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GOOD NEWS: Flyers Manager receives his first award of the…
Danny Briere has been in the position of general manager for the Philadelphia Flyers for just over a year but he is already getting some national recognition for the job he has done.
Announced on Monday, the NHL’s GM of the Year award was given to the Dallas Stars’ Jim Nill, but further on down through the voting results, Briere sits comfortably towards the bottom of the list. But, almost surprisingly, someone voted for Briere to win the award, handing him a first-place vote.
The annual award is voted on by the 32 general managers across the NHL, and a panel of executives across the league and print and broadcast media members after the second round of the playoffs are done and over with. So, considering the Stars have been drafting well enough to stay consistently competitive and beat the Colorado Avalanche in the second round, the team was at the top of everyone’s minds as a true contender (before getting beat by the Edmonton Oilers in the conference final).
But that’s enough about the winner — Briere receiving a first-place vote feels out of nowhere. Considering the only general managers to get one as well are all from playoff teams, it feels like a massive accomplishment so early into his tenure.
Beyond signing Entry-Level Contracts or minor-league restricted free agents, Briere’s action with the Flyers has essentially been to keep a steady rebuild happening while also keeping everyone happy. He has handed out contracts as rewards to players like Nick Seeler and Ryan Poehling, while also keeping young players like Cam York and Morgan Frost on the team at a low cap hit (for now).
The most significant contract has to be Owen Tippett’s eight-year contract extension at a digestible $6.2-million AAV, but being able to bring goaltender Ivan Fedotov from overseas, has to be up there.
And considering his first ever trade pulled off as a general manager was getting a team to overpay for Ivan Provorov and now that transaction turning out to be two separate first-round picks for the Flyers, is a thing of beauty. Briere had to bite the bullet with Cutter Gauthier and that trade is still not able to be truly judged. But above it all, drafting Matvei Michkov at seventh overall last year (and having a fairly decent draft overall) and then potentially welcoming him in with open arms two years early than expected, could be the best thing he ever manages to do in his entire career.
Briere has been a busy executive already, so now we’re kind of seeing where the one, single voter was thinking. It feels more impressive to pull off this stuff as a projected bottom-feeding NHL team, than someone like Chris Drury of the New York Rangers, who had all the players in place and just needed them to play like they usually do.
Maybe he’ll win the whole dang thing next year.
