History will show that the sun rose on the Philadelphia Flyers’ new era on Sunday, March 12, 2023, a little after 8:30 a.m..

Sitting at a table was Danny Briere, who was being formally introduced as the interim general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers in a Zoom press conference with local and national reporters.

Over the course of the nearly 25 minutes question-and-answer session, Briere made it quite clear:

The Flyers are going to undergo a long-needed rebuild. Corners are not going to be cut.

“I'm not afraid to use the word rebuild,” Briere said. 

One of the NHL’s cornerstone franchises, the Flyers are going to miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third straight spring. And as such, a coherent vision for what the organization is and what path it must follow in order to regain its accustomed spot among the league’s hierarchy needed to be laid out and explained before being blazed.

“It needs to be done the right way,” Briere said. “At this point, I think that's what's needed. That's what's going to be important moving forward and not rushing to things. We're going to keep evaluating players. We’ll have a lot of discussions in which direction we're going to move, but there's no doubt that this is not a quick fix in my mind.

“I believe it's going to take a little while, but at the same time, it doesn't mean that we're going to do a full fire sale and have a [completely] new team next year. There's a lot of good players. There's a lot of good young players on this team. We've definitely gone on the younger side and I think it shows at times. It showed this year and it's going to show until the end of the year. We're a younger team. We maybe lack a little bit of experience. I think it's the right way to go at this time.”

The Flyers’ 25-32-12 record is near the bottom of the Eastern Conference ahead of only Columbus and Montreal. League-wide No wonder head coach John Tortorella called the 2022-23 campaign a “godforsaken season” after the 5-3 loss to Vegas at Wells Fargo Center on March 14.

But, as he noted in that same post-game press conference, the primary issue with the Flyers has not been one of effort.

“I think you have to be really careful with the approach. My approach right now is a little bit different than early in the year when we’re teaching. I think it’s more being with them. I think we need to be with them. “We’re done. We’re not making the playoffs. But our guys continue to play hard,” Tortorella said. “There haven’t been many nights this season … that I’ve had to worry about effort. I don’t think I will for the remainder [of the season] so I need to show them the respect and try to be with them and push them along. Continue to teach but in the proper way [for] what we’re going through right now.”

One of the themes Tortorella has stressed since training camp and preseason has been the roster’s struggle to create and sustain offense. Philadelphia has scored 181goals this season.

Yet both Tortorella and Briere have praised their team for being competitive. For not mailing it in. For not quitting.

And Briere was emphatic Tortorella and his coaching staff deserve credit for implementing an expectation and standard for the franchise.  

“There was a lot to like about John,” Briere said. “I think what really was striking for me was how he was going to rebuild the culture over here. Looking at the last couple years, it was tough to watch at times. I felt we were an easy team to play against. You don't realize how important culture is until you lose it. We interviewed a lot of great candidates, guys that were probably great coaches and could have done the job.

“In my mind, I felt John Tortorella was the perfect guy at this time to get us back on track and I really feel we've seen this. We've seen it this year. You look at not just the way we play, but talking also to players around the league, executives around the league, and they all say the same thing: The Flyers are tough to face. They might not have the most talent at this point. They might be a little inexperienced at this point. But man, it's tough to face you guys.

“We've heard that constantly over the year. I've been really proud of the players and our coaching staff, the way they enforce that and how tough they've made [us face] the season. I think it was the right step in the process. The mentality is different around here, from what I've seen from the previous two years. It's really exciting. I think and I still believe that John was the perfect decision at this time for us.”

So, the Flyers have a construction project manager in Briere, a foreman in Tortorella, and some intriguing young players in Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, Noah Cates, and Cam York. Which is a good place to begin.

But Briere -- who is likely going to shop some of the organization’s veterans this summer --acknowledged that no one is untouchable.  

“Our young guys have a lot of value to us,” Briere said. “At the same time, we're not in the position to not listen to anyone. The young guys are not the guys that we would be shopping, obviously. Yes, I have been really impressed in the development of the guys that you've mentioned under John Tortorella. That's the really exciting part for me. Seeing some of the young guys take a step this year. In the last few days seeing…guys like Elliot Desnoyers and Tyson Foerster come up and hold their own. Gives us a lot of hope moving forward. They're all going to be part of the evaluating process. As you've seen, there's no one that's untouchable anywhere. If Wayne Gretzky can be traded, anyone can. But obviously, some players have more value than others and I'm not going to deny that.”

Along with being open for business, the Flyers are likely going to have a chance to pick a difference maker in a draft class that is highly regarded. 

“The draft is going to be a key opportunity for us to improve our team for the future,” Briere said. “We're going to be positioned pretty well to add a key quality player for the future of this franchise. That's going to be important [in] the next couple months to send the proper people in the right place to see…who's out there. Make sure we make the right pick. That's also going to be a key responsibility of my job.”