Good interview. Jason one of your best qualities is you understand who you are talking to. You kinda of guided this 19 year old, and made him at ease. He seemed to open up as the interview went along. I feel for you continually having to explain the rebuild as the "middle man" between the Management and fans on being patient. God Bless.

Hathaway brings two important things... professionalism and work ethic. He's not going to teach skills, but he's going to be example to the many young kids coming up in those two areas. That's why they extended him. It's REALLY simple Jason. Laughts is a leader and will teach the Flyer way to young guys. Again, he's a guy that is needed in a rebuild. In a rebuild, players need time to grow and show what they are. It doesn't happen overnight. Finally, it's a rebuild plan and simple. They have several guys in the last year of a deal who have not really grown that much. They have another season to prove themselves. There are a few guys that are on the block but they aren't getting offers that they feel are fair for the player... so they are waiting. I guarantee, at the trade deadline, you'll see 3-4 players going to other teams because teams will pay the right price or the Flyers will be done with the player and want to get SOMETHING for them. PS - I loved the Hextall era. We were going in the right direction... just missing a good coach to help develop all the young players Hexy was getting.

I fully agree that there is little to nothing we can do as far as this off-season. To call this off-season a failure or want Danny fired is outrageous. The only critique I have is that since we are in a rebuild, giving TK does not make sense, given we’re not in a win now mode. By the time the 2025 draft class develops and Michkov is hitting his prime, TK will be on the wrong side of 30 potentially taking up more cap space than we’re comfortable with. If you trade him and acquire assets (such as a first round pick, prospect, and a mid round pick), you now have more ammo to build a team with. Not to mention you put yourself under the cap ceiling and don’t have to tap into LTIR (providing you don’t take a bad contract back, which you shouldn’t have too). And I believe another team shouldn’t be too hard to make a deal with since he’s somebody who’s shown to be a difference maker and plays every game like it’s the playoffs. I love TK but I just don’t believe he fits the timeline

I am fine with where everything is right now. The team has clear purpose and direction. Let's hope camp goes well no serious injuries maybe even a pleasant surprise in goal. You never know maybe MM mixes well with someone who finds a passing game....maybe not....I'm going to be watching anyway because there is hope..... like andy says in shawshank hope is a good thing....maybe the best of things...i hope the flyers are as good as they are in my dreams.....I hope!

I'm fine with patience, I know this will take time. My only issue is that I don't know where they're getting the "high end talent" they themselves have said the team needs.

Oliver Bonk seems like a class act! He’s going to be a good player for us. People that are upset with this off-season just because Danny didn’t make any blockbuster trades or what not, relax! Danny B def tried a few things, it just wasn’t worth it, I imagine the cost to move up in the top ten at the draft, especially top 5 was more than Danny was comfortable with. I believe with their assets The Flyers are going to get a number 1 center and another franchise player.Danny is sticking to the timeline and as much as I love TK, I believe he’ll be traded. They can’t go in the media saying that they’re going to trade him. He is our best chance to gat a haul. And Danny knows this, he is in his prime and doesn’t fit our timeline. If we didn’t have have Coots contract on the books maybe I’d resign him alas we do and can’t have another albatross. We have 3 picks possibly in the top 40 next year. I tired of writing.

Maybe another Cam York on the right Side bigger and stronger

I'm okay with patience for James Hagens/Celebrini/ or an equivalent caliber forward. 🤷‍♂️ AND then a defenseman with an Elite Norris voting type of Makar/Ekblad/Hedman type of projection. How many bottom6/bottom pair ceiling prospects and players does this organization need before they make something hapoen somewhere!? Another decade? 🤷‍♂️

Jason, this has nothing to do with cap space and free agents. Briere has said the 2025 draft is a top heavy draft. Jones has stated that the 2025 draft is a very important draft and they need to get it right. The Flyers have 6 picks in the first two rounds in the 2025 draft, supporting what Jones said, all good. But then Briere makes hardly any roster changes this off-season so it looks like he is rolling back the same team, thus most likely another year of being a playoff bubble team. This is not a rebuild, this is called purgatory! You cannot rebuild this team picking 15th, 23rd and 27th in the 1st round. This does not move the needle. We have learned the past few drafts that teams in the top 10 are not trading out of the top 10. The only way the Flyers can take advantage of a top heavy draft is to pick at the top of the draft, and the only way to do that is to trade players like TK, Laughton and Farabee (all of whom would fetch a good return), open up cap space and roster spots for younger players and finish in the bottom 10. Doesn't mean the players don't play hard, or Torts doesn't coach to win, or the culture suffers. You can have the culture and get a top 10 pick that will move this rebuild forward. If Briere comes back with the same veteran laiden team, I just can't support this plan because to me, there is no plan.

If we had a good powerplay, I could understand not putting bonk in that position. But we have the worst powerplay in the league. If someone had success in a peculiar spot in juniors, why not try it out? Can’t make the powerplay any worse.

