There has been plenty of subtraction during Danny Briere's first few years as the Flyers GM. That was phase one of the rebuild.
In the first year, the Flyers moved on from players like Kevin Hayes, Tony DeAngelo, and Ivan Provorov. As this past season went on, more subtraction came in the form of Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, and Scott Laughton. You can even count the firing of John Tortorella as a form of subtraction.
Now, the Flyers feel they have the group they trust moving forward. Which means that there won't be a focus on subtracting anymore. The players they have are safe, at least for now. It's time to start adding to the group and getting closer to shifting out of rebuild mode.
"I think we're at a stage now where we're going to shift a little bit from subtracting from the roster into trying to start to add and help the team," Briere said during his end-of-season availability.
So what does that mean? Could the Flyers use the increase in cap space as a way to go big-game hunting this offseason? That's probably not the case quite yet. While they will have around 28 million in space this summer, a large chunk of that will be going to the team's restricted free agents - Cam York, Tyson Foerster, Jakob Pelletier, and Noah Cates.
Offer sheets have always been a taboo subject around the league. Most general managers stay away to not ruffle any feathers. But we've seen them become a factor recently. The St. Louis Blues pried Dylan Holloway and Phillip Broberg from the Edmonton Oilers. And that worked out almost perfectly.
It's expected to be another summer where the topic of offer sheets is sure to come out. Is that something the Flyers could look into as well?
"It is a tool that we are going to look into. It has to make sense, and the thing is when you go down that route, you have to overpay for a player. I don’t know if we are that flush with money that we can really be all that aggressive, but we are certainly going to take a look at it. If it makes sense, we will
consider it."
Briere did make it clear that he doesn't necessarily mean the Flyers will bring in help from the outside to aid in their rebuild. The prospect list has grown in number since he took over. Instead of only having a few players ready to make the jump, they have an entire group that could help almost as soon as next season.
"The exciting part for me is all the young guys that have taken a step in the last couple years. Then all of a sudden, the guys that we started drafting a couple years ago are starting to turn pro. You want that internal competitiveness to force the guys, and that was kind of my message to a lot of the players that we're getting to a point now where the guys that we were drafting a couple years ago are starting to turn pro."
He came more than prepared with a list of players he felt were on the cusp of making the NHL team. And it wasn't a shot one either. Jett Luchanko, Alex Bump, Karsen Dorwart, Devin Kaplan, Denver Barkey, and Nikitia Grebenkin were the forwards. Adam Ginning, Emil Andrae, Hunter McDonald, and Oliver Bonk made up the defensemen.
That's a large group of players. And the important factor here is that almost all of these players have come during Briere's tenure. Restocking the pool was very much on the forefront for an organization that used to have one of the best prospect pools in the league.
To fit all of these players on the roster, the Flyers cannot add big names that would take up space. So for now, not everything can be fixed at once.
"We're not going to be able to fix every problem, but it would be nice to be able to add a player or two to come in and help on that front if the situation is right."
Goaltending is one of the areas the Flyers need to fix. Sam Ersson, Ivan Fedotov, and Aleksei Kolosov combined for the worst save percentage in the league. While Briere didn't put all the blame on them, he knows they weren't good enough. And they cannot run it back again.
"I've talked to all the goalies. They know they have a lot to prove, and it's not going to be good enough to come back at the same level. If we have a chance to improve, we're going to have to seriously consider it."
The Flyers won't be getting help internally just yet. There's a reason Briere didn't have any goaltenders on his list. Carson Bjarnason is one of the next in line, but he will certainly need AHL seasoning. The most exciting name is Egor Zavragin, however, he is under contract in the KHL for the next two seasons. Eetu Makiniemi is an interesting candidate, but he didn't get much time to impress due to injury and is a free agent.
The free agent pool isn't all that exciting either. Regarding UFAs, the biggest name on the list is probably Jake Allen or Frederik Andersen. A reunion with Alex Lyon may not be off the table as he's found success since leaving. But more than likely, Briere won't go that route.
With seven picks in the first two round of the upcoming draft, some of those could be used as assets to help the team now. It's something Briere has thought about and may seriously be considering.
"It’s possible we use all picks, but there is a good chance we look at different things. It could be acquiring a player. It could be packaging picks to move up. It could be pushing picks back to
other years."
There was always a good chance that Briere was not going to have all of those picks come draft day. What he uses them for will be another story. While it would take a haul to deal the top-six pick, the rest could be usewd to bring in NHL-ready talent. There will be teams interested as Briere said. So they could have many conversations between now and draft day.
Danny Briere and company believe that this past season was rock bottom for the organization. Phase two is about to get underway.