Why trade Farabee, Frost? How will Flyers react? Briere, Tortorella discuss

VOORHEES, N.J. — Danny Briere admitted what was safe to assume when the news broke.

That it wasn't easy for the general manager to pull the trigger on a trade of Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost. After all, these were two first-round forwards still under the age of 26.

Farabee put up a 22-goal, 50-point career year last season and once had Claude Giroux telling him to break his Flyers records.

Frost eclipsed 40 points twice and Briere had worked closely with the playmaking center when the beloved former Flyer rejoined the organization in its hockey operations department.

"You're shipping out two really quality people in Joel and Morgan," Briere said Saturday morning. "Especially for myself, it's a tough one. When I came into the organization, it was about five, six years ago, one of my first tasks was really to work with Morgan. My relationship with him was pretty special. We spent a lot of time together, early on especially. But that's the job that I have, I'm here to make the tough decisions and that's certainly one of them for me on a personal level."

No. 48 vs. No. 48.

Morgan Frost with the nice finish. pic.twitter.com/wEflUw4OPN

— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) September 16, 2021

The Flyers' GM sent Farabee and Frost to the Flames late Thursday night in exchange for Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier, a 2025 second-round pick and 2028 seventh-round pick. Last season, the Flyers' rebuild looked expedited for about four and a half months. But this season, the Flyers have not seen the same growth.

They entered the weekend 23-24-6 and with a minus-27 goal differential. They have a critical summer ahead in which they'll have a chance to be proactive as they try to fill needs and supplement their future.

With the acquisition of the second-round pick, the Flyers have seven selections in the first two rounds of the 2025 draft (three first-rounders, four second-rounders). They'll have money coming off their cap and they like how they've created even more room with the trade.

"It has 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 said. "We don't know who's going to be there yet at this point, it's a little too early, but it's possible that it gives us the chance to start dipping our toe a little quicker. Time will tell.

"I want to make sure that I'm clear here, we're not going to just start spending money just for the fun of it. We want to make sure that we get the right players when we decide to open up the checkbooks."

Farabee was in the third year of a six-year contract that had an annual $5 million cap hit. Frost would have been due a new deal in the offseason as a restricted free agent playing on the final year of a two-year, $4.2 million contract.

"The biggest thing in all of this is the cap flexibility that it gives us moving forward," Briere said. "Maybe not this year per se, but moving forward. It's no secret that, especially in Joel's case, the cap hit moving forward was tough. Most of the discussions we had, teams were not willing to take on his full salary, especially with the term left on it. Morgan was also close to getting paid a lot more money."

Kuzmenko, who turns 29 next week, is a pending unrestricted free agent. Pelletier, 23, also comes to the Flyers on an expiring contract as a pending restricted free agent. There's no long-term commitment to either player, so the Flyers will treat it like an audition.

Briere wants to see if Kuzmenko can give his club's offense a boost. The Russian winger had 39 goals and 74 points as a rookie in 2022-23 with the Canucks. The Flyers hope a fresh start can help Pelletier, a 2019 first-round winger.

Because of visa issues, both players might not be available until Tuesday when the Flyers visit the Utah Hockey Club (9 p.m. ET/NBCSP). Briere said the team wasn't giving up on this season even though the trade revolved around the future.

"Kuzmenko has proven to be a game-breaker before," the GM said. "If there's some chemistry there, who knows what happens. Giving Pelletier the chance to play, we'll see what he has. He's spunky, maybe he brings a spark. A lot is going to depend I think on the chemistry being built and it's going to have to be done quickly obviously."

Over time, the Flyers have gotten younger in their rebuild. They felt they had others stepping up on the wing and down the middle, making Farabee and Frost more dispensable. While the Flyers are still really thin at center, they're high on 2024 first-round pick Jett Luchanko and they should have a chance to address the position some more this summer.

"We're a little different than we've ever been I think within the Flyers' organization, where there are a lot more prospects coming in, we have some young guys developing," Briere said. "We felt that, around them, guys were going by them. We had higher hopes, I would say, for Morgan and Joel just maybe two years ago and guys were starting to go by them.

"Those two guys were great around the room. There certainly weren't any problems in the locker room with them. We thank them for what they did for us, they were great teammates. We saw Joel fight for his teammates many times and stand up for them. So it was a really tough trade to make."

If the Flyers want to still make something of this season, it will be a challenge. They came into Saturday with a 3.9 percent chance to make the playoffs, per Hockey-Reference.com's probabilities report. They're now incorporating two new players. Can the Flyers still get better this season?

"That's our job," John Tortorella said. "The move was made for the future. This is part of the rebuild. ... A thought in our head should never be, 'Is that it? Do we stop playing?'"

Tortorella addressed the team Saturday before practice, knowing his all-important locker room lost two well-liked guys.

"They're friends, they're buddies, they drink beers together, they win some games and lose games together," the head coach said. "Frosty and Beezer have been here a long time, along with a number of other guys. That's the hard part."

But Tortorella wasn't concerned about his team sulking come Sunday against the Avalanche in Denver (3 p.m. ET/NBCSP+).

"Athletes are resilient, they know when it's time to do their job, they will do their job," he said. "That doesn't even cross my mind with this group.

"It's a tight room, one of the tighter ones I've been in. It hurt some guys, but we're pros. You go out, you come into work every day and do the best you can and see where it goes."

More — Flyers on Farabee, Frost trade: 'Having to say goodbye is the tough part'

The Flyers still have a little under five weeks to go before the March 7 trade deadline.

"It could happen again," Tortorella said. "The deadline, we still have some things that could happen. We just come in each and every day, when Danny makes the moves and when the team gets on the ice for the practice, we practice hard. When we're getting ready to play our game, we play the game hard and see where we go from there. And I'll have no problem with this group here."

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