Daniel Brière (born October 6, 1977 in Gatineau,
Quebec, Canada) is a French Canadian professional
ice hockey player with the Philadelphia Flyers of
the National Hockey League.
Brière's number 14 was retired by his hockey team in
Gatineau. In his 3 seasons with Drummondville in the
QMJHL he recorded 170 goals and 246 assists.
Brière was drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes in the
1996 NHL Entry Draft in the first round,
twenty-fourth overall.
In 1998, Brière won the Dudley "Red" Garrett
Memorial Award as the top rookie of the American
Hockey League while playing for the Springfield
Falcons.
Brière's training regimen became newsworthy in 2001
when it became known that, in order to overcome his
diminutive size, he had begun off-season strength
training with Canadian World's Strongest Man
competitor Hugo Girard, who shares Gatineau as a
hometown.
Brière finished his 2005-06 season with 58 points in
48 games, fourth on the team. Brière missed 32 games
of the 2005-06 season due to recovery from an
abdominal injury; he was also suspended for two
games. In the playoffs, he finished first on his
team and tied for fourth in the entire NHL in
playoff scoring with 19 points.
Brière was chosen as the first player of a set of
nearly 69 players who collectively filed for salary
arbitration. His hearing was on July 21, 2006, and
he was given a one-year, $5 million contract. On
August 5, the Sabres accepted this arbitration
award.
Brière scored his first hat trick on December 5th,
2006, against the Tampa Bay Lightning's goaltender
Marc Denis. His second hat trick came shortly after,
on January 30th, 2007, in front of his home crowd at
HSBC Arena.
Brière was selected to his first all-star game, and
started in the 2007 NHL All-Star Game in Dallas,
Texas, where he was awarded the game's Most Valuable
Player Award after recording a game-high five points
(one goal, four assists). Along with winning the MVP
trophy Daniel also received a Dodge Nitro that he
ended up giving to his sister.
On July 1, 2007, the Philadelphia Flyers signed
Briere to an eight-year contract worth $52 million
with a no-movement clause. The deal will pay Briere
$10 million for the 07-08 season, making him the
highest paid player in the league along with Scott
Gomez and former Sabres teammate Thomas Vanek. On
February 25, 2008, Briere scored the game-winning
goal in a shootout against his old team, the Buffalo
Sabres.
