The Flyers Get a No. 1 Center1 of 5<\/p>\n
The blockbuster idea: Robert Thomas to Philadelphia for a deal centered around Matvei Michkov<\/p>\n
The Blues’ biggest stars, Thomas and Jordan Kyrou, have been the subject of trade rumors for over a year now and the speculation is not going away heading into the offseason. Especially after they missed the playoffs and could be looking to hit the reset button a little. <\/p>\n
There is some really good young talent here, while the Blues already have three first-round picks in the 2026 class, but it remains to be seen what direction management wants to take this thing. <\/p>\n
Michkov has started to see his name get thrown into the mix after taking a step backwards in his second season, which included some healthy scratches in the Stanley Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n
Maybe there’s a potential match here. <\/p>\n
Let’s start with this: Despite the speculation, the Flyers should not go into the offseason looking to trade Michkov. It should not be a situation where they are aggressively shopping for him. Even though he took a step back, which is not uncommon for young players, his potential remains\u00a0enormous. The goal, at least at the start, should be to keep him. You do not just give up on a guy like that. <\/p>\n
The exception to that should be when there is an opportunity to land a proven star-level player in the prime of their career, especially if it is a No. 1 center.<\/p>\n
Thomas would be that type of player.<\/p>\n
He is one of the top playmaking forwards in the NHL and could immediately step into a roster like Philadelphia’s and help it take another step forward. Getting a player like that is going to require a steep price to convince St. Louis to move him, as he is a top-line forward under contract for the foreseeable future on a team-friendly deal. <\/p>\n
Just how good is Thomas? Over the past three seasons, there have been 414 forwards to play at least 1,000 minutes of 5-on-5 ice-time. <\/p>\n
The 26-year-old ranks fifth in that group in total assists per 60 minutes, 13th in primary assists per 60 minutes, and 10th in total points per 60 minutes, while also being a possession-driving, two-way player who averages a point-per-game offensively. <\/p>\n
He is also still in his prime years and signed long-term (through the 2030-31 season) at a wildly team-friendly rate of $8.125 million against the salary cap. As the leaguewide salary cap continues to rise, that contract only gains more value.<\/p>\n
Given all of that, it would take a massive trade package to get him. <\/p>\n
The Flyers, in theory, could be the type of team that has the young talent to pull off such a move, and Michkov could be a convincing centerpiece. <\/p>\n
If a deal like that isn’t available, both teams should be happy to keep each player. But it only takes one call, and they could each be the type of player who could entice both general managers to pay attention. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Flyers Get a No. 1 Center1 of 5 The blockbuster idea: Robert Thomas to Philadelphia for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-668362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668362","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=668362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}