Flyers Front Office Trio Graces Business Issue Cover
Danny Briere, Keith Jones, and Daniel Hilferty have rightfully earned their cover of THN's 2024 Money & Power issue.
Flyers Front Office Trio Graces Business Issue CoverIt was a nightmare situation for any general manager.
To have Cutter Gauthier—the Philadelphia Flyers' fifth overall draft pick in 2022 whose stock was skyrocketing after a stellar World Juniors performance—suddenly change his mind about wanting to be a Flyer would have been one thing. But to have Gauthier and his team completely ignore the organization and refuse to hear them out when they offered to explain their vision to him? How could Danny Briere, who had only been the GM for about two months at the time, win in this situation?
Firstly, he kept the saga quiet for months as the Flyers attempted to reach Gauthier and change his mind. He wanted to "protect the kid" while also still giving him time to think over his decision and potentially change his mind. When no contact could be made with the 19-year-old center, Briere realized that business had to be done. Nobody saw it coming—Cutter Gauthier was traded to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for young defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a second round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
When the deal was announced, the city of Philadelphia was thrown into chaos. Briere calmly explained the situation in an emergency press scrum outside of the GM box at the Wells Fargo Center. Once people became privy to the details of Gauthier's attitude and Drysdale's immense talent and promise, Briere was being lauded as a genius. In less than one year on the job, Briere and new president of hockey operations Keith Jones proved that they were a force to be reckoned with. The new kids on the business block of the NHL weren't messing around when they said the organization was entering "a new era of orange."
Fittingly, Briere is featured on the cover of The Hockey News' Money & Power issue, alongside Jones and Flyers governor Daniel Hilferty. Readers can get the full Money & Power issue for free—and gain full access to the Archive—by subscribing to The Hockey News at THN.com/FREE.
Here's a preview at Breire's Q&A with W. Graeme Roustan:
WGR: And now today you're the GM of the Flyers. How did that happen?
DB: It happened fast. I was here in the Philadelphia area, and started helping out during the pandemic. The team would be on the road and I started running some practices for some of the players and I enjoyed getting to re-involve myself with the team. And then I felt there's something I could give back to some of the players having gone through the ups and downs. Not always having it easy, sometimes clearing waivers, playing in the minors and keep fighting and fighting (for an NHL job), I felt I could share some of that stuff with the players. And then all of a sudden, (former Flyers GM) Chuck Fletcher asked me if I'd be interested in being involved with player development. So I started doing some of that. And then a few months later, they asked me if I wanted to start travelling and do some scouting. That was exciting. Now you're looking at the draft and what you see in certain players and projecting what they might become down the road. That was exciting. I love that part. Then they offered me to be an assistant to the GM and I learned a lot from Chuck in the last year-and-a-half. And then the team kind of struggled last year, and I got a call one day asking me if I'd be interested in taking the big seat. Like I said, it all happened a lot faster than I expected. But I felt ready. I was at first humbled and then really honored to be the next GM of the Flyers.