I wasn‘t expecting them to go crazy in free agency. i am not really in favor of doing that anyway as it is when expensive mistakes are made. i am willing to be patient, but my only issue is why do they need so many “culture guys” like deslaurier, hathaway, laughton, johnson. i understand having 1-2 of these guys, but guys like sanheim and coots are longstanding vets. why can’t they be culture guys. also i don’t want them to trade TK, but he just doesn’t fit the timeline of the slow and steady build that briere is talking about.

Of the Flyers’ 20 non-Laughton skaters who appeared in at least 20 games in 2023-24, not a single one of them had a better even-strength xGF% with the centerman than without him. On-ice stats aren’t the be-all-end-all for a player, but it is certainly not a good sight that every single notable athlete on the team saw regression the moment he was on the ice. In this sense, the Flyers might have made the playoffs if they just didn’t play him at all. They were a dominant team at generating scoring opportunities unless Laughton was on the ice.Instead of being a middle-six forward, he seems to be more fit as a low-end depth player. Considering he is making $3 million on his contract through the 2025-26 season, that’s an awful lot to pay for someone best suited to be a 13th forward. Laughton’s struggles have been ongoing for a while now, and it’s unfortunate to see, as he once was a solid player. In 2020-21 when he signed his extension, he had a 2.12 xGA/60 and a 52.6 xGF%. Scoring 20 points in 53 contests to go along with that, he deserved a pay raise. It just so happens that he hasn’t been very good ever since.On the surface, it would seem like Laughton had a decent season. He had 13 goals and 26 assists for 39 points in 82 contests, and his minus-9 rating wasn’t all that bad. Averaging 15:39 of ice time, it would seem like he was a solid middle-six player for the Orange and Black. Taking a deeper look at it, though, that just wasn’t the case at all. Substack The Hockey Writers Philadelphia Flyers Banner For starters, he only shot at a 7.8 percent rate, so his offensive efficiency was not the greatest. Based on the eye test, he just didn’t look as involved offensively as he has in the past. He has more skill than he sometimes gets credit for, but he definitely took a step back on that front - he did little to stand out positively. He had his moments, but he just wasn’t as good offensively as his points might suggest. Getting to one of his bigger issues, Laughton couldn’t stay out of the box. He took needless penalties far too often, finishing with a team-leading 27 minor penalties. Among all of the 924 NHL skaters in 2023-24, he was tied for the 29th-most minor penalties taken. Discipline was definitely an issue for him - not even the Flyers’ fourth-best penalty kill could come through every time.

There were PLENTY of missed opportunities this iff season for this team to get better for the future in my opinion. I think Tortorella is a great coach! But a horrible coach for a rebuilding team that particularly LACKS elite potential prospects to build around. No future 1C. (Just a horrbly aging Couturier contract) No future 1D (No Defenseman on this Roster had more than 2 PP goals last season) Sanheim luckily played about fair value to his contract so far and Ristolainen is well...🤷‍♂️ Frost looks like a competent 3C when he isn’t benched. Laughton is a solid bottom 6 guy. Couturier looked like a 2C for half the season maybe? Everyone WANTS a top5 picks with Elite potential to build a winning team around Michkov. Why is this team trying to make the playoffs just to get embarrassed in the first round again if they don't have the Elite talent to build around yet? If your not trading for a top line Center, your not signing an FA whos a top line Center with a PPG potential. Then your just retooling a mediocre roster with MORE low ceiling late round mediocre prospects. This is Hextall's failed playbook word for word. The overpaying overrated prospects while praying they turn into elite level superstar talent is just old. After 30 plus years of Flyers management I KNOW how this movie ends!!! This management is already making the same horribly flawed moves in its habits with overpaid and overrated players, bad trades, holding onto veterans too long, bad reaches while drafting prospects, and a failure to aquire anything close to an elite level future 1C or 1D to build around. They've once again pinned their hopes on this same overpaid mediocre roster and future years of drafts devoid of any top5 elite potential prospects. No playoffs. No Celebrini, No Bedard, No Hughes, No Lindstrom, No Catton, No McGroarty, No Zegras, No Necas, No Pinto, No plan for anyone competent to Centet Michkov when all you had to do was scratch some players and play a backup goaltender for 5-10 more games and draft an Elite potential 1D or 1C a couple weeks ago! Instead we're making the same B.S. mistakes as we have the past decade hanging around the middle of the pack in Draft purgatory prayung for a miracle. Even if Michkov is better than Kucherov your DOOMING him to failure with this coach and this top6 on this team. 🤷‍♂️

AND IF we're NOT getting Elite 1Cs and Elite Defenseman from SOMEWHERE and they are doing this again that's fine! But I'm out! I'm not wasting my time or money ok anymore "rebuilds" that end in horrible contracts, and mediocrity (At Best) You can't pick and 2nd overall bust, And trade the only other top5 pick this organization has had in a decade+ for Drysdale and think you can successfully Rebuild without the future cornerstones of a Rebuild. This team has ONE elite potential RW if we're lucky! And already no way to pay him in 3 years and be able to afford ANY of the pther peices needed.