KODAK Digital Still Camera
The Philadelphia Flyers completed a trade with the Calgary Flames Thursday night. Trade rumors were swirling during last night’s game against the New York Islanders, but nothing was finished until after the game had concluded.
Flyers forward Morgan Frost left the Flyers bench in the second period and this caught the attention of plenty of Flyers fans on social media. Was he being pulled from the game to be protected from injury? Did he sustain an injury during the game? These questions weren’t answered until head coach John Tortorella’s press conference after the game. Tortorella said, “Frost didn’t feel right, tried to play through it but couldn’t.”
After last night’s game had ended, news broke that Frost and Joel Farabee had been traded to the Calgary Flames for left-wingers Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier. A 2025 second-round and 2028 seventh-round pick was included in the deal going to the Flyers, as well.
Both Frost and Farabee had played their entire career in Philadelphia up until now. It was evident that both of them weren’t in the Flyers plans for the future. Flyers fans had mixed emotions about this trade both positive and negative. “The Flyers just got worse.” “What is Danny Briere doing?” “This helps relieve cap space and may be the first step to a much bigger plan this summer or at the trade deadline.”
All in all, Frost and Farabee needed new scenery as both haven’t been producing like they should. Could you blame the lines that Tortorella put together? Sure. However, the Flyers are already through 53 games this season and are going downhill after back-to-back shutout losses.
One thing is for sure, both players were as classy as you can get. Flyers Nitty Gritty’s Jamey Baskow says so himself.
Now, let’s turn to the statistics side of things. Moving on from Farabee helped the Flyers take five million in cap space off the books. Frost carried 2.1 million in cap space, so in total, the Flyers were able to unload 7.1 million. This trade could easily be seen as a salary dump to help set up bigger and better moves for the near future.
One thing that should be taken note of is the free-agent status of both players. Frost is going to be a restricted free agent at the end of this season. Therefore, moving on from him now might be more beneficial than waiting until the season’s end. Farabee, on the other hand, will be an unrestricted free agent after the 2028-29 season. While Frost may just be a rental for the Flames, they needed to even up the trade somehow. So, Farabee was thrown in the mix to do just that.
Kuzmenko and Pelletier also look to be just rentals for the Flyers as well to some extent. Kuzmenko will be an unrestricted free agent after the 2025-26 season and Pelletier will be a restricted free agent after next season. Kuzmenko had to waive his no-trade clause to come to Philadelphia to boot.
There are a few positives to both players. Pelletier is only 23 years old and has untapped potential in the NHL. General Manager Daniel Briere is all about acquiring young players, so this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. While Kuzmenko is 28 and play has gone downhill for some time, he has played with Flyers top rookie Matvei Michkov over in Russia back in 2021-22. Flyers fans can only hope that reuniting both players can help both of them grow and get their games going. Kuzmenko is also a former 30+ goal scorer as he scored 39 goals with the Vancouver Canucks in the 2022-23 season.
Last but not least, the draft picks. With a 2025 second-rounder and a 2028 seventh-rounder coming the Flyers way, they now have seven picks in the first two rounds of next year’s draft. When will these picks be used? No one knows. What we do know is the Flyers front office is setting themselves up for what hopefully will be a very bright future.
Flyers Next Game
Flyers next game is Sunday, Feb 2. in Colorado against the Avalanche.
Check out our Flyers Nitty Gritty Store
