As the Philadelphia Flyers hired Keith Jones as their president of hockey operations and Daniel Briere as GM, Adam Proteau lists three steps they should take.
The Philadelphia Flyers firmed up their leadership structure Thursday, announcing former Flyers forward and hockey analyst Keith Jones as their new president of hockey operations and handing over the full-time GM job to interim GM and former Flyers star forward Daniel Briere.
The moves are in line with the franchise’s long-term pattern of hiring former Flyers players to serve in management roles, but Briere and Jones are under immediate pressure to chart out a new course for the organization. This past season was an unmitigated disaster for Philadelphia, with former GM Chuck Fletcher attempting to shoehorn their patchwork roster into a playoff spot and failing. As a result, Fletcher was dismissed March 10, and Briere had been handling his GM duties for the following two months before Thursday’s announcement.
Many Flyers fans expected Briere to be the permanent GM, so this move doesn’t surprise anyone. But the real question now is, “what direction will Jones and Briere take the team in?”
We’ve always preferred organizations that completely rebuild, as opposed to the retool-on-the-fly approach Fletcher favored. There is no one way to build a true Stanley Cup contender, but a full rebuild is the most proven way. That means it will take Briere and Jones a few years to properly restock Philly’s talent pool. With that said, here are three key moves the Flyers have to make:
1. Take your lumps, strip the house down to the studs and build slowly over time with skilled young players.
As we saw this year in Chicago, there’s just one way to land the type of franchise cornerstone a team needs to be its centerpiece, and that way is to be terrible enough to be one of the teams with the best shot at winning the NHL draft lottery and selecting generational players at the top of the draft. Connor Bedard is going to be a Chicago Blackhawk, possibly for his entire NHL career, in no small part because the Hawks stripped down their roster of most NHL-caliber talent and lost time and again for much of the past few seasons.
This is what needs to happen in Philadelphia. It certainly is painful to consider the Flyers need to be terrible through 2025 or longer, but the pain will be worth it if Philly winds up winning the draft lottery down the line and acquires an elite young talent.
It’s not going to happen through trades or free-agent signings. It has to take place through the draft, and Briere and Jones have the cachet to temper expectations for the next two or three years if it means the Flyers come out of it with a Bedard-like player.
2. Decide what to do with John Tortorella.
One of the questionable moves Fletcher made in his time in Philadelphia was hiring John Tortorella as the team’s coach. He gave Tortorella a four-year contract with the Flyers last June, and Tortorella was unable to guide Philly to the playoffs. Once Briere trades away the veterans who aren’t going to be part of the long-term vision for the team, Tortorella will be in an even less-ideal situation. He has three years remaining on his contract, but Tortorella probably doesn’t want to be behind the bench of a team that misses the playoffs as part of their blueprint for success.
For that reason – and because every new GM wants to hire his own coach – we don’t see Tortorella lasting for the duration of his contract. And if it is a fait accompli Tortorella isn’t the Flyers’ long-term coach, Briere should rip the bandage off completely and hire a teacher with a fresh approach to replace Tortorella.
3. Figure out what to do with Carter Hart.
Arguably the biggest on-ice debate for Philadelphia concerns their top goalie. Hart is 24 years old and is signed through next season at a $3.98-million cap hit. Hart will be an RFA at the end of 2023-24, and if Philadelphia feels like he won’t be at his best when the rebuild is complete, Hart will be an attractive option for many other teams.
His numbers aren’t elite – he posted a .907 save percentage and 2.94 goals against average in a career-high 55 appearances this season – but there will be plenty of bidders for his services.
Indeed, if we agree Hart could be traded by the Flyers this summer, part of Briere’s job should be about acquiring or developing his replacement in Philly’s net. You don’t want to have Hart steal games for you and wind up finishing in the NHL’s mushy middle, right? Right.
Hart’s future as a Flyer will be the topic of many conversations in the coming weeks, and Briere might want to sell high on the asset. The Flyers do have other options in net at the moment – youngsters Felix Sandstrom and Samuel Ersson could take the starter’s role this coming season. But that’s only if Hart moves on.
There’s no urge to trade Hart, but there also are merits of trading him away and turning him into two or three high-skill players. That’s what a true rebuild needs. Quantity usually leads to quality, and that ought to be the case for the Flyers.