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The Flyers talk a lot these days about their "triumvirate" of decision makers on the hockey side. General manager Danny Briere makes the final call BUT president of hockey ops Keith Jones and head coach John Tortorella hold a lot of input in the process.
Tortorella's level of influence being simply managing the roster he's provided. His recommendations carry more weight than most NHL coaches. I know that team CEO Dan Hilferty is legimately a HUGE fan of Tortorella. Last summer, the organization felt urgency to trade Kevin Hayes because Tortorella wanted him gone. The Ivan Provorov deal was a little more involved, and the Anthony DeAngelo buy-out was driven by Tortorella.
If there was one issue with Tortorella's style, it's his tendency to publicly de-value players who are not his "type" of player. This was more of an issue a year ago than now but it's still a factor to some degree.
From what I have heard, Tortorella is STILL not a believer in either Joel Farabee or Morgan Frost but Briere DOES believe both players have a more consistently high level they can reach and prefers to stick with them. As such, Briere does not feel compelled to trade either player for the sake of subtraction -- this is where things are different from a year ago, where his hand was forced-- but he's open to a hockey trade involving one or both.
A Flyers source told me that the team is looking for hockey trades that could bring back a center and/or defenseman who are still young enough to fit within a loose rebuilding timeline of the next two or three seasons. Philly is also interested in a defenseman who could play the left side next to Travis Sanheim and potentially allow Cam York to play with Jamie Drysdale on the middle pair.
In terms of Travis Konecny, the preference is to sign the player to a long-term extension. The player wants to remain in Philadelphia. However, it is NOT impossible that Konecny could be available in a blockbuster type of trade.
I've heard the Flyers are interested in moving up in the first round of the 2024 Draft but are ALSO holding onto the 12th overall pick. The Florida Panthers' pick (31st or 32nd overall) is available in potential deals to move up.
One thing the Flyers will NOT do this offseason: They won't be active in the free agent market. They'll likely sign some players to two-way deals as potential AHL/NHL swingmen but they won't be involved with UFAs. It's still possible that Cam Atkinson or Cal Petersen will be bought out this month.
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