The Philadelphia Flyers have already made a couple mid-season deals but they have officially dipped their toes in the water on trade deadline day.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Flyers have traded freshly acquired winger Andrei Kuzmenko to the Los Angeles Kings.
Sounds like Andrei Kuzmenko from PHI to LA
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 7, 2025
There is no word yet on any other parts of the deal, but it sounds like Kuzmenko is heading to California.
Kuzmenko, 29, was originally acquired as a quasi cap dump from the Calgary Flames in the trade that sent Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee to Alberta. His contract that carries a $5.5 million AAV is expiring at the end of this season and he will be heading to unrestricted free agency this summer.
There is no word yet on whether or not the Flyers are retaining any of Kuzmenko’s salary to accommodate this trade to Los Angeles, but considering the Kings have approximately $4.4 million in deadline cap space right now, they are not able to take on the player’s full contract. Either the Flyers are receiving a player back in the trade, or there is salary retention.
And with the Kings, Kuzmenko is certainly giving something they have lacked this season: Scoring depth. He might not be the best option out there, but with the Flyers he certainly performed enough in his short stint to get noticed as the former 39-goal scorer that he is.
Through seven games with Philadelphia, the Russian winger has scored two goals and five points, and has certainly provided a decent offensive jump to the entire team. But, as a pending unrestricted free agent it did not make sense to keep him around and now the Flyers are potentially getting something of value back for a contract that they took on to facilitate an earlier trade.
Stay with Broad Street Hockey through the trade deadline. More to come on this story.
UPDATE
The NHL insiders were quick on this one. Almost immediately, all of the details were laid out.
The Flyers will be receiving a 2027 third-round pick from the Kings in exchange for Andrei Kuzmenko. Additionally, Philadelphia will be retaining 50 percent of the winger’s salary which equates to $2.75 million on the cap for just the rest of this season.
A wonderfully executed flip from general manager Danny Briere. Took on a player with limited value, got him playing in a very good role and scoring some points for just a handful of games, and then got a decent future draft pick and just had to retain on some of his salary to make it work.
The Flyers now have two of their three retention spots taken for — Kevin Hayes is taking up the other one — so they cannot retain on both Scott Laughton’s and Rasmus Ristolainen’s contracts to facilitate a trade before the deadline today.
