Ten Worst 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 worst in Flyers history as chosen by me.
No. 10 — The Lindros Trade
You know the trade I am talking about. In 1992, the Flyers flipped Peter Forsberg, Mike Ricci, Steve Duchesne, Ron Hextall, Kerry Huffman, Chris Simon, and two first round picks for Eric Lindros. Lindros did not want to sign with the Quebec Nordiques, The Nords tried to entertain offers and traded him to the Flyers…and then to the Rangers about an hour and a half later.
After some tense months, an arbitrator awarded him to Philly. It’s not that Lindros wasn’t a good player. He was, but that was a haul to pick him up. Forsberg went on to be a Hall of Famer in his own right with Ricci becoming a scoring threat for the Nordiques, who moved to Denver and became the Avalanche. Both helped them capture the Stanley Cup in 1996.
Huffman never became anything in the NHL. Hextall would be traded by Toronto to the Islanders and traded back to Philly. Duchesne would be an all-star that season and continue to be a top level defender. Simon went on to become one of the biggest enforcers of the 90s who could score from time to time.
The first round picks ended up becoming Jocelyn Thibault in 1993 (the Flyers could’ve had Kenny Jonsson, Saku Koivu, or Adam Deadmarsh) and Nolan Baumgartner in 1994 (the Flyers could’ve had Jeff Friesen, Mattias Ohlund, or Chris Drury).
One of the great “what-if’s” in Flyers history is what if we kept all of these players? A line of Mark Recchi-Forsberg-Ricci would’ve been quite intimidating. A defensive pairing of Chris Therien and Duchesne could’ve shut down everyone. Maybe even the Recchi trade to Montreal would’ve happened and John LeClair would’ve shared a line with Forsberg and Ricci. We’ll never know.
Nobody could’ve foreseen that Lindros would’ve been hampered by injuries. He would become the face of the Flyers during the 90s. He is a Hall of Famer and an all-time great Flyer. But still……..what if………
No. 9—-The Flyers trade Brind’amour
As the Lindros Era seemed in jeopardy as he and GM Bobby Clarke clashed publicly, the Flyers were looking to get some more scoring strength up the middle. The Carolina Hurricanes had the answer. Keith Primeau was holding out for a new contract and wanted out. They agreed to send him to Philly, but the cost was center Rod Brind’amour.
Again, this is not to say that Primeau was a bad player. He would become team captain and play well for Philly, scoring 34 goals in his first full year with the Flyers. But injuries, especially concussions, much like Lindros, would take their toll on the big guy. We all still remember him lighting up the lamp in that epic 5OT game against the Penguins and we love him for it.
But Brind’amour was different. He wasn’t flashy. He did all the little things right. He was magic in the faceoff circle, he would battle in the corners, he would fight for the rebound in front of the net, he could level a hit, and deal a punch. In short, he was a Flyer. He became a legend in Carolina and captained them to a Stanley Cup win. Primeau retired in 05-06 after nine games due to concussions
Brind’amour would retire four years later. Primeau had 97 goals as a Flyer while Brind’Amour had 174 in Raleigh while earning two Selke Trophies. Again, this is not to say that getting Primeau was bad. This is more to say that Brind’amour was better. Brind’amour is a border-line hall of famer right now while Primeau is in the “Hall of Pretty Good”. I loved getting Primeau, but the cost of Brind’amour was too steep.
No. 8—-The Flyers trade a first rounder for who?
This is one of those trades that makes your head spin. The Flyers had been in a rough spell and were looking to acquire a veteran defender. Kimmo Timonen was a solid defender and Braydon Coburn was an up and comer. Needing a veteran, they traded their first round pick to the Capitals for Steve Eminger.
Oh, you don’t remember him? Blink and you missed him. He played in 12 games. That’s right…12 stinking games. They traded him and Steve Downie to Tampa Bay that same season for Matt Carle, who was a good defender that for some reason they never re-signed.
Who did the Caps pick up in that draft? John Carlson on defense. Yes, so to get a veteran defender they traded a draft pick away who has played in more seasons than he did in games on the Flyers. Carlson is one of the best veteran blue liners in the league, a Stanley Cup winner, and an all star
Can you just imagine him being paired up with Timonen, Coburn, and/or Chris Pronger during the Stanley Cup run? I guarantee you that the Flyers would never have lost to Chicago. Speaking of which….
No. 7. — Flyers trade Patrick Sharp to Blackhawks for Peanuts
Ugh. You can read the full description here.
Basically, Sharp was a star on the Phantoms, but in very limited opportunities, didn’t produce much in the NHL. He asked for a trade and GM Bobby Clarke granted it, flipping him to Chicago for Matt Ellison. Ellison would play in seven games and notched one assist.
Sharp became an integral part of the Blackhawks dynastic run in the 2010s, scoring 249 goals in 10 years, topping 30 goals four times.
He looked great with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. He would’ve looked great with Simon Gagne, Jeff Carter, Mike Richards, Scott Hartnell, Claude Giroux, and Danny Briere too. Sigh…..
