Catching Up With: Danny Brière
Catching Up With: Danny Brière
Former Coyote discusses AZ years, career prime, life as a hockey executive and father
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Danny Brière will probably always be remembered as the one that got away.
Teemu Selänne and Blake Wheeler never played a game in a Coyotes jersey, Kyle Turris wore out his welcome before he was shipped to Ottawa, and Conor Garland hasn’t yet had the chance to fill Arizona hearts with regret, but Brière was just as beloved while he was here as he became after the Coyotes traded him just before new rules in 2005 opened up the game for skilled players.
Maybe it’s that innocent smile. Maybe it’s the lasting friendship that he forged with Shane Doan. Maybe it’s our penchant for rooting for the little guy. Or maybe it’s the spectacular career that Brière carved out for himself once he moved on to Buffalo and Philadelphia, building a reputation as a clutch playoff performer over his 18-year NHL career.
I caught up with Brière last week to discuss his Coyotes years, the prime of his NHL career, his current life as a father of three 20-something boys, and his new career as an executive with the ECHL’s Maine Mariners.
Where are you right now?
Fort Lauderdale. I'm just here with the kids for a few days. I have two of the three boys here with me. We love coming here and I have a condo here, so we'll come during the summertime because it's the only time we can really use it with school and hockey. We’ll try to come down a few times this summer, but I can't take vacations all the time. I still have to do some work here and there.
Sorry to bug you during a vacation.
It's all good. I think I have more meetings it seems when I'm on vacation than when I'm home in the office.
Can you retrace your steps for me since retiring in 2015?
Well, when I retired, I moved back to Philly. My wife is from there, and for the kids, it's their home. They grew up there for their teenage years and went to school there. So it was really tough to leave that area. And now I have lots of friends from spending so many years there.
How did you join the Flyers front office after retiring?
(Flyers president) Paul Holmgren approached me for a meeting and he asked me if I'd be willing to — or interested, I guess — in learning about his job and what he was doing as president of the team. I had a great relationship with Paul. He was the GM during my years in Philadelphia. He's a good friend and the other thing too, is Ron Hextall was the GM on the hockey side and sounded like he didn't really need help or new staff on the hockey side, so I spent more time on the business side, kind of learning the ins and outs of different departments like finance and marketing and sales and corporate sponsorships and social media.
They gave me the chance to touch all these other departments: in-game presentation and stuff like that. When you're a player, you don't realize all the people it takes to make this machine work. You just assume they put a few ushers in the stands, someone plays the music, and you're the show, but I realized that there's a lot more to it than that and we're just a small fraction of the show, actually. So it was really a big eye opener for me to learn the business side.
How did that lead to your current job as president/governor of the Maine Mariners?
I worked for the Flyers for about two years where they gave me the chance to do as much or as little as I wanted. And then the company bought the Mariners, an ECHL franchise, and they asked me if I was interested in running it and putting in place what I had learned the last couple years. That was in 2017. So Comcast Spectacor bought the Mariners. They also own the Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center and the lacrosse team, the Wings, as well.
The cool thing with the Mariners is I'm able to do both the business side and the hockey side, so I can build my staff, build my team, both on and off the ice. Hockey is what I know. I've done hockey my whole life. Even as a player, I was someone that studied a lot. You know, my opponent, systems, trends, stuff like that. So I always wanted to stay on top of all these things.
Where I needed help at first was getting to know the players that are borderline ECHL players; players that might go up to the American league or the SPHL (Southern Professional Hockey League) below. It's about getting to know all those players that were available that you can sign; that you needed for your team. So that was probably my biggest challenge. I was very fortunate. I hired Riley Armstrong as a head coach. He was an assistant coach for a few years in Wheeling and he knew the league and the players really well. So he and I started building our team that way. Riley was just hired officially by Lehigh Valley in the American league a couple of days ago.
We're affiliated with the Bruins, but owned by Comcast Spectacor. It's a little complicated. But yeah, we're owned by the Flyers and affiliated with the Bruins. And the reason is the Flyers’ AHL team is in Allentown — Lehigh Valley — which is an hour north of Philadelphia, and in Reading they have a team in the ECHL, which is 45 minutes west of Allentown. So the proximity just makes it a lot easier whenever our development guys are coming to work and work with some of the players to travel between the two teams. That makes it easier if you need a player really quick. That's the reason why they wanted to keep it that way. And it makes sense.
