Opinion: Flyers’ Deadline Moves Are Encouraging

Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team newly appointed Special Assistant to the General Manager, Daniel Briere, arrives for a news conference in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022. The Flyers have named long-time television analyst Keith Jones team president of hockey operations and have removed the interim tag from general manager Danny Briere's title. Jones was a surprise choice Thursday, May 11, 2023, after he spent the last 23 years as an analyst for Flyers telecasts on NBC Sports Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

It has been a few days since the NHL trade deadline. After sitting on the trades for a few days, I believe the Flyers’ moves this season are an encouraging sign for this team’s future.

While I would have liked to see a bit more from the Flyers, the moves they did make were great.

Their first trade was over a month before the deadline, but it set the tone for the Flyers. That tone was no more mediocrity; things have to get worse before they can get better.

The Flyers traded three players who had been seemingly stuck in neutral for a while. While they had all been career Flyers, and have been for a long time, Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee could not take that next step from middle to good–at least not in Philly. Scott Laughton had been a long time Flyer, one whose impact may have been undervalued because of his on-ice play.

Briere was forced to make some tough decisions; he made those decisions and did it well.

The Farabee/Frost Trade

It was considered to be Briere’s “first” move at the trade deadline more than a month before. Like I said earlier, it set the tone for Briere and the Flyers.

Neither Joel Farabee nor Morgan Frost lived up to their expectations in Philly. While neither was a bad player, they could not take that next step in their career. They were stuck. While a change of scenery was needed for both players, it was time for the Flyers to move on too. Farabee carried a $5 million AAV, one which they were able to move at no retention.

Frost wasn’t a cap problem yet. He is a pending RFA and will surely get offered more than his current worth. The Flyers were faced with the possibility of letting him go for whatever the RFA compensation would be this offseason or making the move now. Briere opted to open up cap space while bringing in two players and a 2025 second-round pick.

The Flyers picked up two players in the trade, Jakob Pelletier and Andrei Kuzmenko. At the deadline, Briere flipped Kuzmenko, along with a 2025 7th, for a 2027 3rd.

So, Briere traded Frost, Farabee, and a 2025 7th for Jakob Pelletier, a 2025 2nd, and a 2027 3rd.

I understand Frost and Farabee were loved, but it was the first move that set the tone for the Flyers. Get rid of mediocre players, clear some cap space to start the turnaround, and continue to collect assets to improve the team. It was a great first move for Briere this season.

Scott Laughton to Toronto

The Scott Laughton to Toronto trade was just yet another encouraging sign.

I understand entirely that the loss of Laughton is enormous. He is/was one of the most undervalued Philadelphia athletes of all time–at least in my opinion. However, trading him might have been the most encouraging sign yet. As said earlier, things have to get worse before they can get better.

The Laughton trade was a sign of this. Laughton may not have been a needle-mover on the ice, but off the ice, he held things together. Laughton showed the significance of locker room guys. Losing a guy like Laughton is always unfortunate, but it was time.

Briere’s return was encouraging to me for two reasons. First, he showed that his patience isn’t his Achilles heel. I still am sort of in disbelief that he was able to get a first-round pick and a pretty decent prospect in return for Laughton. I think people may have been distracted by names like Easton Cowan and Fraser Minten, and completely overlooked Nikita Grebenkin as a skilled, reasonable prospect acquisition. Briere named his price, and he simply waited until he got it. I’ll be honest: I did not think he’d get that.

Second, Briere showed that he is committed to making this team better in the future. If he weren’t, he would have just kept Laughton. Seriously, Laughton is the kind of guy you want on a winning team–he does everything and is a fantastic leader. Briere could have simply said no, and kept Laughton around simply for the culture, but instead, opted to make the difficult decision that will pay off for the Flyers in the long haul.

Doing Right By His Guys

While it may not mean anything right now, Briere doing right by his players is another encouraging sign.

