It certainly seems like the NHL trade market is more active than ever this early into a season. Typically, we have to wait around until the year on the calendar changes to see any moves or even rumors that feel more concrete. This season, we have already seen the Penguins ship off Lars Eller to the Capitals, the Leafs part ways with young Timothy Liljegren, and many other but more minor trades.
So, when a national reporter such as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman decides to make an effort and speculate about a trade that could take place in the future, our ears have perked up more than normal.
On Thursday morning’s written edition of 32 Thoughts, in one of the very first thoughts he has in the blog, Friedman writes about Philadelphia Flyers center Morgan Frost being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks.
4. Player-team that seem a match: Morgan Frost and Chicago. Frost didn’t play Wednesday against Carolina, the fourth game of the last five he’s watched from the press box. He’s not a complainer, prefers to keep any displeasure behind closed doors, but players want to play. Obviously, any dance needs partners who deal, but the Blackhawks, in dire need of centres, are one team that makes sense for him.
-Elliotte Friedman, 32 Thoughts
Now, that’s something.
The writing has been on the wall for an eventual Morgan Frost trade for some time. The 25-year-old center has been in and out of the lineup this season and certainly does not play the way that head coach John Tortorella wants to see out there on the ice. And with his numbers dwindling as he heads to restricted free agency, the Flyers might just want to move on in the middle of this transitional season.
They’re figuring out what they have in a bunch of their young talent — Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Cam York, Joel Farabee — and someone will eventually get moved from that group.
And, as Friedman points out, a trade to a team like the Chicago Blackhawks makes sense. That team might be even more desperate for centers than the Flyers (hard to believe), and they want to make that next step with Connor Bedard and their collection of first-round prospects coming into their own in the NHL or are just on the cusp of making it in the next couple of years.
Frost can be that older-but-still-young-enough type of forward that might just give them a solid foundation as they fill their lineup with inexperience. And the Blackhawks could certainly give up just what we think a Frost trade could look like. It wouldn’t be expensive for them. They own the Toronto Maple Leafs’ first-rounder (that feels unattainable) but they do have their own and the Dallas Stars’ second-round picks. Getting what should be a top-50 pick in the upcoming 2025 NHL Draft for a player that could be at risk of not even being qualified this summer, should be good enough for both parties.
The only concern about doing this in the middle of the season is what the Flyers’ lineup looks like without Frost. They have been playing without him, of course, but if Sean Couturier goes down with an injury, are we suddenly looking at this teams’ four centers being Scott Laughton, Noah Cates, Ryan Poehling, and Anthony Richard? That is definitely a team aiming for a top pick in the upcoming draft.
It just all depends on what the risk and what the reward is for this move, but Frost certainly feels like he is halfway out the door at this point.
