General manager Daniel Brière and new special advisor to hockey operations John LeClair will try to draw inspiration from their successful past with the Philadelphia Flyers to bring them back on the path to success.
The team has had a lot of trouble over the past few seasons. By initiating a cycle of reconstruction, however, it gave itself the best chance of success by recruiting former color bearers to direct hockey operations. The new decision-makers are well aware of the high expectations in this market which they know well.
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“Old people who have been here have experienced it and understand the culture. It’s a subject that we talked about: we’ve moved away from that a bit and we want to go back to the culture of the Flyers that we had. We are going to take the next step and that is what we want to accomplish, which is to cross the last threshold and win the Stanley Cup, ”said LeClair Wednesday, through remarks broadcast on the site. NHL.com.
Develop first
The Pennsylvania organization will focus their efforts on developing their prospects in order to move forward. Some goalkeepers like Felix Sandstrom, Ivan Fedotov, Alexei Kolosov and Samuel Ersson, in particular, could become an alternative to Carter Hart or constitute a bargaining chip, who knows?
“I think developing our prospects is a priority for the organization,” LeClair said. We have some good talent that we can develop and that’s what we want to do. We want to get the best out of these guys, for them and for us.”
“The process of developing Flyers prospects and players, whether in the American Hockey League or a local team, excites me a lot, added Patrick Sharp, who assumes the same functions as the former Montreal Canadiens. . We have a number of players in New England and on the east coast that I can follow. We will have to try to help them in any way.”
The two men who will also work with Keith Jones, president of hockey operations, have a lot of work to do. Philadelphia finished last season with a 31-38-13 record, missing the playoffs for a third consecutive season. His last appearance in the Stanley Cup final dates back to 2010, when he lost in six games against the Chicago Blackhawks.