Ten Best Trades in Flyers History

Note: There have been many trades made by the Flyers that are good and bad. Many of these trades can really depend on perspective.  These trades are among the best in Flyers history as chosen by me.

No. 10 — Flyers trade Langkow for picks

The Flyers acquired Daymond Langkow from Tampa Bay in a trade for Chris Gratton, an RFA who didn’t quite pan out. Langkow was a center, who could also play left wing. He was 23 years old and could score well enough for a third line center playing behind Eric Lindros and Rod Brind’amour/Keith Primeau. In fact, he was probably one of the better bottom line centers in the league at the time with a lot of upside.

So, it came as a surprise when the Flyers traded him to Phoenix for a first and second round pick in the 2003 draft. The second round pick would later be flipped, but that 1st rounder would turn into Jeff Carter.

Langkow would put up some good numbers in Phoenix and then great numbers when traded to Calgary. Overall, he had a solid 16 year career with 270 goals scored.

Carter put up better numbers, scoring 23 in his rookie season in 2005-06. He was part of a young group of scoring prodigies the Flyers found in the 2000s. And while he spent only six years in Philly, he is still playing strong as one of those reliable vets you want. He scored 19 goals this year for Pittsburgh at age 37.

Langkow was good, but Carter was better. And when the Flyers traded Carter (more on this later), the haul would be even more profound for the Orange and Black.

No. 9 — Recchi Trade #3

Mark Recchi would be traded to the Flyers three times and from the Flyers once. This particular trade would be the second time he was traded to Philly.

After being traded to Montreal, Recchi would spend parts of five seasons with the Habs. He put up good numbers, including two 30+ goal campaigns.  However, he was playing in a different style and never meshed well in Montreal. He wanted out.

In came Bobby Clarke. The GM was frustrated by the lack of offensive output put up by Danius Zubrus; the 15th overall pick in the 1996 draft (19 goals in 200 games). Clarke shipped him north of the border with a pair of draft picks, a second rounder and a sixth rounder, for Recchi.

Zubrus would have a 19 year career as a valuable third or fourth line depth piece. But he was clearly not the player Clarke thought he’d be.

Recchi jumped right back onto the Flyers and flourished on the first line with Lindros and John LeClair, scoring four goals in the 10 games he played for them in the 98-99 season. Over the next five seasons, he would score 128 goals and put up 236 assists. He would later walk as a free agent and then return for a third time.

The veteran Recchi would end up winning Stanley Cups with Carolina and Boston to close out a Hall of Fame career. But his return to Philly, for Zubrus, would be a great bookend to the trade that sent him to Montreal in the first place.

No. 8 — Flyers trade Forsberg for two fan favorites

Peter Forsberg is one of the greatest hockey players of all time. His involvement in the Eric Lindros trade is one of the great “what ifs” of all time.  But Forsberg would return to the Flyers in 2005-06. It was the year following the lockout and the Avalanche were hit hard by the salary cap. They offered a four year $13.5 million deal to him, but he chose Philly’s two year $11.5 million contract.

But before he played, he had to have ankle surgery. The following year, he had more foot surgery. When he played, he still had a scoring tough, but he battled through injuries.

The Flyers realized that he still had some value because of his name. They traded him to Nashville for a 1st round pick, a 3rd round pick which became Scottie Upshall and Ryan Parent. Upshall became a decent contributor. Parent didn’t play much. Both picks were traded.

However, that 1st round pick was sent BACK to Nashville for Scott Hartnell and Kimmo Timmonen.

Hartnell looked like John Kruk on skates. He fell down a lot. He scored. He was a ton of fun and spent seven wonderful seasons in Philly with his scraggly hair whipping behind him. Hartnell would also top the 20 goal mark in five of his seven seasons here.

Timmonen would also spend seven years in Philly. Somehow, the small Finnish defender caught the love of Philly fans. He would tough it out on every play and played with his whole heart. He would be traded to Chicago for draft picks in 2015 and would raise Lord Stanley’s Cup with the Blackhawks before he retired; a fitting end for a great guy.

Forsberg would rejoin Colorado after finishing the season out with Nashville in 2007. In the next two seasons, he would play in only 11 games. While it would’ve been nice to have Forsberg when he was young and healthy and a scoring machine, we got glimpses of it at the tail end of his career.

Getting Hartnell and Timmonen was one of Paul Holmgren’s first great coups.

No. 7 — Flyers blow the team up in 2011

Carter and Mike Richards were the Flyers go to studs in the late 00s. They could score…and they could party. It was their off ice antics that drew the ire of coach Peter Laviolette.