No. 6. —Flyers trade for Umberger
RJ Umberger was a young forward who showed some potential for the Flyers. In 2008, the Flyers flipped him to the Columbus Blue Jackets for their first round pick. The Flyers were hard up on the salary cap and might not be able to retain his services.
So, they traded him while he still had value. They drafted Luca Sbisa (when again…Carlson was right there!), a defender who didn’t do much for Philly, but would be traded to acquire Pronger. Umberger had a decent career in Columbus, scoring 26 goals in his first season, doubling his previous season’s total. In six years, he tallied 120 goals for the Jackets.
In 2014, the Flyers and Jackets completed a trade. Both were trading veteran players that could shake their teams up. The Flyers got Umberger back, but it cost them fan favorite Scott Hartnell. Hartnell would retire four years later, but scored 28 goals his first year in Columbus.
Umberger would score a total of 11 goals in two years. His scoring touch, as well as his hockey abilities, were gone. The Flyers would buy out the last two years of his contract. It was an expensive deal that hurt the Flyers. Giroux also lost one of his best line mates in the process. This was supposed to be a fairly even trade, but the Blue Jackets definitely made out on this one.
No. 5 — Flyers trade JVR for Schenn (not the good one)
For a while, if you signed a long term $100 million deal with the Flyers, it was a death sentence. Carter and Richards both signed them and were traded away. Wunderkind James van Riemsdyk, second overall pick in 2007, was making strides being paired up with Jakub Voracek and Brayden Schenn. However, he ran afoul of then coach Peter Laviolette. He was traded out of Philly to Toronto. The Flyers received Luke Schenn, Brayden’s brother.
Turned loose in Toronto, JVR would become a prolific goal scorer, topping 30 goals twice. Luke Schenn would be a decent defender, but nothing special.
He never provided the offensive spark they hoped on power plays. He’s been an average level defender ever since the Flyers traded him to LA for Jordan Weal.
JVR would later return to the Flyers, but it looks like his best days may be past. Maybe a new coach could coax more out of him, but he is not the player they once had. Maybe had they held onto him, an offense lead by JVR, Giroux, Voracek, B. Schenn, and Wayne Simmonds could’ve dominated the Eastern Conference.
No. 4. — The Flyers trade for the shell of what was once Adam Oates
Adam Oates is one of the greatest hockey players who ever put on a pair of skates. Any team that traded for him would’ve loved to have him. However, in 2001-02, the Flyers were looking for a veteran presence to get back into the Stanley Cup. They would trade goalie prospect Maxime Ouellet, as well as the first, second, and third round selections for Oates. Oates played in 14 games with three goals and seven assists.
Worse than that, he left in free agency in the offseason. Meanwhile, the Flyers floundered to the Ottawa Senators in an embarrassing five game series in the first round after winning the Atlantic Division and finishing second in the Eastern Conference. Coach Bill Barber would be fired following the playoff exit.
While Ouellet never panned out like expected, those were a lot of picks to give up for a guy who played a handful of games. Worse, no effort was made to retain him.
No. 3 —Flyers trade away Mr. Game 7
If you notice, there seems to be a trend here. The Flyers give up someone young, or a pile of picks, to nab a veteran defender only to have it blow up in their face. Never did one blow up so much as trading away Justin Williams, a first round pick in 2000 for a rental player in Danny Markov of the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2003-04.
Markov played in 34 games for the Flyers, a team that fell to Tampa Bay in seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals. Markov scored five points, but racked up 58 penalty minutes in 34 games. After the lockout the following season, he was traded to Nashville to relieve some salary cap issues for a third rounder.
Meanwhile, Williams enjoyed a 21 year career that is worthy of hall of fame consideration. His playoff heroics have made him a legend in Carolina, Los Angeles, and Washington as he was part of three Stanley Cup champion teams and won the 2014 Conn Smythe Award. He has the most game seven points in NHL history at 15.
Again, imagining him with all of the young players the Flyers had in the 2000s makes you wonder. Maybe he could’ve been Mr. Game 7 for us.
No. 2 — Flyers trade for Daigle
This trade would be hilarious if it happened to someone else, but no…it happened to Philly. Alexandre Daigle was the prize of the 1993 draft. The Ottawa Senators selected him first overall and were even accused of tanking on purpose to get him; one of the first instances of a team doing that.
He was so highly regarded that the Quebec Nordiques were offering a lot of the pieces in the Lindros trade to acquire him. Still, the Senators held onto number one, drafting him ahead of Chris Pronger and Paul Kariya, two future hall of famers. Daigle had a decent rookie season, scoring 20 goals with 31 assists.
But next year, the Senators had a rookie named Alexi Yashin who outperformed Daigle in every possible way. Daigle seemed to suffer from jealousy and didn’t “play hard” that following year, scoring just five goals in his third season. He was disgruntled, lazy, and a bad teammate. Maybe a change of scenery would do him well. After all, he is only 22 years old. Ottawa dangled him out there and traded him to Philadelphia for Pat Falloon and Vaclav “Vinny” Prospal.
