Trade season has apparently started early. The Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins swapped goalies as part of one deal on Friday, while, of course, the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks paired up on a Quinn Hughes blockbuster.<\/p>\n
From a Philadelphia Flyers standpoint, it\u2019s highly unlikely that there\u2019s anything of that magnitude on the immediate horizon. But they\u2019re still bound to make at least a few deals before the March 6 trade deadline.<\/p>\n
The focus, much as it\u2019s been since the day general manager Daniel Briere took over, is on what they\u2019re going to do down the middle.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s simple math, really. Over the past 11 months, the Flyers have traded away three centers: Morgan Frost, Scott Laughton and Ryan Poehling. They\u2019ve added Trevor Zegras, who got a quick hook from the center position and instead is skating primarily on the wing (which seems like the correct decision, considering his production), and center Christian Dvorak, currently between Zegras and Travis Konecny on the top line.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s no surprise that the Flyers are actively seeking another center, something that\u2019s been confirmed to The Athletic by multiple team sources, and as initially reported on Friday.<\/p>\n
The focus is adding to their depth at that position, and more specifically the fourth line. While the Flyers have finally gotten some production from that group in the form of a pair of goals last week from Carl Grundstrom, it\u2019s still a line that has struggled to get on the scoresheet or have a consistent impact. What I wonder is if bringing in another center will push Rodrigo Abols to the wing in place of Garnet Hathaway, who suffered a concussion last February that kept him out for a month and who just hasn\u2019t seemed like himself this season. There are no players in the NHL that have played as many games as Hathaway\u2019s 31 without recording a single point.<\/p>\n
Since Tyson Foerster went out with a shoulder injury, though, another issue has cropped up: the Noah Cates line, with Bobby Brink and Nikita Grebenkin, has suddenly become much less effective. While they\u2019ve managed to outscore their opponents 2-1 at five-on-five over the last six games, they\u2019ve been outshot 24-16. Their underlying numbers are lousy, too \u2014 according to Natural Stat Trick, they have just a 30.0 percent expected-goals share. Grebenkin, in particular, has been disappointing, with just one goal and three assists for four points in 22 games. In six games since he was bumped up in the lineup to replace Foerster, Grebenkin has just one assist and three shots on goal. It\u2019s not a surprise that the Flyers miss Foerster, but the drop-off from Foerster to Grebenkin has been significant.<\/p>\n
Considering Cates\u2019 struggles in the faceoff circle, where he has just a 42.2 percent success rate, moving him to the wing might make some sense if the Flyers can find another middle-six center, particularly while Foerster remains out (he\u2019ll likely return after the Olympic break, at the earliest).<\/p>\n
But what I wonder about that position, too, is how Dvorak\u2019s future impacts what they ultimately do.<\/p>\n
While there\u2019s little question now that the Flyers will need to keep Dvorak, their third-leading scorer, around if they\u2019re going to make a playoff push, there are no guarantees that they\u2019re going to re-sign the pending unrestricted free agent (or even any indications yet that they want to). Considering his production so far \u2014 seven goals and 15 assists for 22 points \u2014 and the fact that the 2026 free-agent market already looks pretty thin, Dvorak could end up commanding a significant next contract if he keeps rolling. I have a hard time seeing the Flyers committing to Dvorak for longer than two or three more seasons. If it\u2019s a five-year extension that the 29-year-old is seeking, for example, that probably doesn\u2019t make sense for the Flyers, particularly considering Cates and Sean Couturier are both signed for the foreseeable future, too.<\/p>\n
So then the question becomes, if the Flyers figure at some point that they\u2019re simply going to lose Dvorak in the offseason, do they get more aggressive this season and try to find a higher-end center \u2014 one still with modest term \u2014 who could really give them a boost? Does someone such as, say, Brayden Schenn make sense, at a $6.5 million cap hit through 2027-28? Or what about Nashville\u2019s Ryan O\u2019Reilly, signed through next season at a $4.5 million cap hit? While both of those 34-year-olds are past their primes, there\u2019s no question they would improve the forward group for the stretch run and give coach Rick Tocchet more options.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen some speculation that because Jett Luchanko will be turning pro next season, he should be penciled into the NHL lineup right away, taking up at least one of those center spots. I think that\u2019s premature. Not even Claude Giroux started in the NHL when he was 20 years old, as he played 33 games with the Phantoms in his rookie year of 2008-09. The Flyers still like Luchanko, but they\u2019re not going to rush him if they don\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n
As for other prospects, Jack Nesbitt, the No. 12 pick in the 2025 draft,\u00a0 is a longshot to be NHL-ready next season. Denver Barkey has potential, but there are still no assurances he\u2019ll ever become an NHL-level center either.<\/p>\n
Someone we probably can pencil into the 2026-27 opening-night lineup, though, is winger Porter Martone. It stands to reason that the Flyers will want to make sure that the No. 6 pick in the 2025 draft is playing with a strong two-way center to begin his NHL career. If Dvorak isn\u2019t in the Flyers\u2019 plans for next season, they\u2019re going to have to find at least one more guy like him between now and then. Waiting for free agency to do that seems like a risk.<\/p>\n
As far as the other positions, the Flyers could be set already. Rasmus Ristolainen\u2019s inevitable return this week will give the Flyers a pretty strong top six. While Ristolainen was a player the Flyers were hoping to move last season, they need him now both for his size and physicality. Tocchet has even hinted that he might also get a chance on one of the power-play units. The only moving part here could be Egor Zamula. It\u2019s become evident Zamula isn\u2019t in their plans, either now or in the future, after call-up Ty Murchison played in the last three games while Zamula was a healthy scratch.<\/p>\n
The goaltending tandem isn\u2019t likely to change, with Dan Vladar excelling and Sam Ersson also settling in.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one thing we learned from the Hughes trade, it\u2019s that the Flyers aren\u2019t interested in dangling their high-end young players or top prospects in trades. Now isn\u2019t the time for that, in their minds.<\/p>\n
But that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not going to be willing to part with some of their future assets for a player that can help them make a playoff push, which they\u2019ve made quite clear is something they\u2019d like to do. Considering the state of their roster down the middle, that might be a requirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trade season has apparently started early. The Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins swapped goalies as part of one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,1789,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-352235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}