Flyers name Keith Jones as President of Hockey Operations & Daniel Briere as General Manager

[Doohickie]

Let's see how this works for them.

[SDS]

Weird how Drury and Briere have become GMs in their team after Sabres lives,

[French Collection]

I am surprised by the Jones choice. He may do well but his background is broadcasting, not front office work. He has been around the NHL for a long time and has numerous connections that would help him.

Maybe his role is changing the team culture more than hockey ops.
 

He attended Western Michigan for 4 years, probably graduated.

Good for Briere.

[Doohickie]

3 minutes ago, French Collection said:

He may do well but...

Yes, what you said.

[TheAud]

As a Sabres fan, I love this move for Philadelphia. 

Keith Jones trying to understand the salary cap:

[That Aud Smell]

At worst, I'll take a "meh, we'll see" view of the Jones hiring. My honest reaction is more in the realm of "lol." The world of tee-vee broadcasting is not, imo, a place to set yourself up for success in a FO position. But he comes across as an honest, likable guy. So maybe he'll get the ship righted there.

As for Briere: Wasn't he previously announced as GM? Is this new news?

[Pimlach]

Hiring guys they know.  What can go wrong?  

[Doohickie]

21 minutes ago, TheAud said:

As a Sabres fan, I love this move for Philadelphia. 

Keith Jones trying to understand the salary cap:

My knee-jerk reaction is the same.  But then I look at what people thought of our GM when he came on board.  I'm trying not to judge what I don't know.

17 minutes ago, Pimlach said:

Hiring guys they know.  What can go wrong?  

This kind of cynicism shows how emotionally wounded all of us on Sabrespace are.

[Marvin]

The real question in Philadelphia is not who these guys are, but what the owner wants.  He does not like rebuilds.

[Pimlach]

17 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

My knee-jerk reaction is the same.  But then I look at what people thought of our GM when he came on board.  I'm trying not to judge what I don't know.

This kind of cynicism shows how emotionally wounded all of us on Sabrespace are.

Ouch.   Speak for yourself.   My comment was more directed at Jones.

Sure, Briere deserves a shot, why not?   

And hiring Keith Jones from the broadcast booth is a great idea.   He bleeds black and orange, and he wants to be there,  rah rah.  

[TheAud]

For many years Jones worked next to Brian Engblom on Versus/NBC. Is the resemblance here not remarkable?

 

[Getpucksdeep]

1 hour ago, SDS said:

Weird how Drury and Briere have become GMs in their team after Sabres lives,

And Grier sorta.

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, SDS said:

Weird how Drury and Briere have become GMs in their team after Sabres lives,

Grier too.

[Sabel79]

1 hour ago, That Aud Smell said:

 

As for Briere: Wasn't he previously announced as GM? Is this new news?

I think he was interim until this announcement.  

[Taro T]

1 hour ago, French Collection said:

I am surprised by the Jones choice. He may do well but his background is broadcasting, not front office work. He has been around the NHL for a long time and has numerous connections that would help him.

Maybe his role is changing the team culture more than hockey ops.
 

He attended Western Michigan for 4 years, probably graduated.

Good for Briere.

Mildly surprised by the Jones choice, but the job of team presidient is different than that of GM.  He's more in charge of building the relationships of the team with outside parties.  What better choice for that role than someone that is generally viewed as being likeable (even though he's a former Phlyer) and has many powerful friends/contacts within and outside of the NHL?

Pretty sure the size of his contacts list is more important for his new role than how well he can identify which 17 year old is going to become the next Gagne or Giroux.  (Briere needs to have that latter skill (and because of who he works for, hopefully he doesn't have that one down particularly well).)

[Zamboni]

 

both of those guys in those positions should be very rich for the next couple of years at least. 
 

Edited May 11, 2023 by Zamboni

[PromoTheRobot]

1 hour ago, SDS said:

Weird how Drury and Briere have become GMs in their team after Sabres lives,

Don't forget Mike Greer at San Jose.

[GASabresIUFAN]

So let's see if I understand this.  The Briere/Drury/Grier Sabres lost to Adams' Hurricanes in 2006 in the Conference finals.  Adams is now the Sabres' GM and doing a pretty good job.  Briere is now the GM of the team he left the Sabres for (Philly) and Drury is now the GM of the team he left the Sabres for (NYR).  Grier is aslo the GM of the SJS.  Very interesting.    

[MattPie]

21 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

So let's see if I understand this.  The Briere/Drury/Grier Sabres lost to Adams' Hurricanes in 2006 in the Conference finals.  Adams is now the Sabres' GM and doing a pretty good job.  Briere is now the GM of the team he left the Sabres for (Philly) and Drury is now the GM of the team he left the Sabres for (NYR).  Grier is aslo the GM of the SJS.  Very interesting.    

I was going to say something like, "well, maybe this is not that strange when you look at the rest of the league". But those four account for 12.5% (1/8) of the 32 positions available, all from one 7-game series. Just by the numbers it can't be normal.

[Doohickie]

1 hour ago, Pimlach said:

Speak for yourself.

I guess so, yes.

[Doohickie]

7 minutes ago, MattPie said:

I was going to say something like, "well, maybe this is not that strange when you look at the rest of the league". But those four account for 12.5% (1/8) of the 32 positions available, all from one 7-game series. Just by the numbers it can't be normal.

I don't think it's that strange.  The league is a relatively small enterprise.  If you go back 15-20 years, the amount of time you might expect a player just passing his prime (i.e., seasoned vet) to progress through the ranks, you could probably draw a similar relationship between most groups of 4 former players/current GMs, especially considering that most players play for multiple teams.  It's also tilted in favor of the players who played on the better teams I think.  So you take about 1/2 to 1/4 of the teams, look at the players that became GMs, and it's probably pretty easy to find these kinds of relationships.

It's probably similar (in a statistical sense) to the Birthday Paradox:  Wherever you are, if there are 23 people in the room with you, there is a 50/50 chance that two people have the same birthday.

[Pimlach]

2 hours ago, Taro T said:

Mildly surprised by the Jones choice, but the job of team presidient is different than that of GM.  He's more in charge of building the relationships of the team with outside parties.  What better choice for that role than someone that is generally viewed as being likeable (even though he's a former Phlyer) and has many powerful friends/contacts within and outside of the NHL?

Pretty sure the size of his contacts list is more important for his new role than how well he can identify which 17 year old is going to become the next Gagne or Giroux.  (Briere needs to have that latter skill (and because of who he works for, hopefully he doesn't have that one down particularly well).)

President typically sets the strategy for the hockey operations and ties them to the business goals.   This gets flowed to the GM.   Every organization can run things a bit different. 

Adams made the jump from the business side to the Hockey Operations side.   He also took that long road trip with the team to observe how things were going and report back.   Needless to say Adams new a lot about what was going on with the team.  

[PerreaultForever]

Keith Jones? That's hilarious. All the Philly fans I know have been going on and on about how the problem is an "old boys network" of Flyers alumni towing the party line and here they go with more alumni. 

If we do make the playoffs next year I suspect the Flyers might give our not making the playoffs record a solid run for it's money. 

[shrader]

But now I can't watch any more national broadcasts with Keith Jones.😪

[JohnC]

An interesting issue is how does Torts fit in with the new appointees who are now his bosses? What happens when Torts is instructed to play the younger players more? If his response is no because he is trying to win more games, is this front office going to quickly dispatch him? It's my impression that Torts is a strong-willed and stubborn person who doesn't seem amenable to being told what to do. It's going to be interesting to see if this new configuring of the staff meshes with the current coach.