Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia: Takeaways from the Philadelphia Flyers’ end-of-season press conferences with interim GM Daniel Briere and head coach John Tortorella.
Interim GM Briere said that fans may need to be patient and there will be some growing pains. Briere doesn’t know how long the process will take – if it’s going to be two or five or eight years.
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Briere said they may need to find some help on left wing but are strong on the right side.
“Looking quickly at it, yeah, on the left side, we might need some help there. But we’re not looking to go out and sign a big-time free agent with lots of term on a contract at the moment. We want to give our young players the opportunity to develop and we want to see what we have before kind of blocking the young guys.”
The soon-to-be 31-year-old Kevin Hayes has three years left on his contract at a $7.14 million hit. Ivan Provorov is 26 with two years left at a $6.75 million cap hit.
Briere said it’s too early to jump to conclusions with Hayes and Provorov, adding that Hayes has value as teams like big centers that can put up points.
“I know at times it might’ve not been the way he wanted the season to go, but we can’t forget that he’s still a really good player. We’ll figure what needs to be done with Kevin. If he’s here or somewhere else, but I hope at the moment, he’s our property, he’s part of our team and we are assuming that he’s going to be a part of the team next year. We’ll see as the summer develops, if there are different opportunities there.”
Defenseman Tony DeAngelo was a scratch for their final five games and coach Tortorella said he, DeAngelo and the team will work through it but not publically. It will stay between the players, coaches and team.
Free agents and salary cap projections
Unrestricted free agents – James van Riemsdyk, Brendan Lemieux, Justin Braun, Maxwell Willman, Troy Grosenick and Louie Belpedio.
Restricted free agents – Kieffer Bellows (arbitration-eligible), Noah Cates (arbitration-eligible), Ivan Fedotov (arbitration-eligible), Ronald Attard (arbitration-eligible), Evan Barratt (arbitration-eligible), Olle Lycksell (arbitration-eligible), Morgan Frost (arbitration-eligible), Jackson Cates (arbitration-eligible), Cameron York, Wyatte Wylie, Yegor Zamula.
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