Flyers Need to Take Risks in Their Rebuild

While the Flyers have made progress, they still have their work cut out for them. There is a lot that needs to be done, particularly on the talent front; head coach John Tortorella openly admitted it. Attaining this talent is much easier said than done, and therein lies the problem.

In order to truly take that next step in the rebuild, the Flyers are going to have to make sacrifices. Whether it be trading core players to try and acquire a top-end draft pick in 2025 or officially ending the rebuild by trading for a star, Philadelphia cannot afford to sit around and do nothing. This offseason, just like it was in 2023, will have to be full of moves.

The direction they take is irrelevant – how active they are is not. The Flyers have to make up their minds about what they truly want to be, otherwise their window to acquire game-changing talent will fade. Risks will be required to make that happen, and it could get ugly.

A Repeat of the 2023-24 Season Won’t Be Worthwhile

Objectively speaking, the Fyers’ 2023-24 campaign was a good one in terms of progress. Younger players like Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, Cam York, and Sam Ersson all had important roles with the team. In addition, 25-year-old Owen Tippett established himself as a core player, signing an eight-year extension.

For as good as almost making the playoffs was, it is not an area where the Flyers will want to find themselves in 2024-25 and beyond. Being on the bubble is exactly where the Flyers were throughout most of the 2010s, and it was the most dreadful era in franchise history. They were never bad enough to get a top prospect, but never good enough to make a run for the Stanley Cup. This direction will likely have to change unless Briere wants to repeat history.

If the Flyers choose not to move the needle either one way or the other, they could be stuck in this purgatory again. They likely won’t see notable progress unless they acquire a star, which is easiest to do by obtaining high draft picks.

Philadelphia doesn’t need just any star, though; a borderline superstar on top of Michkov will give them the best chance to win a Stanley Cup in the future. Adding one would likely make them an annual contender. While it is certainly possible to hit on draft picks after the early first round, it is very unlikely. Everyone wants good players, but nobody wants to go through the motions toward making that happen – it is why the Flyers haven’t had a true “tank” since the 1990s.

Acquiring Star Players Won’t Be Pretty

So, if the Flyers want to draft a high-end star and have a good shot of doing so, they will want to commit to a tear-it-down rebuild. They would probably be able to keep some young players, but veterans like Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Rasmus Ristolainen, Scott Laughton, and even Joel Farabee would immediately become expendable. Regardless of the return, shipping them out of Philadelphia would be the only objective. It’s a bad idea from a value standpoint, but superstars in the NHL are invaluable.

In just a few seasons, if not less, the Flyers would likely be ready to compete for a playoff spot. This is a risk, but doing so would make the Orange and Black more formidable for years to come. Tearing down what seems to be a good thing won’t be easy for anyone to swallow, but it would get the Flyers a major step closer to building a contending roster. They only have one top-end player in the entire organization – more is needed.

Other than signing a top-notch star in free agency, which is a very rare ordeal, trading for one is the only other viable option. Depending on where the player is in their career, this would essentially end the Flyers’ rebuild the moment the deal is confirmed. However, it would come at a cost. Teams aren’t exactly itching to trade away their best players.

If, theoretically, a much-maligned player like Mitch Marner was on the board, the Flyers would have to give up a fortune. Every team that needs a star will give their best offer to get him. If the Flyers want to truly progress, this is the type of player they have to be after.

It would take a lot, and it wouldn’t just be draft picks in addition to players like Konecny and Sanheim. Minus Michkov, any prospect on the team would be on the table, whether it be one or multiple of Oliver Bonk, Denver Barkey, Egor Zavragin, etc. That’s the risk that comes with trying to get better. If the Flyers are not up for that challenge, they will just be repeating Ron Hextall’s tenure as the GM in Philadelphia. Passiveness is a largely avoided route by the most successful teams. Stars didn’t land in Hextall’s lap because he did nothing to make that happen; Briere doesn’t want his legacy.

Risk-Taking in Flyers’ History

For a very long time, the Flyers were the model for what a franchise should strive to be. No, they have not won a Stanley Cup since 1975, but they were consistently one of the best teams in the NHL in the 1980s and throughout most of the 1990s. Though this was before the salary cap era (2005-06 to present) and the most successful ways to build a team have shifted in that time, there are some valuable takeaways to be had.

After the 1980s, the Flyers were entering the first era of losing hockey they had seen since the first few seasons of their existence. For the first time in franchise history, they missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons in both 1989-90 and 1990-91. Trending toward doing the same in 1991-92, they made a stunner of a deal.

A player who personified what being a Flyer was, Rick Tocchet, was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He served as the main piece to land the Flyers a 23-year-old Mark Recchi. Tocchet was one of the legends of the franchise, and he was still in his prime at age 27. It was a dangerous maneuver that put GM Russ Farwell’s job on the line, but it was a win-win trade for both clubs.

Recchi still holds the single-season points record in Flyers history with 123, while Tocchet won a Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh. In 1994-95, Recchi, an established star, was dealt to the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Eric Desjardins and winger John LeClair. It ended up being one of the best trades the Flyers have ever made, with the two of them staying on the roster for a combined 21 seasons. If they had done nothing and remained conservative, none of this would have been possible.

In one of the biggest blockbusters in NHL history, the Flyers shook the hockey world when they traded for a generational prospect by the name of Eric Lindros. They gave up a ludicrous package to do it including future Hall of Fame center Peter Forsberg, but the deal resulted in the Flyers making the Stanley Cup Final once and the Eastern Conference Final three times in eight seasons with Lindros on the roster. This is another one of those high-risk, high-reward moves that almost paid off.

Nobody is asking Briere to recreate the Lindros trade, but what does have to happen are serious gambles. Prepping for a losing season is a gamble. Trading for a star is a gamble. However it has to happen, it must be done. He’s not going to win every trade – he will be dubbed the loser of many of them if he lasts a while. If he’s not willing to put his job on the line to face this potential backlash, though, he probably isn’t the right person to be GM. Enacting real change is a hard process, but it ultimately projects to be worthwhile. Trading core players should undoubtedly be in the cards.

There is no correct way to rebuild in the NHL. There are many ways to win a Stanley Cup, but some methods just so happen to be more likely than others. Whatever path the Flyers choose, they need to be confident in it and go all the way. An all-in rebuild is something the Flyers have lacked for decades. They need to commit to their craft this time.