The Philadelphia Flyers are at a key point in franchise history.
It wouldn’t be hyperbole to argue that the Flyers are currently at their lowest ebb in their 56 years of existence. They’re poised to miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season and end up with their second straight top-10 pick in the NHL Draft — despite the fact that until recently, the organization was attempting to embark on a clear win-now team-building strategy. It failed.
Advertisement
But over the past few months, the winds of change have swirled around the Flyers. Organizationally, they’ve embraced the idea of a rebuild being necessary to return the team to prominence. General manager Chuck Fletcher was relieved of his duties in early March. And just a few weeks later, Comcast Spectacor chairman Dave Scott — the face of Flyers ownership — announced his retirement, scheduled to take effect in just 10 days.
His successor? Dan Hilferty, a newcomer to the organization, who was hired as Comcast Spectacor CEO in February.
Hilferty may be new to the Flyers. But he’s long been involved in the Philadelphia business scene, serving as CEO of Independence Blue Cross for 10 years and leading the city’s successful bid to serve as a host to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Now, he’s been entrusted with running the Flyers as well.
In an exclusive two-part interview, Hilferty spoke with The Athletic on Thursday regarding a wide range of topics. Part 1 focuses on Hilferty’s local roots, his vision for the newly separated, yet-to-be-filled president of hockey operations position and a glimpse into the hiring plan for both that job and general manager.
To kick things off, Dan, when you were hired, as Comcast Spectacor CEO back in February, you described yourself in the press release as a “tenacious Flyers fan.” You’re obviously local, you grew up in South Jersey. But could you go into more detail about your connection with the Flyers and what the team and organization and franchise means to you personally?
Sure. So other than a couple of years doing service work in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in the inner city of Portland, Oregon, and going to graduate school and working on the Hill for my hometown congressman in D.C., I’ve been a Philly guy. And from the time I can remember, I was a tenacious fan of every sport that had a Philadelphia name in front of it. And that included — as I got a little older — the emergence of the Flyers.
Advertisement
I was in high school — I’ve mentioned this to a few folks in the Flyers organization — I was in high school (during) the first Stanley Cup season, and a freshman in college the second. Did not go to the parade the first year, but a group of us from St. Joe’s were down on Broad Street for the second parade.
So when I say I’m tenacious, it’s not that I played hockey. It’s not that I’m an expert on hockey. It’s that I have been my entire life an avid fan of the Flyers, the Sixers, the Phillies, the Eagles, and now more recently, the Union and frankly, the Wings. So I’m just passionate about all Philly sports.
Now, when you talk about hockey — look, I go back to the days of Ed Snider and his amazing vision, and later partnering with a great company like Comcast and their passion for not only the Wells Fargo Center, but for hockey. That’s kind of bred that in me over the years — Ed Snider’s view and what he did on those early teams and how they built a foundation of greatness. We have every intention of putting the right people in place, and playing our role as the partners on the business side, to create an environment where we can return to excellence and vie for championships every year.
That kind of is a perfect lead into what I wanted to get into — specifically regarding the president of hockey operations position. Before Chuck Fletcher was relieved of his duties, he was both the GM and the president of hockey ops. So there really isn’t a precedent as to what each position would entail if they were separated, which is the plan. That’s still something that needs to be defined. So right now, what do you envision as the specific responsibilities of the president of hockey ops being? How do you plan to define the position?
OK, let me take a step back, and then I’ll be happy to give you my thoughts on that.
So I will never pretend to be a hockey expert. In fact, any question about a player, or anything remotely to do with decisions that will be made by the Flyer leadership? It’s not my role, nor am I qualified to do that. What I will simply do is be a collaborator with those in hockey leadership, and with my colleague, Valerie Camillo, who will play a very close role with the president (of hockey operations), in ensuring that the work that we do on the business side is fully aligned with the work that’s doing by the hockey experts who will make the hockey decisions. I want to give that distinction.
Advertisement
One of the things that I’ve tried to do throughout my career as a CEO, is to analyze what the needs are, and what the skill sets and what the gifts and the talents are of those that I’ve been able to put into leadership positions. As I’ve assessed what we needed with the Flyers, certainly let’s just start with what we have.
We have a coach who in his own right is a legend, a proven winner in coach (John) Tortorella, who is passionate about this next era of being very deliberate, about focusing on the right draft picks, focused on player development. He’s a teacher, and he’s an articulate — and quite frankly, an honest and upfront — teacher and developer of personnel. So we have that.
We have an interim GM, who is proving every day that his ability to lead a group of people, to have a vision in collaboration with the coach, to really use a combination of the eye test and analytics on all those fronts in terms of scouting, making decisions around the draft, player development, trades. So I’m really impressed with what we have in place in the post-Fletcher era, in Danny Briere, still in an interim role, and in coach Tortorella, who’s very committed to the next phase of this what I’ll call “new era” of the Flyers.
So in looking at what else we need — I believe we need a person in the president’s role that really fulfills a number of responsibilities. But at the top level, it’s being the third piece of that collaborative puzzle that really connects with the dedicated hockey folks in Danny and John Tortorella, back to not only the business community for the business side of us meaning the Comcast Spectacor team — and Valerie Camillo will be that partner with the new president — then the second piece is to tell the narrative to the public, because the individual will be a trusted hockey person, who knows Philadelphia, but more importantly, is comfortable in the entire NHL. He knows the various teams, the various cities, and also plays a role with me and with Valerie, in positioning us effectively with the entire NHL, from a board of governors perspective — both this person and Valerie will serve in alternate Governor roles, (and) I will be the governor. But the president will be more active than the other two pieces of that “triumvirate of leadership” — the three leaders — (in terms of being) involved with the business of hockey and NHL.
