If Flyers Trade Travis Konecny, What’s a Fair Return?
When he took over the reigns as Flyers general manager in March, Daniel Briere hinted that anyone can be acquired from the team for the right price when he remined the NHL that “Even Wayne Gretzky was traded.” And in his first major move, dealing away Ivan Provorov, he got would could be a fairly good return for a player with a mixed history. It was a bold stroke, but it could be the first of many bold moves.
If you look at many articles by hockey experts and hockey managers, there are lots of rumors floating around these days. Some talk about Carter Hart being shopped around. Others examine the more obvious pieces to be moved like Tony DeAngelo or Kevin Hayes. These make sense. Two of the players aren’t happy about being here and the other, Hart, is most likely the team’s best tradeable asset
However, the next best tradeable asset is Flyers forward Travis Konecny. What?!?!?!? Why would the Flyers get rid of their best forward? Why would they trade the guy who was their top scorer….their only consistent scorer?
First of all, there are no suggestions or hints that the Flyers are even remotely interested in doing this. Well, with the exception from the “Gretzky was traded quote” anyway. However, many hockey experts predict that Konecny will be shipped out. Right before the trade deadline, many articles were written that the Flyers needed to do this. From The Athletic, to The Hockey Writers, to NHL Trade Talk, everyone thinks that Philly could get a good return for a player in his prime. It’d be good for him because he wouldn’t be “wasting” his talents on a bad team and he could be great for a contender.
All of these are good points. And we will consider a return for him in just a second. More importantly, let’s look at his recent career in Philly.
Konency was the 24th overall pick in the 2015 draft; the same draft that Provorov was drafted seventh overall. He made his debut in 2016-17 and has been playing ever since. As a rookie, he put up 28 points with 11 goals. As time went on, he improved a little bit every year and showing remarkable consistency, scoring 24 goals in each of the next three seasons.
Then Alain Vigneault happened. For whatever reason, the two didn’t click. AV benched Konecny several times and criticized his performance in the Bubble Playoffs in 2020. In fact, the 2020-21 season saw Konecny revert to scoring just 11 goals. The following year, he struggled again as the Flyers were floundering. He struggled with minor, nagging injuries as well as COVID.
When Vigneault was fired on December 5, 2021, Konecny had scored only five goals with just seven assists in 23 games. After AV’s ouster, he scored 11 goals and 29 assists the rest of the way. He was free and woke up.
And when John Tortorella was hired, there were fears that this could be AV all over again. And truth be told, Konecny was benched in during one game. Instead of sulking, like he did with Vigneault or like Kevin Hayes would wind up doing, he toughed it out and improved. And even with injuries this year that kept him out of 22 games, he put up a career high of 31 goals and tied a career high of 61 points. He bought into what John Tortorella was selling and had a great season because of it.
So, after a career year, what could Konecny be worth? Let’s look at four trades from Flyers history to see.
A Flyers History of Trading Top Forward Talent
1992: Penguins trade Mark Recchi, a first round pick and Brian Benning for Kjell Samuelsson, Rick Tocchet and Ken Wregget, and a third round pick.
Rick Tocchet was a fan favorite for scoring and toughness. In his first seven seasons in Philly, he had scored 217 goals with 250 assists. Konecny, in that same time, has scored 141 goals with 191 assists playing in one less game.
While there were a lot of other pieces, this was essentially Tocchet for Recchi. Recchi, at the time, had scored 104 goals in parts of three seasons with the Pens as a 23 year old.
1995: Canadiens trade John LeClair, Eric Desjardins, and Gilbert Dionne for Recchi and a third round pick.
After two full seasons in Philly and two partial ones, the Flyers traded Recchi to Montreal. Much like Konecny, Recchi was their best tradeable asset. The Habs wanted him to help them get back to the Stanley Cup (didn’t happen). In return, the Flyers got one of their best left wingers and best defenders of all time. Best of all, Recchi would return just a few years later in a steal of a trade as Montreal began a poorly executed rebuild.
1992: Flyers trade two first round draft picks, Steve Duchesne, Peter Forsberg, Ron Hextall, Kerry Huffman, Mike Ricci, and Chris Simon to the Nordiques for Eric Lindros.
I’m not going to delve into this too much. We all know about this one. But the price to acquire the future Hall of Famer was a bevy of talent that was, in the end, just too much. That was a lot of guys traded to get one player. It serves as a cautionary tale.
2000: Flyers trade Rod Brind’amour, a second round pick, and Jean-Marc Pelletier.to the Hurricanes for Keith Primeau and a fifth round pick.
I’m also not going to go into detail with this trade nor the overall ramifications of it, but you can read up on it here. However, it is relevant because at the time the deal was made, it was seen as a fairly even trade at the time. It was one top six forward for another one.
So, What’s Konecny Worth?
First of all, Konecny just turned 26. Yes, he is entering what should be his prime. He also put up a career high tally in goals and tied a career high in points while playing in just 60 games due to injuries. All of this playing with a coach who can be combative and on a floundering team still trying to find itself. He’s also fairly cheap, costing the team that owns his rights just $5.5 million for this year and next year when his contract runs out. That’s a good price on that contract.
Konecny is not going to bring the Lindros sized price that Quebec got. Many teams have seen what happens when you spend a ton of assets for just one guy. It usually doesn’t turn out too well for the team giving up all the assets.
The Tocchet-Recchi and Brind’amour-Primeau trades are probably better examples of what can be acquired. Here, you have one talented star being traded for another one. Likewise, the Recchi-LeClair trade shows some younger talent with some upside being traded for an established star.
Konecny might be worth a first rounder and a couple of other picks. He could be worth some NHL ready prospects. He could be worth some young talent already at the NHL level.
He won’t command as much at the Matthew Tkachuk deal did last year because Tkahchuk is a much more consistent scorer. However, being that they are roughly the same age, you could expect a slightly smaller return. And if teams that are in bad shape want him, they could be enticed into a bidding war (Winnipeg?, Calgary? Ottawa?) and that could cause someone to overpay.
Overall, I firmly believe that Konecny is staying here and will sign an extension at some point. He seems to be the guy that the team is trying to build around. Tortorella likes him and Konecny likes playing for him. Unless someone sends a deal that blows Briere away, the chances of Konecny playing somewhere else are slim and none.