4 Philadelphia Flyers Who Could Move Ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline

The Philadelphia Flyers have slipped in the Eastern Conference playoff race approaching the NHL Trade Deadline. Will the rebuilding organization choose to be sellers for the fifth season in a row?

Danny Briere and the Philadelphia front office will continue to work the phones leading up to the deadline on March 7 at 3pm Eastern time.

The Flyers already made what will most likely stand as their biggest in-season trade of 2024-25. Briere dealt Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost to the Calgary Flames on January 30 largely to clear salary space. The financial flexibility sets up the Flyers to pursue a potential top-line center as a long-term building block of the rebuild.

Will an aggressive move come during the season while teams are wheeling and dealing at the NHL Trade Deadline? Any blockbuster trade becomes more likely during the offseason when the league’s overall focus shifts away from immediate gratification for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Related Content: 4 Future Indicators Emerge From Flyers, Flames Trade

Danny Briere and the Flyers will most likely pursue additional flexibility for future large-scale moves by making small-scale moves in March. Deadline deals could shuffle veterans on the 2024-25 Flyers who don’t have as much impact on the big picture of the rebuild.

While Rasmus Ristolainen and Scott Laughton look like his most logical trade chips, Briere holds the leverage with two players signed past the 2024-25 season.

There was a time in the not so distant past that Ristolainen looked like a financial albatross playing a major part in Philadelphia’s sentence in salary cap jail.

He progressively played himself into conversations as one of the 10 best available players at the NHL Trade Deadline.

Will the Flyers decide he’s worth keeping for two remaining seasons on his contract after 2024-25? Or, will they utilize the perfect confluence of health, effective play on the ice, and the desire that contenders have for a player of Ristolainen’s style that’s increased his market?

Not many people inside or outside the organization have a bad word to say about Scott Laughton. He commands respect for withstanding the ups and downs of his professional career since the Flyers selected him in the first round of the 2012 NHL Draft.

Laughton has scored at a solid rate for a third-liner in a role alternating between wing and center for the majority of the past five seasons.

The Flyers, however, value his contributions to the team as an alternate captain who stabilizes their organizational culture in the middle of a vulnerable rebuilding period.

The intangible value has driven up the price every year ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline when his name inevitably arises in rumors. Will this be the year that another NHL GM finally pries Laughton from Briere’s grip?

Stanley Cup contenders prefer passable veteran depth, especially on the blue line, entering the playoffs to cover themselves from an injury forcing unprepared young players into critical situations they’re not ready for.

A suitable seventh defenseman like Erik Johnson might bring back late-round draft capital for a team in need of that insurance.

The 6-foot-4 veteran has accepted a mentorship role, and his lengthy NHL experience has helped shape the dressing room in unique ways. 

Johnson candidly acknowledged conversations with Briere about the deadline when he joined 97.5 The Fanatic at the Flyers Charities Carnival.

Will Briere find a trade partner for a player who hasn’t been at the center of the rumors?

Briere acquired Andrei Kuzmenko in the trade that sent Farabee and Frost to the Flames. The Russian winger’s $5.5 million cap hit this season, the last on his current deal, had more to do with the acquisition than his fit on the ice.

The Athletic logically speculated that a 29-year-old on an expiring deal could be a candidate to move in a second deal after only a quick stop in Philadelphia. The idea would become more likely if the Flyers used a salary retention spot to lessen a team’s short-term financial commitment.

Kuzmenko has shown dynamic offensive upside in his NHL career. He scored 39 goals in his rookie season in 2022-23 after spending the early years of his professional career in the KHL.

The same characteristics that would potentially make him attractive to a Stanley Cup contender make him attractive to the Flyers for the remainder of 2024-25.

Kuzmenko immediately sparked a struggling power play, and the Flyers aren’t passing up a major return package if they decide to keep him. Expect him to stay in orange and black for the final six weeks of the season.

He’ll attempt to increase his value on the free agent market this summer in the eyes of the Flyers and each of the 31 other teams who will evaluate his body of work.