The New New Unending Flyers thread

[zambonir]

The reports out there are that the flyers aren't really interested in what the Wild want...which seems to be a late first and Forester.

Yeah that's certainly too high given the RFA price would be less (though the first could be better next year).

The Catch-22 here is that if Rossi was perfect, the Wild would either be keeping him or his trade price would be off the charts. The reason he's a walking trade rumor is because teams see a chance to buy low and hope the upside still wins out. And if they're wrong, you just let him leave in two years.

And if Rossi is signaling to teams that he'll only sign a long offer sheet, or will make it hard for a team trading him to get him under contract, great, that makes it easy to not do.

[bigegypt0417]

For sure...Rossi may be pricing himself out.

He's certainly worth a thought if the cost is the Edmonton pick.

[Austinfan]

I wouldn't take any of these rumors seriously.
No one is in a hurry to make deals, if you want 2025 picks, you have a month to work thiings out.
After that, it's 2026 and 2027 picks.
And if you want players, there's no deadline at all.

Briere doesn't negotiate against himself, he sets high prices on his players, and probably lowballs other teams' players.
Why? Because initial offers are starting points in negotiations.
You set a reservation price, start well below and let the other party talk you up, but walk away if their final offer is above that price.

What impresses me about Briere is he seems to be impervious to "Philly fever," the media and fan pressure to do things.
Fans and media were clamoring to trade Laughton for a year, Briere kept saying how valuable he was to the Flyers, and ended up fleecing Toronto, not just a 1st but a really good prospect as well. I expect he'll tell us how important Risto and Hathaway and Seeler are to this team (and they are in the sense of providing a good environment for player development) up to the day they're traded.

But when he decided Frost and Farabee were bad fits going forward, he shopped for the best deal but didn't drag it out once he established the market price.

If Briere wants Rossi, he'll take him on his terms, the right compensation to Minn, and the right contract extension that fits his budget going forward.

[bigegypt0417]

If Briere wants Rossi, he'll take him on his terms, the right compensation to Minn, and the right contract extension that fits his budget going forward.

No one has suggested differently.

[zambonir]

Briere seems like a perfectly decent GM who also inherited a big mess (that he happened to be employed by the Flyers for part of). But he's not some kind of genius chess player either. He still kept Torts (and greatly misread him this past season), signed Fedotov, and couldn't fix the Gauthier situation (which also might have kept them from drafting Buium) or the Kolosov situation. And he did not necessarily get the best deal he could have for Frost and Farabee by being early/aggressive (or by bundling them, though I recognize Farabee was really just a salary dump in the end).

[bigegypt0417]

Briere seems like a perfectly decent GM who also inherited a big mess (that he happened to be employed by the Flyers for part of). But he's not some kind of genius chess player either. He still kept Torts (and greatly misread him this past season), signed Fedotov, and couldn't fix the Gauthier situation (which also might have kept them from drafting Buium) or the Kolosov situation. And he did not necessarily get the best deal he could have for Frost and Farabee by being early/aggressive (or by bundling them, though I recognize Farabee was really just a salary dump in the end).

This feels like "Sam Hinkie" syndrome...he's done a good job of collecting assets but now we get to see what he does with it.

Hinkie failed that part of the task...the part he got to try.

[zambonir]

It's still early, and of course Briere never really got to tank or collect (but then fail on) a huge collection of high-end assets. I have no problem with Briere but he's also not some kind of special or elite GM. And if it doesn't work out - though hey, sometimes it just doesn't, just ask Edmonton (so far) or Dallas or Carolina - we're always going to go back to the Flyers' seeming inability to truly change the way they do things.

But I'm confident we're not going to see any Ed Snider or Chuck Fletcher-like moves from Briere this summer.

[phillychuck]

Hinkie actually didn’t fail. According to insiders, the Okafor pick was forced on the decision-makers by ownership, and Hinkie’s successors determined the fate of 90% of the assets he acquired. I would have loved to see how he worked things out in a few more years at the Sixers helm.

[zambonir]

Probably not that differently for the very same reason. It's always the owners. Sometimes a GM, coach or roster can get lucky and succeed in spite of that for a few years, but it starts at the top and falls apart because of the top.

[phillychuck]

Good point.

[Austinfan]

HIlferty is basically the "owners" and he's a huge improvement over Scott, who relied on Barber's advice.
Hilferty has bought into the rebuild.
Hilferty and Jones have to put the best spin on things to sell tickets, Briere plays along.
But Briere's moves have been totally focused on rebuilding (but not tanking).

One thing Briere does do is keep his cards close to his vest, so I'm skeptical of any rumors coming out of the "Flyers FO."

[zambonir]

Hilferty is fine as far as things go, so far. And Comcast is what it is. Benign or even indifferent corporate ownership better than late-period Mr. Snider.

That said before Roberts, Peter Luuko did a decent job, and now that he's freed from Comcast, has his name on the Stanley Cup and might get another one this year.

But I was more addressing the Sixers comparison, where at the end of the day it hasn't really mattered if the GM was DiLeo, Hinkie, Brand or Morey. It's always Harris and results have been largely the same.

[Austinfan]

Owners who want to "win now" usually "win never."
GMs with owners breathing down their neck make bad deals to keep their jobs.

[LegoDoom]

I'm liking the current tankathon mock.

[Florida_Sunshine]

But they didn't get Eklund.

[LegoDoom]

Still a good draft. I'm obviously still high on Eklund.

[Florida_Sunshine]

I notice they got one of your guys with the Edmonton pick.