The Philadelphia Flyers are well aware that to take the next step, they must acquire a No. 1 center. Trevor Zegras fit like a glove in Philadelphia last season despite experts who thought he might not, and he even nailed down his spot at center towards the end of the season. However, the flashy forward is much better suited to a second-line role if he plays the middle, which makes it essential to find him a one-two punch to play first-line minutes.
The haters of Elias Pettersson are out in full force with the way things have gone for him with the Vancouver Canucks, and a recent Spittin Chiclets golf video will do nothing to quiet them down. The Swedish center took all the blame for how the JT Miller situation panned out when it happened, and that is what people assume eventually led to Quinn Hughes asking out of Vancouver as well.
One silver lining for Flyers fans, if they do eventually explore a Pettersson trade, is that the one guy who would know the real truth about what went down in Vancouver is currently behind the bench in Philadelphia. Rick Tocchet is also the guy who coached Pettersson for half of his 102-point breakout season and then the following 89-point season when the Canucks went on their run to Game 7 of the Western Conference semi-finals.
The problem is that Pettersson hasn't been the same since that playoff game where he scored just one goal in 13 games. Everything went downhill from that moment, and he is now potentially looking for a fresh start, which the Flyers can provide.
Elias Pettersson and the Philadelphia Flyers could be a proper marriage
The Flyers are one of the only playoff teams from last season who could fit Pettersson's $11.6 million cap hit into their salary structure, but the question they'll have to answer is whether they are willing to pay it. The good news is that Ryan Johnson and Vancouver's new front office seem a little bit more willing to retain some salary to make a deal work, which would be a bit more advantageous.
One more hurdle for the Flyers is that Pettersson has a full no-move clause. No one is saying that the center is a bit soft when it comes to facing the drama, but everything we do know about him might tell us that he would try to avoid coming to the Flyers to face even more questions about his time in Vancouver since Tocchet is also here.
For the Canucks, trading him out East makes sense, as it'd be another dagger in the hearts of their franchise if he went somewhere else and became a point-per-game player again. It's just up to Pettersson if a rabid fanbase in the East is where he wants to spend the next six seasons.
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