The Philadelphia Flyers have struck out on a large portion of what they wanted to get done in the first few weeks of the NHL offseason, but there is a big possibility of them reuniting with longtime franchise legend Claude Giroux in free agency. It all makes sense. The Flyers could use a player like him — a faceoff specialist, someone who won’t want anything more than a one-year deal, a very solid playdriver, and someone great on a power play — but now they’re going to face some competition.
Maybe the downside of them now wanting Giroux after a couple days of free agency being open, is that the 38-year-old veteran is actually one of the better forwards still on the market. The free agency pool was shallow to begin with but now the Flyers don’t really have the upper hand on a reunion, as other teams start to poke around and try to bring him in.
According to Edmonton Oilers insider Bob Stauffer, they are expected to enter the conversation. And furthermore, Jeff Marek reported on Friday’s episode of The Sheet, that there is mutual interest from the player and the team to explore a contract.
Uh oh.
Flyers competing against the Oilers for Giroux’s signature
While there are some fans out there that don’t really want this reunion to happen, there is no doubt that adding a player of Giroux’s talents makes the team better. He could lift up the power play (just like he did for several years) and really bring a level of offensive depth to this team that is fairly dependable. Maybe he can then go ahead and teach the young guys like Porter Martone, Denver Barkey, and Matvei Michkov all the little tricks that has kept him a productive player for almost 20 years in the league.
Add in that he would take an extremely short-term deal, so no commitment, and he would cost no assets but a couple million bucks on the cap, and that’s just a good addition. Then throw in all the emotions of the Flyers bringing their longtime captain back after they just went back to the playoffs and have an exciting roster filled to the brim of young talent that are just taking their first steps in the NHL, and that’s just a good story.
Well, a good story and being a depth winger on a team most likely on the playoff bubble can only go so far.
In came the Oilers to ruin our good time and entice Giroux with possibly winning a Stanley Cup.
While Edmonton did not look like that caliber of team at all last season, the moves they made in just the last few days have really solidified them as potentially coming out of the Western Conference. The goaltending is always a risk with Tristan Jarry and they only added more risk with Frederik Andersen and Devon Levi, but there’s higher potential there for sure.
On defense, Connor Murphy and Ryan Shea are great additions to help out those questionable goaltenders. And then of course the forward group is going to be top heavy, but any lineup with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in it has the potential to win a lot of games. Giroux might just see that there are jobs open on the wing — no one other than Zach Hyman is really guaranteed anything on the wing. Giroux could easily end up next to McDavid and never leave his side for the entire season just because of how good he is, and he would certainly score more points in that situation than maybe reuniting with Sean Couturier or being next to fellow playmaker Trevor Zegras, or something.
Would not shock anyone if Giroux chose Edmonton
Given the on-ice situations, it certainly feels like Giroux should be leaning to the Oilers. Especially given the fact that we don’t even know where the former captain could play in this lineup right now. With so many wingers, Giroux might rather go and try to win an actual Stanley Cup after 19 years of failing to do so; instead of being a middle-six winger on a team that will certainly be in the mix but no one knows if they can win another playoff round.
The Oilers’ path to the Cup is guarded by one single Golden Knight and them maybe hoping an injured Avalanche is easy to hop over. The Flyers’ path to the Cup is trying to crawl out from a bar brawl unscathed just enough to then try to avoid getting pulverized by whoever comes out of the Atlantic. If it’s all about the ring, then the choice is fairly easy.
We’ll have to see where this goes but we might have to settle ourselves back down and come to the realization that the storybook dream might be over.
