July 01, 2026
Kyle Ross/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Getting Tyson Foerster and Dan Vladar signed to long-term extensions were the Flyers' big moves on the first day of NHL free agency, and while they may not have been flashy, they are reasonable.
Danny Brière and the Flyers are trying not to miss the forest for the trees, knowing that might only get harder to do as the team gets better.
But from Day 1, the Philadelphia GM said he was always going to stay patient when it came to his mission of rebuilding this franchise into an eventual, and consistent, Stanley Cup contender.
And now it's been more than three years since he was given the front office reins, and has since seen the Flyers steadily evolve into one of the NHL's youngest rosters and now a core good enough to get into the playoffs and put up a fight within them.
But the approach hasn't changed.
NHL free agency opened on Wednesday, and the Flyers' business was mostly internal and at the margins.
They finally made Dan Vladar's five-year contract extension official, and after acquiring Joseph Woll in a pre-draft with Toronto last month, Brière hopes that the Flyers will finally have a stable goaltending tandem for the first time in years – even decades, depending on how far you want to take it back.
Then they got Tyson Foerster signed on for an eight-year extension as a clear core piece, and at a $7 million annual salary that could very well end up a steal under the rising cap for a strong two-way winger who has 30-plus goal scoring potential in him, and might have already broken that threshold by now had he not gotten hurt in December of last season.
They added veteran center Noel Acciari as the heavy-checking and hard-skating bottom-six depth to replace Garnet Hathaway and, likely, Luke Glendening.
And they closed out with a one-year re-up of Carl Grundstrom for more speed at the bottom of the lineup, along with a few smaller signings meant more to replenish the Phantoms in the AHL than to be consistent NHL contributors.
Missing, though, was that major outside splash, either by signing or trade, that fans have been getting increasingly anxious for, and, once upon a time, thought it would happen this summer.
But nothing.
Star defenseman Zach Werenski is still in Columbus; Shane Pinto and Dylan Cozens seem like locks to stay in Ottawa; Mavrik Bourque got dealt from Dallas to Nashville while the Stars are still trying to work something out with Jason Robertson; and the Flyers, nor any team, pulled the trigger and took the massive risk on trying to pry Leo Carlsson or Connor Bedard away with an offer sheet.
There might still be more to come later. Brière on Wednesday did confirm that there have been discussions with free-agent defenseman John Carlson after his rights expired with Carolina, and with former captain Claude Giroux on the possibility of a reunion.
But for now, the Flyers got to the end of Wednesday largely similar to what they were when last season ended.
It's still a wait for that big move.
And maybe that's OK.
"Because we understand the expectations are gonna go way higher coming into next season," Brière told the media at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees, after the team's Day 1 free agency work wrapped. "And there's always a danger. There's a little bit of a pullback. It's not like we ran away with it last year. We got hot at the right time and snuck into the playoffs, and played really well in the first round. I thought we played extremely hard, even in the second round, but we ran into a very good team.
"It's a fine line. We've preached patience from the start of this, like three years ago, and that's the fine line that we're trying to stay on."
And it can be an easy one to fall off of. Countless teams have before, even previous eras of the Flyers.
Brière wants this era to be different, though. He wants the Flyers to be smarter and more sustainable than they've ever been. He wants better.
The draft has taken priority for the past several years under Brière, and along with some well-calculated trade risks, the Flyers' lineup – and prospect pipeline underneath – is flush with youth, between Foerster, Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, Trevor Zegras, and Jamie Drysdale.
And that group on its own, with some veteran help, developed to be good enough to get into the playoffs. It's not going to hurt right now to afford them the chance to grow a little more, to see how good they can be and how far they can go on their own.
The Flyers, after all, have never tried to kid anyone about where they're really at. They're not going to win the Stanley Cup tomorrow.
They can afford to wait, so that's what Brière is trying to do, in measured steps.
The Flyers are only just tapping into how good they can really be.
"We're giving the chance [for] our young guys to get better," Brière said. "It paid off last year, but we want to try to help them, and that's where the, you know, the Wolls, the Simon Benoits, the Acciaris today, that's where they come into play. You try to help with small steps here and there, and if we have the chance to take a big leap, we will jump on it."
But it's not time for the Flyers to take that leap yet, or at least Brière doesn't see it as worth it to just yet.
The team is still in a process, which isn't going to progress in a straight line up. Rebuilding a team hardly ever does.
So Brière and the Flyers are trying not to miss the forest for the trees.
They're still trying to take their time, even though the signs of getting better are starting to make that harder.
"I'm excited about the way our team played in the second half last year, and that's... I think it's dangerous because I'm talking, like, from the fan standpoint," Brière tried to explain. "It was so good the way the season ended. It was on a high. So you gotta be careful, even from our side, to not get disappointed because there's nothing that happened today that was a huge flash.
"If we have a chance, we'll jump on it. But I think this team is going in the right direction. I'm really excited about the future of this team. We're still one of the youngest teams in the NHL. We took a big step forward last year, and, you know, there's a chance – and a good chance – that we take a little bit of a step back this year. We're ready for that. But I'm excited where this young group of guys are going."
SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