For us, the affiliation with the Bruins makes a lot of sense for many different reasons. The major one is that in Maine, most people are Bruins fans, and I think it makes us a little bit more legitimate in the community. We worked with the Rangers for the last three years. Now we're working with the Bruins and the response from our fans now that we're moving to the Bruins has been amazing. So it's actually really exciting.
With the decision by many of the NHL’s western-based teams to move their AHL affiliates closer to them, I have wondered if there might be a push to do the same with the ECHL.
There's not a lot of ECHL teams in the West, but slowly, I think the NHL teams are starting to use their ECHL teams more and more. I think you see it probably more from the Eastern Conference teams. The Rangers used us a lot. Pittsburgh has a really good relationship with Wheeling, Toronto with the Marlies and the ECHL team in Newfoundland. They're far from each other, but they provide them with a lot of players. It sounds like Montréal is moving in that direction with Laval, a new team in the ECHL. Buffalo always had a good relationship with Cincinnati. So more teams are starting to use the ECHL to develop some of their players that have certain talents, but need to work on some things and need to play a lot.
You see a lot of goaltender prospects in the league because there's so few spots for goaltending. And you see a lot of coaches come up from the ECHL. I think part of the reason is, you have to do everything as a coach in the ECHL. Here, you're the travel guy, you have to book hotels and buses and planes and meals for the players. You act as their service rep. You're also the psychologist for the team and you're the athletic trainer for the team on top of having to coach the team. So you have to wear many hats, and I think it makes for better coaches and better persons when you coach in the ECHL.
Do you also have to wear many hats in your current role?
I do because everybody has to chip in in different areas but you know, it's opened my mind up to different things and to try different things. There's some crazy marketing things that we have tried where at first I was like, ‘No, we can't do that.’ And then you think about it like, ‘You know what? Let's try it and see how it works.’
For example, when we wanted to name the team we had a vote. We had a survey from the fans and my VP of business operations approached me about using the name, the Wild Blueberries, in the survey. At first, I was like, ‘Absolutely not. There's not a chance we will ever be called the Wild Blueberries.’ He kind of kept coming at me with it and then I started thinking and opening my mind to it and we put it in the survey, and you know what? The Wild Blueberries came in second place, and it was a big story. ESPN and CNN used it for a little bit. There's no pro sports team named after a fruit, but the attention it gave us was amazing. It's little things like that, that, you know, early on, I would close my mind to. And then I realized, just be open minded to different ideas and pitches that sometimes people bring to you.
Five years ago, when Seattle was naming its team, I probably said, ‘What is a Kraken? Like, how much of a dumb idea is that?’ Now I think it’s awesome. It's the best name. I really think they hit a home run with that name.
What is the ultimate goal: Do you want to work in NHL management?
Well, it is part of my life. In the last couple of years, I started to be involved a little bit more with the Flyers. (GM) Chuck Fletcher has been awesome and given me the chance to get involved to see how things work with the amateur draft, with the pro scouting stuff, with player development. We all know one of the reasons why we do hockey is to move up to the NHL. So yeah, eventually, I'm sure the door will open. I'm slowly getting there and I'm having so much fun.
But I’m in no rush. I remember as a player, I was always worried about the next day. You come into the rink, especially my days in Phoenix where I didn't know if I was going to be on the power play or not; if I was going to be on the second line or the fourth line, or or even scratched, for that matter in a lot of instances. So, every day, I'd come into the rink and I was always worried about the future. ‘What's gonna happen tomorrow? What's gonna happen next year when my contract is up? Where am I going to be in two, three, four or five years from now?’ Now I try to live in the moment. Yes, I hope one day to get to the NHL, but there's no time frame. There's no rush to it. I'm loving what I'm doing now. I have a foot in the door with Flyers and the relationship here with Comcast Spectacor where I'm learning a lot about it. I'm really having a lot of fun being able to do the stuff that I do with the Mariners.
Are you living in Portland, Maine?
No. I live in Philadelphia. All of our financing is in Philadelphia and the rest of the front office is up in Portland. I usually go up there during the hockey season, probably every other weekend. If the team is flying in an area where I can get to, I'll meet them on the road as well. But most of my work is done from Philadelphia. But Portland is awesome. I've been really impressed with the place. I really enjoy going up there. It's kind of one of those little perks that I get to travel to Portland for a few days a month.
