He’s seen some of the bad and now he’s seeing some of the good.
Through it all, Flyers CEO and governor Dan Hilfirty has maintained the same public demeanor. He knows it takes time to build a winner and there’s no point in getting too up or too down during the process.
With more than a quarter of the 2025-26 season in the books, the Flyers have shown this year’s turnaround is for real. Ten comeback wins have pretty much erased any doubts about this team’s character.
Aware there are three accomplished hockey men – all with backgrounds as Flyer players – at the control switches, Hilferty knows the team is in good hands. President Keith Jones, general manager Daniel Briere and head coach Rick Tocchet have been making all the right moves of late.
During a recent interview, Hilferty expressed optimism the Flyers are back on the right track after missing postseason action the past five years.
“I’m on a learning curve around the sport,” Hilfirty acknowledged. “This is the first year I can look you in the eye and honestly say that I am thrilled with the prospects we have in place, the pipeline, and the development of our young players.”
This team rebuild has been going on for some time now and the Flyers find themselves with one of the youngest rosters in the NHL. The average age of the current players is right around 26 years old, which in any given month is somewhere in the league’s top five.
“From (Tyson) Foerster to (Bobby) Brink and you add (Trevor) Zegras into the mix, I’m real excited about the future,” Hilfirty said.
As someone relatively new to the sport from an administrative standpoint, Hilfirty tries his best to leave the hockey operations stuff to the guys who have been around the game a lot longer.
“My role is to make sure that the business side of the entity is working collaboratively with the hockey side and vice versa,” said Hilfirty, speaking on behalf of Comcast-Spectacor ownership. “We’ve accomplished that. We’re really happy with the business side.
“I enjoy being around our hockey people, whether it’s Keith Jones or Danny Briere, ‘Toc’ and his assistants and the players. So I like being around. But I’ve made it very clear – I’m the leader as it relates to the business side, how a franchise presents itself. I want to be a listener, weigh in where appropriate. I enjoy being part of this great environment.”
In addition to their fortunes on the ice, the Flyers are starting to turn things around at the gate as well. Sellouts used to be a staple at what is now Xfinity Mobile Arena. Those days started to disappear as the Flyers fell out of contention. But now the building is beginning to fill up again.
From a business perspective, all this brings a smile to Hilfirty’s face. He credits the on-ice success to having the right people in place for much of the new-found fervor in the Delaware Valley hockey community.
In other words, just stand a proper distance away and let the qualified people do their job. And trust their instincts.
“I come from health care,” Hilfirty said. “So even though I ran a large health insurance company, I never told a surgeon how to operate on somebody.”
Then he added with a chuckle, “So these guys are the surgeons. I’m simply making sure that we’re in a good place all around.”
>Importance of shootout success
The Flyers lead the NHL in shootout wins over the past two seasons with 11 and that includes this year’s sparkling 5-0 mark.
Much of that success has to do with goaltender Sam Ersson, along with partner Dan Vladar.
Additionally, the Flyers have some nasty shooters, including Matvei Michkov, Zegras and Travis Konecny, who potted the winner in Friday’s 4-3 victory over the Islanders.
It’s almost as if the Flyers are circling the wagons in OT, knowing if they get to the shootout there’s a much better chance they’re going to win.
“Especially when you have Trevor Zegras on your team,” Sean Couturier said with a grin. “You almost start like you’re one-up. I like our odds in shootouts.
“But at the same time we don’t always want to be going to that point. Regulation wins are huge on the road. So we have to find a way to close those games out and not give out points to divisional opponents.”
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