The David Jiricek saga in Columbus came to a conclusion on Saturday evening when the former sixth overall pick in 2022 was dealt to the Minnesota Wild for four draft picks and a prospect. The end of the sweepstakes meant that the Philadelphia Flyers and GM Danny Briere passed up on another opportunity to upgrade the roster as the season has shifted in a positive direction.
This was a move (or lack thereof) that was rather decisive around the fanbase. Yet, it wasn’t necessarily an unexpected outcome. So should the Flyers have been in on the 20-year-old right-handed defenseman? That answer is a little more complicated than a blanketed yes or no.
RHD isn’t necessarily at the top of the concern list for the Flyers, but it is a position that can be described as unnerving when it comes to their game plan. Jamie Drysdale and Oliver Bonk are the duo slated to hold down the right side for years to come, but Drysdale’s play has been suspect at best when he isn’t missing time with injury, and the soon-to-be 20-year-old Bonk hasn’t played a professional game yet, with his debut set for the 2025-26 season. He’s been posting points with the London Knights, but some prospect analysts are worried that he may not be fine tuning his defensive skills, leading to a rough transition to NHL ice, particularly with John Tortorella’s no-nonsense approach to both his rookie and defensemen in general.
The rest of the Flyers defense is a congested mess. Sanheim is playing the right side, Ristolainen is supposedly on the trade block, but he’s here for two more seasons until he’s actually moved, and the emergence of Emil Andrae has forced Zamula and Johnson down the chart.
The Flyers have struggled to voluntarily play their own prospects at the NHL level thanks to a mix of John Tortorella’s ignorance and Briere’s lackluster roster construction, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t add a top prospect that would need NHL ice time at a position that, while still questionable in the long-term, is crowded at the moment.
Now, there is an inherent flaw in the logic of refusing to give up a draft pick for a top prospect. The Flyers don’t want to deal a draft pick for David Jiricek because they want to take the risk of using their own pick to select someone they hope turns out as good as Jiricek is a bizarre “chicken or the egg” conundrum, something they’ve used as an excuse before with guys like Trevor Zegras and Alex DeBrincat.
The most unsettling part of the missed opportunity is that it wasn’t chalked up to a piece that didn’t fit, it was blamed on the front office being scared of moving assets.
Via DailyFaceoff contributor Anthony Di Marco-
Re. Jiricek: Sources say PHI was not willing to part with any of their top 2 or 3 prospects to finalize a deal.
Most of the team-paid shills with direct ties to the front office had a very similar defense of the inaction (all in a strangely copy-and-paste message and simultaneous drop time, surely just a coincidence…) before a real objective insider like Di Marco confirmed.
The message wasn’t relayed that they didn’t pursue Jiricek because wouldn’t have fit in their current defensive construction, because that is true and a valid reason for not pulling the trigger, at least in the short-term. If they paid a premium in a trade they would have to give Jiricek big NHL minutes out of the gate and that just isn’t available on the Flyers’ blue line, right or wrong, at this time.
That is a totally acceptable reason to not make a trade. But that wasn’t the messaging.
It was phrased as “they were in on Jiricek but didn’t pull the trigger because they were too scared to give up assets” which is just not a comforting vibe to send out when the team is going to have to go outside the organization, probably via trade, looking for a major addition, particularly at center, in 2025.
What the loudest Briere skeptics (like myself) want is a statement move that indicates that intentional forward progress is going to occur. He’s quickly approaching his second anniversary at the helm of the Flyers and Briere has not done anything of note to put his stamp on the team. Cutter Gauthier forced his hand to make a deal, both Hayes and Provorov were “culture” related and re-signing their own players to lifetime contracts doesn’t scream “I know what I’m doing” during a rebuild.
So while Jiricek was not necessarily a do or die trade, it was another opportunity for Briere to step up to the plate and yet another time he went down looking. The idea that he can’t make whatever move currently presents itself because they’re *theoretically* busy looking on the horizon for the next big move that ultimately either never materializes or they also balk at and the current product sits in stagnation in the meantime is a problem.
Perfect is the enemy of good, as the saying goes.
Briere will always have his staunch loyalists who will never ever question anything he does, or in this case doesn’t do. But more fans are starting to string together the radio silence coming from the front office is not a positive sign when it comes to giving them the blind faith they are asking for.
Another factor of this trade is that Jiricek ended up in Minnesota, which is theoretically a move that signals the Wild are going to try and compete now, which could mean they intend to hang onto breakout center Marco Rossi, whose name bubbled up in trade rumors last week. So saving assets for a center, who could very well be Rossi (which by itself isn’t bad idea FWIW) may not even come to fruition.
Maybe one day Briere will make a blockbuster trade, but the more and more time that passes it becomes less and less believable that he has what it takes to be the general manager of an NHL team.
Sooner or later something is going to have to change. Either Briere finally put his big boy pants on and makes a deal, or the masses get restless and all the good grace his former Flyer status bought him will run out. Just ask Ron Hextall, whose hands-off nature in his similar screwed up version of a rebuild finally did him in.
So did Briere drop the ball? The answer is yes. Positionally, jiricek is not as easy an accommodation, but it may have been worth the investment considering the right side of their defense is anything but a sure thing. If Jiricek blossoms in Minnesota and fast forward a few years in Flyerland and neither of Bonk or Drysdale are top guys, it’s going be be looked back on as a serious missed opportunity.
Just add it to the ever-growing, decade-long list.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 