After surprising almost every single hockey fan by making the playoffs this season (and winning a series), the Philadelphia Flyers are looking to take another step forward. We already know that they have a young core in place with some even younger and possibly better pieces still developing into becoming true top-of-the-lineup NHL talent. But, general manager Danny Briere might look to accelerate things a little bit by adding some more experienced players to the roster and truly becoming a threat to make the playoffs once again.
Namely, it has been reported and speculated that they will be looking to upgrade on the blue line. Rasmus Ristolainen could be on his way out of Philadelphia via trade, and others like Emil Andrae could be seen as not a long-term fit and will be tossed to some other team as well.
If they want to, the Flyers can change what the blue line looks like heading into next season. Whether they want to clear room for upcomers like Oliver Bonk and David Jiricek, or adding more solidified NHL talent like John Carlson in free agency. There are so many avenues they can go down to modify the six defensemen we see on the ice when the 2026-27 season starts in several months.
But, while they make these changes and do these moves, there are a couple names that the Flyers should avoid. There are some defensemen who are reportedly available in trade or are heading to free agency, that the Flyers just need to stay far away from no matter what.
Morgan Rielly
The longest tenured Toronto Maple Leaf is reportedly available to be had in a trade this summer. As the team transitions to get rid of the embarrassment that was last season, as they have their fancy No. 1 draft pick in-hand and Auston Matthews still technically a part of the team, new general manager John Chayka is looking to make some moves. Morgan Rielly is going to be a part of that and he is expected to waive his no-movement clause this offseason to go somewhere else for a fresh start.
That fresh start has to not be in Philadelphia. The 32-year-old defenseman once had the legs to be an enticing option on the blue line. He would patrol the blue line on the power play and would easily score a minimum of 50 points in a season. But unfortunately, his feet have gone. He was once a prime separator, able to rush up the ice and weave through defenders to set up some scoring chances, but that has been wiped from his game.
Rielly does still have some good and solid hands, and the other major benefit to having him on your team is just how darn good of a guy he is — he basically is the defenseman version of Scott Laughton off the ice — and we would probably fall in love with him in Philadelphia. But, do the Flyers really need another 6-foot-1 defenseman who could be solid offensively but most likely is just another guy?
The fit just doesn’t make sense unless Cam York is part of a big trade to get a No. 1 center and then the Flyers bring in Rielly as a veteran replacement that doesn’t really do the same sort of stuff.
We haven’t even mentioned that there are four years left on Rielly’s contract with a $7.5-million AAV. It just doesn’t jive with what Danny Briere is trying to do here, and if he even thinks about acquiring Rielly as just some sort of mid-level replacement of someone, it would be an extremely hard sell.
Rasmus Andersson
After reaching the Stanley Cup Final with the Golden Knights, and having previously talked about how he only wants to sign a contract with Vegas even when he was a member of the Calgary Flames, it’s hard to see Rasmus Andersson potentially reaching free agency. But, it ultimately isn’t his call and the Golden Knights just might not have enough cap space to fit him in.
So, should Andersson reach free agency, it just feels like a disaster waiting to happen for the Flyers.
He’s a 6-foot-1, right-handed blueliner that is about to turn 30 years old this fall. Andersson just feels like the right piece to fit in with a certain blue line, but it doesn’t feel right for that to be in Philadelphia. Jamie Drysdale can do a lot of what he brings — maybe the only thing is not having the history of being successful on the power play — and if we need a Ristolainen replacement, it most likely won’t be Andersson.
Ultimately, the Flyers should just stay away from everything to do with Rasmus Andersson this summer. They don’t really need some guy looking for his big payday right now and especially when he doesn’t really solve a big problem. Just bad vibes if they went out and handed his defenseman a seven-year, $60-million contract on July 1.
Darren Raddysh
In the same vein: Darren Raddysh.
While he does fit a little bit more of what the Flyers need, in the sense that he is a man who has a big shot from the point and produced extremely well on the power play next to Nikita Kucherov, Raddysh is going to cash in big for his insane 70-point breakout season. The 30-year-old blueliner is also just 6-foot-1, and doesn’t really have a whole lot else going for him than a season that no one saw coming.
Some team who views him as their final missing piece on the blue line is going to give him the contract he wants, and it just can’t be the Flyers. As much as it would be nice to have someone who is capable of scoring 22 goals from the back and having someone with his offense out there, it just has the immense feeling of a contract that some poor team is going to want to get rid of in three year’s time.
It’s the same complaints as Andersson but the Swedish guy has a much longer track record. It’s just not the time for the Flyers to go for this. If it’s someone like John Carlson, who is much older but is going to sign for fewer years and provide the same things on the ice? Then there might be a fit there. But to get someone looking for their big contract, it shouldn’t be in Philadelphia.
Darnell Nurse
And speaking of big contracts, maybe the prime candidate to sprint away from any trade conversation involving this defenseman, is Darnell Nurse of the Edmonton Oilers.
Nurse is under contract for four more seasons with a cap hit of $9.25 million. And what is the special thing that he does where he earns that amount? Well, actually there’s nothing.
The 31-year-old is coming off of a 24-point campaign in which he played every single game for the Oilers and has never scored more than 43 points in the season. He’s not some power-play specialist, or even a guy you can trust to matchup against the top line of the opposing team. There’s a reason why the Oilers might trade Nurse despite them needing defensive help — he just isn’t working out for them and most likely won’t work out for another team.
There is a world where he has a Seth Jones-esque turnaround. If the Oilers retain some salary to make his contract more palatable, and he’s in the right system that takes advantage of his physical tools as a 6-foot-4, 215-pound blueliner, then maybe it can work. But for the Flyers, Nurse feels like someone that would barely replace Nick Seeler at this point. Especially with Cam York and Travis Sanheim also on the left side.
If for some reason Briere thinks that Nurse could be that all-around blueliner they need, and convince the Oilers to retain a whole lot of that salary, and then move Sanheim to the right side after trading away Rasmus Ristolainen — it’s not hard to imagine something working out there. But what does that even accomplish? Does it make the Flyers better? Not really. Does it make the Flyers tougher to play against? Nope.
It just doesn’t fit and again, the Flyers need to avoid even thinking about acquiring this player.
