The Philadelphia Flyers were quiet leading up to the deadline, but just minutes before—and a little bit after the 3:00 p.m. cutoff—they made a couple moves to shuffle around their current roster.
After signing Scott Laughton to a five-year extension and sending Erik Gustafsson to the Montreal Canadiens, they have traded away forward Michael Raffl to the Washington Capitals.
The #caps are getting Michael Raffl from Philadelphia.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) April 12, 2021
The return is reportedly a fifth-round pick.
Raffl, 32, is in the final year of his two-year contract with a cap hit of $1.6 million AAV and is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. And with more young talent such as Tanner Laczynski and Wade Allison coming up from Lehigh Valley, his spot in the lineup needed to be emptied to see what the Flyers have in their future prospects.
The Austrian winger is joining a Capitals team that is trying to push for another significant run for the Stanley Cup and see a clear opportunity to be the team coming out of the East Division. He will certainly take up the role on their fourth-line or as the extra forward for important matches.
Ever since signing with the Flyers back in 2013, he’s been a constant presence in their lineup and the depth forward has scored 81 goals and 160 points through 504 games played.
