Per Flyers GM Briere, "tough" trade of Farabee & Frost cracks open the door for offseason acquisition possibilities

Phase 1 of the Philadelphia Flyers’ rebuild began with what one might call “the easy parts.”

Cleaning house at the top and starting fresh with new leadership. Moving out players who clearly didn’t fit with the new organizational culture and direction. Picking the player with superstar potential who slipped to No. 7 in the draft. Even simply being willing to publicly utter the word “rebuild.”

These were logical, essential decisions that had to be made in order to set the rebuild up on a sound foundation. But to construct something truly new, more ambiguous choices would have to made eventually, moves with the potential to provide major long-term dividends in terms of furthering the overarching plan — but also coming with legitimate risk.

And also, moves that remove long-standing, well-liked members of the team.

Thursday’s trade of Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost sure looks like the beginning of that phase of the Flyers’ rebuild — the hard part.

“It’s not an easy trade, believe me. It’s a really tough one,” Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said via Zoom on Saturday morning. “You’re shipping out two really quality (people) in Joel and Morgan.”

Frost and Farabee weren’t clashing with head coach John Tortorella — if anything, both were actively trying to win him over. They weren’t creating problems in the locker — they were two of the most popular, positive influences. They weren’t itching for changes of scenery — they loved being Flyers.

They just weren’t performing well enough on the ice. And as a result — at least in Briere’s estimation — they no longer fit.

So, on Thursday, he pulled the trigger, sentimentality notwithstanding.

“That’s the job that I have. I’m here to make the tough decisions, and that’s certainly one of them for me,” Briere admitted.

On Saturday, Briere had his first opportunity to explain and justify his decision to ship out Frost and Farabee, who had been with the organization since 2017 and 2018, respectively. His reasoning? Both were on the verge or in the process of getting jumped on the organizational depth chart, and this was a chance to clear their cap hits off the books and get some intriguing — if not overwhelming — assets back in the process.

“Well, the biggest thing in all of this is the cap flexibility that it gives us moving forward,” Briere said.

It helps to explain the relatively light return: Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier, a 2025 second round pick and a 2028 seventh rounder. When it came to Farabee, Briere noted, teams around the league were not interested in taking on his full salary. They wanted the Flyers to retain at least part of his $5 million cap hit for the next three seasons and change — an apparent non-starter for Briere.

Calgary was the first club, per Briere, to express interest in swallowing Farabee’s entire contract. From there, the deal came together quickly. As for Frost, his raise looming this summer as a pending restricted free agent — combined with his inconsistent 2024-25 season — had limited his market as well.

“The way the season had been going, the ups and downs, a lot of teams were really worried, and the value just wasn’t there until we had the talks with Calgary,” Briere said.

But why was clearing cap space right now so important for the Flyers? Both Briere and Tortorella have emphasized over the past year especially that the “outside add” phase of their rebuild wasn’t likely to begin until 2026, when all of the dead money came off their cap books.

Well, after this trade, that might not be the case anymore.

“It gives us some possibilities going into the offseason,” Briere said. “It’s like cracking out the door open a little bit. I wouldn’t say that it’s wide open. I’m not saying that this will be the year that we go out. It’s got to be the right player, or players, if we do decide to open up the checkbook and go after free agents. But it does crack the door open to some possibilities.”

Briere chose his words carefully, trying to temper the expectations of anxious fans desperate for more moves. But it was a clear shift in language and rhetoric from the Flyers GM, an acknowledgement that the likelihood of bigger moves coming in the relatively near future has now gone up.

That’s what the Frost/Farabee trade does most for the Flyers — it gives them the theoretical ability to get into the acquisition game — even via free agency, which the braintrust had long been adamant in the past wasn’t even an option for at least the next calendar year.

“It was a really tough trade to make, but we feel for the future cap flexibility that it brings us, giving us the chance to do something,” Briere added.

When might that be? Briere, understandably, kept his cards close to the chest.

“And I don’t know how soon, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen in the next few weeks or months, but moving forward for years to come, it just gives us more cap flexibility,” he said.

Cap flexibility, however, was only part of the reason for the trade. Had Frost and Farabee been performing at a high level, they’d likely still be Flyers today. But they weren’t, and as a result, they were falling down the organizational hierarchy.

“We had higher hopes, I would say, for Morgan and Joel just maybe two years ago, and guys were starting to go by them,” Briere said.

Who was jumping them on the depth chart? Briere specifically noted the positive development of Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink and Noah Cates, and even gave a shoutout to Ryan Poehling. Briere also emphasized that they have more prospects on the way who will soon be pushing for NHL spots, due to the “asset stockpiling” nature of their rebuild.

Briere’s implicit argument: Farabee and Frost were going to get passed, and their value was only going to further decline as a result.

“I think (the trade) speaks more about the development of the players around those two guys than it does themselves,” Briere said.

As for the new players on the way — the hope is that they’ll have their respective visa situations cleared up soon and join the team in Utah for Tuesday’s game — Briere positioned it more as an audition than anything else.

When it came to the soon-to-be-29-year old Kuzmenko, the Flyers were already planning to at least explore the possibility of signing the pending UFA in the offseason; this gives them a chance to get a first-hand look at him. Many in the hockey world have wondered about his potential fit with Tortorella, given Kuzmenko’s playing style and the fact that he didn’t click with the similarly old-school Rick Tocchet in Vancouver. Now, the Flyers can see for themselves if the two can indeed work together.

As for Pelletier, Briere and the Flyers were intrigued by his skillset, yes, but especially his attitude.

“We like the motor. We like his energy, his spunk,” Briere said.

But Kuzmenko and Pelletier, at least in the here and now, were more means to an end — the end being moving out Farabee and Frost, two people who Briere liked very much but two players who he felt no longer fit his long-term plan.

“Really, this was a move for the future. Not so much about this year, the way I look at it,” Briere confirmed.

And it very well may not be the only move Briere makes in the coming weeks. Back in Voorhees, Tortorella specifically mentioned to the present media on Saturday in his post-practice availability the possibility of more pre-deadline trades. And Briere, tentatively but notably, opened the door for a potential acceleration of the “aggressive adds” portion of the rebuild — come the offseason, especially.

“We don’t know who’s going to be there yet at this point, it’s a little too early,” Briere said. “But it’s possible that it gives us the chance to start dipping our toe a little quicker. But time will tell.”

The truly hard part of the rebuild, it appears, is on.