Daniel Briere was always resourceful as an NHL player.<\/p>\n
Now, as the team\u2019s general manager, he gets to show if he can pull some more rabbits out of the proverbial hat, this time with the Flyers\u2019 choices in the NHL Draft.<\/p>\n
With the yearly player selection process getting underway Friday night in Los Angeles, Briere \u2013 who will be stationed at the team\u2019s remote headquarters in Atlantic City \u2014 has plenty to work with, including three first-rounders (Nos. 6, 22 and 31).<\/p>\n
The buzz going around is that Briere might try to package a couple of those picks or someone from three more available picks in the second round.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s always speculation leading up to the big show. This time the Flyers have enough draft picks to really make something happen.<\/p>\n
On June 17 at a media availability session, Briere let it be known if the right deal were to present itself, he might go for it.<\/p>\n
Some of that might have to do with the potential of players slotted in the top five.<\/p>\n
Forget projected No. 1 pick Matthew Schaefer. The talented defenseman has impressed scouts far and wide. His skating and hockey IQ are elite. He\u2019s headed to New York after the Islanders won the draft lottery last month.<\/p>\n
Since the Flyers are in need of centers, there might be a couple projected players at that position worth moving up to secure.<\/p>\n
Start with Michael Mesa and include James Hagans and Anton Frondell on that list.<\/p>\n
The Hockey News has Mesa projected at No. 2, Hagans at No. 4 and Frondell at No. 5.<\/p>\n
Or the Flyers might just stand pat if they feel that center Caleb Desnoyers (brother of Flyers prospect Elliot Desnoyers), rated No. 6, might be a good fit.<\/p>\n
All that said, the Flyers could also move down to secure more picks. They did move down one spot last year and took center Jett Luchanko, who actually started last season playing in four games for the Flyers before he was returned to his junior team.<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, it takes two to tango. Asked at the press briefing if he expected to field a lot of calls, Briere shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he said at the June 17 press conference. \u201cI can\u2019t control what the other guys . . . if they like the flock that we have, we have a lot of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like everyone is trying to move up at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s already made one big trade (acquiring Anaheim\u2019s Trevor Zegras for Ryan Poehling and draft picks) last Monday and there could be others in the works.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a pretty sure thing his phone has been busy the last couple days.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said from the beginning we would like to try to move up if it was possible,\u201d Briere said. \u201cBut right now there\u2019s just not a lot of options there. We\u2019ll have to be patient. And maybe there\u2019s an opportunity that comes where we can create value going the other way (down) also.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assistant general manager Brent Flahr, who oversees the team\u2019s scouting department, also weighed in on the Flyers\u2019 flexibility in terms of either moving up or down on the draft ladder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a player is still available that we have at a higher level, we\u2019ll move up,\u201d he said. \u201cIf not, and we think we can get by, we\u2019ll move back a couple spots and get the same caliber of player, we\u2019ll try to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s going to be some opportunities for movement. Having more picks is always beneficial. Just gives you freedom to do a lot of different things. A lot more fun being on this side of it at this time of year when you have these picks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Different feel to draft<\/p>\n
This is the first time the NHL is going to a \u201cdual\u201d draft. While the national gathering will be based in Los Angeles, the Flyers will have their own remote headquarters at the Hard Rock Hotel in Atlantic City.<\/p>\n
Briere said the new arrangement could have both some pros and cons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like personally being on the floor (at the draft\u2019s main headquarters),\u201d he said. \u201cAnd being able to grab the phone on the (Flyers\u2019) table or walk over (to another team\u2019s table) to get something done, face-to-face. I kind of like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just me. But there\u2019s also the privacy part \u2013 having so many picks, just to have the luxury of being by ourselves and not worrying about computers or lists being wide open available to everybody. Because we have so many picks, I think that\u2019s going to be an advantage for us, will make it a little easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, it won\u2019t the same as it was last year at The Sphere in Las Vegas. That was an experience for the ages.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to miss being on the floor with everybody,\u201d Briere said. \u201cThe energy that it creates to having everybody down there.\u201d<\/p>\n
www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Briere was always resourceful as an NHL player. Now, as the team\u2019s general manager, he gets to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[339,7,6,15,9,5367],"class_list":{"0":"post-161781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-draft","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114753625506118689","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}