In similar fashion to our Rick Tocchet article, we take a look at Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Brière and his tenure thus far, which has been encapsulated by his rebuilding methods that have earned him quite a bit of flack.
Rebuilds in hockey are interesting because there’s no right way of doing it, there’s no one specific route to get from point A to point B, but it’s a dastardly long plan that can sometimes feel endless. We’re currently 3 years deep into Brière’s plan, and while there’s been some bad, there’s also been a lot of good, but it’s trying to figure out what the end goal is supposed to be.
The Flyers haven’t had a general manager that could do two things very well. You’re either good at drafting or making trades, but not both. Ron Hextall was far better at accumulating future assets and trading bad contracts than he was at using those draft picks, and Chuck Fletcher was better at drafting than he was making trades or free agent signings.
Looking at Brière, he’s seemingly leaning more towards Hextall than Fletcher, but it’s still a close battle. He’s done a fantastic job at working the phones and finding value in his assets. Ivan Provorov netted him several picks including a first rounder, Scott Laughton got him a first round pick and Nikita Grebenkin, he traded Ryan Poehling and a second for Trevor Zegras, and he got a first round pick for Sean Walker.
With free agent signings, it’s been a bit less exciting, more so because the Flyers haven’t been in a position to hunt the big fish. Granted, now that they have money to burn, all the top free agents are staying put, but he found value in Christian Dvorak and Dan Vladař this past summer, and it’s something he might have to do again in 2026.
As for his drafting, that’s where the conversations begin, because there’s a very large faction of fans (understandably) upset with the selections of both Jett Luchanko and Jack Nesbitt. Both selections were reaches compared to their pre-draft rankings and it’s a little confusing considering the talent that was still left on the board – more so with Nesbitt than Luchanko.
However, it is very hard to judge 18-19-20 year olds who have barely scratched the surface. Nevertheless, in Luchanko’s case, we’ve had a bit more runway in seeing what he brings to the table; case in point with the current IIHF World Junior Championship. This is his second straight invite but has been relegated to bottom-6 duties, and he has seen some of the lowest shares of ice-time amongst his counterparts, some of whom were selected after him in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
The lack of aggression is puzzling but it seems like Luchanko is destined to be a speedy, two-way, playmaking centre. That can bode well for the Flyers if they decide to put him in between two scoring wingers like Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov, but that seems unlikely at the moment.
He hasn’t taken the OHL by storm, whether with Guelph or Brantford, but he did do a lot better in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms last year, especially during their playoff run. He also made the Flyers roster back to back years, so there’s definitely a lot of talent within, but it’s a matter of just finding a way to unearth it.
Nesbitt was another player that the Flyers reached on, but it was reported that both Detroit and Vancouver were interested, which forced the Flyers to trade ahead of both teams and select him earlier than expected.
It hasn’t been the storybook season for the 6’4” centre as he has accumulated 28 points in 26 games, but he has picked it up lately after a very slow start to the season for the Windsor Spitfires in the OHL. He was always regarded as a raw prospect that would take time, which puzzled many within the fanbase with players like Jackson Smith, Viktor Eklund and Kashawn Aitcheson still on the board.
There’s still plenty of time for either prospect to shine but the Flyers recent history of draft and development hasn’t been the greatest either. They’re getting more out of late round picks in Noah Cates and Samuel Ersson than they got from the likes of earlier picks Morgan Frost or Joel Farabee.
Brière has drafted a lot of players so it will be interesting to see if any of them truly pan out, especially with 5 first round selections over a 3-year span and 4 second round picks from last year alone. Some of his recent successes include Jack Berglund, who is captaining Team Sweden at the World Juniors, as well as the Finnish duo of Heikki Ruohonen and Max Westergård, who have combined for 2 goals and 8 points in the round robin portion of the tournament.
Now it’s not all doom and gloom, as there are things to be excited about with the Flyers. They’re currently positioned in a playoff spot when no one gave them a fighting chance, they’re getting great goaltending for once, and Zegras has truly done way more than expected and is looking like a steal.
The Flyers have been on record of wanting to exit the rebuild shortly, as directed by both Dan Hilferty and Keith Jones prior to the season. The free agent market is going to be a desolate wasteland by the time we reach July 1st, so the $47 million projected cap space will be used on retaining RFAs and finding players on the trade market.
Pending RFAs in Zegras, Ersson, and Jamie Drysdale will more than likely be retained, as will Bobby Brink, unless they find a trade partner willing to dance. That should still leave them with a big chunk leftover to spend however they see fit.
Finding a top-6 centre is going to be a lot easier said than done but the NHL has become more trade-friendly over the last little while. A lot of players are becoming available that you wouldn’t have thought otherwise 5-10 years ago, so it’s high time that the Flyers finally became a little more aggressive in finding talent.
Brière has his job cut out for him, especially in endearing himself to the fanbase, but he’s shown he’s able to find value on the trade market and free agency while hitting on some of his higher picks. What he does in the next calendar year is going to test his patience and his limits, while showcasing whether or not he can get out of the rebuild successfully.