When you reflect on your NHL career, what are your major takeaways?
I think first is that I was able to survive for as long as I did, probably. Being a smaller guy, everybody doubted me. When I started from midget, to juniors to the American League, I don't think too many people would have put any bet on me playing 18 years of professional hockey so that's probably one of the things that I'm most proud of.
What were your expectations when the Coyotes drafted you as part of their inaugural draft class in Arizona in 1996?
When you're 18 and you get drafted, you think in a year or two, you'll be up with the team and you'll be with that team for the next 20 years. That was probably my expectation at 18 years old. But reality quickly set in and you realize that I wasn't ready to step in a year later. I needed a few extra years.
I'm really grateful to the Coyotes for giving me the chance to grow in their organization and to play in the NHL. That's where I started so I'm extremely proud of it and the Coyotes have a special place in my heart because of that.
How different was the league that you came up in from the one we saw after the 2004-05 lockout when the new rules freed things up for smaller players?
Well, on the physical side, the game was slower. There were more hits, maybe. It was a little bit more physical, but the hits were not as devastating because the game was slower. The toughest part I found was fighting through the stick checks. You had defensemen that would just hold on and put their stick right in your stomach and you couldn’t go anywhere. For example, if I beat a defenseman out of the corner and I was able to get a step on him to attack the net, well, I’d have to carry him on my back to the front of the net, where when the rules changed, physically, it was easy. If you had a step on the defenseman, he could not hold you down anymore. And that's where it opened up and you were able to move a little bit more freely. To me, that was probably the biggest difference.
Before the Coyotes traded you to Buffalo in 2003, did you feel like your game was blossoming?
Yes. I still had confidence that things were coming, you know, and the year before the trade, I had a great year (32 goals, 60 points). And then the next year, coming into the season, for some reason, things started going south and I wasn't able to recover. I wasn't able to get afloat and get back to where I was the year before. I think it cost me the trade.
Can you pinpoint what happened; why maybe it went off track a little bit?
Not exactly. I think I lost my confidence. I was coming back that second year and expectations were higher, but I was still fairly young and trying to deal with all the expectations and the ups and downs. Mentally, maybe I wasn't quite up to where I should have been. At the time, I think (GM) Mike Barnett felt that I wasn't able to get out of that hole and he traded me to Buffalo.
I was devastated. It was the first time ever that I was traded in my career. It was tough to take because it's a moment of rejection. But I remember arriving in Buffalo and (coach) Lindy Ruff grabbing me and saying, ‘Just play. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. We don't care. We believe in you. We know you're a good player, so just go on the ice and have fun.’ Somehow, it took a huge load off my shoulders.
The difference was, the Sabres were not making the playoffs that year where the Coyotes were fighting for a playoff spot at the end of that year so they needed to win; they needed guys to perform at that moment. I wasn't delivering. So like I said, it cost me the trade to Buffalo.
We have talked about this a lot, but do you remember how you found out that you had been traded and do you remember our interview outside the bus in Denver?
Yeah, I found out right after the game that we played in Colorado. We went to overtime and I remember I didn't play a lot during the game. I probably had about 10 minutes of ice time; maybe one or two shifts in the third period. And I wonder sometimes if you know the trade was done before the third period and they didn’t want to tell me during the game and they just said, ‘Don't play him too much so he doesn't get hurt.’ I don't know if that was the case, but I remember not playing much and then we got to overtime, and I was probably on the ice for two and a half minutes out of the five minutes of overtime. I was completely exhausted. I was gasping for air when we got back into the room.
Rick Bowness came over and said, ‘Coach wants to talk to you in his office.’ I assumed as a player that he wanted to show me something and talk about it so I didn't even have time to take my jersey off. I had my Coyotes jersey on and I walked into (coach) Bobby Francis' office and he said, ‘Danny, we just made a trade.’ I remember asking him ‘Where?’ And he said, ‘Buffalo.’ I remember my mind going in 10,000 different directions. You're wondering about where you're going to go when you get there? How are you going to get your family there? Or how's it going to be with new coaches, new teammates, new linemates? There's so many things. It's not that I looked back, it was just a blur. I don't remember much. I remember being in shock. But everything was a blur there for probably two or three days.
