Two of the Flyers’ 2017 draft-day trades can be traced back to Mike Richards

The Flyers made a total of three trades at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. Two of them can be traced back to one date, June 21, 2003. What significance does this June day from 14 years ago hold? Well, it was the day the Flyers drafted Mike Richards 24th overall in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

The timeline that follows:

• On June 23 (Flyers D-Day, as you may know it), 2011, the Flyers traded Richards, along with Rob Bordson, to the Los Angeles Kings for Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds and a 2012 2nd-round pick.
• The 2012 2nd-round pick was traded alongside another draft pick for Nicklas Grossmann on February 16, 2012.
• Grossmann was then traded (with the ghost of Chris Pronger) for Sam Gagner and a 2016 4th-round pick.
• During the 2016 draft, the Flyers traded that very 4th-round pick to the Islanders for a 2017 4th-round pick, and now everything starts falling into place.
• The Flyers packaged that 4th-round pick (the 108th selection) with the 44th and 75th selections for the 35th pick in this year’s draft. With the 35th pick, the Flyers selected Isaac Ratcliffe, who can now find himself on the Mike Richards trade tree.

But wait, there’s more!

Last night the Flyers traded Brayden Schenn to the St. Louis Blues for Jori Lehtera, the 27th overall selection — which they used on forward Morgan Frost — and a 2018 1st-round draft pick.

Too much to follow? Here is a handy chart for you...

In total, five players and seven draft picks have been connected to the Flyers’ selection of a kid from Kenora, Canada in 2003. The tree has doubled in size overnight, and with many new branches, it still has room to grow.