The Philadelphia Flyers have already been active during this trade deadline season after trading defenseman Sean Walker to the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday afternoon, but they might not be done.
According to at least one source, the Flyers are getting involved in trade rumors surrounding Ottawa Senators defenseman Jakob Chychrun.
On March 6, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on The Jeff Marek Show that the star defenseman might be someone who the Flyers explore ahead of the March 8 trade deadline as they try and rebuild their team with focus on the blue line.
“There’s something interesting going on here, and I kind of wonder if Chychrun could be on Philadelphia’s radar,” Friedman said. One of his talking points for that was his father, Jeff, playing 199 games with the Flyers. He also believes that there are “people in the organization” that know him well.
Where there is smoke, there might be fire.
Chychrun will be 26 years old by the end of his 2023-24 campaign. In 59 games so far this season, the left-shot defender has nine goals and 22 assists for 31 points and a minus-15 rating for the Senators. He is averaging 22:36 minutes of ice time.
In terms of salary cap implications, he has two seasons left on his $4.6 million cap-hit contract. The Flyers can make the salary cap work in several ways, including sending a player to the Senators, putting someone like Ryan Ellis and his $6.25 million contract on Long-Term Injured Reserve, or making another trade to shimmy their way around the cap balance. For a player of his caliber, Chychrun is not making that much money but should be in for a significant raise in pay once his contract is up in 2025.
If the Flyers could get someone of Chychrun’s status, they’d have acquired a potential long-term fix to their defense. He can play anywhere in the top-four as he frequents both the left and right side, and he’d make Philadelphia’s defense pretty formidable for years to come. He should have several more years of elite play under his belt.
Now, a trade would take a lot. He was acquired by the Senators back during last season’s trade deadline for what ended up being the 12th-overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and two second-round draft picks, one in 2024 and the other in 2026. Things change from year-to-year, but that’s more or less the market the Flyers would be looking at.
Would trading for Chychrun be worth it? There would likely be a lot of suitors around the NHL, especially with his affordable cap hit. If the Flyers were in on him, they’d have to really want his services. With the Walker trade and acquiring other high-end future assets, the Flyers at least have some draft capital to spend if they want to go that route to get the young blueliner in Philadelphia.
As it stands, Nick Seeler, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Jamie Drysdale are all on injured reserve, while Sean Walker was traded to the Colorado Avalanche. The Flyers have a short-term hole on their defense, so a trade at this point would be logical both for this season and the future.