It was a weird situation. The Coyotes were very classy. They flew me back to Phoenix after the game. And Lindy Ruff gave me a call and said they would have a flight for me out of Phoenix the next morning at 7 a.m. So I think I got home at something like 2 a.m. and at 5 a.m. I had to get up and get back on a plane. So I packed everything you know, woke up the kids to see them for a couple minutes in the middle of the night, and left for Buffalo.
Why do you think your career took off in Buffalo, and then Philadelphia?
I was more prepared. I was more ready at that time. I think I was 24 or 25 years old. Physically, I was finally there. I had a good season the year before arriving in Buffalo and there was absolutely no pressure. Like I said earlier, Lindy Ruff just let me play and said not to worry about making mistakes. Slowly, the confidence came back and then from that point on, I never looked back after that.
After your first full season in Buffalo, the lockout hit and you ended up playing in Switzerland. Describe that experience and how it impacted your game?
Well, first of all, when I came back from Switzerland, the rule changes gave me a chance to free up and have more space on the ice, but the year in Switzerland was amazing. It was a great experience. I moved the family there. The kids went to school there for four months, five months. It was an amazing, tremendous experience to have the chance to go and live there and experience something different. And when we came back, it was the new NHL rules. It really gave me the chance to take another step as a player.
Did playing on the bigger ice surface help you?
I think it was the opposite. The big ice surface, I felt, didn't really help me. Yeah, there's more space, but I wasn't a super fast player. I was quick in tight. I could get a step on a defenseman in tight, but I didn't really have breakaway speed so on the big ice surface, I felt myself always being on the outside. When you beat a defenseman out of the corner there's an extra 10 feet 15 feet to get to the net. I felt way more comfortable on the smaller ice. If I was able to quickly beat the defenseman, I knew I didn't really have very far to go to take it to the net. I felt that was more my game.
What clicked in that monster 2006-07 season when you had 32 goals and 95 points?
Chemistry with my linemates was a big thing. Jochen Hecht was probably one of the most underrated players I played with in the course of my career. I think we helped each other out. Jochen was a big, strong winger that was very defensive minded, but had some offense to his game. He loved playing down low in the defensive zone so whenever we got back to the defensive zone, he didn't like taking faceoffs so I would take the faceoff, but he liked playing down low and helping out defensemen so it worked perfectly. I like taking faceoffs, but I didn't like to play low in my own zone.
I think that year we had Jason Pominville. The year before, J.P. Dumont was my winger on the right side and we had great chemistry and then he ended up being let go; he didn't re-sign with the Sabres and Jason Pominville stepped into his spot. The connection with him was great and things were clicking. The confidence was growing every every game and I felt in control of everything.
You got to the conference final twice with Buffalo, but in 2010 with Philadelphia, you got a taste of the Cup Final against Chicago. What do you remember about that experience when you had 30 points in 23 games to lead the postseason in points?
That was probably my best two-month timeframe in my career. That's where I probably hit the peak of my career. I was in a zone. I felt I could have done anything. I felt like I was the best player on the ice and that's a pretty good thing to think when you're lining up against guys like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.
I'm not saying I'm better than them, but at that moment, in my mind, that's how it felt and that was an amazing feeling to say, ‘You know, what? Over their career, they might be better than me, but right now, in this moment, I know I'm better than them and I'm gonna find a way’ and that was the mindset that I had in that playoff series.
We gave them everything we had. We got close and we pushed them. I think there's not a lot of people that gave us much of a chance going into the series, but we proved to everybody that we belonged, and it was a really good Stanley Cup Final that year.
Your 0.935 points per playoff game rank 57th in NHL history. If it hadn’t been for your final postseason at age 37, you would have averaged a point per game in the playoffs. Why do you think you were able to produce so consistently in the postseason?
I wish I had a clear answer but I don't know exactly why it worked that way. I've been trying to figure it out myself. One of the things is, I was always someone that liked to study my opponents a lot. And when you think about it in a regular season, you're playing a different opponent every single night and then you get to the playoffs where you're playing the same guys, you're taking a faceoff against the same guys because they're matching lines, you're seeing the same two defenseman over and over for four to seven games, and the same goalie. Like I said, I was someone that would study my opponent a lot. I would always try to pick up on things that I could take advantage of. Which side a defenseman might have a hard time turning. If I change my stance on the faceoff, this centerman cannot block me or cannot get on top of me. The goalie, when you come on this angle, seems to have difficulty tracking. So those were all things that I was constantly watching and I felt that I could take advantage of them when you're playing over and over and over against the same guys. I felt that became an advantage for me.
