It was John Tortorella's and Danny Brière's turn to talk to the media on Friday before putting an official wrap on the 2023-24 season, and both spoke for over a half-hour each about a number of aspects of the team.
The highs, the lows, what went wrong, what went right, Tortorella's relationship with Sean Couturier and the clash and downswing that occurred after he earned the captaincy, the ever in flux goaltending situation, the just as volatile power play situation now, prospects, Matvei Michkov, and all the strides taken this year, because in the end, there were a lot.
But an overarching theme that hung over much of what Tortorella and Brière talked about was the future, that surprising near-playoff push that came undone at the end, and how that affects where the Philadelphia Flyers go moving forward.
Bluntly, and to an extent impressively, both the head coach and the general manager said it won't.
The Flyers came close to the playoffs, sure – as hard as they seemingly tried not to late with that ill-timed eight-game winless streak – but even so, that's not going to push the front office to suddenly switch gears and start making big-time splashes in free agency or the trade market, not for a long time yet at least.
This is still a rebuild and they're still expecting the process to take a while, both reinforced, in order to become a true Stanley Cup contender someday.
It's just not today.
"I'll tell you what, we are a ways away," Tortorella told the media from the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees. "We have so much work to do with this team. There are holes in the team. It's gonna take more time, and I'm telling you that right now. Just because we got close and looked at it – and it's frustrating for me because I felt that was a part of development, if you have that close to get there, you wanna get in. That's where I'm disappointed because then you get to test them a little bit more."
Both Brière and Tortorella maintained, however, that they are proud of how far the team has come this season and how far they were able to push the envelope – to the point where Game 82 was a contest that had stakes and very much meant something for them – and that they're bullish over the increasing promise that a few of the relatively younger names have shown.
Tyson Foerster became a 20-goal scorer in his first full NHL season, as defensive-minded as he was for most of it, Cam York became an increasingly more confident skater capable of taking up greater and greater minutes along the blue line with a more senior Travis Sanheim who also bounced back in a big way, and Sam Ersson rose to the occasion and played the most hockey he ever had in net, by far, all while in the middle of a bizarre goaltending situation that few teams would've survived.
It was all progress, and enough to put together an on-ice product that gave Philadelphia reason to really start paying attention to the Flyers again, though all still with a considerable ways yet to go.
The playoffs came into view this year, much to many's surprise, but Brière said that doesn't mean the organization will throw all caution to the wind trying to chase after them in the next.
"I still am not quite there as far as saying that we're a contender," Brière said. "I don’t believe we’re at the point where it’s time to let some young assets go to try to get better, quicker. We're not there yet, but there's certainly a lot of players that have brought some optimism as far as believing that we're going in the right direction.
"We have to be careful, and I know the expectation next year will be that ‘Oh, we got to get into the playoffs.’ I don't even know that we're there yet. It was a great year, but there's still a long ways to go. We have to be very careful with that going into next year. We're not at the point where we're gonna trade young assets for older veterans that are gonna get us over the board. I still don't think we're a Stanley Cup contender, but you know, it's one of those questions where it's not black and white like maybe it was last summer."
But it's still a rebuild, and it's still a process. It has to be because deviating from it will only leave the Flyers nowhere.
"We're staying with the process or it turns into a team just spinning its wheels in the mud again," Tortorella said. "No, that is not the philosophy. That is not the discussions that we've had. We are sticking with this and it is going to take some time."
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