Welcome to RANKED. Each week we will be ranking players, moments and anything else we can think of, hockey or not. This week, we’re ranking current Flyers based on how likely they are going to be traded by the trade deadline on March 8.
The NHL trade deadline is coming fast and furious and the Philadelphia Flyers are at the center of it. With multiple players potentially getting dealt and this 23-man roster looking quite different on the other side of March 8, there should be at least a couple transactions to analyze and think about for months to come in the next few weeks.
Obviously, to have transactions you need players and those players need to be involved in trade rumors and those trade rumors need to have different levels of likelihood.
With that in mind, let’s just go ahead and rank the seven members of the Flyers who have had their name in some trade rumors for mid-season transactions from very likely and that dude is definitely going to be finding himself on a different team by March 9, or that rumor is a bunch of crap and they’re going to stay in Philadelphia.
7) Travis Konecny
If we decided to put this list together several months ago — hell, just a few months ago — Konecny might have found himself higher up on the ranking. But considering the Flyers just named him as an alternate captain as they reshaped their leadership group to have Sean Couturier at the top, and not make Scott Laughton (more on that later) the only player with a letter, it feels like the gutsy winger is going to be sticking around.
He is eligible for a new contract extension (and a massive pay raise) on July 1, and we should probably expect an announcement to happen the moment the clock turns over. There’s nothing else that needs to be said, Konecny is currently a Flyer in every sense of the word and he will continue being a Flyer. Maybe even for the rest of his career.
6) Morgan Frost
Similar to Konecny’s situation, the young center Frost was much more likely to be dealt at a different time of the season. But after the now-legendary discussion with head coach John Tortorella that seemingly made him respect the 24-year-old forward a little bit more, Frost has embedded himself into Philadelphia’s short-term plans.
Maybe there is a move somewhere down the line, because the team is still not sure if he could be the middle-six center on a Stanley Cup-contending team, but before the trade deadline in a few weeks? No. This team is already shallow down the middle and considering another center that could be on the move, we do not want to be coming out of the deadline with Ryan Poehling as the second-line center (love you, though).
5) Marc Staal
Out of all the pending unrestricted free agents, Marc Staal feels the least likely to be moved by the trade deadline. And it’s not because he is so crucial to the success of this team or plays an important role, but it’s just balancing the return to what they would take away.
The Flyers are going to most likely trade away at least one defenseman from the blue line, and potentially more than that. They need at least some veteran presence out there. And, considering that they signed him to be an experienced leader around the team, to then trade him away during a potential run into a very interesting postseason, would be just a weird thing to do. Would all of that be worth the sixth-round pick they would get from some other random team? Probably not.
4) Rasmus Ristolainen
For some reason, out of every player on this list, Rasmus Ristolainen feels the most likely to be dealt at anytime, but not by the trade deadline. His timeline doesn’t fit with the current Flyers, and with plenty of young defensemen needing a spot, it makes a world of sense to deal out Ristolainen after rehabbing his reputation like the Flyers have this season.
Compound his substantial contract — he is signed through the 2026-27 season at a cap hit of $5.1 million — with a current injury with an undefined timeline, the likelihood of him being traded by the deadline is so uncertain. Like we said, it does feel like this will happen eventually, but the 29-year-old defender might just have to wait to find a new home. If the injury is nothing and he could return well before any potential playoff run, then it’s a bonus to the Flyers (who will need him with other defensemen being traded) or his new team.
Everything is just too cloudy to really get a grasp on a potential Ristolainen trade.
3) Nick Seeler
Despite Philadelphia and the Flyers themselves falling in love with Nick Seeler, he still finds himself in the top-three of this subjective ranking. There is no contract extension done yet, but there are plenty of rumors of the Flyers trying to keep him on the team, but Seeler does feel like someone some other playoff team would want so bad and offer a deal the Flyers couldn’t refuse.
Plus, with an established chemistry with Sean Walker on the ice, as was reported earlier, some teams have asked the Flyers about the idea of acquiring both of those pending free agent defensemen and just taking an entire third of the Flyers’ blue line before the deadline.
If it isn’t linked with Walker, Seeler does still feel like he will be dealt for something like a solid draft pick or a prospect who is stuck behind a logjam on their current team. Some team will buy into his toughness, especially with no strings attached.
2) Scott Laughton
We love Scott Laughton. Everyone loves Scott Laughton. We will miss Scott Laughton. But, the writing is on the wall in the heaviest permanent marker known to man. With a reasonable contract that will keep him around for three playoff runs on his potential new team and his reputation as a strong leader who can rally even the weakest of locker rooms, it does seem like he will be traded by the deadline.
In a vacuum, he is just the type of player that fetches a decent haul for being who he is and that is why the Flyers will trade him. But the context that the Flyers named Couturier captain and Konecny alternate captain before the trade deadline, so that if they lose Laughton they are not caught with zero players with letters, is not nothing.
It just feels that Laughton will be gone within the next couple of weeks, and if not then, then certainly this summer.
1) Sean Walker
This is an easy one. Despite recent reports that the Flyers and Walker’s agent have had discussions about a new contract — this is just gathering the information of what they want for their next deal and that information is good to have in negotiations — considering that it is not done yet, Walker is most certainly going to be traded.
If the Flyers really want to veer into not fully trading everyone mid-season, waiting for the summer to make these rebuilding changes, and trying their best at proving everyone wrong in the postseason, they will at least trade the expiring contract that could net them a decent return. That is the easiest move and the most straightforward player to move.
It’s not like we’re emotionally attached to Walker, and we will not feel the pain we will feel when Laughton is wearing a different sweater. It is an easy buy-low-to-sell-high scenario and now they just need to do the second half of that, even if the offers aren’t blowing their minds. The player loves Philadelphia, but the blue line is about to get crowded very soon and he is not detrimental to the team.
