In the “New Era of the Orange,” the Philadelphia Flyers and their new management have made it clear they are rebuilding. To their credit, it looked like they were rebuilding for a while. But the way they've operated over the past few months makes it clear that this is no ordinary rebuild. Because it's not a rebuild at all.
The Flyers are indeed restructuring their team, looking to stay competitive by keeping veterans on the team as their younger players develop. This isn't the vision general manager Danny Briere originally hinted at, but it could still work. What does that mean?
The Flyers officially abandon their rebuild
To understand how the Flyers' restructuring works, we must first clarify why they are actually restructuring. The Orange and Black are sticking with the status quo trade-wise until July 4, 2024, which avoids officially having to use the word “rebuilding” to describe the team. That is not the approach they are taking. No matter how many times Briere says they are rebuilding, his actions do not support his claim. There are many reasons for this.
In the past decade of offseasons, the Flyers have traded one player after the free agency slot opened: Ty McGinn for a 2014 third-round pick. With that in mind, it’s safe to assume Philadelphia’s trade is done. They haven’t made any player-involved trades this offseason. Briere has only traded one player in the past year, and it’s hard to rationalize how the team will rebuild. Where else can you find an example of a club that professes to be rebuilding being so conservative? This goes beyond passivity, considering the team still has several veterans who objectively don’t fit the rebuild timeline, including Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Garnet Hathaway, Travis Sanheim and Nick Seeler. Briere is purposefully keeping his assets off the trade market, and it’s not because he’s stubborn about getting a good return.
Briere made it clear long ago that he wasn't looking to completely dismantle the team, but there's a difference between trading one player and trading everyone. So far, nothing has been done this offseason, and I don't expect that to change. Rebuilding means a team acquires draft picks and prospects, and the Flyers did neither last year. Trading Sean Walker for the Colorado Avalanche's 2025 first-round pick just isn't enough for a true rebuilder.
The few moves might be justified if the Flyers were a weaker team and could have acquired a star prospect such as James Hagens, Anton Frondel, Porter Martone, Ivan Ryabkin or Michael Massa in the 2025 NHL Draft. After all, the goal of a rebuild is to acquire a top-tier prospect somehow. But Philadelphia seems too good a team to acquire these players. In fact, I think the Flyers' chances of making the playoffs, barring a draft-year slump, are much higher than the chances of acquiring any of the players mentioned above.
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That approach is far from a rebuild, given the Flyers' need for quality prospects. Rather, they're restructuring their team and working on building it while staying competitive for superstar prospect Matvey Mishukov, who is due to join the team in 2024-25. That's understandable for the Flyers to do, but it also directly contradicts what the new regime has represented in the past.
The biggest objective of a rebuild is to trade older players for draft picks and prospects. This can be done sparingly, but certainly the bar is high for a rebuild. Briere hasn't done this at all, other than trading Ivan Provorov 13 months ago. This process of keeping the roster completely intact and building a team on the fly, rather than selling veterans who probably won't be useful in a decade, has the makings of a rebuild. Flyers fans have seen this process through the past three GM regimes, and it's all too familiar at this point. Once that's out of the way, the million-dollar question is simple: Will it work this time?
The Flyers should be somewhat responsible with their cap space.
As things stand, the Flyers are not in the best cap situation. That may not change much depending on how things go in the future. The Flyers have a lot of expensive veterans under long-term contracts. With that in mind, the Flyers should use their cap space as responsibly as possible.
At this point, there is nothing stopping Konecny from getting a contract extension. The 27-year-old is set to become a free agent in 2025 and was eligible for a new contract on July 1. The fact that the Flyers are even considering keeping him proves they are retooling their team, but back to the point: Konecny will be asking for a lot of money. That is confirmed by Briere saying in the quote below that he wants to keep Konecny in Philadelphia “for a long time.” That means that if all goes to plan, Konecny will be signing a long-term deal.
If the Flyers are going to keep Konecny, they have to understand the downsides of an eight-year deal. There's always a chance he breaks the model and struggles to be consistent late in the season, but that's unlikely. So a reasonable contract length for both sides would probably be six years.
For comparison, St. Louis Blues guard Pavel Buchnevich earned $8 million per season over six years in the extension he signed on July 2. Konecny is a little older but a much better overall player, so his average annual salary (AAV) should be lower. But would Briere end up paying a high price anyway? The Flyers need to avoid that.
If Briere really wants to give Konecny, and potentially other players, an extension, he'll have to be smart with his finances — Sean Couturier, Travis Sanheim and Owen Tippett are already making a combined $20.2 million over the next six seasons — and spending will need to calm down, so that's something to watch.
Restructuring works if the funds are flexible enough. If Philadelphia has enough cap space, they can spend money in free agency or on the trade market to address future needs. The Nashville Predators, another team restructuring, showed how important it is to spend money wisely in the 2024 offseason. If that money is taken away, it will be much harder to improve. Even if Briere and the Flyers are trying to be competitive and keep as many players as possible, some exceptions will be inevitable if they want to be championship contenders at the end of the day.
First-round picks still have value
Generally speaking, there is a ton of data proving that it is pretty tough to pick anything other than the early first round in a draft. When almost every top prospect goes undrafted, it becomes harder to predict which players are most likely to perform well. But at the end of the day, a first round pick is a first round pick, and even non-lottery picks can be very lucrative.
Even without Mishukov in the 2023-24 season, the Flyers could still only get the 12th pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, despite some flaws. There's no linear progression, but we can assume Philadelphia won't fall too far below that general range as they continue to retool. Mishukov and the team's other young players should only get better, and continued improvement is likely. This is bad for draft valuation, but it might not be so devastating if the Flyers play well.
It may not be easy, but most teams would be willing to move down a few spots in the draft if the offer is right. If the Flyers have a really promising player, they can just trade up. If they are happy with their draft position, they can also acquire young players over the years and hope that some of them will be a hit. There will be a few players that don't work out, but there may be valuable players in the top half of the lineup that Philadelphia can get right away. If they can collect enough players with their first-round draft pick and do the same outside of the first round, picking a little later in the draft may not be the worst thing. The Flyers will lose a player with the highest potential, but it's not impossible to make up for it.
The Flyers have a foundation
A Flyers rebuild is easier to accept under the current setup than it was under general managers Paul Holmgren, Ron Hextall and Chuck Fletcher. A big reason for that is that the long-term foundation is already in place. This has a lot to do with Mischkov and whether he can continue to be the franchise's leader for years to come, but the Flyers have other solid pieces in terms of future prospects.
Philadelphia doesn't have any stars, but they do have depth. Offensively, they could field a great bottom-six forward line with just the top prospects. Additionally, the Flyers have a couple of goalies who could start for the team, as well as a couple of good defensemen. Those three have been major weaknesses, especially for Coach Hextall's Orange and Black, who have always had the best players but just not the depth to put it all together. That doesn't seem to be the case this time.
If the Flyers manage their finances well, they can have stars, deep players, and stars all over the lineup. They can do well in the draft, spend smartly in free agency, and make good trades. Really, if the Flyers do all of the things I just mentioned smartly, they have nothing to worry about. If everything goes well, the Flyers will be a natural contender. That's the end goal.
The Flyers' new direction may not be the best one, but there's no point in dismissing it at this point. Briere and company have turned the script around, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. They still have a shot at winning the Stanley Cup if they do it the right way.
