Best Flyers Trades Since 1990 #6: Ron Hextall’s Savviest Set Of Moves
Fans of the Philadelphia Flyers will still bring up losing Patrick Sharp, Justin Williams, or Sergei Bobrovsky before their prime NHL seasons. However, the conversations don’t include the best trades in Flyers history often enough.
The Flyers haven’t won a Stanley Cup in half a century. However, their competitive history in the top tier of the NHL has required some savvy moves.
You know plenty about the worst, but what are the best trades the Flyers have made since 1990?
- #8 Landing Chris Pronger
- #7 The Wildest Trade Tree You’ve Ever Seen
- #6 Ron Hextall’s Savviest Set of Moves
- #5 Rod “The Bod” Brind’Amour
- #4 A Polarizing Pair Of Moves: Jeff Carter, Mike Richards Dealt In Summer Stunners
- #3 Back With A Vengeance: Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen Trades
- #2 The Eric Lindros Trade: The Biggest Blockbuster in NHL History?
- #1 Mark Recchi Moved For 2 All-Time Flyers
An Unconventional Rebuild
February 27, 2015
Flyers Get: 2nd-Round Pick in 2015, Conditional 4th-Round Pick in 2016
Chicago Blackhawks Get: Kimmo Timonen
March 2, 2015
Flyers Get: Radko Gudas, 1st-Round Pick in 2015, 3rd-Round Pick in 2015 (Matej Tomek)
Tampa Bay Lightning Get: Braydon Coburn
June 26, 2015
Flyers Get: 1st-Round Pick (Travis Konecny)
Toronto Maple Leafs Get: 1st Round Pick (from Braydon Coburn trade), 2nd-Round Pick (from Kimmo Timonen trade)
The 2014-15 Flyers didn’t have legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations. Ron Hextall spent his first season as general manager handling salary cap limitations cast on him by his predecessor Paul Holmgren.
The ferocious former goaltender didn’t use a “tear it down” or “tank” rebuilding style that included selling off all key veterans for any useful draft picks or prospects. He planned a more selective approach to keep some veterans that aligned with his direction and move others if the right opportunity came along.
Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn formed an effective defensive pair on the back end of contending Flyers teams surrounding the 2010 run to the Stanley Cup Final, but neither had a real future in Philadelphia by the 2015 NHL Trade Deadline.
Hextall dealt both blueliners to eventual Stanley Cup finalists for draft capital that helped him load up his arsenal for his second draft with the Flyers. He flipped the highest pick from each trade for an extra first-rounder in the 2015 NHL Draft.
Travis Konecny
The 24-overall pick became Hextall’s best with the Flyers (depending on how you choose to classify Carter Hart).
Travis Konecny became the type of player that the Flyers needed more of during a failed rebuild. Hextall’s plan included a higher volume of late first-round picks, but too many misses and slow development sunk the competitive rebuilding period that allowed the franchise to slip into mediocrity.
Konecny quickly became a contributor during the later years of Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, but the Flyers didn’t execute to bring enough players of the same caliber.
If Ron Hextall had shrewdly executed more of these types of moves, he might’ve brought the Flyers back into Stanley Cup contention.
The organizational dysfunction led to an entirely new rebuild during the prime seasons of Konecny’s career in Philadelphia, which will last until 2033 if he sees the end of his contract.
Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn
Timonen fought through blood clots at age 39 that kept him out of the entire season before the trade. He remarkably (and maybe dangerously) made it to the finish line to lift the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks in his final NHL game.
However, he never would’ve played another NHL game with the Flyers if Hextall didn’t move him.
Coburn had more left in the tank at age 29. He played in parts of six seasons with the Lightning and won the Stanley Cup in the playoff bubble in 2020.
However, Radko Gudas helped offset the loss. The gritty defenseman became the muscle of the Philadelphia blue line for four seasons. His physical play helped Flyers fans look past Coburn’s success in Tampa without sounding the alarms about another ex-Flyer winning the Stanley Cup.
