Flyers Governor Dan Hilferty and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones both made it clear that they think the team is on the right path during a year-end press conference Wednesday morning. But both agree the team isn’t there yet in terms of rivaling Edmonton or Florida as a top Cup contender.
The idea of “culture” once again was on the tip of their tongues and how that seemed to lay a strong foundation in the first year of the rebuild. Hilferty, who said he attended roughly 60 games this season, noticed the “culture” within the organization was strong. He also stated the whole new era of orange was about looking the fans in the eye and having an honest conversation. “The truth of the matter is across the board people feel better about where we are,” Hilferty said. “They feel that the things Keith and Danny in his role as GM have done over the course of this year are about building for the long haul and doing it in a way that is as transparent as possible in an environment where not everything can be transparent.”
“We wanted it to be an environment where people felt good about what they were doing and where we were headed,” Jones said, adding the organization still has a ways to go. Jones also said the ultimate goal in years to come is having a highly coveted unrestricted free agent make the Flyers on his list of teams to sign with. He also stressed that once the amount of dead money the team has in buyouts (Kevin Hayes) and retained salary (Tony DeAngelo) is in the rearview mirror, the team has to be surgical and mistake-free in allocating that freed up money to improve the team. “We have to get them right, there’s no room for error on whatever players we add to the mix in a couple of years,” Jones said. “Those are things we have to pay a lot of attention to right now.”
One thing that Jones felt the Flyers defintely got right was the situation with Sean Walker at the deadline. Trading Walker might have hurt the Flyers in the short-term as they were at the time holding a playoff spot. Losing a key member of the blueline definitely hurt down the stretch but getting a first-round pick in return was, for the bigger picture and over the long haul, the wiser option. Jones said keeping Walker would’ve got the Flyers over the hump to get the points needed for a playoff spot. Losing to weaker competition certainly didn’t help down the stretch considering how strong the Flyers were against the league’s elite teams.
Now that the regular season is over, the Flyers’ brass need to look forward to both the upcoming draft in late June and the free agent frenzy of July 1 to see if there’s anything that makes a good, sensible and cap-friendly fit. But In terms of this upcoming season, Jones said it’s important the Flyers don’t take a step back and looks forward to how the player’s approach the 2024-25 season. “I do think we’ve had progress from our draft picks from last season,” he said, citing Oliver Bonk and Hunter McDonald as examples.
Although Jones addressed the on-ice product, Hilferty’s replies at times dealt with the off-ice issues and botton line numbers. Hilferty added ticket renewals are between 92 to 95 per cent and longs for a day that Rangers fans can’t get a ticket at Wells Fargo Center. The arena was also brought up regarding the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers who still call the arena home also. When asked about the current situation with the 76ers and the basketball team’s proposed new arena at 76 East, Hilferty said both teams will call Wells Fargo Center home until 2031. He then hopes both organizations are “building an arena together in the sports district in Philly.”
So while no news was broken in terms of Matvei Michkov, the general sense emanating from the press conference is that the Flyers put a good, solid first step forward during the 2023-24 season. Although they probably still have some distance to go before winning back and earning all of the fanbase’s trust, the past season and the unexpected hurdles that came along throughout proved to many doubters that this front office is crawling out of the dark shadows cast from the rather incompetent, tone deaf previous regime.
