Flyers Tradecraft: Are the Flyers Really Buyers?
The Flyers have several pieces that should garner interest from eager contenders.
The Rentals
The best thing about these players is they are all unrestricted free agents at the seasons’ end, which means the Flyers may be able to re-sign them to their roster once the expansion process has played out. In the meantime, let these guys try to bring a cup home while stockpiling assets for the future.
Moving Gustafsson is a necessary move, mainly to clear some of his salary off the books. As Fletcher pointed out finding salary matching deals make things much harder, and Gustafsson is not a piece the Flyers need and his salary is acting as an impediment. Gustafsson fetched a third-round pick at last year’s deadline, but it seems unlikely he could fetch that today. The Flyers should look to move him quickly, even if it nets them less than market value so it can clear the deck for bigger deals.
I like Laughton’s game, he really has made strides over the last few seasons and has proven himself a versatile second-line player. Laughton kills penalties, scores, wins faceoffs, plays center or on the win, and can stir the pot and take the body when it helps the team. There are a lot of gaps he can fill and a lot of roles he can play. It is hard to say what the market would be for him as a true rental, but Derek Grant fetched a 4th round pick from the Flyers last season, so Laughton must much more than that. Eric Staal fetched a third and fifth-round pick, Laughton should fetch more than that.
Laughton should have plenty of interested parties since he can help in a variety of ways.
Raffl is a quality depth forward that is excellent on the cycle, can score, and will take the body. Raffl has seen time as a penalty killer but is only average in that capacity. Raffl is defensively responsible but is prone to the occasional miscue or bad turnover. Raffl is a good player that soaks up minutes with a low cap number. Raffl should return at least a fourth-round pick
A team looking to make a run that needs veteran forward depth that can provide some scoring is Raffl’s ideal suitor, it would not be a surprise if our old friend in Pittsburgh inquires about Raffl’s availability.
The Ghost Dilemma
What to do with Shayne Gostisbehere has turned into an economic study. Ghost is a tradable asset, a good player who has had his ups and downs statistically. The 27-year-old has 5 goals and 11 points so far this season and looks closer to the player of his dynamic peaks rather than the disappointing valleys. It does beg the question why on earth should the team move one of the relative bright spots on defense? The expansion draft.
As of now, nothing is set in stone for the expansion draft, the forward situation is still fluid, but it is likely the team will expose big names like JVR or Voracek. Both are productive players, with JVR playing the best hockey of his life, and losing one of them would definitely weaken the team. But in either case, both player is over thirty, with fairly long and expensive contracts. In theory, the Flyers would have gotten the high production years from the players, while giving the lower production years the Seattle Kraken. More importantly, it opens up the cap space to allow the Flyers to resign core players and to chase free agents.
The situation defense is much more settled than with the forwards. Provorov and Sanheim are locked to be protected. Myers, who is not having a great year, would seem to be a virtual lock to me, especially the way Fletcher covets right-handed defensemen. Ghost is the odd man out.
Unlike JVR or Voracek, Gostisbehere is signed to a $4.5 million deal that expires after the 2022 – 2023 season. There is some controversy amongst the fan base as to the degree of how bad a contract this is, if at all. The fact is the contract is over 2 million less per season than JVR and almost 4 million less a season than Voracek, which means the contract will be easier to move in trade, something an expansion team would want.
If the Flyers are sellers, Fletcher faces the choice of getting something for Ghost today or alternately losing him nothing and also forfeiting the chance to reclaim cap space. If Fletcher is thinking at all about asset protection, which he may not be given the Mark Friedman give away, he needs to start looking for a place for Ghost to land.