Fans were clamoring for Danny Briere to make a big move this season. The Flyers have been in an openly-discussed rebuild for two years. It started with addition by subtraction, trading away Ivan Provorov and Kevin Hayes. Tony DeAngelo was also bought out.
It then became about seeing which younger players were capable of being part of the group's future. Those decisions can be tougher to make. How long do you let a player develop before deciding on whether or not they should stay? Briere gave fans a clear idea of the team's thinking on Thursday night.
During the Flyers matchup with the Islanders, news broke of Philadelphia and Calgary working on a deal. It eventually turned into Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee being shipped to the Flames for Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2028 seventh-round pick.
This was the first big move and was much bigger than anything Briere had done before. Frost, drafted in 2017, and Farabee, drafted in 2018, were the first true casualties of the Flyers' teardown. On the surface, the move was expected for Frost. But Farabee's inclusion was much more of a surprise. It sent a rather clear message, though. If you don't perform up to the standards of what the team is looking for, you may see yourself moved for someone who will.
"It goes back to the players and the development of the players around them. We are a little different than we've ever been," Briere said on Saturday morning. "I think within the Flyers organization where there are a lot more prospects coming in, we have some young guys developing, and we felt that around them, guys were going by them. We had higher hopes, I would say for Morgan and Joel just maybe two years ago. Some guys were starting to go by them."
The Morgan Frost of it all
The writing has been on the wall for Frost for some time now. He's shown flashes of the potential that he had. But at some point, that potential needed to turn into reality. If he had remained with the Flyers, it was likely that he was going to finish close to the 40-point mark for the third straight season. And while that's not a bad place to be, the time for him to be more than that was long past.
And he was given a much longer leash at the start of this season than before. John Tortorella stuck with Frost even when he struggled at the beginning of the season. It was time to coach him differently. He saw time with Matvei Michkov, Owen Tippett, and even Travis Konecny at one point. He was given top-unit power play time. Even when a benching would've been warranted, Frost was given time to push through.
"When I came in the organization about five or six years ago, one of my first tasks was really to work with Morgan. My relationship with him was pretty special. We spent a lot of times together early on, but that's the job that I have. I'm here to make the tough decisions and that's certainly one of them for me, on a personal level," Briere said on Frost.
While the Flyers have a clear lack at the center position, there wasn't much space for Frost if he wasn't going to develop any further. Sean Couturier, while not the top forward he used to be, still provides value to the team. He's not a number-one center on most teams anymore, but he is solid enough as a middle-six option. Noah Cates has emerged as a legitimate option with his place over the last few months. He is also not a top-line player but plays his role perfectly in the bottom-six.
So if Frost was going to find a way to stay in the organization, he was going to have to show a lot more than he previously had. It wasn't going to be enough for him to show the flashes. He needed to find the consistency and find it for good. His playmaking did add value, but not having much else was his ultimate downfall.
At some point, something had to give.
Joel Farabee's contract proved problematic
Farabee's addition in the trade ended up coming down to one thing. Cap flexibility. Not many teams were in the market to add on the remaining three years of Farabee's contract. Not until the Flames came around.
"I've had many discussions. We are always checking in with different teams on a daily basis. There were no teams really that showed any interest in taking on the full salary for Joel until Thursday during the day when the talks escalated with Calgary.
Flashback to the end of last season and Farabee was coming off a 22-goal, 50-point campaign. It looked like he was ready to take the next step. And then something happened. Whether it was just a player regressing to who he was or a reported rift with his coach, it was clear that Farabee's value was slipping by the day.
It seemed as if the Flyers were trying to make it work with Farabee. There was a time when he was being given top-line minutes with Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny. But that didn't work. Farabee was posting his worst numbers since his rookie season in 2019-20. He was even healthy scratched for the first time in his career. So instead of hoping that he turned it around, the Flyers decided to move while they could still get something back. Sure, they could've continued to hold on and hope that he found a spark.
But they seemingly weren't willing to take the risk of his value plummeting and needing to pay a team to take him on. It's possible he recaptures that with the Flames and the Flyers look bad for giving up on him.
Similar to Frost though, the time had come to move on.
Briere means business with rebuild
There is a legitimate concern about what this could do to the Flyers' locker room. Frost and Farabee were two well-liked players who never outwardly complained. They had forged numerous friendships during their time in the organization. And it's going to take some time to move on from this.
"Pretty devastated. Two very well-liked guys in the locker room. Some of your best friends are gone just like that. It hurts for sure, but they will kill it in Calgary. They'll make that team a lot better, which hurts to say, but it's true." Cam York said about his now former teammates.
If this was during a time in which there were questions about the culture in the Flyers' locker room, maybe those concerns would be valid. But Briere isn't afraid that this move is going to do anything to the
"If that trade was made two years ago, maybe a little bit more scary. Just not knowing where our room was. Don't get me wrong, Joel and Morgan were a big part of that room, and how tight this was and they're going to be missed. But I believe that the leadership now in place, and how these guys have gelled together, they're going to welcome the two new guys with open arms. From what we have heard, both those guys coming in have great personalities and will fit right into what we have built in the last couple of years here."
Some argue that this move makes the Flyers roster weaker. And that may be true right now. It's hard to say what the impacts of Kuzmenko and Pelletier might be. Time will tell on that one. But what this move does is show how serious the Flyers are at doing this rebuild the right way.
This was about sending a message to every player that being a good locker room guy wasn't going to be enough. That was in the past. Now, players need to produce in their expected roles or someone else will be given a chance to do so. With Frost and Farabee out, Kuzmenko and Pelletier will be given that chance.
"If those two guys come in and somehow find some chemistry and are able to help us, who knows what could happen? It's not giving up on the season. Really, this was a move for the future. Not so much about this year the way I look at it."
The Flyers aren't punting on the season, but the future is continuing to take shape under Briere's guidance. This may not be the last move that they make.