Daniel Jean-Claude Brière (born October 6, 1977) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and current general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers.

He recorded 130 points, finishing in the top three in league scoring for the third consecutive season, and was awarded the Frank J. Selke Memorial Trophy as the most sportsmanlike player.

Graduating from major junior, Brière split his first four seasons in the NHL between the Coyotes and their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Springfield Falcons.

Brière was kept out of the lineup for 32 games due to an abdominal injury suffered in January that required surgery and a two-game suspension following an inadvertent high-stick to Boston Bruins defenceman Brian Leetch.

"[4] Playing on a rejuvenated team that included stars Chris Drury, Thomas Vanek and Brian Campbell, the Sabres advanced to the conference-finals, paced by Brière's team-high 19 points.

In the off-season, Brière filed for salary arbitration, which resulted in a one-year, $5 million contract that the Sabres agreed to on August 5, 2006.

[6] His second came shortly after, on January 30, 2007, in front of a home crowd at HSBC Arena in a 7–1 victory against the Boston Bruins, with two goals against Hannu Toivonen and one against his replacement Tim Thomas.

It was widely speculated that Brière would return to his home province and play for the Montreal Canadiens,[10] but he instead signed with the Philadelphia Flyers, who finished the previous season as the worst team in the NHL, to an eight-year, $52 million contract with a no-trade clause.

[10] The Flyers front-loaded the deal, paying Brière $10 million in the first season of the contract, making him the highest paid player of the league in 2007–08, along with Scott Gomez of the New York Rangers and former Sabres teammate Thomas Vanek.

[11] Led by Brière and Richards on the newly revamped Flyers (additional off-season acquisitions included Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell and Joffrey Lupul), Philadelphia went from worst team in the NHL the previous season to an appearance in the 2008 conference-finals against eventual Eastern Conference champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

[15] Preparing to make a return to the Flyers lineup, he was assigned to the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL on January 13, 2009, to play three games on a conditioning basis.

[18] However, a highlight came to Brière on February 13, 2010, in a game in Montreal where he scored a hat trick with all goals in different situations: power-play, even strength and penalty shot against Carey Price.

On January 7, 2012, Brière scored his fifth hat trick as well as his third NHL fight (against Kyle Turris) on home ice.

During the 2012–13 NHL lockout, Brière and Flyers teammate Claude Giroux played for Eisbären Berlin of the German Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).

[24] Brière played in a total of 21 games before being injured by an uncalled slash of his wrist which resulted in hyperextension and a bone bruise.

[28] On October 19, 2013, Brière sustained another concussion against the Nashville Predators after a collision with Eric Nystrom, which sidelined him for almost a month before returning to the lineup on November 12, 2013.

[29] Brière returned to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on December 12, 2013, and was greeted with a standing ovation by the home crowd.

[36] Brière appeared in the 1994 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, a highly competitive under-18 event not directly sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

The next year, at the 2004 World Championships, Brière earned his fourth gold medal in as many international appearances, again topping Sweden 5–3 in the final.

On March 11, 2023, while a junior at Mercyhurst University, Carson was recorded on security camera footage at a club damaging another patron's unoccupied wheelchair by pushing it down a flight of stairs.