Over the past ten or more years, the Philadelphia Flyers have had a few different visions. Paul Holmgren was determined to win every year, even if it meant delaying his future in order to make it into the playoffs. Ron Hextall took a different approach, pursuing a protracted rebuild that ultimately proved fruitless. Chuck Fletcher’s “aggressive retool” was the Flyers’ next move, which caused the team to regress a few years.
However, the Flyers made their intentions apparent when they let Fletcher go a little more than a year ago. With head coach John Tortorella leading the trio, Danny Briere as general manager and Keith Jones as president of hockey operations ushered in a New Era of Orange.
So far, Briere’s time in Philadelphia has been incredibly successful — well, as successful as a rebuild in less than a year can be.
Even though the Flyers are firmly in the running for the playoffs, he has removed some dead weight, established a clear and strong plan, and continued the rebuild at the deadline.
Let’s take a look at almost all of Briere’s moves since taking over as general manager: trades, free-agent signings, the draft, and one RFA signing to boot.
Sure, Marc Staal has been fine for the Flyers. But did Briere really need to sign him? The Flyers already had enough left-handed defensemen (Travis Sanheim, Cam York, Nick Seeler, Egor Zamula) to fill out the roster with a few more in Lehigh Valley.
It says a lot that Briere’s “worst” move can be viewed more or less as a wash. Ultimately, Staal has been able to provide some veteran presence and Tortorella hasn’t been afraid to stick him in the press box. Also, Briere gets a bit of a pass on this one as Staal seems more like a Torts signing anyway.
Mete joined the Flyers a few days after Staal signed, and it looked like he may push for some playing time in the NHL this year. That hasn’t been the case, though, with just one NHL appearance this season. The journeyman blueliner seems to be a AAA player at this point in his career despite having some upside early on.
Signing Mete was a decent low-risk move by Briere for less than $1 million but hasn’t had much of an impact.
Gardner is another one of these meh signings. He also got a look for one game with the Flyers this season but has largely been playing down in Lehigh Valley.
Could this be his worst move? Sure, but there is very little separating these largely unconsequential signings.
