PHILADELPHIA — When Danny Briere was handed sole control of the Flyers’ front office two years ago, he was clear right from the start. The Flyers, he had said, were in the midst of a team rebuild. Still.
This management renovation project had already gone from the failed tenure of Ron Hextall to the lifeless tenure of Chuck Fletcher to a promotion for Briere while he was overseeing an associated project of trying to rebuild a minor league system in need of repair.
The surprise joker in the deck was Keith Jones, brought in as team president to work alongside Briere. Two years in, they are dealing with a team that last month finished near the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Yet via a couple of key trades that undeniably downgraded the current player pool but did produce future assets, Briere and Boss Jones now feel the club is on the verge of a major upgrade. In other words, not just another restart, but an effective one.
It would commence with yet another dumped head coach, since John Tortorella had made it clear by his actions down the stretch that his patience had worn past the threadbare stage. Out the former Cup-winning coach went in March.
And despite owing one more year at $4 million to Tortorella, Briere felt the urgency to follow a consensus opinion that this rebuild needed former Flyers hero Rick Tocchet’s input, too.
So for that, with a nod toward the Rangers making Mike Sullivan the highest-paid NHL head coach ever the previous week, Briere wooed Tocchet with a five-year term worth $5.25 million annually.
Add it up and that would $9.25 million next season committed to one behind-the-bench position. Thankfully, that doesn’t count against the salary cap, but it is part of yet another rebuilding plan. Not that it’s a new one or anything …
“The one thing I want to make clear is, the fact that the plan doesn’t change here,” Briere said Friday in welcoming Tocchet back in front of a lower bowl full of staff and fans at Wells Fargo Center. “Rick has been part of this before. We see him as the long-term solution for a head coaching position.”
And so … the rebuilding mode will kick back into low gear. Or will it? How many weeks until that free agency market opens its doors? Expect Tocchet to be holding one of them wide open for his friends/bosses to peruse.
Amid the pomp-and-circumstance event Friday in which Tocchet took the stage to a beautifully blaring “Enter Sandman” from Metallica … a timely tribute to Tocchet’s prime playing days, perhaps? … Briere played emcee with a message. He saw this as a right choice.
Not only because he had played with Tocchet, and so had Jones, and after all as a head coach Tocchet did OK with a less-than mediocre Arizona roster in the past, and he was named the league’s Coach of the Year just one year before.
No, there’s another supposition at play here.
“No doubt Rick is going to make us more enticing for players to come here,” Briere said. “No doubt about that. There’s already agents calling and letting us know. That’s (due) to him for the relationships he’s built and the reputation he’s built over the years. … No doubt in my mind it’s going to make us more of an attractive team to join.”
Of course, nothing is that easy. Not even the Bringing Back Tocc part of the equation
“It wasn’t like, ‘the Flyers called me, I have to take the Flyers job.’ We had to convince him,” Jones said. “Go through our roster and show him more than we show you guys where we’re going. And thankfully, he bought into what we were telling him.
“He recognizes that it’s going to be a team effort to get to the top. I’m happy he saw enough that he wants to be part of it.”
“When I left Vancouver I wanted to take my time (going) through the process,” Tocchet said. “I didn’t want to just jump to any team. I’d been on teams where you didn’t have the tools … so I said if I’m going to jump into something, I need some tools. Or I could have gone back to TNT (as an analyst). I enjoyed it there and it was a great platform for me. But I just think there’s a lot of tools for me to work with here.
“Now, where are we on the rebuild? It’s hard for me to answer. I can’t tell you that. I know there’s a ways to go. I just feel there’s some tools here to accelerate the program. … Looking at the roster, there’s a talent pool here that’s on tap. I really believe that and I’m a pretty straight shooter. Are there things you have to look at to strengthen? Of course. And that’s one thing talking with Danny and Jonesy about, they aren’t shy about it … they want to swing the bat.”
Presumably, that means using it at the July 1 free agency commencement to crash open the NBC cash register. Should be some change in there left over after the coaching checks go out.
Jones conceded after the press conference that while he’s confident the Flyers will get a very good player for the future with the No. 6 overall draft pick — and what could be a host of others with the Flyers holding 11 picks, including three first rounders and four second-rounders — that acquiring a top center via free agency could be a priority.
Either way, Tocchet’s going to be there cheering on Briere’s at-bat, whenever they choose to come to the free agency plate for a serious swing.
“At what time? That’s their job,” Tocchet said. “Whatever I have in front of me right now, play without the puck is something very important to me, being a smart team that doesn’t beat yourself, protecting certain players is something we can do around here. I feel there’s enough here to get the ball rolling.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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