By Nick Tricome

Copyright phillyvoice

The Flyers are moving forward.

They’re getting younger. That’s already showing.

They want that they’re getting better to start to visibly show, too.

It has the team in an exciting spot, general manager Danny Brière explained Tuesday, because there are spots up for grabs, along with a greater share of responsibilities, and with a good amount of young prospects trying to push after both. Plus, for a list of key names on the current roster, there’s something to prove.

“Nobody can be comfortable or happy with what they’ve done in the past,” Brière told the local media during a pre-training camp press conference at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees. “They gotta keep getting better and better, and that includes all the veterans, because our young guys are starting to push and they want more. They’re hungry for more.”

In a process that really started to set into motion in the middle of last season, Brière noted, when the Flyers reached a point to be OK with shipping out longtime staples Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, and then not long after, Scott Laughton.

Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, and Tyson Foerster, mostly on a line together, each took a step both on the ice and within the locker room to enact that shift within the team; Matvei Michkov led the Flyers and the rookie class in goals scored in Year 1 to begin what the organization is hoping is his rapid ascent into superstardom; and on the horizon, more top prospects like June’s first-round draft picks Porter Martone and Jack Nesbitt are on their way, maybe much sooner rather than later.

“So that’s, really, where it’s exciting for me,” Brière said. “We expect more of a fight internally, and we hope that it’s gonna make us better, what’s gonna hopefully make us more competitive throughout the season and maybe push to get [us] closer to the playoffs.”

Even if the playoffs still aren’t the main goal right now, at least not yet.

Flyers governor Dan Hilferty and president of hockey ops Keith Jones spoke to the media last week in Voorhees and touched on the same kind of aspirations for the team. They want to see their group get better, and make a push after the postseason, but wouldn’t make any promises.

Brière stayed consistent with that line of thought on Tuesday, but pointed out that the support for an aim like that is only getting stronger.

In the offseason, the Flyers signed Christian Dvorak to steady their center depth further down the lineup and Dan Vladar in the hopes that he’ll offer dependable goaltending help while pushing Sam Ersson to be a more consistent netminder. Then there was the draft week trade with Anaheim for Trevor Zegras on the gamble that a change of scenery can get him back on track to being a top-six-caliber center, and above it all, the hiring of Rick Tocchet as the next coach on the idea that he can further develop established but still young names like defensemen Cam York and Jamie Drysdale.

“At the end of the day, we want to make the playoffs,” Brière said. “It’s not like – OK, yeah, it’s not the priority, but we still want to make the playoffs, and I want the players to keep pushing in that direction.”

At least far enough this time to where the front office won’t feel the need to sell at the trade deadline come March again, unless something drastic happens.

The Flyers, ever since Brière plainly stated they were in a rebuild more than two years ago, have gone into the past two seasons knowing that the deadline period would go that route for the sake of the future, regardless of the results.

The GM doesn’t want to see his players, especially the older ones, go through that again, but added that they will have to do their part.

“That’s not the goal going into this year,” Brière said to the idea of committing to selling at the deadline again. “But obviously, they have to hold up their end of the bargain, too. They have a job to do to get us there, for that to not happen.

“Obviously, we’re gonna have to look into it if we’re not where we want to be, but going into the season, certainly the message is ‘We expect our team to take a step forward.’ We’ll try to help them, but not at the detriment of the future of this organization. We don’t feel we’re there. We’re still kind of building this thing brick by brick, and that’s the approach still going.”

But the approach is moving forward, and this year, the Flyers want the results to visibly start to show.

Pre-camp injury updates

Tyson Foerster has been skating with his teammates in a purple non-contact jersey in the days leading up to training camp.

Last week, Jones said Foerster was doing well and looking on track to be ready for the start of the season after suffering an offseason infection in his elbow that stemmed from an injury he sustained at the IIHF Worlds in May.

Brière said Tuesday that Foerster will stay in the purple non-contact jersey to begin camp, but expects that the winger will shed it within the first week to step up to full-team drills and then look at getting into some preseason games later on.

“If everything keeps going in the right direction,” Brière said. “Pretty positive there.”

Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who went down for the remainder of last season in March with a re-ruptured triceps, is moving along in his rehab but won’t be expected back at least until 1-2 months into the new campaign, Brière explained.

Speedy center prospect Jett Luchanko, who was held out of development camp in early July and rookie camp this past week because of a groin injury, should be good to go for training camp’s start in a couple of days.

Defensive prospect Oliver Bonk, the 2023 first-round pick who is turning pro this year, had an upper-body injury come up during rookie camp that the Flyers are still in the process of figuring out. Brière said the 20-year-old had images taken Tuesday morning, and that the team was waiting on an update from the doctors.

The first on-ice session for Flyers training camp is Thursday morning. You can see the schedule HERE, and the roster HERE.

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