There were times in the 1980s when no one in the National Hockey League wanted to get on the wrong side of one Mr. Dave Brown.
If a purported tough guy decided to drop the gloves alongside bad, bad Davey Brown and exchange punches with this bully, he might wind up lying somewhere near Broad Street.
So who would have thought that when his playing days were over with the Flyers, Edmonton and San Jose, Brown would smoothly transition into a talent evaluator/developer for his first team?
Thirty years later, he’s still at it.
He travels from rink to rink, checking out prospective free agents or possible trade targets. And don’t think for a minute he isn’t keeping a close eye on his own organization to see how things are progressing.
At the moment, things appear to be on the upswing for the franchise which selected him in the 1982 NHL Draft (seventh round, 140th overall). With a few weeks to go in the season, Philadelphia still has a shot at ending a five-year playoff drought.
“I think we’ve made strides,” he said during a recent interview at the Xfinity Mobile Center. “The team is better now than it was last year.”
How so?
“We do have some pieces that are coming,” Brown said. “We’re going to have to be patient still. But I think you can see that our team has improved.”
Brown likes the way general manager Daniel Briere has taken a patient approach to this rebuild. There’s been little in the way of taking shortcuts, throwing big money at flashy talent through free agency or the like.
“I don’t think there’s any other way to do it,” Brown said. “We’re hoping that when our team gets to where it wants to be, it can compete for 10 years and be a good team.
“It takes time to do that. Usually when you build a team it takes longer than you want it to take. Everybody wants to have it now. But that isn’t realistic. I think we’ve improved every year since Danny came in. Nobody’s patient, we’re not patient. We want to get better too.”
When Brown broke into the NHL in the 1982-83 season, the Flyers were on the cusp of one of their most successful runs in team history.
By 1984-85, they had become a powerhouse. Hall of Famer Bob Clarke had just retired and taken over as general manager. His first coaching hire was none other than future great Mike Keenan.
They made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals that very first season before they ran into the Edmonton Oiler buzzsaw. Brown and his mates would lose to the Oilers twice in three seasons. Then, in a classic case of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Brown wound up on the Oilers and won the Cup in 1990.
By then he had developed a keen eye for what works and what doesn’t from a talent perspective. Yes, he could fight with the best but did you know he scored four – yes, four – game-winning goals in the 1987-88 season and finished with a dozen GWGs for his career?
All that experience makes him qualified to tell you what constitutes a winner – both player and team.
Brown is now 63 and, at 6-foot-5, 222, looks like he could still take on a tough guy or two. What keeps him going?
“I still enjoy being part of it,” he says. “I still would love to see us get the Stanley Cup. That’s what still drives me. If we could win the Stanley Cup, I might think about quitting then. But I’m not there yet.”
In other words, he’s still chasing the dream, just like the players, the fans, you name it.
He was in the Edmonton locker room in 1990 when the Cup was secured, the champagne corks popped and there were smiles that can’t be duplicated all around.
“I would love to see us win the Stanley Cup,” he reiterates. “I was here when we were close in the past (seven games vs. Edmonton in 1987).
“That’s really what I want to do.”
If a purported tough guy decided to drop the gloves alongside bad, bad Davey Brown and exchange punches with this bully, he might wind up lying somewhere near Broad Street.
So who would have thought that when his playing days were over with the Flyers, Edmonton and San Jose, Brown would smoothly transition into a talent evaluator/developer for his first team?
Thirty years later, he’s still at it.
He travels from rink to rink, checking out prospective free agents or possible trade targets. And don’t think for a minute he isn’t keeping a close eye on his own organization to see how things are progressing.
At the moment, things appear to be on the upswing for the franchise which selected him in the 1982 NHL Draft (seventh round, 140th overall). With a few weeks to go in the season, Philadelphia still has a shot at ending a five-year playoff drought.
“I think we’ve made strides,” he said during a recent interview at the Xfinity Mobile Center. “The team is better now than it was last year.”
How so?
“We do have some pieces that are coming,” Brown said. “We’re going to have to be patient still. But I think you can see that our team has improved.”
Brown likes the way general manager Daniel Briere has taken a patient approach to this rebuild. There’s been little in the way of taking shortcuts, throwing big money at flashy talent through free agency or the like.
“I don’t think there’s any other way to do it,” Brown said. “We’re hoping that when our team gets to where it wants to be, it can compete for 10 years and be a good team.
“It takes time to do that. Usually when you build a team it takes longer than you want it to take. Everybody wants to have it now. But that isn’t realistic. I think we’ve improved every year since Danny came in. Nobody’s patient, we’re not patient. We want to get better too.”
When Brown broke into the NHL in the 1982-83 season, the Flyers were on the cusp of one of their most successful runs in team history.
By 1984-85, they had become a powerhouse. Hall of Famer Bob Clarke had just retired and taken over as general manager. His first coaching hire was none other than future great Mike Keenan.
They made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals that very first season before they ran into the Edmonton Oiler buzzsaw. Brown and his mates would lose to the Oilers twice in three seasons. Then, in a classic case of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” Brown wound up on the Oilers and won the Cup in 1990.
By then he had developed a keen eye for what works and what doesn’t from a talent perspective. Yes, he could fight with the best but did you know he scored four – yes, four – game-winning goals in the 1987-88 season and finished with a dozen GWGs for his career?
All that experience makes him qualified to tell you what constitutes a winner – both player and team.
Brown is now 63 and, at 6-foot-5, 222, looks like he could still take on a tough guy or two. What keeps him going?
“I still enjoy being part of it,” he says. “I still would love to see us get the Stanley Cup. That’s what still drives me. If we could win the Stanley Cup, I might think about quitting then. But I’m not there yet.”
In other words, he’s still chasing the dream, just like the players, the fans, you name it.
He was in the Edmonton locker room in 1990 when the Cup was secured, the champagne corks popped and there were smiles that can’t be duplicated all around.
“I would love to see us win the Stanley Cup,” he reiterates. “I was here when we were close in the past (seven games vs. Edmonton in 1987).
“That’s really what I want to do.”
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