The Philadelphia Flyers are in the middle of hosting the New York Islanders but general manager Danny Briere is reportedly working the phones and is close to making a deal with the Calgary Flames. The name we know of at the time of writing that is involved in this potential trade is winger Andrei Kuzmenko, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Philadelphia and Calgary are discussing an Andrei Kuzmenko deal…Kuzmenko held out of Flames lineup tonight.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 31, 2025
Flyers are playing
The 28-year-old winger came over to North America as a free agent, signed with the Vancouver Canucks and had an explosive first season while playing primarily with Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser. Since then, he had a disappointing 22-goal campaign in Vancouver and then was shipped off to Calgary in the middle of last season and has been mostly a non-factor.
In 37 games for the Flames this season, Kuzmenko has scored four goals and 15 points while averaging just 14:49 time on ice. And it’s not like he has just been incredibly unlucky in that production. The Russian winger has just 39 shots on goal and his four goals means a shooting percentage of 10.3 percent — just slightly below average. Compared to his Vancouver days where he almost had two shots on goal per game, it is a steep drop off and he has been seen as not needed whatsoever in Calgary.
Kuzmenko is a pending unrestricted free agent and carries a $5.5-million cap hit. With the Flyers currently having approximately $2.7 million in cap space, there has to be either retention or significant money coming back in the deal. A player could potentially be involved. And that player might be Morgan Frost.
After the second intermission, Frost was nowhere to be seen. The 25-year-old center did not play in the final minutes of the second period and was not seen to be on the bench to start the third period, shortly after the first word of this trade came out.
Notably, also, Kuzmenko and Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov were briefly teammates during the 2021-22 KHL season for SKA St. Petersburg. Maybe a reunion could jumpstart the 28-year-old’s career heading into free agency.
UPDATE:
The full details of the trade have not come out, but what has been reported is that both Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost are on their way to Calgary. In addition to Kuzmenko, it has also been noted that Jakob Pelletier has been pulled from the Flames game and is possibly part of the deal.
The value levels are too far off for it just to be a two-for-two trade, especially from the Flyers’ point of view.
FINAL UPDATE:
The trade has been made official by the the Flyers. They have sent both winger Joel Farabee and center Morgan Frost to the Flames in exchange for Kuzmenko, young winger Jakob Pellieter, the Flames, 2025 second-round pick, and their 2028 seventh-round pick.
TRADE ALERT: We’ve acquired forwards Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier, a 2025 2nd round pick and a 2028 7th round pick from Calgary in exchange for forwards Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost. https://t.co/l8graUmhlE
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 31, 2025
Stay tuned for further analysis on your favorite Flyers website, Broad Street Hockey.