So just to give you a sense, he’ll oversee the direction of our hockey operations department. He’ll speak on behalf of the organization, and manage all of our hockey operations employees. Now, I want to be very clear: that will be shared with the general manager, because we’re thrilled that we have an interim — at this point— general manager who is very good with the press, is very comfortable representing (the organization). Remember I started this by saying that I’ve always been good about building complementary pieces, (in) that they complement each other in knowing when it’s their time to speak on particular topics related to running of the club or players or whatever it might be.
The person will represent the organization throughout the hockey world and will work directly with Valerie and me as a bridge to ownership and the business side, and, of course, oversee the efforts of both the general manager and coach Tortorella.
We’re looking for somebody who can provide both internal support and direction, and be a voice — and I would go as far to say, we really want to make sure we connect in this new era in a stronger way with our sponsors, our season ticket holders, and fan base in general. This journey we’re about to go on, we want people to get excited about it, because they’re getting believable, honest assessments of where we are. The President will play a key role in delivering that narrative to the public.
Advertisement
Gotcha.
Can I switch to the general manager?
Yes, absolutely.
So I talked about the skill set that we believe that Danny in his interim role plays. We’re looking for that general manager who understands this game — today’s game. You think of it — you’ve got that seasoned legend veteran coach in Torts, and you’ve got a younger but also a seasoned, very accomplished player — who has in terms of getting business acumen and studying soup-to-nuts the NHL — (who) will be the key player in supporting coach Tortorella in identifying and developing talent, and building a roster in a well-articulated, well-thought-out, maybe not so hasty way.
And by the way. Look, John Tortorella might not like this, but we’re of the same vintage. And it’s taken me a while to get to that data-driven, analytical approach to hockey. I think that John would admit that (for him), it’s the eye test that matters. So when you think of the combination of that incredible view of talent and developing talent from a traditional way (in Tortorella), with someone who not only understands data and embraces data, not only understands analytics (but) embraces analytics, but as a former player, having served in different roles prior to becoming the interim GM, has practiced the trade. You put the two of them together, it’s consistent with what I’ve said to you that they’re complementary personalities, complementary skill sets.
I think it is awesome that John made the decision to sit up in the GM box for a couple of games with Danny, where they share thoughts, share vision — now I wasn’t there, this is just my perception of it — and really developed their view of how we systematically and very energetically go about this rebuild. I see the president as being the third wheel — in a very positive way — of that group of decision-makers.
So the follow-up to that, in terms of both the president of hockey operations and general manager. Obviously, you guys are in the midst of a hiring process. You have a long history in business, but in terms of knowledge of hockey candidates, you’re not exactly well-acquainted. So who would you say that you’re leaning on right now to help you find candidates and ultimately choose the right one for both spots?
Well, I think that’s a very fair question. So we did an interview process to select a firm to help us with the search. Ultimately, we took the best of both worlds, in our opinion. And I’m gonna lay that out for you. In our opinion, the firm that stood out is a firm by the name of Modern (Executive Solutions). The local name in that is Billy King, who we all know from basketball circles.
Modern impressed us with the group of professionals that they’re bringing to bear, to support what I said to you. They are helping us differentiate between the different roles and responsibilities, and listening to me and my partner in this, Valerie Camillo, in understanding the skillsets and the personalities that we need in each, so that they complement each other and complement the rest of the organization in our efforts. So Modern brings that to the table. They’re also helping us find the right people to build the right structure.
We discussed or had a conversation with an individual as part of the search with Neil Glasberg. Neil, as you know, was the individual who brought us coach Tortorella. He has significant experience and relationships throughout the hockey world. So Neil has agreed to come on to be a part of our selection process, and to collaborate with the Modern folks to identify potential candidates for the position who fit within the framework of responsibilities and collaborative approaches between each of the positions with Modern and with us as a leadership team. So we have that hockey expertise — what I would call external objective hockey expertise to help with the selection.
Advertisement
How involved in this hiring process will the senior advisers be — so Bob Clarke, Paul Holmgren, Bill Barber — how involved will they be in this process? And do you envision them playing a big role in driving the philosophical direction of the franchise moving forward? Specifically, I’m talking about team building.
OK, so let me say this to you. I’m so thrilled you asked that question.
Remember you asked me about how I became a tenacious Flyers fan? And I talked about the foundation that Ed Snider built. The three folks that were referred to as the “Three Wise Men,” and then others who are involved with us in one way, shape, or form. One — the fact that they are still part of the organization speaks to the vision of Ed Snider to build a family. And it speaks to the vision of Brian Roberts and Comcast, understanding that the past is prologue, and in order to build a bright future, you need to understand your foundational roots. To me, growing up where I grew up, these individuals are the foundational titans — and I use that word, I’m gonna be emphatic about it — the foundational titans of this organization. They will be part of the organization as long as I’m here, and they will be valued resources when asked to be valued resources.
All decisions related to hockey — including this hire — will be made by the folks that I mentioned to you. All decisions going forward related to hockey will be made by those three individuals: the new president, the new GM, and the coach. The rest of us — certainly me and Valerie for business perspective, will weigh in as needed. And when asked, those folks who are the foundational titans of this great franchise will be ready and willing to give their advice if asked, when asked, and only if and when asked.
Part 2 of this interview will run Saturday.
(Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Flyers)