Falloon was the second overall pick by the Sharks in their first season. He played well for the Sharks, but not super well. On the Flyers, he scored 22 goals in his first season, but nothing impressive. As a third-line player, he was ok, so giving him up for Daigle was fairly even.
Prospal was 22 years old and had scored 10 goals in bits of two seasons. It seemed like a fair deal. Nobody saw that in two seasons, he would score 22 goals, topping that mark six more times. He would score 255 goals in a 16 year career. That’s not bad!
Daigle was a disaster. In parts of two seasons, he played 68 games, scoring 12 goals and 19 assist. He was moody and temperamental; something that would not fly with GM Bobby Clarke. Clarke barred him from team facilities and, in effect, suspended him until someone would trade for him.
The Flyers would trade him to Edmonton for Andrei Kovalenko, a right winger who had promise early on in his career but flamed out. Kovalenko would be traded six weeks later after playing in 13 games and getting only one assist.
Daigle would be traded within minutes of being acquired by the Oilers and sent to Tampa Bay. He scored six goals in 32 games. He was released and out of hockey before he was 25. He had brief comeback attempts with the Rangers, Penguins, and Wild; where he would score 20 goals in 2003-04, but he was effectively done; forever remembered as probably the biggest bust in NHL draft history.
But for a brief moment, he was ours. And if you get a chance to google it, look up all the fun drama between Clarke and Daigle. It made the Lindros saga seem tame by comparison.
No. 1 — Flyers trade away Bob
This one still hurts. This one shows a level of impatience that is almost unfathomable, Instead of looking at the big picture, the Flyers played the short game and it bit them hard. This is one of those trades that, if things went different, we may have had Stanley’s Cup sitting in the Wells Fargo Center. But alas, that didn’t happen. The Flyers banked on the wrong Russian goalie.
Sergei Bobrovksy was a veteran of the Russian KHL. He was signed to an entry level deal in 2010 and impressed the team during training camp. He was named the starting goaltender and would be backed up by veteran Brian Boucher. Throughout the year, he was brilliant. He won 28 games and had a .915 save percentage with a GAA of 2.59. For a rookie netminder, these are fantastic stats.
However, he got mauled in the playoffs. The Flyers would fall in the playoffs in the second round to Boston a year after their magical run to the Stanley Cup. Coach Laviolette again tried to mix goalies up, as it had worked the year before. Bobrosky started three games, losing two of them, and posting a horrific .877 save percentage a with a GAA of 3.23 to match.
As every Flyers fan knows, they’ve been looking for a goalie since the days of Ron Hextall. Bob had a good rookie season, but he faltered in the playoffs. The same thing happened a decade earlier with Roman Cechmanek. He had some of the best statistical years EVER by a Flyers goal, but fell apart in the playoffs. Surely, we can’t turn the keys of the team over the Bobrovsky, right? We need a veteran who can perform.
It was in the midst of this that the Flyers apocalypsed their team and traded away Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, who fell on the bad sides of Laviolette and brought in a bunch of players. While the trades themselves turned out to be great for the Flyers, it was the reason they were traded that was the impetus for this being the worst trade ever. Now that they excised them of a lot of high salary, the Flyers could snag a player that they really wanted. Enter Ilya Bryzgalov.
Bryz was 30 years old and had started for four solid years in Phoenix, putting up outstanding numbers (130 wins, .917 SV%, 2.54 GAA) The Flyers signed him to a nine year, $51 million contract.
After a year of backing up Bryz, the Flyers shipped Bob to the Columbus Blue Jackets for three draft picks, including a second round pick that would become goalie prospect Anthony Stolarz. Bobrovksy was 23 when they traded him away.
Bryz would last two only years in Philadelphia, with one of those years coming after the Bobrovksy trade. While his numbers were decent, they were not worth being the highest paid goaltender in the league.
He seemed to love the media spotlight and would say some rather crazy things about bears, his dog, and the universe. When he blamed his teammates for his failures, the Flyers had enough. They bought out his contract. He would play in only 40 more games over the next two years for three different teams before returning to Russia.
Meanwhile, Bob won two Vezina Trophies as the best goaltender in the league. He signed a mega deal to play with Florida. While his teams have struggled in the playoffs, much of it can be placed on the other players who haven’t scored or played bad defense. Even if he has struggled in the playoffs, the numbers he put up over the last few seasons have been outstanding.
Also, since getting rid of Bob, the Flyers have had 18 different goalies start for them, including a record eight goalies in 2018-19. Hopefully Carter Hart holds up to expectation and the Flyers do not give up on him too soon. We saw what happened for in the Bobrovsky-Bryzgolov mess and don’t need that again.
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In summary, most of these trades made were made to fill a need and were rushed. Some were for a late season push down the stretch (Oates). Some got good players in return (Lindros and Brind’amour), but cost way too much when you look back on it. Some gave up on players too soon or came about as conflicts between player and coach/GM. We like to play armchair GMs and think we can do a better job. Nobody has a crystal ball or knows the future. You can never tell if a trade worked out until later on.
But man….if we could hop in a DeLorean and cancel these trades, we’d do it.