A Look at What Chuck Fletcher Could Do This Offseason

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The Flyers are currently in a position no team wants to be in. They just traded their captain. They have a roster with no high-end talent. A lot of their better players have missed an extended amount of time this season with injuries. In general, this is one of the worst seasons the Flyers have ever played. The good news is that it comes to an end soon. With roughly 20 games remaining for every team before the playoffs begin and we all become Florida Panthers fans, let’s take a look at how the Flyers could approach the offseason before the 2022-23 season.

The state of their current roster is bad. Some of the veterans have to be moved. One vet that should be on his way out is James van Riemsdyk. JvR had a bad year and won’t get much return in a trade if any. The Flyers will most likely have to attach a draft pick to him for any other team to even consider trading for him. Think back to the Shayne Gostisbehere trade. The Flyers gave the Coyotes two draft picks, including a second-rounder, to take on his $4.5m cap hit. Imagine what they have to give in order to get rid of JvR’s $7m cap hit. Another vet that could be on his way out is Ivan Provorov. Earlier this season, there was a thought that Provorov had become so obsessed with social media and worried about the negative criticism of his play that it was having an effect on his play on the ice. This sounds ridiculous to me, as it should to everyone reading this. Provorov’s play has been in free fall since the start of the season and has reached the point where he routinely turns the puck over inside his own zone and has to be bailed out by either Carter Hart or Martin Jones. Moving Provorov would help recoup what was lost by moving JvR’s contract. Plus, the emergence of Travis Sanheim this season makes losing Provorov that much easier for the Flyers. Sanheim has looked like a real number two defenseman this season. His offensive production since Mike Yeo took over has been very impressive. Sanheim’s confidence looks to be at its highest so far this season. As much as Sanheim has improved this season, the Flyers like the Sanheim-Ristoleinen pair too much to split it up. That was one main reason for wanting to re-sign Ristoleinen. 

When looking at who to bring in, the Flyers are projected to have just under $8.1m in cap space to work with for next season. Moving JvR for nothing and Provorov for exclusively picks frees up an additional $13.75m for Chuck Fletcher to extend players, make trades, or sign free agents. Assuming the cap projection is a little bit off, the Flyers would sit with around $20m in cap space. For a team that wants to compete next year and do an “aggressive retool,” the cap should not be an issue. This leaves enough cap room to potentially bring back Claude Giroux if there is any interest on either side. It also leaves enough room for the Couturier extension of $7.75m AAV and the Farabee of $5m AAV to kick in. 

With this cap space, the Flyers could still look at adding one of Johnny Gaudreau or Filip Forsberg to the team. If Giroux were to decide he was done in Philadelphia for the rest of his career, the Flyers could then shift their eyes toward the trade market. The most likely players the Flyers would acquire are players with one year remaining on their current deals so they could look to either re-sign them before the deadline or move them for other pieces at the deadline. One player that fits that profile who the Flyers have also been looking at since at least last offseason is Vladamir Tarasenko. Tarasenko is back to being an elite forward this season as he is finally 100% healthy again. He has posted 20 goals and 34 assists for 54 points in 55 games so far this season for the St Louis Blues. It’s doubtful the Blues would let Tarasenko go for cheap so the picks the Flyers get from the Provorov deal would end up just going to St Louis. The Blues also had interest in acquiring Provorov from the Flyers at the deadline on Monday, so maybe a one-for-one swap could be talked about here? If the one-for-one trade happens, the Flyers would lose about $750,000 in cap space if they dealt Provorov for Tarasenko unless other players were included in the deal. 

The Flyers should also be looking to add a defenseman or two from free agency this summer. One name that comes to mind is Nick Leddy. Leddy is a 31-year-old two-way defenseman with 16 points in 56 games this season between Detroit and St Louis. The Flyers should know Leddy well as he spent seven years with the New York Islanders from 2014-2021. Another name they could look at is Ben Chiarot. Chiarot, Claude Giroux’s new teammate in Florida, has 18 points in 54 games between Montreal and Florida this season. He is 30 years old and is more of a stay-at-home defenseman. Chiarot has spent time in Winnipeg as well during his career before the Canadiens and now the Panthers. 

The Flyers probably won’t make any other trades during the offseason, which brings us to the re-sing portion. Travis Sanheim will be entering the last season of his current next season, so he has to be re-signed. Sanheim is in the first of a two-year $9.35m contract with an AAV of $4.675m. Sanheim will be looking for a raise as he should win the Barry Ashbee Trophy for this season as the Flyers’ Most Outstanding Defenseman. His new AAV could be north of $5m, but I doubt it would get over $5.75m. Somewhere around five years sounds right. Sanheim could settle for a five-year, $5.6m extension with the Flyers this offseason. 

Cam York is also going into the final year of his entry-level contract. It’s doubtful the Flyers would re-sign him this offseason since he would only be an RFA and he hasn’t been in the NHL for very long. York’s new deal wouldn’t be signed until the summer of 2023 and something like two years at $1-2m AAV. 

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For the draft portion of this offseason, I would love for the Flyers to take Logan Cooley of the USNTDP. Cooley can be a top-line center in the NHL before long. He is scoring at 1.5 points per game this season at 9 goals and 18 assists in 18 games. Cooley has committed to play college hockey at Minnesota after flipping from Notre Dame. His playmaking ability is his best attribute and he is still only 17 years old. Cooley won’t be 18 until May 4. He most likely won’t play in the NHL right away as his 5’11”/174lb. frame needs to get stronger and adjust to life as a pro. Cooley is expected to be a top-five pick in June.