The other impetus for this trade was a “want” of a goaltender. The team had soured on rookie goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and his play in the playoffs and wanted a veteran netminder. So, the Flyers made two trades on June 23, 2011 in an effort to clear cap space to make a sign-n-trade deal with Phoenix of Iyla Bryzgalov. While that didn’t work out well at all, the trades made to free up space still have MASSIVE implications to this day.

First, the Flyers traded Carter to Columbus for Jakub Voracek, a first and third-round pick in the 2011 draft. Then, the Flyers traded Richards with a second round pick and a prospect to LA for Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn.

Carter went on to have a good career, as we stated earlier. He got hurt before he started off in Columbus and struggled a little bit. He would be shipped off to the Kings and reunited with Richards where they would go on to win to Stanley Cups together. Carter is still playing while Richards would struggle with injuries and ran into trouble when he tried to bring oxycodone in from Canada. He would retire in 2016.

Now for the Flyers haul. Voracek would be Claude Giroux’s linemate for the next decade, scoring over 600 points with the team. When he was traded, he was traded for Cam Atkinson, who expected to be one of the team leaders with John Tortorella coming in.

The draft picks taken from Columbus have turned in Sean Courtier and Nick Cousins, the former a mainstay on the roster today. Simmonds became a fan favorite, much like Hartnell was. During his eight years in Philly, NOBODY played harder than he did. Simmonds would top the 30 goal mark twice in Philly.

Schenn spent six years in Philly and grew a little bit every year, scoring 20+ goals in three of those seasons. When he was traded to the Blues, the Flyers got a few picks, which would become Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee. And while Frost has battled injuries over his career, he is still just 23.

So, Richards and Carter became Voracek, Simmons, Courtier, Cousins, and Schenn, and by extension Atkinson, Frost, and Farabee. That’s not bad. These trades as a package deal could be up higher on this list if it weren’t for the plethora of Hall of Famers to come.

No. 6 — Flyers trade for Pronger

Throughout the 2000s, the Flyers made several bad trades trying to snag a powerful defender. Many of these trades fell flat and gave up too much to acquire what they got in return.

In 2009, Holmgren swung for the fences. He traded Luca Sbisa, Joffrey Lupul, two first-round picks and a third-round pick to the Anaheim Ducks for future hall of famer Chris Pronger.

Fun fact: this would be the second time that Lupul was traded for Pronger as Lupul was part of a package that brought Pronger to Anaheim from Edmonton. Lupul, a former first round pick, was a decent scorer, hitting the 20+ goal mark three times in his first five seasons. Losing him was a risk. Sbisa was also a former first rounder with just a year under his belt. He was expected to be a contributor to the Flyers blue line for years to come.

Lupul would have a good career, retiring in 2016 with 205 goals scored. However, the Flyers had a lot of scoring options (Giroux, JVR, Richards, Carter, Danny Briere) at the time and could afford to give him up. Sbisa never lived up to his potential, but still managed to have a 13 career, retiring last year. But none of them were Pronger.

Yes, Pronger spent only three years in Philly; the last year cut short by the concussion that ended his career. Yes, he was 35 when he was acquired. But you go back to that Stanley Cup run of 2010 where he AVERAGED 29.03 minutes of ice time a game. He put it all on the ice against Chicago and almost single handedly shut them down. There were some talks, at the time, that he was strongly considered for the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP because of his performance.

Yes, his career in Philadelphia was far too brief. But his impact was huge. Without him, the Flyers do not go to the Cup in 2010.

No. 5 — Flyers acquire Rod the Bod

The St. Louis Blues lost Scott Stevens to the Devils in 1991 and needed a defender. Looking around the league, the Blues wanted Flyers defender Murray Baron, a young defender. But a young defender with just 83 games under his belt wouldn’t be enough. Ron Sutter, an aging veteran of the Flyers 80s teams was also desired to help get the Blues over the hump. In return, the Flyers received centers Rod Brind’Amour and Dan Quinn.

Let’s just forget about Quinn. He’s a bottom line depth piece.

Brind’amour would spend nine seasons in Philly, scoring 235 goals; 100 more than Sutter did in his nine years in Philly. While teams would focus on the dominance that was Eric Lindros, Brind’amour flourished on the second line. He was everything a Flyers fan would want in a player. He hustled, he scored, he fought. He did all the little things you want. He had a magic ability to win faceoffs and make plays happen. He may not have been the best player on the team, but he was always involved in the play someone.

Baron enjoyed a 15 year career, with seven in St. Louis. He would be a capable, but not stellar defender. Meanwhile Sutter would play 10 more seasons.

