When Wayne Simmonds first began to practice as a Flyer in the summer of 2011, he was introduced to Danny Briere.
A year removed from the second unsuccessful trip to the Stanley Cup Finals of his career, Briere, then 33, had just produced the most goals of an NHL career that had begun in 1997, despite a tumultuous year in which the off-ice behavior of the team’s younger stars and leaders, including the captain, dominated discussion about its uneven play – and led to the controversial trades that moved Simmonds from Los Angeles to here.
“I know I don’t have too many years left in me,’’ Simmonds recalled Briere telling him.