Chuck Fletcher and the Flyers top brass will have a busy offseason, and this includes the cap guru for the Flyers Barry Hanrahan. Hanrahan is a cap specialist and he will have his hands full for the second straight offseason, especially with it being the era of a flat cap.
With that being said, there could be some groundwork laid there for a trade, as Fletcher eluded to in his press conference following the trade deadline. Fletcher could have groundwork laid for a trade with the Nashville Predators and the Arizona Coyotes. Nashville, in particular, was scouting the Flyers farm system heavily at different parts of the AHL season.
Let’s think back to right after the deadline commenced. Fletcher stated to us (Media) that there were some teams that groundwork was laid for a trade. He specifically said that he knows what they want, and they know what “We” want. Those two teams could very well be the Predators and Coyotes.
Assistant General Manager Brent Flahr was scouting the Coyotes about three weeks to about a month before the trade deadline began. Fletcher would not have sent Flahr out there for about a week without the possibility of being trading partners with them, whether that be at the deadline or not. The truth of the matter is, the Coyotes might have trouble paying their bills again due to the Covid restrictions that were set in place, to which fans were prohibited from attending games. Fans provide a ton of revenue for teams with paying for merchandise, tickets, parking, food, beverages (To include Alcohol). Click the article below to see how hard it was for the Coyotes to pay their rent last season:
Here’s a great article on the Coyotes struggle to pay their rent
The NHL is a spectator sport, they need the fans…period. This could force the Coyotes to move players they would not otherwise like to part with. Those players could be Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Darcy Kuemper, or Niklas Hjalmarsson.
Some will say why do I mention Hjalmarsson in a trade when he is a free agent at year’s end. Fletcher has a history of trading for the rights of players even on expiring contracts, hence trading a 5th round pick for Kevin Hayes to the Winnipeg Jets, so a trade for Hjalmarsson makes sense as he is 33-years-old. Hjalmarsson could play at least middle pairing-top pairing minutes, and he is a veteran that could stabilize the young backend, which had the average age of just 25.83-years-old for the majority of the 2021 season. In addition, Ekman-Larsson was on the trade block last season, and with Fletcher absolutely knowing he has to shore up the backend. I’m confident he would pay for this type of defenseman in Ekman-Larsson, especially one that eats 20:58 minutes a night.
Fletcher may very well look for a veteran or two defenseman to stabilize the youth as Matt Niskanen’s name came up a lot at the exit interviews this past week, and he would have been 34-years-old this season, “Looking outside the organization certainly we could upgrade everywhere, up front, defense,” Chuck Fletcher said at the exit interviews. “Certainly we’re going to have to take a look at our situation in goal, which has kind of been a constant struggle here for years.”
“I think he left a very big hole in the back end. We had a pretty good setup with roles and what guys were doing last year and the stability back there. Losing a guy like that, you lose that steadiness night in, night out. Who your partner is going to be? We’re bouncing around a lot trying to find chemistry. That’s on the remaining guys to step up and fill that hole. We just didn’t do it. You end up in that situation where you are switching partners a lot because you’re not playing well enough with the guy you have or just not having that chemistry. It’s just on the guys left. You got to step up when guys go down or leave or get traded. It’s just the way it works.”– Justin Braun said at the exit interviews about playing the season with Matt Niskanen’s void in the lineup.
As mentioned above, Nashville scouted the Flyers hard this past season, to include the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. It was not just on one occasion, rather multiple occasions. The Flyers were interested in Matias Ekholm, however, maybe they are and were interested in Ryan Ellis, as well. Ellis is a good Right-Handed Defenseman, but he has seen his fair share of injuries, as well. Last season he only played in 49 games, and this season he has been banged up too. When healthy Ellis is a solid puck moving defenseman with a ton of offensive upside. His gap control is impeccable, as well. The Predators would not have been scouting the Flyers farms system as much as they did without groundwork being laid for a trade. Remember folks, groundwork for a trade can happen mid season, especially with a flat cap world, maybe both teams had to wait until the offseason to make a trade due to cap constraints that most teams in the NHL were and are still dealing with.
Fletcher will be active in his search of shoring up the backend, and he will be very aggressive in doing such. He may add one or two defensemen before training camp begins. To recap, some Defensemen that might be on Fletcher’s radar for trade are Niklas Hjalmarsson (33-years-old, UFA), Matias Ekholm (30-years-old, signed for 2021-22 with a $3.75 million Cap hit) Ryan Ellis (30-years-old, signed for 6 more Years with an AAV OF $6.25 Million), or Oliver Ekman-Larsson (29-years-old, signed for 6 more Years with an AAV OF $8.25 Million with an NMC) .
One thing I do know is that Fletcher does not like getting into bidding wars for players during his time as a Flyers General Manager.
Fletcher will overpay for whomever he goes after. How long will Comcast hold onto Fletcher, he is not all that good making deals.