The Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators have seemingly been talking for weeks now. At first, it appeared to be centered around restricted free agent center Shane Pinto. As Philadelphia attempted to pry a solid young player that is without a contract, out of Canada and have him a part of the timeline with Joel Farabee and Owen Tippett. That did not happen.
Involved in that Pinto rumor was the notion that the Flyers would also be receiving young(ish) winger Mathieu Joseph to relieve some of Ottawa’s finances. Joseph is under contract for three more years and has a cap hit of $2.95 million. That doesn’t seem like that worthy of a cap dump, but considering Jake Sanderson’s massive extension kicks in next season, it would be smart to try and get a player that they aren’t really using all that much, off this team.
And the Flyers would happily do that because Joseph is a decent 26-year-old winger that has demonstrated some scoring touch in the past, but has not gotten much opportunity. Philadelphia is the land of opportunity for a player like that to rejuvenate their career and that is why GM Danny Briere appears to have shifted focus to solely on Joseph.
“I think they’ve been going back and forth with Ottawa about Mathieu Joseph, for one thing I do think Philly likes the player,” Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on the latest episode of the “32 Thoughts” podcast. “I’ve heard that Philly actually sees a role and a use for Joseph there… that’s good news for both Joseph and the Sens.”
This hypothetical deal will not be just an acquisition of Joseph for nothing, because after all it is doing the Senators a favor. According to Friedman, the Flyers already asked for a certain prospect to be included in the deal and as payment for the cap dump, but the Sens said no.
“I don’t have it confirmed so I’m not going to say who it is,” he said. “I do think Philly targeted a specific prospect and Ottawa said no to that. … That’s what Philly has said, look, if you want to do business here, the price is going to be high. We’ll see what Ottawa does.”
Some rumors have already come out that that prospect was former first-rounder Tyler Boucher. Boucher, 20, is making his jump into professional hockey this upcoming season after a couple not very good OHL seasons for a player that was drafted at 10th overall. He is known for his outright punishing physicality, so of course we would be into that, but with a ceiling like his, it would be a really weird choice when something like a second-round pick and the option to choose your own player next June, is a little bit more attractive.
We’ll just have to wait and see if the Flyers are able to pry a good enough player or pick back to make it worth it for taking on Joseph. And this isn’t to say Joseph will be a burden on the roster either, Ottawa just wants those dollars counting towards something else and not to a winger that has to play in its bottom-six.
We absolutely love early-season trade rumors.
