Philadelphia Flyers GM Danny Briere held a press conference on July 1 to give some insight into how the Flyers will be conducting business when it comes to free agency and making trades, emphasizing once again how the front office is playing the long game during the Flyers’ rebuild.

Briere has said on multiple occasions that the Flyers would be relatively quiet when it comes to making signings, driving home the point that the front office has no interest in deals that won’t bring long-term success.

“What I’m saying is more that we’re probably not going to throw a lot of money at a free agent to come in and take us overboard,” he said in a press conference back in April. “We’re not going to trade young players for older veterans that are going to bring more talent. We’re still going to respect that timeline that we’ve put in place. That hasn’t changed. If there’s a trade that makes sense that can bring more talent, and there’s a way that makes sense. Maybe it’s a hockey trade. We’re definitely open for business and we’re gonna keep exploring that.”

He confirmed that the Flyers have been communicating with “a few teams” in recent weeks, but none of these conversations generated significant interest from the front office.

“We did reach out here and there, but there’s not much that makes sense on where we were,” Briere said. “There’s been a few calls, because we try to do something to clear some cap space. We try, in that case, to do some experimenting, but nothing has come by so far. We’re going to keep trying, but we knew that most likely there weren’t going to be any updates.”

While many other teams in the league were doing some blockbuster business on the first day of free agency, the Flyers were quite subdued in comparison, extending Erik Johnson and Garnet Hathaway, along with announcing the signing of Matvei Michkov to an entry-level contract.

There are some current roster players that still have deals to be worked out with the Flyers—most notably alternate captain and star forward Travis Konecny—but Briere maintained that there are no updates to speak of on those negotiations.

“Nothing new,” he said. “I’ve said from the beginning I’m not going to negotiate through the media. We love Travis and hope he’s here for a long time.”

The Flyers also extended qualifying offers to young players Egor Zamula and Bobby Brink on June 30, although they opted not to extend one to goaltender Carter Hart, who, along with four other players, is awaiting trial for his alleged involvement in the 2018 Hockey Canada scandal.

When asked what the decision-making process was in choosing not to qualify Hart, Briere simply explained, “We just felt it wasn’t the right decision at this time.”