May 17, 2023 | 9:15am ET
By Anthony Di Marco, TheFourthPeriod.com

COLLABORATIVE APPROACH SET TO LEAD FLYERS

Keith Jones, Flyers President of Hockey Operations

“A new era of Orange.”

That was the new slogan introduced on Friday morning in a press release from the Philadelphia Flyers. The following day, the club officially introduced Keith Jones as the President of Hockey Operations and Danny Briere as the permanent General Manager.

Sitting alongside Comcast Spectacor Chairman and CEO Dan Hilferty, President and CEO of Spectacor Entertainment Valerie Camillo and Head Coach John Tortorella, the two new leaders of the team’s hockey operations department presented a unified front along with the other key members of the front office,

To say that Jones’ name came out of left field would be an understatement, as it was only officially reported last Wednesday by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast. This was clearly done by design, as Jones’ mentioned during an interview on TSN 1050 radio Friday that he asked Comcast to keep his name quiet throughout the process. One person from the organization even asked Jones face to face if he was involved, I’m told, with the latter denying it.

I had Jones’ name brought up to me the week before the hiring by someone close to the situation but was asked not to put his name out there. I didn’t think much of it at the time because of how little I had heard of Jones throughout the process; clearly there was something to it.

Jones’ name came to the surprise of many, myself included, because of his lack of experience in any front office capacity. Given the state of the Flyers and what they have gone through the last decade or so, the assumption was some level of experience would be sought after by Comcast in their hunt for the team’s next leader of Hockey Ops. But when you dig a little deeper on what the team was looking for, Jones’ appointment does make a lot of sense.

As opposed to other organizational structures, it does not appear that Jones will be the one driving the bus on ultimate decision making when it comes to roster construction; Briere will be the one making the final call. Instead, Jones will be dealing with Ownership, working closely with Camillo and Business Ops, promoting the brand, while also being there to aid in Hockey Ops decisions.

When asked by Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic at the introductory Press Conference on Friday, Hilferty did say that Jones is at the top of the organizational hierarchy, coming with “hiring and firing” power. Though Hilferty says this, things I’ve heard along the way makes me skeptical that this will truly be the case.

Where Jones’ true value lie are the connections and relationships he’s built over the years as a broadcaster and player. With a rookie GM in place, Jones will be able to help to further cultivate connections with other organizations after years of conversing with high-ranking executives during his time as a broadcaster. He also brings a perspective to the team after years of taking things in firsthand calling their games; he has a strong pulse for what the city and the fanbase wants and has had a front row seat to what has gone wrong with this team over the last number of years.

The Flyers are handing the keys to Briere in terms of Hockey Ops. He will be the final decision maker in regard to the hockey team along with team personnel. Jones’ appointment as Briere’s superior seems to be nothing more than a paper title, as I don’t get the sense that the former will have overruling capabilities behind the scenes; the two will be more of equals.

One of the main reasons that makes me feel this way is that the Flyers had two candidates – Chris Pronger and Ray Shero – vocalize this during the President search process.

Shero was believed to be the early on favorite for the position, but it sounds like he informed Comcast early on that the unconventionality of the role did not pique his interest; it’s believed he wants a more hands on role in hockey decision making. Pronger did interview sometime in late April, but I’ve heard that, while he was willing to work with Briere, he wanted decision-making power. It’s believed Pronger would’ve taken the job had he been given such autonomy.

If I’m being perfectly honest, I have a lot of questions about the new front office structure. Not because I don’t believe in Briere or Jones (I think both are incredibly smart), but because of how unconventional of a path the team is looking to go down.

Across the NHL, organizations’ hierarchy in Hockey Ops starts with the President, who then appoints a GM, who then appoints a Head Coach, and so on. In the Flyers’ case, it has, quite literally been backwards: Coach (Tortorella) first, GM (Briere) second and President (Jones) third. It’s not like all three are not in favor of one another, as Briere was one of the members that led the coaching search and was a huge proponent of Tortorella, but it does still beg the question to whether or not this structure will work.

Speaking of Tortorella, the man who spearheaded a new “standard” is also expected to have major authority when it comes to the team. As Frank Seravalli noted on the DFO Rundown podcast last week, Tortorella is the most powerful coach in the NHL with the exception of Pittsburgh’s Mike Sullivan.

