A lot can change in just a few days. Heading into the weekend, the Philadelphia Flyers were at the bottom of the league with a winless start through nine games. They were dealt a few more blows in the form of injuries, as well, with a pair of playoff teams coming to town.

There are still plenty of questions surrounding Rick Tocchet’s longevity behind the Flyers’ bench, and if this is the right group to take the next step on the ice, that’s for sure.

However, general manager Danny Briere and the rest of the Flyers front office now have a bit of wiggle room to work with. They aren’t dreading each game and drowning in bad trade offers. They have breathing room, a clearer mind, and perhaps a few paths forward.

Flyers’ winless start backed Briere into a corner

The Flyers were the talk of the league for all the wrong reasons prior to this little two-game winning streak. Players were underperforming, the coaching staff was under the microscope, and the pressure was building.

Briere was reportedly getting calls from teams around the league during the Flyers’ season-opening struggles, like vultures circling a carcass. The Flyers seemed like a dead team walking, simply waiting for the inevitable move to shake things up.

That’s not a position you ever want to be in, and Briere bunkered down to buy himself some time rather than making a panic move. He threw a smoke grenade in the air in the form of signing Michael Bunting, and didn’t shy away from criticizing the players’ “compete level” shortly after that move.

If the losses continued to pile up, surely Briere would’ve been forced to do something else, quite possibly in a panic. But that hasn’t been Briere’s M.O. as a GM, and perhaps the Flyers’ injuries helped buy him even more time.

The Flyers’ injuries provided a rather easy thing for Briere and the Flyers to point to for a poor start, although they didn’t make any excuses for themselves. Missing guys like Cam York, Rasmus Ristolainen, and now Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster forced the Flyers to cobble together a lineup for a handful of games. That’s not to mention that Travis Konecny has been on the shelf for a week now, too.

Those injuries had domino effects throughout the lineup and, therefore, on players’ values as well. If other GMs knew that the Flyers were thinking about making a panic trade, they could squeeze a little more out of Briere knowing that a few key players were hurt.

Even if Briere did want to make a trade during that 0-6-3 start, his options were slim. The players that are typically in trade rumors were the players who were hurt, namely York and Ristolainen, and it didn’t take long for Tippett to join the banged-up bunch.

Now, of course, Briere could’ve traded Tippett while he was healthy, but he likely would not have received fair value for the winger. He would’ve been trading from a position of weakness while the player’s value was at an all-time low.

It also didn’t look like the Flyers had any real replacements for Tippett, Foerster, or the like, given the seemingly longer-term injury to Konecny and a lackluster start for Alex Bump in the NHL.

However, the Flyers were thrown a liferaft over the weekend with a win against the Senators, and they can now see help on the horizon after a good win against a great Avalanche team. The Flyers are no longer the laughing stock of the league. In fact, their stock may be on the rise. That’s good news for Briere, who can now continue those conversations with other GMs as the Flyers are back on their feet.

Flyers’ next-man-up win puts Briere back in driver’s seat

Not only did the Flyers beat the Avalanche, but they did it while missing several top-half-of-the-lineup players. They were instead led by a youthful group, including Cole Knuble making his NHL debut and Bump getting recalled after an AHL Star of the Week performance.

Bump, Knuble, and even Jacob Gaucher proved that they can hold their own — and then some — against one of the best teams in the league. Now, we’ll see how long they’re up with the Flyers depending on injury timelines and their performance, but at the very least, it gave Briere some confidence that they have young players ready to step in if he were to pull the trigger on a trade.

Perhaps even more importantly, Briere is no longer backed into a corner. The carcass has been reanimated, and, assuming Briere took the GMs’ calls in good faith while he was laying in the muck, he can call them back and negotiate on equal footing.

That’s been Briere’s mindset during his tenure as Flyers GM, after all. He is only going to make a trade, signing, hire, or other move if it makes sense.

And while Tocchet may still be on the hot seat, especially if the Flyers get close to another nine-game losing streak this season, it certainly seems like a trade is the likelier move for Briere’s next act.

It still may take some time for players to get back to full health and for the forward lines and defensive pairs to shake out, though.

Out of the healthy players on the roster who could be moved right now, Noah Cates comes to mind. He’s been centering Porter Martone and Matvei Michkov during their breakout, though, and provided a screen on the youngster’s second goal on Monday. And given the Flyers’ center depth, moving Cates would likely require a pivot coming back as well.

A trade of Tippett still seems most likely if the Flyers want to move a forward. He’s failed to take that next step, and might just be what he is at this point. He could have more value to a team where he can be the third guy on a line, rather than being asked to carry things here in Philadelphia.

On the blue line, things could open up nicely if they’re ever able to get everyone healthy at the same time. Oliver Bonk looks like a top-pair defenseman. Full stop.

That could open up the ever-talked-about Ristolainen trade, or perhaps a bigger deal involving York. But again, they’d both need to get back into the lineup and then prove they’re healthy before teams would pull the trigger.

All in all, Briere and the Flyers are in a much better position to make moves now than they were just a few days ago. That may not mean that a move is coming in the short term, though, given the team’s injuries and the simple fact that not many teams like making trades this early in the year, but trades don’t come together overnight.

You can be sure that Briere and the Flyers have been working the phones and will hopefully pull the trigger when the right move comes along.