Ever since taking over the general manager duties of the Philadelphia Flyers, both as an interim and official place holder in that office, Daniel Briere has been a man of focus and determination. He is determined to turn the Flyers around but he is focused on doing it correctly. It is not going to be a “band-aid” level fix. It’s going to take time and patience is required; both of the fans and the players. There is a lot of changes that need to be made and the Flyers will embark on some “scary” ground as they become something different.
But if you want to look at a team that went through some similar trials, you don’t need to look far. In fact, all you have to do is take a glance up I-95. In a recent press conference, Briere said the following:
"“You can even look to a team like New Jersey, who was kind of spinning their wheels but they were rebuilding and doing it the right way. Then, boom, this year they pop and they’re one of the best teams in the NHL,. I give them credit, they were patient, they didn’t let the noise affect them. That’s going to be the biggest — probably toughest — thing for us, is going to be stay patient and keep with the process that we believe in.”"
I almost want to choke on those words. For most Flyers fans, the New Jersey Devils are the equivalent of the Dallas Cowboys or New York Giants to Eagles fans. Throughout the 1990s-2000s, they were the team that stood in the way of the Flyers going to the Stanley Cup, with NJ winning three out of five postseason battles between 1995-2012.
If you think being a Flyers fan has been tough recently, it’s been worse for the once mighty Devils. In 2012, after dispatching Philly in the Eastern Conference semifinals in five games, Jersey topped the Rangers before losing to the LA Kings in the Stanley Cup. They then went on a stretch of missing the playoffs in nine of the next ten seasons, making the playoffs only in 2018 (before losing to Tampa in five games). This was the first season that they have return to the postseason in four seasons.
New Jersey went through some rough times. But if you look at them now, there is a lot of, and I don’t want to say this, hope. They had the third best record in the NHL this season and advanced to the second round of the playoffs before falling to Carolina. The top four scorers for New Jersey this season, Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer, are all under 24 years old. Also, they were all drafted by the organization and brought up together.
The Devils didn’t do this overnight. It took a while for them to be turned into Stanley Cup contenders from basement dwellers. To dig out out of it, they scouted the right prospects and made good drafting decisions, like with Bratt as a late round pick. They didn’t burden themselves with long term free agents and their contracts to be quick solutions to long term problems. They didn’t hesitate to trade away valuable assets (Taylor Hall) for more picks to establish a better future. It took time and effort but New Jersey is now is all the better for it.
Now, if Jersey does have any flaws, it is that they have a lot of restricted free agents that could be poached if they don’t act quickly to re-sign and extend them. But if they can find a way to manipulate the cap to their advantage and keep the young stars signed, they can be very good for a long time.
To get to where New Jersey is, the Flyers will have to be patient. The team will need to draft well, develop players within a system that is consistent from Lehigh Valley up through Philadelphia, and sign the right free agents that fit the system while not wasting financial resources or hindering the play of rising stars at the same time. This will all take time. To emphasize this, John Torotella talked about how different the two teams are after a 7-0 blowout by the Devils back in February.
"“We’re not there with that team. I don’t know how else to say it. It’s not a criticism of our team, but we’re not anywhere near there right now. This was probably them a few years ago, Jersey, when they were going through their process.”"
Even if it is an older quote, it is a reminder of what is up ahead. If done correctly, the Flyers can reestablish a winning culture…the kind of culture that we have seen here in the past. Briere, Tortorella, and new team president Keith Jones have a lot of work ahead of them, but they are saying all the right things as they are understanding that a long road awaits them.