The NHL trade deadline has come and gone. All the rampant speculation about what the Philadelphia Flyers could do before 3:00 p.m. on Friday has been now boiled down to what happened and what did not. The transactions have been finalized.
We won’t have another trade made by the Flyers until the season around the 2026 NHL Draft in a few months — technically, they would be able to make a trade during the playoffs if they’re not a part of them, but that rarely happens. We only have what the Flyers were able to squeeze in before the trade deadline to judge them on and what they can potentially do in the future, and try to get little inklings on how far this Flyers team is from regularly appearing in the postseason.
With that in mind, in the most classic blogger way, let’s give a letter grade to each move Flyers general manager Danny Briere did on deadline day.
Bobby Brink for David Jiricek, one for one
It was certainly the biggest trade of the day and a move that shifted the narrative of the Flyers’ season from keeping around Christian Dvorak on a not-very-favorable contract, to fixing one of the team’s biggest problems and taking one step closer to bringing in that top talent.
A trade like this was always going to happen. The Flyers had way too many wingers — especially with the arrival of Denver Barkey and the eventual return of Tyson Foerster in mind — and probably still do, but general manager Danny Briere cleared some of that logjam by moving 24-year-old Bobby Brink out for former sixth-overall pick defenseman David Jiricek from the Minnesota Wild.
This move is something that might end up looking bad without that context. Brink was way down the depth chart in Philadelphia and almost everyone should agree that the likes of Tyson Foerster, Matvei Michkov, and Travis Konecny are a tier above him, and the step forward that Owen Tippett has taken this season should also put him there. And then add in Porter Martone needing a spot when he turns pro (as soon as the end of this season) and Brink is already on the way out with Barkey’s involvement as well. It’s a numbers game, as we all know.
But, the Wild are desperate for someone of Brink’s talents. In his first game with Minnesota, he was playing on the second line with Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy, two extremely talented two-way players who should complement Brink’s newfound forechecking game perfectly well. It would not surprise us if he became a regular 55-point middle-six winger with this opportunity with the Wild, that he was never going to get with the Flyers.
And why that might look bad for the Flyers is the fact that in return, they’re getting a project. David Jiricek has potential to be an offensively charged top-four defenseman with a shade of Dougie Hamilton since he has that booming shot from the point and has a similar frame. But, there has been zero of that potential on display in his NHL opportunities. Jiricek needs a whole lot of work on his skating and defensive awareness — luckily those are two areas of the game the Flyers have proved that they can fix in defensemen.
It should be a trade that remains unjudged for a couple years, because it is likely we’ll be seeing Brink put up career-best numbers very soon and Jiricek will be still trying to carve out a regular NHL spot.
For that reason, it doesn’t get an overwhelmingly great grade but it gets something that has the potential to be better. It was a move that was needed and taking on a 22-year-old former top prospect instead of getting some decent draft pick and banking on that player contributing to your team a few years from now, is probably the right call when it comes to trading Brink, anyways.
Grade: B
Nic Deslauriers to the Hurricanes
While Nic Deslauriers been the target of some frustration from Flyers fans, as he was signed by Chuck Fletcher to an immediately wild four-year contract, he’s quickly turned around to becoming a fan favorite by the end of his Philadelphia tenure. The last of a dying breed of pure enforcers was able to stay on a team that appreciated his talents.
And as a pending unrestricted free agent, was for some reason sent off to go and potentially get a Stanley Cup ring with the Carolina Hurricanes. He might not play in a whole lot of games, and should get very familiar with the press box in Raleigh, but will get to truly experience the highs and lows of playoff hockey on a team that is a top contender to come out of the Eastern Conference.
You can’t hate on a move like this, even if the Flyers literally got nothing back.
Grade: B+
AHL trade with the Bruins
Okay, now we’re getting into the weeds. It feels a little bad that we can’t go and dive deep into something very cool that happened with the Flyers at the trade deadline, but instead we’re actually spending some time thinking about this trade.
The Flyers moved two AHL forwards in Massimo Rizzo and Alexis Gendron, and got back two other AHL forwards in Jackson Edward and Brett Harrison from the Boston Bruins.
It’s a little disheartening to see Gendron go, as the diminutive winger was a real success story for the development staff, bringing him up from the QMJHL, scoring loads in juniors and then managing to actually bring that shot to pro hockey and he scored 20 goals in his first full season with the Phantoms. He’s a blog favorite, basically.
But this is a nothing trade, so how can we really go one way or the other?
Grade: C+
Not trading Rasmus Ristolainen
It’s a tough pill to swallow. We bought into all the reports that were getting louder and louder and louder that the Flyers were getting interest in Rasmus Ristolainen from several teams around the league, and assumed he was going to be moved. It almost came to a point where it felt like a guarantee — especially after the acquisition of David Jiricek hours before the trade deadline.
But nothing came to be. It felt shocking in the moment and still is very disappointing even after Danny Briere spoke publicly as to why there was no trade, saying that he was going to stick to his price no matter what and he was never truly “shopping” Ristolainen.
While saying that, there were several moves made by other teams to get their own large, right-handed defenseman and were paying bounties of first-round picks to do that. So, it feels a little bad.
But, it does take two teams to actually make a trade work. Playoff teams need healthy players and Ristolainen does not have a good injury track record, so teams could’ve been scared off. Or, he was seen as an unproven player without any playoff experience and the likes of Cup-winner Luke Schenn and Justin Faulk would more than have the upper hand in that.
We’ll never know what the actual offers were and if we would’ve found it smart to just take them and be happy that Ristolainen’s contract is off the books and a spot is cleared up for one of Bonk or Jiricek to take as soon as next season. But even knowing that, it feels like a missed opportunity no matter what. While it’s not official and it’s just a guess, but most Flyers fans would have been happy to see him go for anything resembling a second-round pick. Everything else was a bonus.
But, that didn’t happen. It’s not a failure because a part of us understands the difficulty of moving a player on a perceived low value and potentially ruining future trades, but also, it’s Rasmus Ristolainen.
Grade: D
