It's Not Even October Yet And Danny Briere Has Locked Up General Manager Of The Year
Len Redkoles. Getty Images.Things got a little bumpy for Danny Briere in his first year as the GM of the Philadelphia Flyers when 2022 5th overall pick Cutter Gauthier decided he wasn't going to sign with the team. There was nothing that Briere did wrong in that situation, it was just an entitled little kid who thought he deserved to be in the NHL sooner than the Flyers were going to bring him up. So he threw a temper tantrum, refused to talk to anyone within the organization, and fortunately Briere was still able to get a great player in return for him in Jamie Drysdale.
It was an impossible scenario for any GM to find himself in, let alone a guy in his first year. But Danny Briere handled that one as well as he could. Still, the perception was out there that the organization might be in trouble if more players go the route of Gauthier. There was still a huge question mark hovering over Matvei Michkov in Russia about when or if he'd ever come over to Philadelphia.
Briere turned that question mark into an exclamation point in May when he was able to get Michkov out of his KHL contract 2 years earlier than expected.
Next up came this year's draft. Obviously after losing out on Cutter Gauthier, the Flyers needed to grab a top tier prospect to replace him with this summer. The Flyers had the 12th overall pick in this year's draft, so it wasn't like they could easily replace the talent they lost with a former 5th overall outside of trading up in the draft. Briere did what he could to make a deal work, but nobody was budging in those top 5-8 picks. When the 12th pick came up and the Flyers were on the clock, Zeev Buium from Denver was still on the board. Most people felt like the Flyers lucked out with him still being there, and it would have been a no brainer to draft him. But instead, Briere decided to trade back one pick with Minnesota. The Wild selected Buium 12th overall, and the Flyers ended up taking Jett Luchanko 13th overall. Not only did he pass on Buium, but he took a chance on a kid who most people barely had ranked in the top 20.
Jett Luchanko was a late bloomer. Briere saw the path he was developing on and figured the pick would look great in a few seasons. The Flyers would have been happy if Luchanko was NHL ready in 2 years. They would have been ecstatic is Luchanko was ready to go next year. But with less than 10 days to go until the season opener, it looks like the kid is at least going to get a 9-game tryout this year.
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Putting him on a line tonight with Travis Konecny and Tyson Foerster isn't just giving the kid a chance, it's basically saying the only way he doesn't make this team for opening night is if he completely implodes. And maybe he does. Who knows. But the fact of the matter is that this kid seems like he's going to be in the NHL way sooner than anyone, but Briere, expected.
And to top it all off, the Flyers had another case of a disgruntled prospect over the summer when goaltending prospect Alexei Kolosov decided to go back to Russia. He said he was unhappy with being in the AHL, and would go back to Russia unless he had a guaranteed spot in the NHL. There have been some incredible goalies to come out of Russia lately. Guys like Igor Shesterkin, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Sergei Bobrovsky are all Vezina winners. I don't know if Kolosov is at that level, but he sure thinks he is. The Flyers weren't going to handcuff themselves and give him a guaranteed spot in the NHL, so he was on a flight back home.
But now it looks like he's had a change of heart, and now he's on his way back to Philly.
Whether he just didn't find a good opportunity in the KHL, or Briere was able to talk some sense into the kid, we don't know. But the fact of the matter is that the Flyers were about to lose the 2nd disgruntled prospect in a year which would have been a pretty big black eye on management. Danny Briere made sure that didn't happen and got whatever deal done he needed to in order to get Kolosov back.
The Flyers might still be a little ways away from being legitimate contenders again, but it's tough not to be wildly optimistic about the direction this team is heading with Danny B leading the way.