The Philadelphia Flyers led by rookie GM Danny Briere have been unafraid to use the word “rebuild” when it comes to the state of the team. But the on-ice product has been much better than originally anticipated, yet that hasn’t stopped the front office from using the term “rebuild.” And even as they try and loosely stay within the parameters of a rebuild with moves like the Sean Walker trade at the deadline, on the whole, they’re not quite fitting the definition of a classic NHL rebuild.
It’s opened them up for questions like what exactly is the next step from here? And the answer is highly dependent on haw badly the team wants to actively construct a winner. But with 19 of 23 players already under contract for the 2024-25 season and the organization in general has no recent history of pulling the trigger on major moves, it leaves a quite a bit of skepticism that 2024 is the time when the Flyers truly turn into a competitor.
Though there’s one fan theory out there on Flyers-themed social media based on some recent rumors that kind of makes sense, and it’s a 1,000 IQ play that would put Briere among the elite minds of our sport if he’s actually concocting it.
The fan theory proposed on Twitter goes like this:
Recent rumors suggest that head coach John Tortorella could step away from the bench in favor of taking a front office gig. We covered yesterday the poor timing and rather confusing rumor of Torts leaving the spotlight. He’s the de facto face of the franchise and the leader of their cultural-based rebuild, so for him to just abandon ship when the good times are rolling before things are complete is quite the head scratcher.
But what if that was the plan?
The Flyers are more than likely going to make the playoffs during year one of a rebuild. There’s a good chance that is a first time occurrence in the league and rather counterintuitive to the end goal. But it happened because John Tortorella’s cultural approach worked. He built the immediate foundation to build upon, and even though he won’t be behind the bench to guide it anymore, he won’t be too far away either to keep it in check.
But with Tortorella gone and the roster still highly underwhelming, won’t the Flyers take a step back in 2024-25?
Yes. Just like they planned.
The consensus is that the 2024 draft class is rather weak. Outside of the top few picks, it’s all a much larger crapshoot than usual. The Flyers have done their part by having 10 selections scattered throughout the draft, but there’s a good chance that this roster, even without the inflated culture isn’t a true bottom team, so the front office deemed it more important to build a culture this season than hoping for draft lottery luck.
2025 is projected to be a much stronger batch of players. So if Tortorella steps down and the team regresses, their shot at landing a better player in the draft greatly improves and their culture is already in place which should prevent the step back from deflating the players.
They get a better pick, they’re then only one year away from Matvei Michkov’s arrival and the 2025 free agent class is also looking very strong, especially compared to the rather bare 2024 crop.
You see the vision yet?
The organization opted to rebuild the culture during a weak draft, Tortorella leaves and things regress, but in that regression they reenter the top ten in the draft and get a big name prospect and then head into 2025 free agency and pick up a big name star, all right before Michkov shows up and they can hit the ground running in 2026-27.
Is it a bold theory? Yeah. But there is a bit of logic that gets followed. The rumors or Tortorella moving to the front office just don’t really make sense. Why would he leave right after a successful season that he was responsible for when he’s still got two years left on his contract? It only makes sense when taking a step back on-ice ultimately means a gigantic step forward in the immediate aftermath, which can be achieved with a strong 2025 draft and a big free agent addition or two.
Quite frankly, this can be achieved even without Tortorella leaving. The roster is still very underwhelming and if any of their cultural magic dissipates, it could leave the team stuck in neutral even if there’s no coaching change.
So are the Flyers playing 4D chess with their rebuild? Only time will tell, but if something along these lines actually pans out, it’ll look pretty damn great in hindsight. The theory ties up quite a bit of loose ends and explains the Flyers “trust me bruh” attitude despite the lack of a rebuilding feel at the moment. They’ve got time to kill before Michkov arrives and the show begins, so waiting a year before they have a stealthy approach to a young movement makes sense, even though it’s still a bit backwards. It’s the kind of thing that would make Briere a legend if it unfolds.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 