Flyers GM Danny Briere Opens Up About Ryan Johansen Fiasco

The Ryan Johansen situation just keeps getting stranger. After being waived by the Philadelphia Flyers and sent down to the AHL immediately after being obtained from Colorado at the trade deadline for Sean Walker, Johansen now finds himself back on the Philly roster as a scratch. 

But it's not a "healthy" scratch. And GM Danny Briere is none too pleased about the situation, as he relayed to Philly Hockey Now.

He claimed to be injured when we traded for him, so we had him see the doctors. They found an injury, so now he’s going to be rehabbing. You can’t send down a player who’s injured, so he’s going to be doing rehab until… we don’t know when. 

So, he’s back on our roster doing rehab and trying to get better.

Meanwhile, the other thing you can't do with an injured player is buy him out, which puts the Flyers in a sticky situation as that was their plan all along at season's end. Johansen has one year remaining on his contract at a $4 million cap hit.

But was Briere taken by surprise upon learning that the player was injured at the time of the trade? “Yes, that’s fair to say,” he told Jonathan Bailey of PHN.

The timing of Johansen's hip injury is even more curious when you consider the fact that he had played for the Avalanche just three days before the trade. 

We've already been reminded about Johansen's previous issues with Flyers head coach John Tortorella, and now Briere indicates that he doesn't believe the two have talked at all since Johansen came over in the trade.

The 31-year-old forward was having a disappointing season with just 23 points in 63 games this year with the Avalanche.

Photo: Steve Roberts-USA TODAY Sports