Sometimes, small moves can be the most telling of a regime. The Flyers made a respect trade. Nobody was making phone calls about Erik Johnson at the deadline, and why would they? Johnson was a depth defenseman on a really bad defensive Flyers team. However, instead of letting Johnson sit around watching the Flyers, Briere made some calls, and sent him back to Colorado.

The Avalanche is the team where Johnson spent most of his career and where he had the most success. He still has lots of friends on the team. Now, instead of spending the rest of what could very well be his final season in the NHL with the Flyers, he is chasing one last cup with his friends, and the organization he once called home.

Yes, the Erik Johnson trade doesn’t send signals of rebuilding or contending. What it does do is show other players around the league that the Flyers value their players and want to do right by them where they can. Even the Laughton trade was an example of that–trading Laughton back home to be closer to his family.

While it may not mean much now, small things like that could pay off when it comes to free agents in the future.

Overall Happy, But Would Have Liked to See One More Move

The Flyers trade deadline approach was great. Briere got good value in terms of what he traded. To me, the direction of the team is finally clear.

While I am happy with every move the Flyers made, there was just one more trade I would have liked to see.

Not trading Rasmus Ristolainen is the only thing stopping me from saying the deadline was a surefire win. Ristolainen is a great defender who still has two years left on his contract after this season. His cap hit is high–for now. With the rising cap, $5.1 million AAV may become around the new normal for a second-pair defender. However, I still think the Flyers made a mistake not trading him at the deadline.

Yes, the Flyers would have absolutely missed his size if they had traded him away. The Flyers’ D-corps is cripilingly small; trading Ristolainen would have made that significantly worse. I know the Flyers have to say they are still gunning for a playoff spot, but we all know the season is over. Trading Ristolainen at the deadline while his value was at an all-time high would have been the smart move, in my opinion.

However, to play devil’s advocate here, it may have been really hard to move him. You cannot pick and choose what years you retain on. It’s either the rest of his term or none at all. No team was willing to bite without any sort of retention, and the Flyers had all three slots filled by Kevin Hayes, Kuzmenko, and Laughton.

This offseason, Kuzmenko comes off the book, opening up another retention slot for the Flyers. Maybe they’ll try to make one more big move before the turnaround begins and move off of Ristolainen in the offseason. Maybe they’ll hold on to him and trade him at the deadline if they cannot get things together and be competitive next season.

It was not the end of the world keeping Ristolainen around, he still has value to the Flyers, I just would have liked to see Briere capitalize on the seller’s market one more time.

Overall Vision

There is one last reason I liked the trade deadline. It surely is speculative, but I saw one of the smaller details in the trades made as a “bigger picture” type move.

The Flyers cap opens up a ton this offseason. I don’t quite remember the last time the Flyers have been able to spend like they will be able to this offseason. However, a relatively weak UFA class is carried by some decent RFAs, which are even harder to pull off. Instead, I look at the years of the picks Briere targeted and see a vision.

Briere went out and got a 2027 first—and third-round pick, which made me wonder why not 2026? In his press conference, Briere mentioned possible using those picks to make roster additions at a future deadline (you would have to assume a 2026 one). However, I might look past the deadline and look at the following class of RFAs.

To sign an RFA, if successful, you have to give up draft capital. It almost works as a trade to the sorts. It’s all based on a salary line that is hard to project at this point, especially with the rising cap. To get the players that are worthwhile, you will likely have to cough up a first, second, third, and in the extreme cases, multiple firsts.

Listen to some of the 2026 RFAs: Connor Bedard, Logan Cooley, Martin Necas, Leo Carlsson, Shane Pinto, Trevor Zegras, and Jason Robertson. That is just some of the names at the top of the list. It is a really deep class. Mix that with the elite talent in the UFA market: Connor McDavid (long shot), Kirill Kaprizov, Jack Eichel, and much more. The Flyers HAVE to have this class circled as when they will take the step from mediocre to contender.

While I think the Flyers make a move to show they’re committed to improving this offseason, Briere’s deadline gives us a peak into the plan and how critical that 2026 offseason will be.