Also just read this, which complicates my proposal a bit, but apparently TK is Patrick’s best friend on the team, so there’s that.

After seeing Sergachev a little more, I agree with you I would do the deal for him alone. Unfortunately I’m not sure the total salary on each side is close enough to make that possible. In essence you are “giving” Morin to Tampa in order to convince them to take Ghost’s terrible (at this point) deal. So it’s TK for Sergachev, basically. I like TK, not sure about how much I like his deal, but he’s the kind of player TB really seems to excel with. On the Flyers, TK somehow becomes one of our more physical forecheckers? I’ve been complaining for a long time about how often the biggest forwards on the Flyers aren’t physical — see Voracek, JVR, even Hayes — while some of their smallest guys are physical — TK and now NAK. If you’re old enough like me, you might remember Sami Kapanen (all 5’9″ of him) who somehow once became the Flyers’ only diligent body checker one playoff season.

But I don’t see the Flyers’ problem as needing a sniper per se. Sure would be great to have one. It would certainly help. But rather than overreach for an overpaid sniper who doesn’t play 200 feet, I’d rather they solidify their D even further. They need to improve controlling the front of the net when defending, as well as moving the puck out of the zone with some confidence that doesn’t mean simply turning it over at mid-ice then going back to defending again. Sergachev checks both of those critical boxes, not to mention showing some real offensive abilities as well. As you pointed out (and I didn’t know), his having a relationship with Provorov sets us up to have a real generational pair of D-men on par with say, Seabrook and Keith or Suter and Weber.

Getting Sergachev means Braun can be let go and also relieves our craving for a more physical presence like we hoped Morin would eventually provide. It also puts us in a better position for when we likely lose Niskanen after next year.

Just can’t see anyway TB makes this deal.

No one can say what’s the right move. Patrick could be a force for the next 10 years, or he could never play again, or go out for good after his next hit. I’m not inclined to underestimate him and my God how he could help us, but it just doesn’t feel like it’s setting up well. Especially with Oskar getting all this attention for coming back from CANCER, playing this year and getting a pretty nice contract. I mean how does that make Patrick feel? A fifth round pick from whom not much was expected has delivered, gotten cancer, become the toast of the NHL, come back and gotten paid, Meanwhile the can’t-miss Patrick is just this sort of floating question mark, while ALL the picks around him are delivering — I mean Hischier was picked before but Heiskanen, Makar and Petersson were all picked just after and all those guys would be sorely welcome on the Flyers ….

I’m not up on all the contract details to know who we can keep or who we can spare. But my eyes tell me that we suddenly appear to have a lot of overpaid people and are unable to retain much cheaper people we’d rather keep. It’s kind of hard to swallow that after finally getting out from under Lecavallier, we’ve gotten ourselves right back in the same place with JVR. And same goes for Ghost who is our new MacDonald.

My view after re-signing Kubel. Figure out a way to re-sign Elliott, Hagg and Pitlick. Forget about a sniper and go get another shut down defenseman to replace or even add to Braun — ‘d be happy to take him back at half his current price,

My proposal: TK, Morin and Ghost for Sergachev + Paquette.??

All true, but I would seriously consider losing Patrick if it meant keeping Pitlick. Our window is NOW. At the same time, there are plenty of other things they can do to keep them both.

NOW DO PITLICK !!