Over the course of 72 hours, the Flyers lost two games, traded Scott Laughton, traded Erik Johnson, and traded Andrei Kuzmenko.

In return, they improved their chances for a better draft pick, returned a 2027 first round pick, a 2027 third round pick, wing prospect Nikita Grebenkin, and winger Givani Smith.

There was a bit of grumbling that the draft picks won’t convey until 2027, especially since the Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee trade brought back a 2025 second rounder, and a bit of grumbling that Rasmus Ristolainen wasn’t moved, but Danny Briere has more or less filled up the war chest. When you put it all together, the Flyers have:

  • 11 picks in 2025 (three first rounders, four second rounders)
  • six picks in 2026 (one each in the first and second round)
  • eight picks in 2027 (two in the first, one in the second)

Said Briere after the trade deadline:

“We’re in a really good spot. Probably progressing a little quicker than I even expected. Some of our young guys are stepping up. You look at the play of (Matvei) Michkov, (Noah) Cates’ line, and I know (Sam) Ersson had a bad game against Calgary but he’s taken a step since Christmas. There’s a lot of positives. We’re getting younger and younger as a team. I’m scared to look at our age group after (Friday). But we’re definitely going to be near the top of the youngest group in the NHL. To me, that’s exciting. We’re going into the offseason with seven picks in the top 50, at this point. That’s exciting. There’s three groups of drafts starting with Michkov’s draft, (Jett) Luchanko and then this year’s draft. Those guys are going to be the bulk of our core players we hope in five years from now. So, we’re going in the right direction. We’re really excited about that. The way I see it, we’re just going to get better and better. It’s not going to happen overnight. And that’s probably the toughest part, the patience needed to get there. But I’m really excited about the way things are evolving.”

The question is how long you’re willing to wait. For casuals, it doesn’t matter. They’ve been checked out on the Flyers for years and I think most four-for-four types are happy to see the team embarking on a legitimate rebuild after decades of the organ-eye-zation not believing that rebuilds were even a thing. Right or wrong, Ed Snider would have never overseen something like this.


On the hardcore side, maybe this was thought to be a two-year rebuild, now turning into a three-year rebuild or even four after the Carter Hart/Sam Ersson tandem provided some false hope in 2023-2024 that the task at hand wasn’t as big as we had initially thought. Regardless, this team is loaded with draft picks moving forward and soon enough they’ll be off the dead money that was gifted to the Flyers mostly as a result of Chuck Fletcher’s aggressive retool.

And here’s the thing –

Danny Briere did the easy part. Getting rid of guys is easy. Ask Sam Hinkie about that. What’s hard is making the right draft selections, developing those players, and bringing them up at the right time. You also have to ask yourself if the goaltender(s) of the future are on this squad or somewhere in the pipeline, and you have to ask yourself if John Tortorella is the coach to lead this squad into 2026 and beyond. That last question might be the most important one, one that requires answering sooner rather than later.

The Flyers are moving in the right direction. Maybe it’s not happening fast enough, but after 50 years of no Cups, what’s another season or two?