Before I really dig in here, I want to validate your feelings. This team stinks. The on ice product isn’t good enough. The answers from the front office and coaching staff aren’t good enough. We expect more, and truly, we deserve more. We have stuck by this team through so many years of mediocrity that the idea of sitting through another lost season feels like torture.
With that out of the way, the 2021 Trade Deadline is not the answer for this team. There is nothing that can be done at the deadline that is going to make the Flyers better this season and there is very little they can do to help with their unlikely playoff push. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but hear me out. This team needs a top four defenseman, really a top pairing defenseman, and we’re just not going to find that on the trade market this season. That right there is the biggest problem with the team as it stands right now, and it also doesn’t make sense to add a roster cornerstone in the middle of a cursed season. That’s what free agency is for. Or a trade in the offseason. Not mid-season. And certainly not mid-THIS-season when they are going to get the stench of a bottom-feeding team all over them.
I am seeing a lot of people wanting to ship out many players on this team — even going so far as to say they want to tear it all down and start from scratch. Folks, this is also not the answer. A full rebuild, from scratch, takes years. This fanbase doesn’t have the patience remaining in our souls for a full rebuild. The frustration has reached the threshold where we want to see something — anything — happen, but logically, you know you don’t want a full rebuild. So what about a few select members of the core? Or the guys who hover outside the core?
They could do that, sure, if they could find a trade partner. But what is the point? To shake up the team? Ok, but why? This season is lost, why make a move just to make a move? Again, very little can resuscitate this season, so save the moves for the summer. Get the most out of trades and try to go all in next season. Find someone to take some cap space and sign Dougie Hamilton (the dream!). Trade Voracek to Nashville and bring in Ryan Ellis.
I’m not saying Chuck Fletcher shouldn’t try to get draft picks for players that clearly aren’t returning, or even a chicken sammie, but that is just the cherry on top of a poopie pie. It makes us feel better, but it doesn’t actually make a difference.
This is a lot of words to say: give up on this season. It’s cursed from top to bottom. The Fates saw the 2020-21 Flyers and laughed. It is ok that they don’t make the team better — through addition or subtraction — at this trade deadline. What they do in July is what really matters. And that sucks.
