The 2023 NHL trade deadline has passed. How did it go? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
There was some anticipation of players like James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Hayes, Ivan Provorov, Nick Seeler, Travis Sanheim, and Tony Deangelo to be some of the players traded. It was very unlikely that all would be traded, but the big name was JVR. So, what happened?
Isaac Ratcliffe was the first to go. He was sent to Nashville for future consideration on February 26, right after the major deals for Timo Meier and Tanner Jeannot happened and before players like Patrick Kane, Jakob Chychrun, Jesse Puljujarvi, Mattias Ekholm, Marcus Johansson, Rasmus Sandin, Jonathan Quick (TWICE), and Tyler Bertuzzi were traded. A minor deal, but alright, let’s see what else happens.
Reports that there’s some interest in JVR, Kevin Hayes, and one of Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim come to light, but the Flyers wouldn’t do anything until the day of the trade deadline, March 3.
They start off the day by trading Zack MacEwan to LA for a 2024 fifth-round pick and Brendan Lemieux. a minor swap again, with something coming back this time.
Then, less than 30 minutes before the 3pm deadline, Elliotte Friedman tweeted that JVR was traded to the Detroit Red Wings. What a joy it was for about three minutes before it was announced that the deal fell through.
Patrick Brown was then traded to the Ottawa Senators for a sixth-round pick this summer. JVR is still a Philadelphia Flyer.
Speaking on a personal level, this is the lowest I’ve ever been on the Flyers. How do you get so close to a trade that many top insiders tweet it out and then have it fall through? This is complete incompetence on Chuck Fletcher’s end. At least this deadline he didn’t give an extension to the top trade piece like he did the past two trade deadlines, re-signing Laughton two years ago and Ristolainen last year. It’s a borderline miracle how Chuck Fletcher still has his job and if he makes it to October, which seems like a very good possibility, this organization is screwed. They already are, but it will get so much worse.
We just saw Rangers fans take over Wells Fargo Center, something that would be considered laughable 10 years ago. This organization has gone to shit. The brainchild of Ed Snider is nothing like he would remember if he were still with us today. This is a pitiful excuse for a franchise and the only sliver of hope is the possibility of winning the draft lottery and getting Connor Bedard, but why should we get our hopes up for that? Chuck Fletcher can’t even trade a middle-six winger who was considered a somewhat highly regarded trade target.
By Noah Caplan (@Phlyers24)
Photo credit: @NHLFlyers
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