As the NHL enters a new economic period and its franchises sort out the best practices, the ground feels unsteady underfoot. Across the board, a league that has largely operated in a flat or minimally growing labor market now has franchises flush with cap space. For the first time in the salary cap era, teams have significantly more leeway to maneuver.
So far, this has manifested in extensions. While players like Jack Eichel and Connor McDavid were longshots to reach unrestricted free agency this upcoming summer, a player a few tiers below like Adrian Kempe (8 years/$10.625 million) shows that even those who could’ve headlined a free agent class might not get to July 1st anymore.
There are two conflicting schools of thought about what the league’s new found liquidity will do to labor. On one hand, depth players can stay on better teams because there’s more money to throw around. On the other, there’s more money than ever in the system and whoever’s brave enough to make it to July 1st will be rewarded with a bidding war.
In the interim, this development is forcing NHL teams to take stock of where they sit in the league’s pecking order. More than ever, if a franchise doesn’t have its own in-house superstar, it feels even more elusive. Beyond sliding into one of the top three spots in the draft and punting on an entire season, the trade market is murky.
As we sit here in March of 2026, even the Philadelphia Flyers are unsure of what’s to come on the horizon. Team President Keith Jones was rather candid in his comments assessing the upcoming free agent class as effectively a wash, meaning that the Flyers aren’t going to spend just for the sake of spending.
Naturally, this would mean a pivot to the trade market. Unlike the NBA or NFL where star players are public in their displeasure with team situations, the NHL is still in the nascent stages of players leveraging their way to more desirable landing spots. That means trade markets materialize quickly and suitors need to be ready to strike when the iron is hot.
Of course, that presupposes a team has the assets the market demands. We’ve seen a bevy of star player trades over the last half decade to serve as a model for understanding what prices should be.
Quinn Hughes: Age 26, 1 year left at $7.85 million AAV
The most recent trade on this list was Olympic Gold Medalist and perennial Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes going to the Minnesota Wild earlier this season. Over the last half decade, the eldest Hughes brother has cemented himself as one of the league’s two best defenseman and is a franchise tier player.
At 26 years old, Hughes was still two years away from unrestricted free agency when the Wild acquired him back in December. The Wild in effect were getting a season and a half to let Hughes audition them as a long term landing spot. Minnesota hasn’t won a playoff series in 11 years, their general manager Bill Guerin absolutely feels the heat to win at the moment and pushed his chips in.
The Wild traded defenseman Zeev Buium, winger Liam Ohgren, center Marco Rossi and a 2026 1st round pick to acquire Hughes.
Buium was the Wild’s number one prospect and Ohgren the team’s number three prospect according to The Athletic’s prospect rankings from before the start of the 2025-2026 season. In addition, Rossi is a 24 year old forward drafted ninth overall back in 2020 with more than 200 games of NHL experience at a .578 points per game clip.
The Wild gutted their prospect pool in acquiring Hughes and still are no lock to advance beyond the first round. With a looming matchup against the Dallas Stars in the first round on the horizon, Guerin’s big gamble is still just that, a gamble. If the Wild get to the mid-way point of next season and still haven’t agreed to an extension with Hughes, do not be surprised if Minnesota tries to recoup some assets and deals Hughes.
Mikko Rantanen (To Dallas): Age 28, Pending UFA
The first of two Mikko Rantanen deals to evaluate, the Stars themselves tired of losing in the conference finals went nuts last year. Jim Nill has won multiple GM of the year awards during his 15 plus year tenure in Dallas and managed to build multiple competitive cores in that window of time.
Rantanen, as a pending unrestricted free agent, had sufficiently spooked both the Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche that he might go to market that both teams opted to trade the talented winger last season. Rantanen, a former Stanley Cup Champion and holder of a 1.09 points per game ledger in the NHL is on a borderline Hall of Fame career trajectory.
The parameters for enshrinement may change as the game skews more towards offense, but historically, a forward that produces at over a point per game clip and records 1000 points is almost a lock.
To acquire Rantanen’s services, the Stars traded 1st round picks in 2026 and 2028, 3rd round picks in 2026 and 2027 as well as forward Logan Stankoven to the Hurricanes the week of the 2025 NHL trade deadline.
Stankoven instantly became the top ranked prospect in the Hurricanes’ organization and has been a staple of Rod Brind’Amour’s lineup since being acquired. The two first round picks will almost certainly fall into the back half of the first round and the respective third rounders will have about a 10 percent chance of manifesting into 200 game NHL players.
In a vacuum, this is the model of star trade most organizations ready to compete would like to pursue. Only one player off of the roster, Stankoven, and a volume of draft picks, that because of how good the team is, are high variance.
Mikko Rantanen (To Carolina): Age 28, Pending UFA
While both the Avalanche and Rantanen himself have given conflicting accounts about how the negotiations played out, Colorado was able to turn a tough situation into a growth opportunity. Oftentimes, the star player is the greatest market inefficiency in the NHL today. Even if you could moneyball recreate Rantanen’s counting stat production, the cumulative salaries of the replacements would be greater than the individual.
The Hurricanes, unlike the Stars, were not able to get an extension as part of the trade up front. Even without that assurance, Carolina sent forwards Martin Necas and Jack Drury as well as a second round pick in 2025 and a fourth-round pick in 2024 to the Avalanche. In dealing Necas, the Hurricanes were able to turn their own complicated contract situation into a roster addition.
