Being a general manager of a professional sports franchise often requires an expertise in certain arts. And sometimes, there are multiple arts that need to come together to reach an end goal.
For the Flyers’ Danny Briere, as he approaches the start of NHL free agency on Wednesday, which is going to be muted this year league-wide after almost all of the quality free agents that were expected to hit the market this summer re-signed with their former teams, he is going to have to use his wiles to show off the art of deception, win via the art of the deal, and improve the team with the art of the possible.
He has already made a couple deals this offseason, improving the goaltending room by upgrading from Sam Ersson to Joseph Woll. He added a depth defenseman in Simon Benoit who should be an improvement over Noah Juulsen. And he shipped Garnet Hathaway to Florida for a pick swap and a fourth round pick next year.
But that hardly is all that needs to be done. Changes are still needed on defense. The elusive center position needs an upgrade. And while it seems difficult to seemingly address both, there are paths forward, but Briere needs to be creative.
And maybe that’s what all these rumors that have been swirling around the Flyers have been designed to do – to deceive. To misdirect. To make you look at the left hand and not pay attention to what the right hand is doing.
So, when you hear about the Flyers considering using an offer sheet to lure in a potential No. 1 center, it’s easy to get caught up in the speculation surrounding Anaheim’s Leo Carlsson. And while the Flyers would be foolish to not think about that and least discuss it internally, there is also the very real world matter of the Ducks having the option to match whatever a team like the Flyers might offer.
For a while it seemed like a team could make the number high enough to be a challenge for Anaheim. The Ducks, after all, have to also re-sign Cutter Gauthier and Pavel Mintyukov this summer and have to consider contracts for the likes of Beckett Senneke, Nikita Nesterenko, Drew Helleson and Ian Moore in the next two years.
Still, the Ducks have cap space and would likely match any offer for Carlsson, and would figure out the rest later.
It should be noted that offer sheets, while allowed by the rules, are often avoided as a “gentleman’s agreement” between teams. It hasn’t completely stopped teams from signing players to them, but it is a tactic that is less frequently used than it should be as GM’s like to keep good working relationships with other GMs.
Yet, it’s nice to wonder what that contract could look like for the Flyers. But while you are spending your time thinking about that, Briere could be operating elsewhere.
Of course, there is also the report that the Flyers are interested in acquiring Columbus defenseman and Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski. This interest is also very real. So much so that Briere and his team have been putting together trade offers they hope could get the deal done.
But what that final offer might look like is up for conversation. Would the Flyers trade a Tyson Foerster, Cam York and a first round pick (and maybe throw in a prospect) for Werenski? Maybe. And then there are questions the Flyers can not answer. Would that be enough for Columbus? Would Werenski, who has a complete no trade clause, waive it and accept?
It’s enough of an unknown to think that this, too, could be a bit of a smokescreen. Not that the Flyers aren’t engaged. They are. But while the hockey world is looking over here, Briere could be over there with one other idea.
Enter the Mavrik Bourque conversation.
Bourque, 24, is a center who had a breakout season with the Dallas Stars. He had 20 goals and 21 assists for 41 points while playing all 82 games for the Stars in just his second full NHL season.
Like Carlsson, Bourque is also a restricted free agent, meaning if a team like the Flyers were to sign him to an offer sheet, then the Stars would have one week to match, work out a trade with the signing team, or accept the compensation for losing a restricted free agent.
Dallas is in a bit of a cap bind. It has roughly $11 million in cap space and also has another restricted free agent in Jason Robertson, who tied for the team lead in goals (45) and led the stars in assists (51) and points (96).
The Stars would like to keep Robertson, but likely doesn’t have the gymnastics ability to find a way to jump through all the hoops it’ll take to get both Robertson and Bourque signed.
So, they may have to let one go.
They already let Robertson go and speak with the Seattle Kraken, but Robertson turned down a a reported 8-year contract that would have had an approximate AAV of $15 million.
So Robertson is still property of the Stars.