Tortorella’s hiring and subsequent takeover as the team’s face has reminded me of Mike Babcock’s arrival in Toronto eight years ago, when he was brought in by President Brendan Shanahan to ease the fanbase through the rebuilding process. Tortorella even (unintentionally) sounded like Babcock when describing that pain is ahead for the Flyers, something the ladder said to the Leafs’ faithful when he was first introduced as Head Coach.

The difference is that, after a few years, the Leafs’ roster featured league superstars in Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, who eventually overtook Babcock as the team’s face(s). In Philadelphia, I’m not quite sure how soon the team will feature a player (let alone two) with that much cache to overtake Tortorella’s firm grip on the club’s identity.

Then comes the man who will be driving the bus in building the team: Briere. Camillio had a very interesting way to describe Briere, saying that he is “at his best when the lights are brightest,” alluding to his brilliant track record as a playoff performer.

Briere’s appointment as GM comes as no shock, as it was vocalized to him that, even though he began with the interim tag, he was their guy all along. Hilferty echoed those sentiments last Friday.

There has been interest in Briere from other front offices for quite some time now. The Arizona Coyotes expressed interest in bringing Briere over as an Assistant GM, while he was a finalist for the Montreal Canadiens GM role in early 2022 before Kent Hughes ultimately came out with the position. He has worked tirelessly to learn every facet of the organization for almost a decade and spent time as the President of the ECHL’s Main Mariners, so there is validity to entrusting him with getting this team back on track.

But there is also an inherent risk with moving forward with Briere as the ultimate decision maker. He has minimal front office experience and has never rebuilt a team, which is what’s needed in Philadelphia right now. He is also doing so with no one to answer to nor as an executive with a lot of experience to lean on, which is why many believed Doug Wilson (who was one of the final three candidates) would’ve maybe served as the best choice to be President of Hockey Ops.

One word that was brought up several times on Friday was “collaboration.” The Flyers are planning to approach this next phase as a unit, as was evident as the five most powerful members of the organization sat side by side on Friday morning. Instead of having all the hockey related responsibilities fall on one man (like with Fletcher), it feels like the Flyers are committed to doing this through collaboration.

I do have my scepticisms as to whether this unconventional approach will work, just because a power structure like this with such little experience atop the organization has rarely been seen before. But I do have confidence in the men put in place and, given the roles set for each prominent member of the team, it does warrant some benefit of the doubt.

What Becomes of the Rest of the Front Office

A lot has been made of the role of the Senior Advisors over the last number of years and their pull in organizational decisions. Bob Clarke, Bill Barber and Paul Holmgren have served the organization for the last 40 years, on and off the ice, but their involvement in major hockey decisions under the Dave Scott regime was questioned by many. What their roles are going forward has left a lot of people wondering.

According to some I’ve spoken with close to the situation, the exact roles and title of these Flyers legends is unclear at this point, but they are expected to remain with the organization in some capacity. They will always be part of the organization, as one person said to me.

But one thing is to be made clear: they will not be making any hockey decisions. Briere and Jones will be the ones calling the shots in the organizational direction.

I do think that the involvement of the advisors has been overblown at times but justified at others. Given what they’ve done for this team over the last four decades, they should always have a place with the organization – It just shouldn’t be helping in making major roster-related decisions. I do believe they were leaned on (Barber specifically) too much while Scott was in charge of Comcast Spectacor, and were consulted far too often on major decisions. But that it is not their fault that their opinions were asked of them.

I know many will be skeptical, but I don’t see the harm in keeping Barber, Clarke and Holmgren around the organization; they have earned that after their years of service to the team and, its founder, Ed Snider. But the days of them influencing major organizational decisions and philosophies needs to be moved on from

In terms of other front office movement, I don’t get the sense that an imminent personnel decision is looming in Hockey Ops. Many have speculated about the futures of AGMs Brent Flahr and Barry Hanrahan (the latter more so) over the last two months, but I haven’t heard that there is a plan to move on from either at this point.

I do believe that Briere will be taking a long look at improving player development, which has been a point of concern for this team going back to Ron Hextall’s time as GM. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some changes come in that regard over the next several weeks and months.