The Philadelphia Flyers are slowly but surely turning things around.
Danny Briere had a tall task ahead of him when he took over as general manager in 2023. There weren’t many blue-chip prospects — if any — to look forward to. The team was full of overpaid, underperforming players that he had to sort through, tearing down most of the roster in the process.
Briere has since made various trades over the past few years, with the Anaheim Ducks being a common partner.
First, the Flyers swapped disgruntled prospect Cutter Gauthier for Ducks defenseman Jamie Drysdale, along with a second-round pick. Briere kept in touch with Ducks GM Pat Verbeek, though, waiting him out to acquire Trevor Zegras for a small price of a bottom-six center (Ryan Poehling), a second-round pick (worse than what they gave up with Drysdale, I may add), and a fourth-round pick.
The Ducks have helped the Flyers acquire two top-10 picks (Zegras, 9th in 2019 and Drysdale, 6th in 2020), and those two could play key roles if Philadelphia’s rebuild is going to happen sooner than expected.
So things between Anaheim and Philadelphia must be over, right? Two trades involving three top-10 picks in the span of 17 months surely is enough.
Well, maybe not.
The Flyers have already traded for the Ducks’ first-round selections in 2019 and 2020, and Anaheim’s third-overall pick from 2021 could be on the trading block.
Mason McTavish is one of a few restricted free agents still waiting for a contract this summer. It’s nothing new for Verbeek and the Ducks, though, as contract negotiations with both Drysdale and Zegras lasted through the offseason and well into training camp.
Could McTavish join his former teammates in Philadelphia? Briere should at least try, if he’s truly available.
McTavish already has 140 points (60 goals, 80 assists) in 229 games for a well below-average — to be conservative — Ducks team. That’s an 82-game average of 21 goals and 29 assists for 50 points. He also seems to be trending upwards as he recorded 43 points in 80 games in the 2022-23 season, 42 points in 64 games (53.8 points per 82 games) the following year, and 52 points in 76 games (56 points per 82 games) last season.
Oh yeah, much like Zegras, McTavish is also a center. However, while there are questions about whether Zegras can stick down the middle due to his faceoff ability and two-way play, McTavish has won over half of his faceoffs in each of the last two seasons. He also stands at 6-foot-1, which is important when the Flyers are looking for centermen.
So it is a bit curious as to why the Ducks are willing to move on from McTavish — well, besides the fact that they’re cheap. Anaheim has plenty of cap space — $20.5 million, according to CapWages –, and it just signed 33-year-old veteran Mikael Granlund to a three-year contract with a cap hit of $7 million per season.
The Ducks have also made moves to try to win now, for some reason, bringing in Joel Quenneville behind the bench, along with former Rangers veterans Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba.
The potential price tag for McTavish is where things get a bit murky.
James Murphy reported on RG Media earlier this month that a team would have to “knock Pat’s socks off with a monster offer” for McTavish. “A right-shot, top-four and future top-pairing defenseman would be the starting point from what I know,” is what one NHL executive told Murphy.
Funnily enough, Drysdale almost fits that description for what the Ducks want for McTavish. If he wasn’t a former Anaheim product, he could be the centerpiece of a deal for a center.
But, assuming the Ducks don’t want the player they traded away back, the only other potential top-four defenseman the Flyers have who is in a tradeable position is Oliver Bonk — maybe Rasmus Ristolainen once he gets healthy, if Anaheim wants more of a win-now answer.
A trade around Bonk and McTavish would be interesting, and the Flyers, of course, have too many wingers but not enough centers. Perhaps a package of an NHL winger and Bonk, or another up-and-coming blueliner, along with a pick, could get the deal done?
It’s really all guesswork at this point, though. There are plenty of trades that happen around the league that look unfair, but it ultimately comes down to what a team wants to do. Having a relationship with the front office does help, and Briere certainly has that with Verbeek after completing two rather high-profile trades.
Another issue is where McTavish would fit on the current Flyers roster after the team signed Christian Dvorak in free agency. This would’ve been a completely different situation before that, and it’s still possible for Dvorak to play on the wing and take crucial faceoffs while seeing ice time in all situations.
But even if the Flyers are happy with their center group to begin the season, that shouldn’t stop them from trying to go after McTavish. He’s already shown he can be a 50-point center — a mark reached only by Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, Brayden Schenn (if you want to call him a center), and Kevin Hayes at the pivot position since 2011 –, and he has plenty of room to grow.
If the Ducks are willing to look beyond just a defenseman as the centerpiece to the package, the thought of Jett Luchanko being the focal point of the deal could be explored. He’s a cheap, team-controlled center who the Ducks could use for the next few seasons, and McTavish would be a proven NHL center with room to grow alongside Matvei Michkov. And if the Flyers take a step forward in the 2025-26 season, that makes them all the more enticing as a destination for the top free agents in the 2026 offseason.
There are a ton of ifs, and a deal from the Flyers’ perspective would make more sense during the season once they see what they have, but a player like McTavish doesn’t become available too often, and Briere should at least be asking Verbeek about yet another deal.
