The Philadelphia Flyers love the path of least resistance. It’s a gimmick Ron Hextall brought to the table back in 2014 when he took over, and has been inherited by both Chuck Fletcher and Danny Briere since.
Briere especially put that on display in 2024 when they did virtually nothing during the offseason, and it resulted a disaster of a 2024-25 season, which should’ve been expected considering 2023-24 wasn’t exactly filled with glitz and glamour to begin with.
And as we patiently wait for the draft at the end of the month, the rumor mill keeps churning and the question of whether or not the Flyers plan on doing anything during the 2025 season comes to the forefront.
Here’s the thing, they don’t really have to do anything. 19 of their 23-man roster spots are already accounted for, with Cam York and Jacob Pelletier still around as restricted free agents and more than likely coming back. That’s 21 spots. And with all the potential prospects knocking at the door, they don’t have to look far for the last body or two to fill out the roster.
They could do absolutely nothing and run the team back largely in it’s entirety for a second summer in a row. They should be looking at upgrades for the goaltending, for the center depth, for the prospect pool… but they don’t have to thanks to the contracts they’ve previously handed out.
According to PuckPedia, the Flyers are still doing pretty well when it comes to managing money. They have just shy of $19 million in space thanks to the increasing salary cap, with Cam York being their only notable internal player left unsigned (Pelletier probably won’t clock in at more than a $1 million aav or so). But if all their roster spots are full, and they’re not going to move someone like Owen Tippett, it still limits what they can actually do this summer.
Even if they want to incorporate multiple of their own prospects into the NHL, they’re going to have to subtract main roster pieces just to have the spots to shuffle the deck chairs. But with the 2024 offseason in mind, it’s totally believable Briere would be fine kicking his feet up and taking the summer off.
But what happens to this regime if they, once again, do nothing?
Most people can and/or will grin and bear it now in June/July, but when February rolls around and the team is in flames because the goaltending sucks or Ryan Poehling isn’t making an adequate top line center, it’s going to be a hard sell from Briere to tie a story together as to why he remained sedentary for two consecutive summers despite the very obvious problems he should’ve been combating.
Take the goaltending for example. The duo of Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov have produced the worst save percentage in the league for two straight seasons. But they’re both under contract in 2025-26 and the market for potential upgrades is both bare and expensive. Without a change, they’re probably dead in the water before the season even begins, but finding someone of substance to combat the problem won’t be cheap or easy, so there’s a non-zero chance they just don’t do it.
One would like to think that the front office is self-aware enough to realize how bad things are (and how bad things could get for them if this season falls off a cliff) but the Flyers have remained inactive for so long that, even as fans, it’s hard to get excited for the offseason anymore because it’s just kind of assumed that the team won’t be making any notable moves.
Honestly, what are the odds the Flyers sign Mitch Marner? What are the odds they add a bonafide top center? What are the odds they make any real change beyond random depth moves? Even the most diehard of the diehard Briere stans can probably admit the odds are slim (and, in fact, they’re also probably the ones that will go out of their way to justify the inaction, but that’s a different problem for a different day.)
And this mindset of skepticism doesn’t fall exclusively on Briere either. Fletcher and Hextall both bear responsibility for putting the breaks on progress for over a decade now, Briere just happens to be continuing the trend.
Briere has done a very good job keeping up his friendly-faced former Flyer public image despite the overall lack of progress made during his tenure, but that can only go so far. It’s going to dry up one day. Maybe things don’t get quite as red hot as they did when Fletcher met his maker, but sooner or later the fanbase is destined to wake up and realize they’ve been strung along for too long.
For what it’s worth, Briere has had a semi-decent 2025 when it comes to smaller moves. Ditching Frost, Farabee, Laughton, then firing Tortorella and Thompson and handing decent contracts to Cates and Foerster. They’re not exactly the blockbuster game-changing moves that are needed, but it’s the first sign of life out of the guy, really during his entire tenure.
With any luck, Danny Briere and the Flyers have a trick or two up their sleeves that can finally prove they’re capable of doing their jobs and silencing the doubters. But they have to prove that, it can no longer be assumed that they’re just magically going to snap into action one day. Is 2025 the year when they finally make a big move? Let’s all hope so, but keep your expectations low in the meantime.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 