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With the NHL Trade Deadline already heating up and teams’ scouts beginning to flock to potential sellers’ rinks on a nightly basis, the Flyers should certainly have their pick from multiple teams as trade partners for their impending free agents. That is,with the exception of maybe one.
That player in question sadly just might be the team’s best-selling piece/asset: long-time captain Claude Giroux. Why? Well, Claude is currently just nine games away from his 1,000th career regular-season game played in the NHL, and he obviously would like to get the chance to celebrate it while still playing for the team that drafted him some sixteen years ago now. I mean, can you blame him? Besides, from the ownership’s standpoint, what better way to cash in on (cough-cough)- I mean thank– Giroux, than a night strictly dedicated to him and all the blood, sweat, and tears that he has provided to this organization over the years.
The only problem with that is Giroux is not due to hit this milestone for nearly another month! March 17th to be exact- in a home game against the Nashville Predators, which is just a mere four days before the NHL’s trade deadline of March 21st. While this may sound like the perfect scenario so that the fans of Philadelphia will be able to give Claude a proper sendoff, it may possibly prevent the Flyers from acquiring the best return package available for their star player.
Some impatient buyers like the Calgary Flames have already gone out and potentially overspent for an impact player named Tyler Toffoli, formerly of the Montreal Canadiens (who has two more years left on his deal after this season). They did this with the mindset that Toffoli might be able to settle in before the playoffs but also be able to come in early enough to help vault the Flames into a better playoff seed this year. In doing so, Calgary paid dearly- giving up a conditional 1st round pick in 2022, a 5th round pick in 2024, former Flyer Tyler Pitlick, and unsigned forward-prospect Emil Heineman, who was a 2nd round pick from the 2020 draft.
With deals like this already taking place and other potential contenders aggressively trying to take a similar approach with the post season drawing ever closer, chances are that teams may just be instead willing to forgo waiting for the Giroux sweepstakes to begin and settle for any of the other said-to-be-available offensive players such as Arizona’s Phil Kessel, Vancouvers’ J.T. Miller, Columbus’ Max Domi, or Anaheim’s Rickard Rakell to better their chances at hoisting the Stanley Cup this season.
What does this mean for the Flyers? Time will only tell. What I can tell you is to not be surprised if come March 21st (deadline day) there aren’t as many teams involved in the bidding war for this Flyers great that Philadelphia is hoping for.
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