Daniel Briere made his first substantial move as Philadelphia Flyers general manager on Tuesday when he traded defenseman Ivan Provorov to the Columbus Blue Jackets in a three-way deal.
He managed to squeeze both the Los Angeles Kings and the Blue Jackets to hand over a package that involved players for the Flyers roster, a nice prospect, and some heavy-duty draft picks.
Briere met with the media on Tuesday afternoon and discussed the trade and explained why he exactly it went down.
“Part of it is that we are in a rebuilding stage,” Briere said. “And we felt that the picks and the direction we want to go in; it was really enticing and really exciting. We have a chance to really build the team the way we want to. The right way, that we’ve talked about. It starts with that.
“It wasn’t an easy decision. Ivan has been a good solider for the Flyers for a lot of years. A lot of sweat, a lot of hits he’s taken, a lot of pucks he’s blocked. He’s really poured his heart out for the Flyers, so it wasn’t an easy decision.
“For us, it has been about young guys and picks – we’ve said from the beginning. So that was the major reason behind it.”
It’s really that simple, to him. Briere wants to kickstart the rebuild and he really has done exactly that by trading Provorov to Columbus. Of course, the Flyers general manager will not trash a player going out, but it’s all about the timeliness and the position that each team involved in the trade is in.
Provorov’s timeline just didn’t fit with what is going on in Philadelphia.
“We’re not denying the fact that Ivan is a good defender,” Briere continued. “He’s put in heavy minutes for us and it’s going to be tough to replace him. But at this time, we felt that the assets we are getting, to build the team we want to build in the future, that was critical. And you have to give up good players for good assets in return. You don’t get first-round picks for players that don’t have interest from other teams.”
The rumor mill kept on churning on when it came to Provorov and whether or not he insisted on this trade since his name was in trade reports dating back to the trade deadline earlier this year. Unfortunately for us – and fortunately for our sanity – Briere would not get into whether or not the player specifically asked to be traded, and simply said that it was “at the best interest of everybody to make this trade.”
Of course it’s only everybody’s interest if the trade is good for all sides and for Briere, it really hung up on the balance of getting a top draft pick in the trade. The Flyers general manager made it known that getting that 2023 first-round pick that will end up being the 22nd overall selection was critical to the trade being finalized.
Briere went on to quickly shoot down any notion that Provorov’s controversy surrounding the Flyers’ Pride Night had anything to do with the trade being made.
But on the lighter side of things, one of the more interesting players that Philadelphia received from Los Angeles in the trade is goaltender Cal Petersen. He could end up just being a salary cap dump and play in Lehigh Valley making millions, but Briere said that he, like all others, will get his chance to compete at training camp this fall.
Throughout the entire media availability, Briere made one thing clear: For any future trades, he is “open for business.”
“If it makes sense and there is a good return coming the other way, we’ll consider it. But it’s too early to tell,” he said.
We will certainly be seeing more moves – possibly involving roster players – closer to the draft in three weeks.
