As it stands right now, the Philadelphia Flyers find themselves the epitome of mediocrity in the 5th position in this season’s “East Division”. At this point, their inconsistencies are well on the way to making them sellers come April 12th, 2021 (the NHL’s Trade Deadline), but according to General Manager Chuck Fletcher he still doesn’t think they will be sellers. However, there play is showing a different story.
Such examples of this erratic play would be how the Flyers can win 5 to 4 in overtime against the New York Rangers back on March 15th only to lose 9-0 to the same team minus any of their regular coaches behind the bench (due to COVID regulations) just two days later on March 17th. Another example of this would be the very next series against the New York Islanders where, on March 18th, they were able to pull out a win against them 4-3 but then fell to them their very next game on March 20th by a score of 6-1. Philadelphia has been playing this way most of the season: Proving that they can in fact compete some nights looking like the playoff contenders they were last season by pulling out a win against a team most would think better than them, only to take the next game off and come out there and look like they don’t even belong on the same ice surface as the team they just beat a night or two before while they get blown out by 3 or more goals.
The team’s play lately has to leave the Flyers’ general manager Chuck Fletcher in quite the conundrum. With the trade deadline approaching, does he choose to go out and take a chance on his team by trading away potential future and or current assets to try and make his team better? Or does he sit on his hands and wait for the real contenders to call him to see what assets he may be able to gain by shipping some of his players out of town so that he can retool for next season?
As much as we fans may not want to hear that nasty word retool again after the years of cellar dwelling that Ron Hextall made the Flyers go through as he rebuilt this team from the ground up via the draft., this may just be the harsh reality that Philadelphia fans are due to endure once again if the Flyers cannot pull a series of wins together soon!
But if the team can’t do that, whom then should Chuck look to unload to some needy teams that might call him???
Well, a good start would be goaltending, and the Flyers’ 35-year-old (impending unrestricted free agent) veteran Brian Elliott would be a prime target for some playoff-bound teams like Toronto, Colorado, Carolina, Edmonton, or Winnipeg who might be in need of a good backup. If you don’t see the need for one just look at what the Dallas Stars’ Anton Khudobin was able to do once the team’s fragile starter Ben Bishop went down with injury last post season! Despite Philadelphia’s horrible defense, Elliott has put up a lot of consistently good starts this season while the Flyers’ star-to-be Carter Hart continues to struggle. This, I assure you, has not gone unnoticed by other teams around the league and choosing to sell him off to the highest bidder might bring the Flyers back a 2nd or 3rd round pick and/or a mid-level prospect (maybe even more if a playoff-bound team’s #1 goalie goes down for the season before the end of April) for someone who the team should look to move on from next season anyway given their wealth of goaltending prospects they are grooming in their system now.
The Flyers may even have an unexpected replacement who could come in next season, sign, then immediately surge past all the other prospects ahead of him in net to become the Flyers’ backup next season: Ivan “The Great” Fedotov, the Flyers’ 6’8 2015 7th round pick. Up to now, he has been playing at an extremely high level in Russia’s top professional league the KHL over the past four seasons. This year alone he posted 2.21 goals against average and a .925 save percentage in 26 games for the Traktor Chelyabinsk Bears. Ivan is set to become a free agent after his KHL contract expires at the end of this season. Something to think about.
Another possible trade-deadline target that could bring a nice return is the Flyers’ 32-year-old pending unrestricted free agent (UFA) Michael Raffl. This type of penalty-killing specialist will be well sought after come the trade deadline. Teams are not always looking for a star player; They tend to already have those in place if they are in a position to make the playoffs. Rather, they are often in pursuit of one small piece that can help to sure up their defense or one of their specialty units. Raffl can do just that for a team that may already have the scoring prowess of a cup contender like the Oilers or Panthers but who often find themselves getting into shoot outs with other teams because they lack that shutdown guy on the Penalty Kill or bottom six depth. With Michael’s relatively inexpensive $1.6 million dollar contract set to expire at year’s end, he may just be that missing cog that makes his new team invincible.
As far as a replacement goes for next season, the Flyers have a wealth of young talent coming up the pike. A player like the versatile Zayde Wisdom comes to mind. A hard-working center that also plays wing could slot in as Raffl’s replacement next season bringing some much-needed grit to the bottom six while he’s at it.
Lastly, if Chuck Fletcher really wanted to make a big move that would fetch him a king’s ransom this time of year in return, he could ship out the 22-year-old restricted free agent Nolan Patrick. Now, this might not be the most ideal move to some fans of his here in Philly, but the team does have to worry about re-signing other unrestricted and restricted free agents in this flat cap era. This season, Patrick has proven he can stay healthy: A feat that will most certainty earn Nolan a nominal raise over the measly $874,125 he is making this season. As to why they might be willing to part with him, you have to remember that the current Flyers’ GM did not construct the majority of this team, it was left to him- and this former #2 overall pick has only 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points in 31 games played this year while averaging a -15 on the season. With career highs of just 13 goals in a season and 31 points, his numbers don’t exactly compare to the production of the other former # 2 overall picks in the league right now like Patrik Laine, Jack Eichel, Aleksander Barkov, Gabriel Landeskog, Tyler Seguin, Victor Hedman, Drew Doughty, Jordan Staal, Bobby Ryan or Evgeni Malkin- to name a few. Or heck, even the Flyers’ other # 2 overall draft pick (Nolan’s teammate), James van Riemsdyk. So, knowing that there’s already depth at the position center within the system already (Morgan Frost, Zayde Wisdom, Tyson Foerster, and Jay O’Brien), the opportunity of gaining something for Nolan Patrick at the deadline might be a better choice than the possibility of NOT being able to re-sign UFA Scott Laughton next season simply because there is no money to do so!
With that thought in mind, might playoff teams like Chuck’s old team the Minnesota Wild (who are without star center 2020 1st round pick Marco Rossi) be so inclined to try to acquire his services? What about a team like the Carolina Hurricanes, whose offense is lethal but lack a third-line center? Or what about the Winnipeg Jets? Nolan played his junior hockey not too far away from them in the providence of Manitoba in the city of Brandon with the Wheat Kings. Any one of these teams would benefit from his services and might be willing to still pay a premium to do so, given his draft status- perhaps banking on the idea that he might just benefit from a change of venue.
These are just a few names that could be on the move if the team is unable to turn it around and put a string of wins together. This writer thinks that Chuck Fletcher is not just going to sit on his hands regardless if they are buyers or sellers; There will be some moves come April 12, 2021! Let’s just hope that they come in the form of adding players for a playoff push and not to liquidate assets in order to get an early start to the off season.