Brind’amour would be one of the major cogs on the Flyers throughout the 90s. When traded to Carolina, he would bring the Stanley Cup to Raleigh. But during his time in Philly, he was the man.

No. 4 — The Son of Mr. Hockey comes to Philly

Sometimes, it must be hard to be the son of a hall of fame player. I mean, can you imagine being Michael Jordan’s kid? Gordie Howe was to hockey what Jordan was to basketball. He was the best. It might be hard to be Gordie’s kid, right?

Well, for Mark Howe, that didn’t seem to be much of a problem. While he didn’t have the scoring touch his dad did, he became one of the premier defenders in the league in the 1980s.

Recovering from a freak injury where he was basically impaled by a pole from a net, the Whalers began to lose faith in him. They looked for a team that would be willing to take him on. They found a willing suitor in Philadelphia. The Flyers gave up a first and third round pick in 1983 as well as young winger Greg Adams and center Ken Linseman.

Adams was nothing more than a depth piece. Linseman was one of the Flyers in the early 80s that was an heir to the Broad Street Bully Legacy. He would be immediately swapped to the Oilers where he would win a championship ring.

Howe became the backbone of the Flyers defense in the 1980s. Paired up with Brad McCrimmon, they formed a solid defense that helped propel a young group of Flyers like Sutter, Brian Propp, and Rick Tocchet to the Stanley Cup to face off twice against the vaunted Oilers led by Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.

Howe is probably the greatest defensive player who ever donned the Orange and Black. There is a reason his name hangs in the rafters. And while Linseman was a good player, the need for a player of Howe’s caliber was so much more. Much like the acquisition of Pronger, what Howe meant to the team at that time is immeasurable.

No. 3 Flyers trade for “The Chief”

The Bully Era was in full swing and the Flyers were looking to repeat as world champions. In 1974, they traded away Larry Wright, Al MacAdam and a first-round draft pick to the California Golden Seals to pick up Reggie Leach.

MacAdam would win the Masteron Trophy in 1980 and be a capable winger. Wright would play in only 108 total games, scoring 12 points; two of which were assists as a Flyer.

Leach would become a Flyers legend. Forming the BCL line with Bobby Clarke and Bill Barber, Leach exploded. He scored 45 goals in his first year as the Flyers repeated as Stanley Cup champs and 61 in his second. As the Flyers tried a threepeat, Leach would score 19 goals and 24 points in 16 games. He would be the only non-goaltender in NHL history to win the Conn Smythe Trophy in a losing effort as the Flyers were swept by Montreal. His 19 goals set a record, later matched by Jarri Kurri, for a playoff run.

Leach’s career was short, at 13 years, but he scored 306 goals in 606 games for the Flyers with 208 assists as well. He is a borderline player and one of the top scoring players of the late 70s. And the fact that the Flyers got him for next to nothing is incredible.

No 2 — Recchi Trade #2

The Montreal Canadiens had just won the Stanley Cup in 94 and were looking to reload. They started off the next season slow. They needed a spark. They looked at Philly and desired Mark Recchi. This makes sense because in the two previous seasons, he scored 93 goals. But the cost would be heavy.

As the Flyers were also slumping, they looked to jump start their team. They shipped off Recchi to Montreal for a package of John LeClair, Eric Desjardins, and Gilbert Dionne. As you know, Recchi would return to the Flyers in four short years, still at the top of his game.

But the Flyers got a big time boost. Dionne would play in 22 games in two seasons for the Flyers. So he’s not what you think about with this deal.

LeClair, who had scored 19 goals in the previous two seasons in Montreal, exploded when put on the top line with Lindros and rookie phenom Mikael Renberg. The three became known as the Legion of Doom and rampaged their way through the Eastern Conference.  He would notch three hat tricks that season as the Flyers went all the way to the Eastern Conference finals, falling in six games to New Jersey.

LeClair would become one of the top left wings in the NHL in the 90s and a borderline hall of famer. He spent 10 years in Philly, scoring 333 goals with 310 assists, and being a five time all star.

On defense, Desjardins became a star. Over the next 11 years, he would be the Flyers top defender, paired up with Chris Therien. He would eventually become the Flyers captain after it was stripped from Lindros. Desjardins is probably the best defender the Flyers had who is not named Mark Howe.

LeClair and Desjardins took a slumping team into the top of the conference with teammates Lindros and Brind’amour. Getting Recchi back a few years later made this trade even better. This trade helped form the core of what the 1990s Flyers would become. I almost ranked this as the best trade in history, however…………