The Philadelphia Flyers aren’t projected to be a team that will be very busy before the trade deadline next Friday — aside from potentially trading veteran defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen — but according to a recent report, there are teams sniffing around some players as long-term fits for their problems.

One of the main talking points surrounding absolute any trade rumor or trade chatter involving the Flyers is that this team just has so many wingers — too many wingers to even put on the team when wunderkind Porter Martone arrives. It’s just a numbers game. One or more of these current wingers will need to be moved to make room for the younger prospects, and along the way they could be traded to fill some holes on the Flyers’ blue line or at the center position. It’s just putting the positional puzzle together.

A name that has been thrown out a lot to be one of those wingers moved is Owen Tippett, and according to Anthony Di Marco’s latest on Daily Faceoff, there is a team that has been circling around, calling general manager Danny Briere a whole lot about the 26-year-old goalscorer. It’s the Boston Bruins.

Boston Bruins eyeing Flyers’ Owen Tippett in latest trade rumors

As Di Marco wrote, it makes a whole lot of sense from Boston’s perspective and there could be a transactional fit for the Flyers.

“One name the Bruins have checked in on several times this season is winger Owen Tippett, who is under contract for six seasons beyond this one at an AAV of $6.2 million,” Di Marco wrote. “The Flyers aren’t looking to move the 27-year-old winger by any means but are open to discussions, though the price to get him out of Philadelphia would have to be significant. The Bruins feel like Tippett brings a different style of game and a versatility that they are lacking.”

It has been repeated ad nauseum that the Flyers are not actively shopping Tippett. Despite a whole lot of noise earlier in the season, the Flyers themselves had to come out and say that they are not looking to move the scoring winger. But, as Di Marco reports, if the right deal comes along, then it certainly could happen.

Flyers interested in a couple Bruins prospects

It just so happens that there are a couple of prospects in the Bruins’ system that the Flyers do covet.

“The Flyers do like both Letourneau and Poitras; adding either would be a much needed addition to the Flyers’ pipeline, which the Bruins are well aware of, I’ve been told,” Di Marco wrote. “Additionally, the Bruins are open to moving 25-year-old defenseman Mason Lohrei (whom the Flyers like as well) who, while has played well for the Bruins (on the right side recently), is someone the Bruins feel like they can replace internally, sources told DFO.”

It makes perfect sense that the Flyers would eye up either Dean Letourneau or Matthew Poitras as the prospect in return for a hypothetical Tippett trade. Letourneau is a 6-foot-7 center who just turned 20 years old and after a horrific freshman year at Boston College, has scored 18 goals and 33 points in just 30 games this season for the Eagles. And Poitras is a 22-year-old center that already has some NHL experience and has been lighting up the AHL in his first two pro seasons, as well. The Ajax, Ont. native is a great playmaker but did score 17 goals in his rookie season with the Providence Bruins last season.

Either of those players would sit near the very top of the mountain of center prospects the Flyers have been drafting for the last few years. Both do have more boom-or-bust potential than the likes of Jett Luchanko, but the ceilings are much higher. That kind of swing would be necessary if the Flyers were to move Tippett.

On the blue line, Mason Lohrei is a name that should strike a little fear. He’s a 6-foot-5, left-handed defenseman that on-paper, seems like a perfect fit to be that long-term solution as Jamie Drysdale’s partner and round out the Flyers’ top four, while providing the size they so desperately want. But while he has scored points at a respectable rate in his first three NHL seasons (0.4 points per game) he is not good at all defensively. We’re talking about Rasmus Ristolainen levels of bad when the Flyers first acquired him under Chuck Fletcher.

Of course, there is a world where the Flyers can change and develop him and fix him like they did with Ristolainen, and then they have a very large defenseman to comfortably be in the No. 4 or No. 5 slot, but a 25-year-old project in return for Tippett feels like a big miss.

It all depends on the actual full trade, but it does feel like there is some world where the Flyers send Owen Tippett to Boston and fill a couple of potential holes, all while making a nice and comfortable spot for Porter Martone next season.