VOORHEES, N.J. - Daniel Briere didn’t have a blockbuster trade to announce Tuesday, and he didn’t have a fresh contract extension to unveil either. What he did have, with training camp about to begin, was a chance to revisit one line from July 1 that got plenty of attention.
Back then, after a quiet opening day of free agency, the Flyers general manager said, “There’s a chance, a good chance, that we take a little bit of a step back this year.”
That comment landed hard because it came after Philadelphia had finished last season with a surge, then pushed into the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and stayed competitive in three of four games against the eventual champions despite getting swept. On Tuesday, Briere said he had not explained himself well enough.
“I think I didn’t explain myself properly when I said that,” he said. “The part that keeps me up at night is (if) some of our players feel complacent, feel like they’ve made it.
Let’s face it, we’re still a young team. We had guys that had success last year.
You saw what happened with Matvei (Michkov) - had a lot of success the first year; it’s tougher the second year.
“We had guys like Porter Martone who came in (late last season), had a lot of success, helped us get in the playoffs, performed very well, helped us win a round. You have guys like (Alex) Bump and (Denver) Barkey, who had success in the second half of the year.
Those are the things that keep me up at night, worried that coming back, they’ll think it’s a little easier than they realize. They’re going to be a big part of our team, so if that happens, we could have a setback.”
That’s the tightrope Philadelphia is walking now. The organization believes the hardest stretch of the rebuild is behind it, and the young talent it wants to build around is already in place either on the NHL roster or in the system. But if those players flatten out - or if some of them, like Michkov last season, go backward - then the whole thing can lose momentum in a hurry.
Briere’s warning wasn’t a shot across the bow so much as a reminder that last season’s progress still has to be earned again. The Flyers were better.
They were more competitive. They were younger and, in a lot of cases, better individually.
But that still wasn’t enough to declare the job done.
That’s what makes this season such a fascinating one for the Flyers. They’ve climbed into that crowded middle ground, and now the question is whether they hold there, move up, or slide back. Briere made clear that the answer will depend as much on the kids as it will on the familiar veterans who have been around forever.
The general manager said the team still expects to make the playoffs, and he called this group “as more competitive than we were last year, and a better team than we were last year.”
The real key, though, is simple: “We hope our young guys take another step.”
That includes a sharper Michkov, whom Briere said appears to be taking his summer work more seriously and has “a pep in his step” since returning to the area two weeks ago. It includes Martone growing into the power forward the Flyers imagined when they drafted him in 2025 and helping a power play that was awful last season. It includes Barkey and Bump becoming steady, full-time NHL players.
It also means continued growth from other players under 25 such as Tyson Foerster, Jamie Drysdale, Trevor Zegras and Cam York, all of whom Briere said need to build on last season under coach Rick Tocchet. And it means at least one young defenseman - Ty Murchison, Oliver Bonk or David Jiricek - stepping into the third pair and filling a hole.
If that all happens, it’s hard to see the Flyers slipping backward, especially if Dan Vladar and Joseph Woll deliver the goaltending the team expects.
Still, the roster isn’t the only variable. Briere also knows what happens between now and the next trade deadline could change the picture fast. His failed offer sheet for Leo Carlsson signaled that the Flyers are ready to chase a meaningful addition, and he said Tuesday there is still no timetable for making that kind of move.
That’s partly because the organization spent years getting to this point.
“We’ve positioned ourselves, and it took a while, and we took some licks. We had to miss the playoffs and be a bad team for way too long, in my mind, to just throw away the cap space that we’ve built,” Briere said.
So the next seven months carry a lot of weight. If the young core keeps climbing and Briere lands a major piece before the deadline, the conversation changes quickly.
A step back would no longer be the headline. The ceiling would be.
For now, the Flyers are heading into camp with both possibilities sitting right in front of them. Which one shows up first will start to come into focus this week.
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