Peterka, Byram reportedly drawing trade interest from Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers are reportedly interested in two Buffalo Sabres players who could be traded this summer: Goalscoring winger J.J. Peterka and mobile blueliner Bowen Byram.

The Philadelphia Flyers apparently have their fingers in everything. After a lengthy saga of back-and-forth reporting about center Marco Rossi potentially coming to Philadelphia, there was a brief report of New York Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov possibly being a trade target for the Flyers. And now, there’s a new batch of players that Flyers general manager Danny Briere has reportedly checked in on.

According to multiple reports, the Flyers have checked in on and are interested in the two Buffalo Sabres who could be traded from the team this offseason: Goalscoring winger J.J. Peterka, and mobile defenseman Bowen Byram.

While this interest does not solve either of the Flyers’ biggest problems — a starting goaltender that can consistently save 90 percent of the shots he faces, and a top-six center — these are two players who address some sort of need and could certainly fit the rebuilding timeline. Peterka, 23, is a natural left-shot winger that can be an answer for inconsistency at the left wing position for the Flyers and just had breakout season, scoring 27 goals and 68 points in 77, tying for second in scoring among all Sabres skaters.

Meanwhile, Byram, a 24-year-old left-shot defenseman who is a very good skater and capable of moving the puck up the ice, just scored 38 points while playing in all 82 games last season, but his situation is a little different. Byram is in a tricky situation and has been ever since coming to Buffalo from the Colorado Avalanche in a one-for-one swap for center Casey Mittelstadt in the middle of last season. Being on the left side, he is underneath two former first-overall picks, Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power, on the Sabres’ blue line and considering the financial situation of the team, the Sabres have been seeing what sort of offers are out there for the young defenseman.

Most importantly, both Byram and Peterka are pending restricted free agents. The Sabres do have a significant amount of cap space available to them, over $23 million to be exact, but it is unclear if they are willing to make a strong commitment to both of these players. Which, of course, has led them to being two of the top trade targets for plenty of teams this summer.

The Flyers will not be alone in the pursuit of both of these talents. Almost every single team can justify acquiring either of these players, but it just depends what the package going the other way is. The Sabres are most likely done with future assets — they do not want to sell off any more roster players for a package of draft picks and prospects to try and sell hope to a fan base that hasn’t seen the playoffs since 2011.

According to the reports linking the Flyers to these two players, it is unclear what the Flyers could offer. Cam York is a restricted free agent, Bobby Brink might just be the odd-man out on the wing (especially if Peterka is coming to Philadelphia), Owen Tippett had a disappointing campaign after signing his contract extension — there are some similarly aged roster players that the Flyers could move on from, as well. But, does that make sense for the Flyers? Peterka doesn’t address the size issue, being a 6-foot, 189-pound winger that doesn’t play with a real edge. And even Byram isn’t known as someone difficult to play against.

As previously mentioned, a whole lot of teams are going to be interested in these two restricted free agents. Teams that aren’t just trying to turn their first corner out of a rebuild, but would see both Peterka and Byram as two players addressing a lack of skill they have on their roster, because they already have the role players and veterans and top-of-the-lineup talents at their disposal.

All in all, the price may just be too high to acquire and then re-sign these players — because they would need to commit real dollars to these young players. Reportedly, Byram and his new agent Darren Farris, who is notorious to squeeze as many dollars as possible out of teams, are looking for a contract that would have a cap hit more than Power’s $8.35 million AAV if he were to sign long term. That is a dangerous game to play when you don’t even know how well he could fit in on this team.

Could the Flyers then just use an offer sheet on either of these players? Unfortunately, they are both in that price range that would result in sending the Flyers 2026 first-round pick unprotected over to Buffalo and that feels like a massive risk for this front office to take at this time.

Nevertheless, it is clear that Danny Briere and Flyers president of hockey operations Keith Jones are having plenty of conversations with teams before the 2025 NHL Draft next week, with eyes on improving the roster before training camp. Whether it is a massive swing like these two Sabres, making a hockey trade for a defenseman that plays their preferred style, or trying to address the center problem; the Flyers are making calls.