‘You Can’t Fall in Love’: Tortorella Opens Up About the Trade Deadline

Flyers head coach John Tortorella opened up to the media Wednesday morning about the NHL trade deadline.

“We can’t fall in love if we can make our team better and keep progressing to be a more competitive team, and were going to do it,” Tortorella said.

The Flyers have had a few players having their names circulating in trade rumors all season. Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee were constantly involved in rumors before they were traded to Calgary. Now, Scott Laughton and Rasmus Ristolainen headline the Flyers trade deadline chips.

Now, all eyes are on Laughton and Ristolainen as the March 7th trade deadline draws nearer every day. Tortorella addressed the rumors and how he handles trade season.

In typical Torts fashion, he initially answered a question about the Ristolainen rumors by asking, “Who is trading Ristolainen?” 

“He (Ristolainen) is our most improved player since I’ve started here,” Tortorella said. He also added that his contract ($5.1M AAV, 2 years left after this season) is a friendly one in his mind, and he is not worried about moving off of it.

“I just think Risto is always a target. If you end up trading him on him Friday, then Saturday is like, I need a big right-handed defenseman. You’re always looking for that big right-handed defenseman,” Tortorella added.

When it comes to Scott Laughton, he is no stranger to the speculation at the trade deadline, and neither is Tortorella.

When talking about Laughton, Tortorella said, “Scotty is loved here, but you can’t fall in love with him.”

Especially after trading Frost and Farabee, the “culture” in the Flyers’ lockerroom took a hit. Tortorella addressed the fears of that culture taking another gut punch with a Laughton trade.

When asked if the lockerroom culture is in a better place than it was a few years ago, and if the fear of trading Laughton is dialed back. He answered, “Yes, I do, because I think we’ve defined. I think we’ve been very transparent about that, right? It sucks, you know, but I don’t want to speak for Danny, but I know he’s listening.”

“If we want to be a competitive playoff team, we have to be better personnel-wise. That’s certainly not running down our personnel. But every team is trying to get better. We have to do the same,” said Tortorella.

The Flyers’ coach said that is not a knock on his current players. “I’m not running them down. I love working with this team. They play hard. We’ve been inconsistent. We go through these things as we’ll probably go through the next 20-plus. But I love working with them.”

Despite that, Tortorella understands that it is a business and that it’s a part of the game.

“If someone is moved in the sake of us trying to get better, maybe opening up another avenue to try to get better, you feel bad about it. But this is a business. This is part of it. And we can’t have soft skin here.” 

As far as making the team better, Tortorella said he is constantly in dialogue with Briere. He gives him his evaluation of players and his thoughts on who will make an impact in the future, and who may not.

He said, “I have some strong thoughts as far as I don’t think they’re going to be on the bus, and that’s not to run them down…I think it’s imperative that the general manager gets information for the coaching staff that are dealing with these players every day in practice, on games, at the bench, in the locker room, how they act, how they carry themselves, in the weight room, all that.”

 “I think they need that information before you come up with a final determination. Are they on the bus or we gotta look to move them? Maybe it’ll help us down the road in a future, a future situation, to make us better,” Tortorella said.

Tortorella would go on to add, “I think this organization has been stuck in the mud for a number of years. We have to stay true to what Dan Hilferty, Jonesy, myself and Danny have talked about. We can’t fall in love. If we think we make our team better and keep progressing to be a more competitive team, we’re going to do it. There’s going to be some casualties with it.”

Some of those casualties have already been seen with Frost and Farabee getting dealt, Laughton and Ristolainen could be next.

It seems as if Tortorella is more inclined to keep Ristolainen, and not so much Laughton. He seemed a little defensive when it came to talking about Ristolainen and the trade rumors. When it came to Laughton, that’s when the “you can’t fall in love” memo was really being pushed.

Now, I do not think that means he dislikes Laughton. That also does not mean he is actively looking to trade him. What I got the sense of was that Tortorella needs Ristolainen around if they are going to be competitive, not just this year, but in the future. Without him, the Flyers blueline is just too small.

Obviously, Tortorella does not have the final say when it comes to trade conversation. That belongs to Daniel Briere and Keith Jones.

It is a tough business, and with the Flyers where they are in the standings, I’m sure Tortorella would prefer to keep both and add an asset instead. However, his candor, to me, was telling. It might end up being one of the two vets being moved at the deadline.