Yesterday Philadelphia Flyers GM Danny Briere held a pre draft press conference. Briere was joined by assistant GM Brent Flahr to address reporters and give us fans a look at what we might be able to expect come Fridays draft.
You can watch the press conference in its entirety above.
But for those that don’t feel like doing that heres a quick breakdown. A lot was said, a lot of nothing, and a lot of something.
As has been the case all offseason and throughout his tenure, Danny Briere has stuck to the stats quo. They aren’t going to give up assets for a short term solution. He shut down pretty much any idea of the Flyers trading any of their draft capital for a veteran center or really any veteran.
Which is perfectly fine, we don’t want to get older per say but it would be nice to add more experience and talent to this current group. While he did shut down the idea of trading for a veteran, he did not rule out making moves as the Flyers have 7 picks over the first two rounds of this years draft.
We also found out that essentially the Flyers core forward group moving forward is Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster, and Owen Tippett. Which essentailly shuts down the idea of them trading for either Jason Roberston or JJ Peterka. But does open up the idea of which guys could be available.
The Flyers see Foerster as a top six forward and do not want him to be blocked by anyone. That’s fair, hence another reason that he got the extension he did. I also don’t think it’s completely wrong to see what you have in Foerster before making a move to essentially replace him. He has proven that he has some big upside and now it’s just a matter of him actually panning out and producing at a consistent level. Is he a top 6 forward in the NHL though? Only time is going to tell.
So what I gathered from this press conference is that the Flyers are targeting one thing and one thing only and that is the Center position. Sure Briere said they are taking the best available player at 6 but everything else he said is that were taking a Center. He even mentioned the possibility of taking two centers in the first round. I’m perfectly fine with that approach because we need depth at the center position.
But how much truth is there to anything that Danny said? Is he just putting out a bunch of smoke screens and the Flyers are actually planning on making a big splash?
Only Danny Briere knows that for sure, but I do believe that the Flyers are going to be more active than they are leading people to believe.
Will it be via trade? Maybe, and one of the main reasons I think that is because Cam York has still yet to be re-signed. I firmly believe that the Flyers are shopping him around to see what his market is. York is one of those guys I think i’d be alright with parting with for the right price. Also, there’s a certain pending free agent defenseman that I think would be a great addition to the blue line named Aaron Ekblad. Moving York would open up a top line spot for him and they have the cap space to make him an offer.
So all in all yes, I do think some of what Briere said was just sending out smoke screens and I can see the Flyers being more aggressive this year in regards to trades and free agency. A lot of the fan base is growing impatient with Briere and I completely understand it we’ve been bad for too long and it’s time that changed. We need to see some sort of action this offseason that shows this current regime is taking the next steps in this rebuild.
-Walsh
The Philly Phan Cave 
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