Why would the Flyers trade Joel Farabee this off-season?

Ok, I'll admit it. I was shocked when I saw the headline. The Philadelphia Flyers are reportedly open to moving Joel Farabee.

What? Why? After all, the Flyers are in a rebuild and he is one of the guys that I would be building this team around. To be fair, I understand that when a team doesn't make the playoffs for three years in a row, any player on the team is potentially up for grabs in a trade.

Still, if I were the general manager, I would feel that Farabee, along with Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, and Travis Konecny would be the players to build this team around. In my opinion, these are the most "untradeable" players the Flyers have.

But Broadstreetbuzz co-editor Ariel Melendez said it best when she said: "If the Flyers are indeed looking at trading Farabee, his value is likely at its highest". She's right. And while I would not want to trade Farabee, there are some benefits, no matter how great the loss is.

The Philadelphia Flyers may or may not make a trade involving Joel Farabee

In February 1995, the Flyers traded Mark Recchi to the Montreal Canadiens. He had played two full seasons and parts of two others. During one of those seasons, 1992-93, he set the Flyers' team record of 123 points in a season. The closest anyone has come to even sniffing that total is Eric Lindros in 1995-96 when he scored 115 points.

Recchi was a scoring machine, scoring goals at will and setting up his linemates; Lindros among them. So why trade him?

The Flyers needed some help in other areas. While he was good, he couldn't do it all on his own. So, he was flipped to Montreal for John LeClair, Eric Desjardins, and Gilbert Dionne. Turns out, this was one of the greatest trades in Flyers' history. Since Dionne never really panned out, let's focus on the other two.

While LeClair never points up the point totals that Recchi had, he came dang near close. He topped the 90-point total in three of his first four seasons, twice recording 97. Oh, the one year he didn't, he put up a measly 87 points. When paired up with Lindros, he became one of the top left wingers in the NHL.

Meanwhile, there is Desjardins. For the next 10 years, he was the heart and soul of the defense. His offensive capabilities were paired greatly with partner Chris Therien's defensive skills. Together, they became one of the great defensive pairings in Flyers' team history.

Losing Recchi was not fun. At the time it was a big shocker. However, it paid off in huge dividends as the Flyers were, routinely, one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, including a trip to the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals.

Trading a Farabee, a Scott Laughton, or another star player would hurt. It would be painful. Losing Recchi was painful.

Trading Giroux was painful. Sometimes you trade a star player, like Recchi and Giroux, and you make out like bandits. Sometimes you trade a star player away, like Lindros, and you get nothing of value for him. You never know what you are going to get.

While I'd hate to see Farabee traded away if trading him could mean we end up with two or three players of his caliber, it's worth looking into.