Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Briere is already very pleased with the performance of center Christian Dvorak, whom he signed to a one-year, $5.4 million contract last summer.
Dvorak, 29, spent the previous four seasons with the Montreal Canadiens. If the first three were mixed, in particular due to injuries, then the last one, in 2024-2025, turned out to be successful. And it looks like the American forward will continue to gain momentum this season in Philadelphia.
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“The most important thing for me was the length of the contract, one year to get to know him,” Briere explained to JiC on Monday. We had room under the salary cap to do it. And to be honest, he has done us a great service so far. We are very pleased with his work. He’s not the type to show off, he’s not the type to knock you off night after night, but it’s all the little things.”
A scorer of 33 points last season, Dvorak has already scored six points in 12 games this year.
“He makes the players around him better,” Briere said. He helps us a lot on the penalty kill, he helps us protect our young players who lack experience, who want to play offense, guys like (Trevor) Zegras, guys like (Matvey) Michkov.
“So we're very, very proud to have him,” he continued. For us, this contract is worth every penny so far. We'll see what the future holds for him, but we'd like to find a way to keep him, get him back for the next few years.
Zegras, the right move
Briere also rubs hands with 24-year-old forward Trevor Zegras, who, after two difficult years with the Anaheim Ducks, is back to being productive in the “City of Brotherly Love.”
“This is one of the pleasant surprises for us this season,” he said. We knew he had great talent, but […] we weren't sure what stage of its development it was at. I admit, we are pleasantly surprised by his start to the season.”
As for Michkov, who is slowing down after a very good first season in the NHL last year, there is no cause for concern.
“I think with Michkov it’s a little bit of inexperience,” Briere said. After the success he had last year, I think he expected it would be easy for him to come back for a second year and he was a little surprised by it at the time. I don't think he was mentally prepared for that second season when the players start to recognize you and you have to continue to develop.
“In his case it will come back, at 19 he has proven what he can do,” the general manager continued. But there he understands that he has something to improve, and we can, we must always work on it.
Finally, Briere also sent flowers to the team's new coach, Rick Tocsha, who was already a legend as a player in Philadelphia and is coming home, so to speak.
“What’s interesting is that he came from Philadelphia, he is very respected in the community, our fans love him, and he is also a very, very good coach,” he listed. I like what he brings in terms of authority, but he is also very good at relating to his players. Players love playing for him. He wanted to improve our defensive side. This team has improved a lot from last year at this point.”
The Flyers will be the Canadian's next opponents on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
Watch the main video for the full interview.
