Are the Flyers playing chess or checkers coming off the NHL trade deadline? Time will tell

Speaking on Snow the Goalie: The Press Row Show podcast, Flyers general manager Danny Brière said he slept like a baby Friday night.

And why shouldn’t he? The second-year GM made moves before the NHL trade deadline solidifying the rebuild while starting to put the pieces together.

He traded away Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost in late January, and Erik Johnson, Scott Laughton, and Andrei Kuzmenko before the NHL’s deadline Friday afternoon.

It won’t be an overnight fix, but things are slowly starting to move in the right direction. As the team begins to reformulate and build its roster, there will be growing pains along the way. Was Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken, the Flyers’ third straight lethargic loss, a view into the near future as the team starts to shift? Possibly. But the expectation is that lumps and bumps now will be smoothed out down the road.

Here are seven observations after the trade deadline, and the Flyers game on Saturday:

1. While the vibes may be different in the room now, with Laughton and Johnson gone, veterans Sean Couturier, Travis Sanheim, Travis Konecny, and Nick Seeler remain. The first three are now the longest-tenured Flyers, in order, and they know the onus is on them to help lead a team, that, according to Left Wing Lock, is the third youngest in the NHL (26.8 years average).

“We’re key guys, that have to grab more of that leadership role,” Sanheim said after the loss to the Kraken. “[Laughton] was a huge part of that, we’re going to miss him a lot. It’s on us to take control of that. Obviously, there’s going to be lessons to be learned, and we’re going to grow and [we] learned a lot from Laughty. ... We know that we’re a part of this and got to be better ourselves and got to show a great example for the young guys that are coming in here.”

2. Coach John Tortorella has spoken openly about the Flyers trying to figure out who is on the bus. One guy whose seat is not solidified is Cam York. “For me, yes,” Tortorella told reporters on Thursday when asked, adding that York has been “terribly inconsistent” since sustaining a shoulder injury in late October. The defenseman has struggled to rediscover his game after missing 13 games, the longest gap in his pro career. Posting just 13 points in 49 games, after notching 30 in 82 last season, York was a healthy scratch on Saturday. It was the second time he watched a game from the press box this season. A restricted free agent this summer, it will be interesting to see how things progress, but Brière did say on Saturday that he’s “not too worried” and “believes strongly in Cam York.”

3. Could Kuzmenko return? Asked by this reporter on the Snow the Goalie pregame show, Brière said there is a chance they could bring the Russian winger back next season since he will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer. The Flyers were happy with his short tenure in Philly — five points in seven games, two of which were on the power play — but the GM added it would have to be for far less than the $5.5 million he is making this season.

4. Trading Laughton to his hometown of Toronto and Johnson back to Colorado are huge wins for the franchise, especially in the eyes of players who could one day suit up for the Flyers. This is especially true for players who choose to play in Philly like those big-game free agents Brière has alluded to going after in the not-too-distant future. According to Brière, Johnson was only interested in returning to the Avalanche and even offered to continue being a mentor next season.

5. The best part of moving some mainstays out of the lineup is it opens up roster spots. Defenseman Emil Andrae is the one player who should be in the NHL, and, as Brière said on Friday during his post-trade deadline presser, Andrae will be here the rest of the season after being recalled Friday. Olle Lycksell and Rodrigo Ābols were also recalled on Friday and, at least for the weekend, are getting another chance to show what they can do; both are set to be unrestricted free agents this summer.

“Part of the game is seeing guys go and watching guys come in,” forward Owen Tippett said. “At the end of the day, whoever’s in this room must be ready to go and it doesn’t matter if the game is at 12:30 or 7. Obviously, with the trade deadline, it’s all the uncertainty around it, it’s never easy. But that was yesterday, and today, you got to come ready to work.”

6. The current roster will not be the same one penciled in for October. That’s a given. Brière said he did receive calls about other players on the roster — the trade deadline can be a recon day, too — and insiders have mentioned rumblings that Ryan Poehling and Egor Zamula drew interest.

7. Entering Sunday, the Flyers have 18 games left. The likelihood of them, or any NHL team, to win all 18 is low, but they do need to mimic the game plan that stopped the Winnipeg Jets — the No. 1 team in the NHL at the time — just a week ago.

“We just need to focus on ourselves and get our game going, really,” Couturier said on Saturday. “I think once we play our game, we’ll be sharp, aggressive, create turnovers, be hard to play against, I think we’ll find our confidence back, and we’ll get going.”