Best Flyers Trades Since 1990 #4: A Polarizing Pair 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?

June 23, 2011
Flyers Get: Jakub Voracek, 1st-Round Pick in 2011 (Sean Couturier), 3rd-Round Pick in 2011 (Nick Cousins)
Columbus Blue Jackets Get: Jeff Carter

June 23, 2011
Flyers Get: Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, 2nd-Round Pick in 2012 (traded to Dallas Stars)
Los Angeles Kings: Mike Richards, Rob Bordson

Nobody promised this list would necessarily align with certain narratives that have spread through the Philadelphia fan base.

Like the Eric Lindros trade of 1992, the deals that moved core pieces Mike Richards and Jeff Carter come up in conversations about the Flyers constantly. Unlike the Lindros deal, the two trades in 2011 did not define an era of Flyers hockey.

Jeff Carter ironically ended up on the Los Angeles Kings with Mike Richards the first season after the trade. Philadelphia’s two former first-round picks from 2003 lifted the Stanley Cup together in 2012. Flyers fans naturally jumped to the “that could’ve been us” mentality after the sudden twist of fate.

When the Flyers slipped out of contention, another Los Angeles Stanley Cup run in 2014 made it easy to think regretfully about the infamous news of June 23, 2011.

However, if Carter and Richards had stayed in Philadelphia, they might’ve played well at the top of a lineup that faced the same organizational failures that plagued the Flyers throughout the 2010s.

Keeping two players who eventually became Stanley Cup champions wouldn’t have corrected salary cap mismanagement, goaltending nightmares, or questionable vision in the front office.

One thing is certain, however. The players acquired in the stunning pair of blockbusters and drafted with the acquired picks collectively outperformed Carter and Richards substantially over a long period of time.

The Flyers had their fair share of problems in the seasons following the highly-scrutinized trades. Wayne Simmonds, Sean Couturier, and Jakub Voracek weren’t a significant root of them.

Simmonds played more than twice the amount of NHL games as Richards after the trade. He scored over twice as many goals and logged over twice as many points. Richards added an edge as a captain, but Simmonds certainly didn’t lack tenacity in his game.

The Flyers also acquired Brayden Schenn in the Richards deal. The former top prospect didn’t ultimately emerge as the best piece of the trade, but he played at the top of the lineup for most of his six seasons in Philadelphia.

Jeff Carter was an effective sniper for most of his 13 NHL seasons after the trade. Paul Holmgren pickpocketed Columbus on the initial deal, however. 

Los Angeles made a great deal to bring in Carter midseason in 2011-12, but his numbers still fell short of Jakub Voracek’s over the next decade.

Carter spent 10 seasons with the Kings and logged 383 points while Voracek finished the corresponding decade in Philadelphia with 604 points. 

The two were comparably successful players despite the wide margin in scoring, but Sean Couturier tips the scales drastically toward the Flyers in this trade evaluation.

The Flyers drafted Couturier eighth overall one day after acquiring the pick from Columbus. The Quebec junior standout developed into one of the best two-way centers of his era.

There’s a case to be made that Voracek and Couturier each individually outperformed Carter after the deal. Their contributions with the Flyers combined point to a clear winner in this trade.

Add in the factor of Nick Cousins, whom the Flyers drafted with the third-rounder acquired from Columbus. Cousins played 107 games with the Flyers as a solid depth forward before carving out a long NHL career elsewhere.

The trades shipping Mike Richards and Jeff Carter out of Philadelphia on the same day might've resulted in the most memorable offseason day in franchise history.

The Flyers didn't succeed in the seasons following the trades. That doesn't mean they lost either trade, and closer scrutiny actually indicates the direct opposite.