There's got to be more to it, but I'm thinking that had to be part of the reason or a small reason why I felt more comfortable and confident in the playoffs. Obviously, confidence is a huge factor. So when it happens one year, you go back into it the second year and you’re like ‘Okay, I know I can do this. I know what it takes this time of the year. I'm not afraid of the playoffs.’ And then it happens again and then the third year, you’re like ‘Here we go. I know I can produce in the playoffs.’ And then in the fourth year, you're just like, ‘This is my time, I just know what's gonna happen.’ So the mind, I think the mind is so strong and it would just work in my favor after you get that memory in your brain. It's like you see it all the time, guys that you know early on and are able to score a playoff overtime goal or hit a clinching home run in a World Series. Whenever that memory is ingrained in their brain, they seem to be able to do it over and over and over again. So I think it helped when it started happening again and again. My confidence just grew and I felt confident that it was going to happen again.
How did you know it was time to retire and was it hard to say goodbye?
Yeah, it was. It was hard to leave because, you know, that's what I had done my whole life. And you start thinking, ‘What am I going to do next?’ It was tough to leave the game, but I knew it was time for a few reasons. During the last season, I was brought in to Colorado more as a mentor to try to help out the younger guys while being scratched here and there. It brought me back to my early days in Phoenix when I was in and out of the lineup. The difference was, I wasn't 21 anymore. I was 37, so it takes a lot more work to stay on top of your game when you're not playing a lot and to stay in shape to keep up with all the young guys. So I knew. I could see the end coming and it made it easier because it was on my own terms. I made the decision. I didn't feel I was pushed out. It was just time to move on. I also spent the last two years of my career playing one year in Montreal and one year in Colorado, where I left the kids behind. I felt it was time to come back home and spend more time with them for their last few years of high school.
What was that transition like, going back to being a full-time father?
They were laughing because one of the things that I've been doing the last few years is I went back to school. I was doing an executive management program at Wharton in Philadelphia. So the boys were all in college and thought it was pretty funny that we were all in school together at the same time. They were laughing at me.
What are your boys up to?
The oldest, Caelan, wanted to have the big-school experience so he went to Alabama and he’s definitely getting it there. He’s playing on the hockey team (ACHA Division I).
Carson, the middle one, plays hockey, Division I at Mercyhurst in Erie, Pennsylvania. Last year was his freshman year and he had a really good year there; led the team in scoring. It's pretty exciting to see his improvement as a player.
And Cameron, the baby, is my video coach. He goes to school up in Maine at Southern Maine University in Portland and he's also been acting as our video coach/assistant coach with the Mariners. A couple years ago when he was 18, he was probably the youngest coach in pro hockey. He enjoys coaching more than playing so we'll see where it takes him. But they're all doing great.
When they all hit their 20s, was it a hard realization that you were a middle-aged man?
I definitely realized it (laughs), but it’s fun. I enjoy them. We can do different things now. We can go golfing. They can drive the old guy around so the activities are a little different but I’m very proud of them.
How often do you talk to your friend and former teammate, Shane Doan?
We talk maybe every couple of months. Shane is one of the persons I respect the most in hockey. He’s one of the best persons you’ll ever meet in the sport of hockey. I think the Coyotes bringing him aboard was one of the best decisions they could have ever made.
Usually, we just catch up on what’s going on with our families. We’ll brush up a little bit on hockey and what certain teams and players are doing, but mostly it’s to check up on how each other is doing.
I couldn't believe it when he asked me to speak at his retirement ceremony. That was a pretty cool feeling to be asked by one of my favorite teammates of all-time. To be there for him, but also to speak was a very special day for him and for me as well.
What are your lasting memories of your time in Arizona?
I remember flying into Phoenix, wondering where on earth I was. I had never seen anything like the desert before, but this is where it started for me in the NHL. It’s the team that gave me my first chance. The Coyotes are special to me. I'll never forget playing my first game and scoring my first goal in the NHL. The fans were very, very kind to me. I always felt like I had their support so it’s a special place for me that I love and respect. When I think about Phoenix, I’d say it’s my first love, really.
Who doesn't love Danny?
Great article! Such a gentleman, yes, I'm still pissed they traded him..ugh! Happy he is doing well and he will always be a Coyote in my heart