PHILADELPHIA \u2014 The very fact that Danny Briere made a bold move with Christian Dvorak\u2019s long-term contract might tell you how committed the Flyers are to returning to the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The GM could be sending a message to his players and Flyers fans that the days of just building are over. Briere sounds happy with what he has.<\/p>\n
At a media session Tuesday to discuss Dvorak\u2019s new $25.75-million contract, Briere discussed what the deal means to the team\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t a lot of unrestricted free-agent centers available this summer,\u201d Briere pointed out during his talk at Xfinity Mobile Arena. \u201cThe options are to let him walk, trade him or to re-sign him. If you let him walk, you have to find someone else. You have to look at a trade and it\u2019s going to cost you assets. Christian is probably better than any trade we would have been able to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
These are the kinds of moves that signal the Flyers are confident in the players they have after years of trying to collect assets.<\/p>\n
For years, the Flyers have been drafting players and crossing their fingers. While that process of development remains important, the Flyers believe that younger players starting to establish themselves like Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, Denver Barkey, Cam York and Emil Andrae can lead the charge back to the postseason.<\/p>\n
Briere isn\u2019t worried about a seasoned veteran like Dvorak blocking the progress of a potential young star.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe young prospects, there\u2019s no guarantee,\u201d Briere said. \u201cYou never know when they\u2019re going to be ready. Everybody has their own pace. I look at my own career, I was 24, 25 years old before I took the next step. You just don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
\u201cDenver Barkey, last year we thought he would be in the minors for two, three years, and now he\u2019s with us. We\u2019re not going to rush anybody. When a player is ready, we\u2019ll find a way to make him room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Briere wants to proceed with caution. He\u2019s not going to make moves that have undue risk at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll try to help the team if we can,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s going to be something that\u2019s going to make sense. It doesn\u2019t change the vision or what we\u2019re trying to do in the future. If we make a move, it will be something that helps us in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Flyers have been jockeying for a playoff spot all season. Briere admitted that even he didn\u2019t think the turnaround would develop this quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little better than I expected,\u201d he said. \u201cI did expect us to be competitive. We could win two games and be in first place or we could lose three and be in last place in our division. There\u2019s no guarantee. But we\u2019re right in the mix and that\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Flyers got close two seasons ago, sitting in playoff position most of the year before suffering a late season collapse. Briere hopes the elements are different this time around so that doesn\u2019t repeat itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of our young players got that experience,\u201d he said. \u201cWe saw how it went in the second half. I\u2019m hoping that this year a lot of the guys will be better prepared and face the music when it matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n
Briere gives a lot of the credit for the Flyers\u2019 success to coach Rick Tocchet.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s creating really good habits,\u201d Briere said. \u201cTightened up defensively. Overall we certainly look like a (competitive) team. I\u2019ve been happy with the coaching staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dvorak and Trevor Zegras, acquired this summer from Anaheim, have really worked well together. Now that Dvorak is signed for multiple years, will the Flyers try to get Zegras\u2019 signature on a contract? He\u2019s a restricted free agent after this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope it helps (get Zegras signed),\u201d Briere said. \u201cTrevor is another reason why we\u2019ve taken another step. He\u2019s restricted, so we have a little more power on that front.<\/p>\n
We want to keep him here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keeping those two together might change the Flyers\u2019 fortunes for years to come. The Dvorak contract was the first step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 The very fact that Danny Briere made a bold move with Christian Dvorak\u2019s long-term contract might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-395132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115852675941760403","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}