Daniel Briere: From Playoff Hero to General Manager
By Scott Cole
Daniel Brière is one of the most interesting guys to ever don the Orange and Black for the Flyers. He was never the greatest player on the team. He signed a big contract to be their scoring forward, and to some degree he did that. Only about one-third of his17 year career was played in Philly. He wasn’t on the team long enough to really crack any of the major scoring categories. Except for the playoff ones. That is where he made his impact on Flyers history.
He is seventh all time with 72 points in just 68 games. That is just one point behind Claude Giroux (85 games) and two points behind John LeClair (116 games). He is also seventh all time with 37 playoff goals; just two behind Tim Kerr He is tenth in assists with 25; two behind Eric Desjardins and four behind LeClair.
He came to the Flyers in 2007. Everyone thought he would go on to fulfill every French Canadian’s dream and play for the Montreal Canadiens. Instead, Brière stunned the hockey world by signing an eight-year $52 million contract with a no-trade clause with Philadelphia. The Habs had offered Brière a six year deal worth $42 million. Whatever happened, Brière chose Philly; a team that had finished with the NHL’s worst record the year before.
Brière had started his career in Phoenix and had started to show that he could be a star after the NHL lockdown of 2004. The Coyotes traded him to Buffalo and he flourished with the Sabres. He was one of the few players that kept Buffalo relevant in the 2000s, scoring 28, 25, and 32 goals in all three full seasons he played there and helping to guide them to the playoffs. Then he became a highly sought after free agent and landed in Philly.
Teamed up with bright young stars like Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, Brière became a force to reckon with. He scored 31 goals in his first season with Philly. In 2008-09, he suffered a series of injuries that caused him to miss most of the season. The following season, he scored 27 goals. But it wasn’t the season that caused him to become a Flyers legend.
The 2009-10 season was just pure magic. Everything seemed to go right that year and Brière was a big part of that. After an five game upset against the New Jersey Devils, the Flyers faced off against Bruins. The Bruins had taken a 3-0 lead until Simon Gagne won Game 4 in overtime. The Flyers went on to win the next three games and then topped the Canadiens in five. It wasn’t until the Flyers played Chicago that the magic ran out in six games.
But Brière was spectacular. He was the top scorer for the playoffs with 12 goals and 18 assists. He set a new Flyers record for points in a playoff run, breaking Brian Propp’s record of 28 points in 1987. Despite the Flyers loss, he even had some consideration for the Conn Smythe Trophy.
The following year, he kept his scoring touch by scoring a career high 34 goals and a second high in points with 68. But in 2011-12, he lost a step. He scored just 16 goals. During the 2012 lockout, he went to play in Germany with Giroux. Upon coming back to the states, he tallied just six goals in 34 games. The Flyers would buy out his contract after the season. He would play two more years in the NHL, one in Montreal and one in Colorado.
After retirement, he joined the Flyers as a consultant. Two years afterwards, the Flyers named him as head of operations for the Maine Mariners of the ECHL in 2017 . That put him on the trajectory he is on today.
Brière was never the best player. His number will never hang in the rafters nor will he ever be in the Hall of Fame. However, he was one of those guys who put everything out there on the ice. Likewise, when it was clutch time, he put the team on his back and tried to carry them through. It’s a similar thing that you would later see with Wayne Simmonds.
If Brière can bring the same passion he had as a player on the ice, especially in clutch moments, he will succeed as general manager as a Flyer. He will look to add players who will play with similar heart. Likewise, John Tortorella is a similarly minded coach who wants to instill that “give it all” mentality to his players.
Maybe the Flyers are turning a page. It’s going to be a long road ahead. But if the team sticks with the road map they are planning, some good times could be up ahead. And we the Flyers fans will be the beneficiaries.