Philadelphia Flyers general manager Danny Briere never said Connor McDavid was heading to Philadelphia. Nor Jack Eichel, Kyle Connor, Kirill Kaprizov or any other high-profile, highly-talented forward to help the Flyers take the next step to contention. Check the tapes, nothing was uttered. In an ideal world fans believed the Flyers would be able to pull the trigger on such a franchise-altering acquisition. But Briere remained relatively silent on what the end goal was. Next summer was circled on the Flyers calendar. That much is clear.
Most who follow the team believed that one of the main keys, if not the key to the summer of 2026 was to land a big name center that could finally and successfully address the piecemeal solutions the Flyers have used in recent years.