want another taste of it. I would think that after tasting it, all our guys, going back into next year … you gotta be careful in how much pressure you put, obviously, but that was such a fun run and I think the guys want to experience that again.”
(Head desk)
Playoff Success is an Elastic Concept
Briere was brought here as a free-agent splurge in the summer of 2007 in the wake of a dead-last overall season, a steady performer as the club did a full reversal. His first 5 years produced a surprise run to the Eastern finals (2008), then a first-round exit (2009), a surprise Stanley Cup Finals run (2010) followed by a four-game second round sweep (2011), to a fan-pleasing dispatch of a perennially hated rival ahead of a disappointing loss to a formerly-hated rival (2012).
Those were the Clarke-Holmgren-Snider axis days, when an unplanned leap forward in the postseason immediately triggered a seismic shift in expectations, backed by rivers of cash and cap space.
I get what Briere is doing, throwing cold water on speculation to buy some time until key discussions are undertaken, but the next phase of the plan needs to be in place by summer’s end – whether it’s revealed publicly or not. So the players know where they stand. And most importantly, to curb wild speculation from all corners of the media.
With each individual era of success, there is a pattern of playoff rubber-banding between surprise and disappointment that has kept repeating throughout the franchise’s 60 years. The script is usually this: a surprise playoff entry goes further than predicted, the next year takes a surprising step back ahead of a galvanizing deep run before at least one year of further disappointment before the roster is dismantled.
It happened in the 70s, 80s, 90s and Oughts, too. The hour is upon Briere and company to flatten the curve in the 2020s. I have a hard time believing they think a linear path is possible.
It’s a 32-team league where 16 teams advance and the cutoff is around 92-95 points. One of these seasons, no matter what the plan or Briere’s moves, they will take that proverbial step backward. It won’t be a negative on his ledger *unless* the braintrust sees no point in taking a risk.
“We don’t want to be forced to make a move, just to make a move, because we made it into the playoffs this year,” Briere also said in his presser, hinting at external questions of making a ‘big splash’ with plenty of cap space to come. “We’ve said it for a long time, we wanted to build a team that’s gonna be here for a long time, not just to go for it for a year or two.”
I give Briere credit for righting a ship that drifted, financially and talent-wise, under his predecessor with modest, low-risk moves, but a large chunk of success this season rests on the emergence of the players themselves. The young core certainly are on board with whatever comes next, thanks to their experience with heightened fan interest.
“I probably had 7 or 8 guys in my exit meetings that specifically mentioned how the fans reacted at the end (with a lengthy ovation after Game 4 vs. the Hurricanes) and they said … they knew how special it was to play in the playoffs, in Philadelphia, they didn’t realize how special it was,” Briere admitted. “The fans made it extra special. What they did, our players noticed.”
How can Briere ensure his general vision of long-term sustained success comes to fruition?
View From Above
Roster - Briere took a conservative path with his late-season AHL callups, pulled back from pulling back Denver Barkey & Alex Bump by head coach Rick Tocchet himself. He did let Porter Martone run free after leaving Michigan State. Good thing it worked out in small sample size. Now is the time for them take what’s there and to experience pits and ruts, uninterrupted, on the road to success.
That will best be served by a two-way feed of Briere suggesting to Tocchet he embrace more sharply-defined roles for each player and by Tocchet suggesting Briere trust in their usage. For the prospects or young guys looking to cement a roster spot for years to come, attempting to blindly mold them simply cannot happen anymore. No more center/wingers or winger/centers. Pick a line and optimal situation for the kids and keep ‘em there.
It is borderline criminal that there were, by my calculations, more than 40 different line combinations over the course of the regular season and half of the Flyers' 10 playoff outings.
With so much roster and cap space available due a raft of players on the Flyers and league-wide reaching either RFA or UFA status come July 1, Briere needs to be locked in and make effective moves to plug holes. More on that next week.
Coaches - Meddling in on-ice affairs is a recipe for disaster. However, if a fresh talent infusion whose individual skill sets could only help the power play don’t bear fruit next season, Briere would have to tell assistant coach Yogi Svejkovsky to bounce.
Even in an era of reduced penalties overall and a slimmer number of chances per game and per season, a lack of a functional power play puts too much pressure on 5v5 to win games. Yes, it might rankle Tocchet, an old-school mind who values loyalty and who brought Svejkovsky along from Vancouver, but failure is not an option.
It is still uncertain (and has never been reported) whether the milquetoast Briere could get as heated and insistent as he might need to be to make tough choices and defend them.
Also, as mentioned last week, the imbalanced relationship between Tocchet and Matvei Michkov and Tocchet and the rest of the Flyers roster has all the earmarks of the Columbia disaster – chips in the armor awaiting a true tipping point where the situation gyrates beyond salvation.
There may come a day when Briere needs to step in, specifically on Michkov’s behalf, urging Tocchet to bridge whatever gap remains, instead of letting Michkov find out on his own how to gain his good graces. I hope some form of this discussion has already been attempted, due to what seems like a season-long series of one-sided leaks to media from Tocchet or higher-ups and a series of questionable scratches and lineup placement.
Tocchet’s contract is for 5 years and if he’s losing a supposed franchise cornerstone due to intractability, or a pattern emerges where his my-way-or-the-highway approach starts to backfire, Briere is well within his rights to shorten that leash.
Futures - For the upcoming Entry Draft (June 26-27 in Buffalo) Briere has picks in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounds, then has to wait until the 6th and 7th rounds to engage. That means there’s little to no wiggle room on reaches or projects.
I’m not delving into specifics, as my role here as writer is not to play amateur scout and GM. Long time fans should be more concerned about the how and why, once the pick is made, rather than who.
As a forever proponent of courting high-end Division 1 talent, Briere and assistant GM Brent Flahr need to figure out how to build a credible scouting system for American colleges. It’s not every year you hit on a No. 6 pick and then have a dark horse 5th-rounder arrive in the same season.
The club’s mid-round choices have been atrocious (Jay O’Brien), unstable (Wade Allison), Quad-A talent (Tanner Laczynski) or teetering on the brink of obscurity (Noah Powell, Ryan MacPherson) and the remainder of their historic drafting/signing relies too much on filling spots in the AHL or on favored nations (i.e. Western Michigan, Boston University, North Dakota). And you can't be wary of programs like Boston College because of one public blow out.
This is where I wish the late, great Ray Shero could have made the most impact if he were to agree to a front-office spot. He turned both the Devils and Penguins into sharper scouts.
In general, let the organizational perspective match the player’s size, skills and maturity is the first step. Allowing growth without complaint, or suggested guidance at the D1, European or junior levels is next. Aligning the Flyers’ plans with development in Allentown and John Snowden’s marching orders is the second-to-last level. Jett Luchanko? Once he lands in Allentown, groom him to either be a 1C or 3C Jack Nesbitt? Slot him into the opposite role when you decide where Luchanko fits. Oliver Bonk? Let him clean up that AHL minus-14 without shackling the skill that got him an NHL glimpse.
Keep it here next week where I'll talk about some obvious and not-so-obvious choices Briere faces to stock the 26-27 roster. If you missed it, read the Phanatic's take on first-year head coach Rick Tocchet.