Since they can’t keep both, they seem ripe for someone to fire off an offer sheet.
Bourque is coming off his entry-level contract which paid him just $950,000 a season. He won’t make as much as either Carlsson or Robertson, but could he be in the range of what the Flyers are thinking of paying Trevor Zegras ($9 million-ish)?
There are compensation tiers if you sign a player to an offer sheet. The tier I mentioned above for 2026-27 ranges between $7.16 million and 9.55 million. If a player is signed to an offer sheet on that tier, and the current team does not match the contract, the compensation from the new team is a first, a second and a third round pick.
So, for the sake of argument, let’s say the Flyers offer Bourque a 7-year, $66.5 million contract with an AAV of $9.5 million. Would Dallas match that? Probably not, if they want to keep Robertson. It could be a little less, too and they still might not match. Either way, it would be a get-out-of-cap-jail-free card for Dallas G.M. Jim Nill. You get solid compensation for losing a good, young player, but more importantly, have a path to re-signing your top point producer, a path that is currently weaving through thornbushes.
From the Flyers perspective, the compensation works because they have extra first (from Toronto) and third round (from Los Angeles) picks next year already, so they have the capital.
On top of that, if they trade Rasmus Ristolainen, there’s a chance they recoup some or all of the draft capital that would be lost in compensation to Dallas.
I’m told the Flyers have had very in-depth conversations about the possibility of offer-sheeting Bourque. What remains to be seen is if Briere takes that final step.
That’s where the art of the deal comes in – because in that case, he has to deal with Bourque’s agent, Olivier Fortier. Fortier is an aggressive agent who would not be gun shy about pursuing an offer sheet if, in fact, it would make his client a boat load of green.
But it might take another deal – the Ristolainen one – to be the lynchpin to getting to the last art form – the art of the possible.
Ristolainen could be the keystone to the summer. Trading Ristolainen could bring a return akin to the most, if not all of the picks the Flyers would have to give up in that hypothetical Bourque signing.
But the Flyers won’t move off of Ristolainen right away, even though I’m told there are a couple offers the Flyers have received that they are intrigued by for him, without having a reliable replacement in place.
They aren’t sure that prospects Oliver Bonk or David Jiricek are ready to step into his role on the blue line yet, and as such, don’t want to move Ristolainen without having another experienced defenseman to fill the void.
That’s where the interest in Darnell Nurse comes into play. As I reported previously, Nurse and Edmonton have agreed to part ways and the Oilers are trying to find a trade partner.
Nurse, however, has no-trade rights, so he can turn down any offer Edmonton GM Stan Bowman presents him.
Nurse has provided Bowman with a short list of teams he is interested in going to, and all of them are in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers are at the top of his list.
However, it seems Bowman isn’t fond of the offer that is on the table from the Flyers for Nurse. Briere hasn’t budged, on whatever the deal includes, and Bowman hasn’t budged on settling for it.
Bowman wants Nurse to expand his No Trade list, but to this point, Nurse has refused to make it larger. Anaheim is apparently interested, and has a good offer in, but Bowman can’t get Nurse to add the Ducks to the mix of acceptable destinations.
It remains status quo on the Darnell Nurse trade front. To this point, Nurse hasn’t expanded his trade list.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 29, 2026
So, we have a big game of chicken playing out and we’ll see who blinks first.
And these potential deals are all intertwined as one begets the other. But there are alternate paths that can be followed to get the means to this end accomplished, but Briere is going to have to be an agile maneuverer to make it happen.
In the end, if the Flyers come away from this week with Nurse and Bourque, that’s a solid summer for Briere. If they get Werenski, then it’s akin to a lottery win. All of these potential moves are signs of the art of the possible.
However, if they come away with a lot less, then this summer will be viewed as bit of a disappointment. And that will require a different art form. In that case, Briere will have to become the artful dodger — to avoid being hit by the the arrows of criticism fired his way from disgruntled fans.
(Note: This story was edited slightly from it’s original version)