Danny Briere struck on NHL trade deadline day.

The Flyers traded Bobby Brink on Friday to the Wild in exchange for defenseman David Jiricek.

Brink became a trade candidate for a few reasons. The Flyers have so many young wingers, both on the roster now and in the system. Meanwhile, they need help at other positions.

The 24-year-old Brink was also due a new deal this offseason as a pending restricted free agent.

“It was tough,” Briere said. “At some point, we were going to have to make a change or trade some wingers for other positions.”

Before he became the Flyers’ general manager, Briere was involved in the player development process with Brink.

“To having been part of that and to see him blossom into the player that he has become, there’s, selfishly, a lot of pride in that,” Briere said. “It wasn’t an easy one to let go of.”

Jiricek is a 6-foot-4, righty shot who was taken sixth overall in the 2022 NHL draft. We profiled him leading up to that draft. The Flyers selected Cutter Gauthier at No. 5. Gauthier ended up turning down the Flyers, who were forced to trade him in January 2024.

In parts of two seasons with Minnesota, Jiricek had a goal, an assist and a plus-2 mark over 31 games. He was drafted by the Blue Jackets, so the Flyers are now his third team. He’s only 22 years old and there’s upside, but he was available because his transition to the NHL has been a struggle.

“If he was playing like Matthew Schaefer, we wouldn’t be talking about him,” Briere said with a smile. “But we still see a high potential — 21-, 22-year-old, 6-foot-4 defensemen of his caliber are tough to find. We know we have to work with him, we need to be patient, we need to give him a little bit of rope to develop him.”

Aside from goalies, defensemen can take the longest to develop. The Flyers will hope a change of scenery and more opportunity help Jiricek. He’ll report to AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley. Could he see the Flyers this season?

“I didn’t make him any promises,” Briere said. “But at some point, if we have the chance, we’d like to give him a look and give him a few games. The most important thing we felt was for him to start in Lehigh, get high minutes and lots of reps.”

More: Flyers keeping Ristolainen is not reminiscent of the JVR deadline

Brink has a cool opportunity with Minnesota. He’s from Minnetonka, which is about a half-hour drive from where the Wild play at Grand Casino Arena. Minnesota is also poised to make the playoffs.

“It’s sad, but I’m obviously happy he’s going back home and going to a really good team,” Noah Cates said. “Definitely a shock, I’m still processing it, it still doesn’t feel too real. Just a great kid.”

The 2019 second-round pick has a career-high 13 goals this season. Last season, he had a career-high 41 points. For being just 5-foot-8, Brink improved his ability to win puck battles. His vision was always there.

The Flyers, though, have Matvei Michkov and Tyson Foerster leading a group of young wingers. The club will have to sign top prospect Porter Martone. They also have Alex Bump knocking at the door, along with guys like Denver Barkey and Nikita Grebenkin already making an impact.

That’s not to mention three of the Flyers’ top players right now are wingers in Travis Konecny, Trevor Zegras and Owen Tippett. Zegras has the chance to play center, but has primarily played on the wing in his first season with the Flyers.