Briere played six of his 17 NHL seasons with the Flyers and has worked in Philadelphia's front office since retiring in 2015. He previously was president of Maine of the ECHL, which is owned by Comcast-Spectacor, the same company that owns the Flyers.
"I'm excited for this new opportunity to join the Flyers hockey operations department," Briere said. "Philadelphia is a place that I've called home for a long time and have had some of the most memorable moments in my career. I want to thank (general manager) Chuck Fletcher and (chairman) Dave Scott for their confidence and support over the last several years, and I look forward to helping them continue to build a successful team on and off the ice."
Briere, 44, shifted his focus more to hockey operations this season. He has been involved in meetings with scouts and watching games from the GM suite with Fletcher and assistant GM Brent Flahr, and also has worked on the ice with prospects from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League.
"I think it's going to be a little bit of scouting, evaluating, maybe some player development," Briere said of his new role. "I know the organization pretty deeply from all my time and years around the team here. But it's probably over the years, or over the next few weeks, it's gonna increase. I'm not sure yet at this point how deep it's going to go but I was told to expect to be more and more involved as as time goes on."
Briere said he expects to do some scouting ahead of the 2022 NHL Draft.
"That's the plan," he said. "For us, with the situation we're in, unfortunately with the way the season has gone, the focus coming up will be what we decide to do at the trade deadline (on March 21). So that'll be the first focus coming up shortly, then re-shift maybe a little bit more towards the amateur draft coming. The position we're in, it's unfortunate right now, but it might be an opportunity that we have to take advantage of. We got to be prepared for that. That'll be probably the next step after the trade deadline."
Fletcher said Jan. 26 that he was hoping to solidify a position for Briere, who had interviewed for the GM job with the Montreal Canadiens prior to them hiring Kent Hughes on Jan. 18.
"He's a guy to me that obviously knows the game, played the game, great personality, very good evaluator of players and I think there's a lot he can add to our group," Fletcher said. "He's been involved in a lot of the decisions and pretty much sat in on every big meeting we've had the last two years. So I've enjoyed working with him and hopefully it's something that can transition to even a bigger role with this going forward."
Flyers coach Mike Yeo also said Briere has been a strong presence during meetings with the coaching staff.
"Danny's been nothing but an unbelievable pro and person any time that I've been around him," Yeo said Jan. 31. "I've got a ton of respect for him. He's worn many hats obviously but he's got great information, he comes down to the coaches room, he's a guy that listens, he's guy that wants to know kind of what's going on. But at the same time he's very insightful with some of the things he shares. He's been nothing but amazing any time that I've had to deal with him."
Selected by the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round (No. 24) of the 1996 NHL Draft, Briere scored 696 points (307 goals, 389 assists) in 973 regular-season games with the Coyotes, Buffalo Sabres, Flyers, Canadiens and Colorado Avalanche and 116 points (53 goals, 63 assists) in 124 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
