The start of a new season traditionally means a new beginning. That is certainly true in ways for the Philadelphia Flyers ahead of the 2026-27 season. But after their first playoff appearance in six seasons, and reaching the second round, it also means more expectations.

GM Danny Briere met with the media on Tuesday ahead of training camp, opening on Thursday. Briere highlighted what the expectations would be, and clarified on a polarizing statement during the offseason.

“We expect it to be harder,” Briere said. “For me, it’s exciting because we’re at a time now where you want to see how your guys handle the hard. You’re going to hear [Rick Tocchet] talk about that quite a bit. We’re not going to creep up on anyone this year.

“I think teams will be much better prepared to face us after what happened last year and the way we surprised some teams probably coming down the stretch. So the way I look at it, I’m excited to see how our guys approach the season. How are they ready? How do they perform when things get harder? That’s the part that I’m excited to see, and it’s going to tell us a lot about our team.

So what about that “step back” comment from earlier in the offseason?

“I think I didn’t explain myself properly when I said that,” Briere said. “The part that keeps me up at night is having some of your players feel complacent, feel like they’ve made it. And let’s face it, we’re still a young team. We’ve had guys that had success last year.

“You saw what happened with Matvei [Michkov], had a lot of success the first year, it’s tougher the second year. We had guys like Porter Martone who came in late and had a lot of success, helped us get in the playoffs, performed very well, also helped us win a round. You have guys like [Alex] Bump and [Denver] Barkey who had success in the second half of the year.

“Those are the things that keep me up at night, worried that coming back they’ll think it’s a little easier than they realize. They’re going to be a big part of our team. So if that happens, we could have a setback. And that’s kind of what I meant by that after seeing what happened with Matvei. But at the end of the day, I’m hoping that they don’t take it lightly and they come out swinging again and they have a great second year pro.”

Which leads to the subject of Michkov. Easily the player that will garner the most attention, Michkov enters a critical third year, and contract year. Despite his struggles in his second season, he still finished with 20 goals and 51 points. Briere said he sees a different Michkov, one that was already starting to form at the end of last season.

“I think we saw him mature as the season went on last year. Everybody has a different path. You all wish that guys were all like Sidney Crosby and they were, at 16 years old, total pros, but the reality is those are really rare. What I was excited to see was I think his maturity level increased as the season went on. In the offseason seeing him here, he’s got a pep in his step, he feels good, he looks good, so I’m excited about Matvei’s season.”

Michkov’s rookie campaign seemed to offer a lot of hope for the future. At 20 years old, he led the team in goals with 26 and had 63 points in his first NHL season. But he admitted he was out of shape at the start of camp last season, and spend a lot of it trying to catch up. This offseason, it appears that lesson was learned and he’s ready for the next step.

“You saw what he did even during the Olympic breaks,” Briere said. “Even though he didn’t have a lot of time, he completely changed what he was thinking of doing, just going on vacation and having fun. He decided to take care of himself, and it showed in the last stretch of the season, which I think mentally was a good thing for him to see: ‘Hey, I took care of myself, look at the impact I was able to have.’ I think he went with that mentality into the offseason with, instead of 10 days to do it, having three or four months. That’s kind of what you see in how he looks at the moment and how he just walks around with a different swagger that he had probably two years ago.”

For all players involved in the playoff run, Briere hopes the taste is the motivator for this season. The expectation is to make the playoffs again, but Briere knows it is far from a guarantee for any team.

“It depends on the circumstances. I’ll give you an example. Like, I don’t think anybody considered the Panthers’ season a failure last year,” Briere said. “Yeah, it was a disaster in a sense that they got hit by a lot of injuries, but the circumstances made it that, with all the injuries they were hit with, they were not a playoff team. We all know they’re a good team and they’re going to bounce back this year, you know? So it depends a little bit on the circumstances. It’s too early to tell, but as of today, the goal is to make the playoffs.

“The most important part for me, and that’s where, you’re not going to like my answer, but we hope our young guys take another step. And if they do, I think we’ll be very competitive. I think last year going into the season we were just hoping to be competitive. We were hoping to be in the mix. In or out of the playoffs was going to be a good season. I see us as more competitive than we were last year and a better team than we were last year. Time will tell, but certainly I’m hoping that after the players tasted the playoffs last year, that they’re eager to get back there once again.”

Kevin Durso is Flyers insider for 97.3 ESPN. Follow him on social media @Kevin_Durso.

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