Do NOT listen to the miserable people already clamoring to spin this as a failure for Danny B. Remember the league-wide narrative going into this offseason? “Oh nooo, their group chats!” “Oh nooo, the NHL is turning into the NBA!” “Oh nooo, players are suddenly [gasp] advocating for themselves, and if we don’t put a stop to this there will be no incentive for anyone talented to choose any team except Florida/Vegas/Minnesota!” And amidst all of that noise, absolutely no one took the Flyers seriously. Because why would they? We were an unsexy hockey market who weren’t real competitors because last season was a fluke. Our GM was soft and unable to close and way too scared of big moves that could move the needle.
Look at where we are now. Danny B put Philly back on the map. He sent a message to everyone that we are taking this seriously, and we believe in the guys we have, and we are ready to invest a LOT into getting the pieces they need to succeed. And he didn’t do it by sticking to the old boys’ club mentality that’s been pushing so hard against the kinds of player-friendly moves he’s prioritized from Day 1. He recognized the value of a young, rising star that you can build a franchise around and capitalized on the fact that Carlsson’s own organization wasn’t treating him with that respect. There were four offer sheets sent to Leo Carlsson, and he chose the Flyers.
No one is that surprised that Anaheim matched, because ultimately yeah, it would have been a worse loss to let your star center walk. But they put themselves in this position of weakness by not taking him seriously in the first place—by playing PVB’s old boys’ club style games to try to dictate to him what he was worth—and I’m glad that this was absolutely the hardest and most public way they could have learned that lesson. Because now other front offices will remember. And other players will remember. Philly was actually always a great place to play, and Danny Briere’s balls were actually always this big. But now everyone knows it.
