The Philadelphia Flyers could be as busy as they want to be this summer. While nothing is desperately needed outside of getting some key restricted free agents in Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale signed to new contracts, general manager Danny Briere has some options before him and there could be a whole lot of action (or none at all).
One move that the Flyers might be slightly pushed to do is trade a winger. And if we are reading the tea leaves of recent trade rumors, it certainly seems like there is a whole lot of interest specifically in one winger: Owen Tippett.
Tippett has received interest from other teams, such as the Boston Bruins, not too long ago, and a team like that might start calling Briere again this summer. But there is one team of note that is reportedly getting involved in the Tippett trade talks and that is the Edmonton Oilers.
Is Owen Tippett the long-term solution for Connor McDavid’s wing?
In an article from earlier this week, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta wrote about how the Oilers are going to be hot in pursuit of a top-six winger that they can pair next to Connor McDavid and to add some supplementary scoring.
That has been a topic conversation ever since McDavid stepped foot in Edmonton: Just who is going to play with this guy? Who can be his Chris Kunitz to Sidney Crosby? His Jari Kurri to Wayne Gretzky? There have been brief stints with some wingers like Zach Hyman that has worked out well, but it always feels like McDavid is dragging them to his level instead of it being more of a two-way street.
Now, could Owen Tippett be that guy? According to Pagnotta, there is some trade chatter that the Oilers are heavily targeting the 27-year-old Flyers winger.
“Jeff Marek recently suggested Blues winger Jordan Kyrou may be a target for the Oilers, while some whispers also suggest Philadelphia Flyers winger Owen Tippett, who was fiercely banged up during the playoffs, is also on Edmonton’s radar,” Pagnotta wrote.
Tippett is coming off of a very good season for the Flyers. He tied his career-high with 28 goals and earned 51 points in 81 games while averaging 16:51 time-on-ice. But beyond the statistics, Tippett looked so much more engaged physically and defensively. He never really disappeared for long stretches like he has throughout his seasons in Philadelphia. Instead, if he wasn’t scoring he was sacrificing his body by running into dudes along the boards and just being an actual impact player off the puck as much as on it.
Add the fact that he’s signed until 2032 at just a $6.2-million AAV and there’s a whole lot to like about what Tippett brings to the table.
That’s a useful player and obviously the Oilers noticed. Unfortunately for them, they actually need to give some stuff up to get Tippett on their roster.
Do the Oilers even have enough to acquire Tippett?
The confusing thing with all of this talk about Owen Tippett and Jordan Kyrou as solutions in Edmonton, is that the Oilers are basically bankrupt in terms of assets that they are willing to part ways with.
The Oilers do not have their next two first-round picks, their prospect pool has zero people of actual interest, and on their NHL roster it’s a bunch of players they actually need to keep if they want to be good and a bunch of bums. Edmonton can’t even be parting ways with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — namely because he has a no movement clause but he is a massive piece of their scoring depth.
Specifically for the Flyers, there might be nothing of interest on the Oilers roster. Are the Flyers really trading Owen Tippett for a banged-up Mattias Ekholm? Of course not. Jake Walman is signed to a wild contract extension, and the Oilers are certainly not moving Evan Bouchard any time soon, obviously. So that’s no defensemen of note.
And at forward, the interesting young guys are two underperforming wingers in Ike Howard and Matthew Savoie and then a bunch of veterans to go along with their stars. It might be the worst collection of assets to try and get something from the Flyers.
Maybe some other team can fall in love with Howard and view him as a top-six winger eventually, but the Flyers don’t need that.
The pairing of the player and the two teams feels impossible to figure out and probably for good reason. This is just isn’t going to happen, no matter how interested the Oilers are in Tippett. The Flyers aren’t going to want any future draft picks just for him to light it up next to McDavid for rest of the decade and make them look foolish to move him just because they had too many wingers at one point.
So for now, we can say that Tippett is likely not heading to Edmonton. Somewhere else though? If the other team can send a young center or top-four defensemen to Philadelphia? That feels like an actual possibility.