Necas was a top six forward with one point per game season under his belt and Drury a 24 year old with 153 NHL games under his belt. It was a real risk for the Avalanche to deal two players from its every day lineup for a star, especially one that it had no guarantees of a future with. That said, Carolina was able to rebound and move Rantanen on its own a few months later.
While Carolina might not make this move with hindsight, it’s also a pretty solid framework to operate from for other teams.
Matthew Tkachuk: Age 25, Pending RFA
The watershed moment, what should’ve been the firing of a starting gun for mass player movement, Matthew Tkachuk played his restricted free agency perfectly. The former first round pick gave his general manager a list of teams he was willing to accept a trade to and waited.
The Florida Panthers gave up a down ballot Hart Trophy finalist in Jonathan Huberdeau, a top four defenseman in MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwind and a 2025 1st round pick to get Tkachuk. That’s an eye-watering bundle of assets to send outward, especially from a Panthers team that’d struggled to break through a glass ceiling. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, the Panthers would give up even more if that’s what it took to get Tkachuk.
The older Tkachuk brother is one of the era’s defining players. The two time Stanley Cup champion and Olympic Gold Medalist is a 1.18 points per game player in the regular season as a Panther. In the postseason, which Florida has made all three seasons with Tkachuk so far, the forward has registered 1.03 points per game.
On the flip side, Huberdeau’s contract is one of the great albatrosses in the league today. The Flames dealt Weegar to Utah Mammoth earlier this season as Calgary’s rebuild enters its fourth season of denial.
Jack Eichel: Age 25, 5 Years at $10 million AAV
The Jack Eichel trade, similarly to the Tkachuk deal, was a massive win for player empowerment. Eichel, drafted second overall in 2015, was dealing with a lingering neck injury. The center sought to replace an injured disk in his neck with a synthetic disk and the Sabres wanted Eichel to rehab the injury. This eventually bubbled over into the Sabres cutting their losses and dealing the Boston University product to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Vegas sent Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs as well as a first round pick in 2022 and a second rounder in 2023 to the Sabres in exchange for Eichel. Tuch to that point in his career was a 24 year old that’d recorded a rate of .54 points per game. Krebs had all of 13 NHL games under his belt but was a former 1st round draft choice.
Since getting dealt to Vegas, Eichel has won a Stanley Cup and an Olympic Gold Medal while solidifying himself as one of the ten best centers in the game. The Sabres got a top six forward in Tuch and a middle sixer in Krebs for a franchise caliber player. It was never going to end well trading a disgruntled star because it lacked leverage to command more, especially because of Eichel’s medical situation.
With Eichel also having five years of commitment, the Golden Knights threw some caution to the wind but trusted modern medicine. They seem pretty happy with their decision.
What it means for the Flyers
The good news for the Flyers is that they have a pretty full coffer of draft picks. NHL teams often prefer prospects to picks because they are closer to making an immediate impact. Personally, I’ve always preferred the liquidity of draft picks as opposed to trusting my amateur/pro scouting to nail evaluations from a distance.
There’s an underbelly to the trade market that not enough NHL teams take seriously. Your scouts can be good at their jobs and watch a player in person dozens of times but understanding how they translate to an entirely new environment is a different ball game.
Philadelphia has an extra first round pick in 2027 from the Toronto Maple Leafs which very well might end up being a quality selection.
But, beyond draft picks, the Flyers have some flexibility in their prospect pool. Philadelphia has made 26 selections over the last three entry drafts and by sheer volume alone have options. Throw in the fact that a few of their selections in that window have shown promise and the team has considerable capital in the trade market.
Going into the 2025-2026 season, The Athletic ranked the Flyers top 10 prospects:
- Matvei Michkov
- Porter Martone
- Jack Nesbit
- Oliver Bonk
- Yegor Zavragin
- Jett Luchanko
- Jack Berglund
- Shane Vanshagi
- Jack Murtagh
- Matthew Gard
Of that cohort, I’d venture to say that only Michkov wouldn’t be available in the right trade. While the Flyers once again find themselves in the league’s mushy middle and not particularly close to winning a Stanley Cup, an integral part of building a contender is making a move when it presents itself.
There is never going to be an absolutely perfect moment to execute a trade. The Flyers simply can’t wait to assemble a perfect core, then wait for a star player to become available.
As soon as this summer, the Flyers could see a trade market where Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars, both Auston Matthews and William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators could be on the move. While the Flyers undoubtedly need more to compliment any star player it acquires, should one seriously entertain the idea of the Flyers as a landing spot, this is not the time to prospect hug.
The Flyers as a rebuilding team have had ample time to build up their asset pool. Ideally it’d be a bit further along than it is after three seasons with Danny Briere at the helm, but it could absolutely be sped up with a star player.
Philadelphia doesn’t have the best prospect pool in the league. But, it does have enough assets to get in the mix. Star players don’t become available often and it’s the single biggest hole in the Flyers’ rebuilding process so far. Michkov might be a future star and he’s shown glimmers, Trevor Zegras is bouncing back nicely after a change of scenery, but two pieces alone do not make a new core.
It’s time for the Flyers to be bold and take advantage of the market should it materialize.
