If you spend time reading NHL offseason articles — particularly online — you may have noticed that the Philadelphia Flyers are coming up in quite a lot of them.
It’s not baseless speculation or rumor-mongering. Strap in — the Flyers are going to be one of the most active clubs on the trade market for the better part of the next month as the offseason hits its busy period.
First-year general manager Daniel Briere hasn’t tried to hide this. In his very first news conference as interim GM in March, he uttered the word “rebuild”, which had essentially been forbidden to be spoken publicly by Flyers executives prior to that session. Then, just two weeks ago, Briere put his money where his mouth was, shipping out longtime No. 1 defenseman Ivan Provorov in the middle of the Stanley Cup Final, showcasing both his dedication to the rebuilding cause and his ability to creatively execute one. A few hours after the trade was finalized, he confirmed to the media that the Flyers are indeed “open for business” from a trade standpoint.
In other words, they’re listening — on pretty much every single one of their players.
That’s a recipe for the Flyers becoming one of the pivotal teams of the offseason.
Philadelphia’s roster breaks up into three groups from a trade standpoint. There are the players that the Flyers actively want to trade but don’t have a ton of market. There are the ones who the Flyers aren’t itching to trade but do have a ton of value, and therefore could still very well get moved. And then, there are those who are technically available but almost certainly aren’t going to garner anything close to a return that Briere would deem acceptable.
Group No. 1 is headlined by Kevin Hayes. The combination of his age (31), contract ($7.14 million cap hit for three more seasons) and poor fit with head coach John Tortorella make a change of scenery the right move for both parties.
That said, my understanding is that the Flyers — at least at this point — aren’t ready to buy out Hayes. They want to trade him. But thus far, the market hasn’t been strong. Columbus was long rumored as a possible destination, but the Blue Jackets just added nearly $11 million to their cap in the form of Provorov and Damon Severson. The Flyers will need to drum up other buyers for Hayes, and it hasn’t been easy.
I suspect that’s in large part because Briere wants to limit just how much salary he’ll have to retain in a Hayes trade. Some retention is inevitable, but cap space still matters for the Flyers, especially in terms of how it can be weaponized to accumulate future assets. There’s a big difference between Hayes at 20 percent retention ($5.712 million cap hit) and at 50 percent ($3.57 million cap hit). Moving Hayes will be about finding a sweet spot with an interested team between maximizing asset return in the deal and retaining as little salary as possible.
It’s difficult to imagine a Hayes deal not getting done at some point — whether it’s before the draft in some sort of creative maneuver, or if teams that have struck out on their preferred UFA or trade targets down the middle ultimately swing back around on Hayes later. Briere showed in the Provorov deal that he’s capable of moving a player despite having limited leverage. I expect him to ultimately do the same with Hayes.
Tony DeAngelo also fits into the first group; I believe he’s very much available. The big question when it comes to DeAngelo and a potential trade is whether the Flyers can get back any value for him, given his $5 million cap hit and underwhelming 2022-23 season. There weren’t many teams last summer that believed DeAngelo was worth $5 million, and that was after a strong bounce-back year with Carolina. There are surely even fewer now, if any.
But I do believe there’s motivation on the Flyers’ part to move DeAngelo, even if it doesn’t nearly reach the level of Hayes. Perhaps a team views DeAngelo as its fallback option if preferred targets end up elsewhere.
Then, there’s Group No. 2 — the players that Briere isn’t necessarily trying to trade but will do so if he’s dazzled by a package he’s presented from another GM.
Briere is not actively shopping Travis Konecny or Scott Laughton but he’s certainly willing to listen in the event that a team steps up and blows him away with a particularly enticing offer.
Konecny and Laughton are highly valued players around the NHL. The former is a high-energy 26-year-old on a reasonable cap hit ($5.5 million) for the next two seasons, who just finished at over a point-per-game pace and scored 31 goals. The latter is also on a reasonable cap hit ($3 million) and is exactly the type of “playoff-style” glue guy that contending clubs talk themselves into believing could be the missing supporting piece to their stars that leads them to Stanley Cup glory.
I don’t get the sense the Flyers feel like they need to trade either of them or even necessarily want to do so.
I suspect Briere sees some of himself in Konecny — a small, hyper-competitive offensive-centric forward. Also, there’s something to be said about the message it sends to the players remaining with the club when a player like Konecny who wants to be in Philly and bought in fully to Tortorella’s message is immediately shipped out after just a year. As for Laughton, he’s older (29) but the Flyers have long liked the idea of him sticking around to help foster the type of culture of dedication that they want the post-rebuild Flyers to embody. There’s a reason, after all, why he was the only Flyers player who wore a leadership letter in 2022-23.
Basically, if teams want these guys, they’re going to have to bring very compelling offers to the Flyers. The thing is, I get the sense that there are teams that really want these guys.
And then, there’s Carter Hart.
There was a flurry of rumors in the immediate aftermath of the Provorov deal that Hart was about to be shipped out as well. It’s now been two weeks, and Hart hasn’t been traded. The Flyers were never close on a Hart deal, and the rumors of his imminent exit were overblown, though they obviously have had conversations with other teams regarding him.
Basically, Hart is more in the Konecny/Laughton group, where the Flyers don’t feel like they absolutely have to trade him. He turns 25 in August and is still just young enough to be in his prime if the planned rebuild proves to be an efficient one. Teams are going to have to pay up if they want to add Hart.
Which is where the pending status of the investigation of the 2018 Canadian world juniors team — of which Hart was a member — comes in. Until the results of the investigation are revealed, it’s difficult to ascertain what the trade market will be for those players. Briere is very much listening to offers on Hart, but given the complicating circumstances, it’s neither imminent nor inevitable that he gets moved.
Finally, there’s everybody else.
In May, I broke down every single player on the Flyers roster, and whether it made sense for Briere to strongly pursue trading each one. The Flyers may be rebuilding, but there were quite a few players who fell in the “not the right time” tier.
Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson may not fit the rebuild timeline, but they won’t have any real trade value until they prove they’re actually healthy and productive NHLers again. Youngsters like Owen Tippett, Cam York, Noah Cates, Morgan Frost and even Joel Farabee aren’t off the table in trade talks completely (no one on the roster is “untouchable”) but their ages/contracts could actually fit the timeline, removing any true urgency on the part of Briere to move them now.
Nick Seeler always made sense as a potential offseason trade possibility — he’s on a league-minimum expiring contract coming off a strong year as a quality third-pair defenseman. But his name hasn’t come up much at all in industry chatter, at least so far. Same with Rasmus Ristolainen, who has a daunting contract but is a favorite of new president of hockey operations Keith Jones in particular, and also slowly won Tortorella over as the season progressed.
Travis Sanheim’s eight-year, $50 million contract — which kicks in on July 1 — doesn’t really fit the timeline, but it’s also an enormous commitment to ask another team to accept, especially given Sanheim’s serious struggles in 2022-23. Presumably, the Flyers would listen if interest emerged, but I’m not confident much of a market would exist for him without significant salary retention.
But even removing these players from the list, there are few NHL teams that have more quality options available for buyers than the Flyers. Hayes and DeAngelo are being actively shopped. Konecny and Laughton are highly desired trade targets. Hart is very much available, even if the situation is complicated. And as for everyone else? Well, the Flyers aren’t dismissing any offers out of hand.
They are, as Briere put it earlier this month, “open for business.” Buckle up.
(Photo: Len Redkoles / NHLI via Getty Images)
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