Is Philadelphia a potential landing spot for Seth Jones?

Seth Jones has told the Columbus Blue Jackets he will not be resigning after next season per multiple reports. Jones is currently on a 6 year/32,400,000$ contract. When broken down, his cap hit is 5.4M a year. Would it be possible for the Flyers to make a move for him this season?

Seth Jones is one of the premier defensemen in the NHL currently. At only 26 years old and a former fourth overall pick in the 2013 draft, Jones has been in the running for the Norris trophy every year on what is an average Blue Jackets team. Standing at 6’4″ and 209LBs, Jones is not only a powerhouse on the defensive end, but can also move and shoot the puck in the offensive end as well. He is the perfect defensive player to have.

In eight seasons, Jones has played 580 games, scoring 65 goals and notching 221 assists. His team is also much better with him on the ice with a corsi rating of 51.8%. Coming back from that hairline fracture in his ankle and having surgery, Jones looked poised to have another good season.

The season was doomed to fail for Jones as the Blue Jackets had their worst season with him on this team going last in the Central Division. They had a very underwhelming record of 18-26-12 with 48 points. They tied with Detroit who had a record of 19-27-10.

The Blue Jackets might be leading toward a new direction for the future. They’ve traded away Nick Foligno, Pierre Luc-Dubois, Riley Nash and David Savard. They did acquire Patrick Laine but you can clearly see the Blue Jackets want to begin a rebuild.

So what are the chances the Flyers can pull Seth Jones from CBJ? The Flyers have a projected cap hit of $69,240,356 with an upper limit of $81,500,000 and cap space of $12,259,644. That includes having multiple players that need to be signed. We also have the potential of big contracts being moved in James van Riemsdyk who has a cap hit of 7M. Jake Voracek could be moved as well, depending on the expansion draft. He has a cap hit of 8.25M. JVR is signed through 22-23 and Jake is signed through 23-24.

Assuming you re-sign Travis Sanheim, that would would likely be for about 3M again as another prove it deal. Nolan Patrick and Carsen Twarynski will most likely not get re-signed. Sam Morin should be a cheap signing. Carter Hart will most likely get a prove it deal after this past season.

2021-2022 is the big year with a lot of Flyers needing to be resigned so it would be a big season coming up for making moves and acquisitions to help make the team better. There are a lot of needs to be filled but finding a partner for Ivan Provorov is key right now.

If you can move one or both of those big contracts, you also open up the ability to re-sign Sean Couturier. One would assume he is going to make about 8-9M a year for five years. So you could make a move for Seth Jones and sign him the following season for about 5-6M a year for 4-5 years.

Seth Jones would slide right into the top pairing role with Provorov. He would take some weight off of Provorov and help his ice time go down. If Cam York is in the picture as well, it will make things a little spicier.

Now the real question is what would you have to move in order to get a guy like Seth Jones caliber. Well for a guy who has been in multiple All star games and has been in the top 10 for the Norris Trophy multiple times, it will call for a lot for him to be moved. The former fourth overall draft pick will indeed get a lot of attention.

Pierre Luc-Dubois went to Winnipeg for Jack Roslovic, Patrick Laine and a 3rd round pick in this upcoming draft. Jones will most likely be traded for at least a 1st or 2nd round pick, and a proven young talent. So Columbus will most likely ask for a Joel Farabee or Travis Konecny type player, along with a defensive player like Phil Myers or Egor Zamula and most likely a prospect as well.

You will have to give up a lot, but for a guy of Jones’ talent level and the need for defensive studs on the backend for the Flyers, this trade would be a no brainer. He is still young and will be in the league for a while. Here is what the defense could look like if you make the move for Seth Jones (this is if Gostisbehere doesn’t go to Seattle and Sanheim doesn’t get resigned).

Provorov-Jones

Gostisbehere-York

Myers-Braun

Hagg as your 7th D man.

This would sure up your defense and help the Flyers out big time, but time will tell with what CBJ is going to do. The Flyers should not sit on their hands, though. Fletcher needs to be as aggressive as possible in order to snatch up Seth Jones.