The Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup one week ago, and the trades have been flowing in ever since.
The Philadelphia Flyers got things started by acquiring Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit for Emil Andrae, Sam Ersson, and a third-round pick on Tuesday. There have been a handful of trades since then, including Darren Raddysh to Toronto, but the first true blockbuster trade of the offseason went down on Sunday evening.
The Ottawa Senators traded captain Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers for two first-round picks — the ninth and 25th overall picks in this year’s draft — a 2029 conditional first-rounder, and a 2030 second-round pick. To get that 25th overall pick that they used in this deal, they traded young restricted free agent winger Mackie Samoskevich to the Seattle Kraken earlier on Sunday.
The Tkachuk brothers are now united in Florida, while the Senators appear to be retooling after learning that Brady had no intentions to re-sign in Ottawa after his contract ended.
Ottawa is one of a few teams reportedly interested in Rasmus Ristolainen, and the Flyers could look to trade for one of the Senators’ centers. This trade may open things up for Danny Briere to negotiate a deal with Ottawa general manager Steve Staios.
Senators add draft capital for potential Flyers trade
The known asking price the Flyers have on Ristolainen is a first-round pick and then some. Prior to Sunday’s trade, the Senators had only the 32nd overall pick in this week’s draft, but that selection could not be transferred to another team because it was a penalty for a cancelled deal.
Now, the Senators are one of the teams with the most draft capital in the first round. They have the picks No. 9 (Florida’s), No. 25 (Tampa Bay’s), and their own at 32.
If the Senators were, in fact, looking to make a trade for Ristolainen, they didn’t have what the Flyers primarily wanted in return for the defenseman in their arsenal. But they now have two picks, one in the top 10 and one in the bottom 10, that could be used in a deal.
The Flyers may not accept the 25th pick in a one-for-one trade for Ristolainen, but it opens up the possibilities. With Philadelphia having the 21st pick, perhaps Briere could look to package Ristolainen with pick No. 21 for the ninth overall selection.
The Senators now also have more assets they could move in a larger trade involving one of their centers.
Flyers could look to trade for Senators centers
The Senators can’t really go into a full rebuild with a top-line center like Tim Stutzle leading the way. They also have a stable of defensemen and Linus Ullmark on an $8.25 million cap hit through 2029. A rebuild seems nearly impossible, and that’s not what the Senators should do anyway.
However, looking beyond Stutzle on the Ottawa depth chart, we have Shane Pinto, Dylan Cozens, and Ridley Greig. Pinto and Cozens would likely be one of the centers the Flyers could target, with Greig as a lower-tier option.
Pinto and Cozens are in similar situations. They’re both 25 years old and under contract through 2030 with a cap hit in the $7M range. Pinto’s cap hit is a tad higher at $7.5M with Cozens at $7.1M.
The Senators may be a bit more hesitant to trade Cozens after they acquired him not too long ago from the Sabres. He scored 28 goals and had 59 points in his first full season in Ottawa. He had recorded 47 points in each of his previous two seasons.
Ristolainen could be one piece moved in a deal for a center, but so could another roster player in Owen Tippett.
Tippett could help fill the hole left by Tkachuk, and we all know the Flyers need to trade a winger for a center at some point. If the Senators were interested in Owen Tippett before, they might be banging the door down to land the speedy winger from the Flyers.
All we know for sure is that the Senators have more flexibility now for another move than they did prior to shipping out their captain to join his brother in Florida.
Whether it’s one of the first-round picks, a center, or somehow both, Briere and the Flyers should be picking up the phone to see if they can come to a deal with Ottawa.
