VOORHEES, N.J. -- Back in December, St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong made a comment about trading in the NHL to The Athletic's Jeremy Rutherford.
"We're not selling 50 cents on the dollar out of anger," Armstrong said. "We're not considering trading players less than the value we think they're worth. ... I need [other teams] to think that [our players are] better than they are and [other teams] want me to think they're worse than I think they are -- and that might never happen."
I open with this quote because Flyers GM Danny Briere had a press conference after the NHL trade deadline on Friday, a day in which he traded Bobby Brink, Nick Deslauriers and a couple minor leaguers, but didn't trade who many fans wanted him to trade -- defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen -- and said something pretty similar.
"You guys made it a big story, I didn't know I was trying to sell him," Briere told the gathered media here at the Flyers Training Center. "You guys made it sound like we were dumping Risto for next to nothing. Look, at the end of the day, Risto has a lot of value to our team. I wasn't trying to dump Risto. I wasn't trying to get rid of him. I think the media turned it into a little bit of a circus, to be honest, and that's OK. I get it, It's part of my job to deal with that."
Briere was probably being a little facetious here. No, he wasn't looking to dump Ristolainen, but the media didn't just collectively make up the fact that he was available either. That information trading highway runs in two directions.
But the reality is, Briere was willing to move him to another team, but only if a certain threshold was met:
A first round pick, and an NHL-ready, or close to NHL-ready prospect.
It was an ask eerily similar to what he got for Scott Laughton at last year's deadline when he got a first round pick and Nikita Grebenkin from Toronto.
But that deal for Ristolainen never materialized. Teams checked in. A few were seriously interested. But none got to where Briere wanted them to go in order for him to trade Ristolainen.
One of those teams that was interested was the team that originally drafted Ristolainen -- the Buffalo Sabres.
And while they talked up until Thursday night, Buffalo decided to go in another direction, trading for two defenseman from the Winnipeg Jets - former Flyer Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley.
The Sabres sent the Jets a second-round pick in 2027, a conditional fourth-round pick in 2026, and two prospects - winger Isak Rosen and defenseman Jacob Bryson.
Looking at that trade, it's not hard to determine that part of that offer is what they wanted to give the Flyers - likely the second rounder and one of the prospects.
Knowing he has Ristolainen under contract through next season, Briere balked at whatever the offer was at the time, sending Buffalo to look elsewhere.
Flyers General Manager Daniel Briere meets with the media following the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline. https://t.co/s8cJiEAOdg
And Sabres G.M. Jarmo Kekalainen quickly pivoted and made a deal with the Jets.
Another team that was interested in Ristolainen was the Detroit Red Wings.
Whether or not they made an offer for Ristolainen is unknown, but they made a late deal with the Blues for Justin Faulk, parting with first- and third-round picks in 2026, veteran defenseman Justin Holl and the rights to forward prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov, who is unsigned and playing in the KHL.
If Detroit offered a first and third, should Briere have taken that? Probably. But it's unknown if they did.
"I don't like discussing that," Briere said. "I don't think it's fair to the other teams either to start putting stuff out. All I can tell you is the value wasn't as high as we needed for us moving forward."
And Briere is holding firm to those valuations.
"I did get a lot of calls, and we took them seriously," Briere said. "We went through all the teams that were serious, but at the end of the day, it just did not make sense value-wise. ... We listened, but it made more sense to have Risto with us."
This, of course, set Flyers social media ablaze. And it's understandable, but it's not like Briere completely missed the boat here. He's just riding in steerage, for now.
Ristolainen can still be moved in the offseason. He has another year left on his contract. And while there were a handful, or so, of teams interested in trading for Ristolainen at the deadline, once Briere gets to the summer, and the salary cap skyrockets, and 32 teams all think they can improve their team, he might find that he can get the value for Ristolainen that he didn't get offered to him Friday.
It's a risk, but all transactions in sports are risks. You can take a big swing - and miss. Does that make you better at your job than someone who is more patient? Not necessarily. It might grab more headlines. It might drive conversation and excitement, but it doesn't guarantee success.
Of course, the argument against that is that famous Michael Scott quote from the Office - "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take."
And that's true as well.
Who knows, maybe Briere is right to wait. He waited for Laughton and it worked out. But there is a real concern that Ristolainen's play can dip, or worse, he gets injured again - something that has been problematic for him the past two seasons.
But if the Flyers dodge those potential pitfalls, Ristolainen can still net them assets before the draft in June.
And if you think Briere won't do that, because he's too conservative for your taste, think again.
He said he would today. You just have to pay close attention.
One of the trades Briere did make was sending Brink to Minnesota for 22-year-old defenseman David Jiricek, who profiles very similarly to Ristolainen.
Here's the moment the Bobby Brink and David Jiricek trade became official! 👏 #NHLTradeDeadline pic.twitter.com/ozmCIzeY3A
Jiricek is going to start in the AHL with the Phantoms, but Briere said he will get an opportunity to play in the NHL this season.
But Briere felt he needed to move a winger - and chose Brink - because the Flyers had a logjam at the position and needed to start making room, especially with Tyson Foerster due back next season, Porter Martone coming once Michigan State's season is over, and Alex Bump expecting to be called up from the Phantoms.
He said he won't let young, right-shot defensemen like Jiricek and Oliver Bonk be blocked by having veteran guys like Ristolainen in front of them.
"When they're ready, we're going to make room for them," Briere said. "A little bit like the Bobby Brink trade, we feel like guys are almost there and we're trying to make a little bit of room."
That's the sound clip that everyone should be playing. It's evidence that the time is coming, but that it just wasn't Friday.
I asked Briere if he had some conversations with teams about trades that he can put in his back pocket and revisit down the line.
"There's a lot of that, actually," Briere said. "There's a lot of discussion that it's not working out right now, it doesn't fit right now, but let's keep this open. It happens quite a bit."
Briere cited an example of trading for Trevor Zegras. He said that he had on and off discussions about acquiring him from Anaheim for the better part of two years before finally pulling the trigger.
"You're always planting different seeds here and there and you revisit them to see if things change along the way for other teams," Briere said.
That's not to say that Ristolainen would only be traded to a team he checked in on him here at the deadline. Another team could easily get involved. But, there may have been one or two conversations that are worth revising when June rolls around.
Sometimes it's a game of chicken. Sometimes it's a long con. Sometimes it's a hard sales pitch. Sometimes it just comes together easily.
And while this deadline may not have been good enough for the Flyers in some minds, Briere still has a chance to prove he was right to wait on Ristolainen.
He just better hope nothing goes wrong along the way.
