Atop the Philadelphia Flyers’ wishlist heading into the 2024 offseason is a high-end, offensively-dynamic top center to jumpstart the team’s offense. And unfortunately, there isn’t really any bonafide fits out there naturally. Sam Reinhart is a pending unrestricted free agent, Trevor Zegras may be able to be had via trade, and 34-year-old Steven Stamkos has yet to ink a new deal with the Lightning. That pretty much ends the worthwhile center list.
But there’s been an unlikely name to hit the rumor mill, and that’s 25-year-old Vancouver Canucks center Elias Pettersson. He’s an upcoming restricted free agent and recent rumors suggest he may not be returning to Vancouver next year. His current deal is paying him $7.3 million a season.
Pettersson is in his sixth NHL season where he’s racked up 398 points in 386 games, including riding on his third consecutive 30+ goal season, and posting 102 points during the 2022-23 campaign. He currently has 75 points in 65 games during the 2023-24 season.
He was the former fifth overall pick in 2017 with a birthday in mid-November, meaning he’ll turn 26 years old shortly into the 2024-25 campaign.
If Vancouver ultimately dangles Pettersson’s rights out there in the trade market, the Flyers should absolutely be doing their due diligence, but it’s a deal that isn’t going to come cheap, both financially or value via trade wise.
Acquiring Elias Pettersson is one of those moves that’s hard to even predict when it comes to what Vancouver may want in return via trade, simply because players of his caliber just don’t get moved very often in the modern day NHL. And you can bet a vast majority of teams in the league are going to be calling Patrik Allvin about acquiring Pettersson’s services.
While 26 years old is maybe a few years older than an ideal target would be, it’s not everyday a player, more specifically a center, in their prime capable of posting 100 points becomes available, so what they lose in age will more than be made up for in talent.
The other wrinkle is that Vancouver is among the best teams in the league during the 2023-24 season, and thus it’s assumed they want to stay competitive moving forward. It’s not like this is a rebuilding team where throwing half a dozen first round draft picks at them could get the job done, they’re probably going to want some level of main roster compensation in exchange for Pettersson’s rights.
The Flyers’ best trade chip may be Joel Farabee. He just turned 24 and has four years left on his current deal at a reasonable $5 million cap hit. He is a winger and hasn’t come anywhere close to sniffing triple digit point totals, but he is having a personal best season with 44 points in 60 games. Now that he’s indicating he may have an untapped upside in his career, and the fact he’s under contract for the foreseeable future, could be a strong base to build a deal around. It wouldn’t be surprising if they asked for Tyson Foerster or Bobby Brink or maybe even Travis Konecny or some combination of the three. Vancouver could possibly have eyes on top defense prospect Oliver Bonk or maybe one or two of the Flyers’ multiple first round picks for good measure.
They could most likely avoid trading Konecny in this case. He may be the Flyers’ best forward, but would Vancouver really want someone older than Pettersson with only one year left on his contract before he hits unrestricted free agent status in return? Probably not. Thus why Farabee would be the more enticing option.
Pretty much anyone or anything in the organization not named Matvei Michkov should be on the table in a trade for Pettersson without much of a second thought.
And after the trade is made, whoever wins his sweepstakes still has to ink him to a new deal, which won’t come cheap. He’s already making $7.35 million and could very well hit 100 points for a second consecutive season by the time the 2023-24 campaign is over, so a new max term contract with an aav exceeding $10 million a season is likely.
Starting in 2024-25, 16 players in the league are making more than $10 million a season, with a total of 30 making $9.5 million or more. Top players are getting paid and at this point it’s just the cost of doing business. Luckily for the Flyers, they’ve got some cap to spare right now, especially if they do end up dealing Farabee, whose absence alone would cover nearly half of Pettersson’s extension.
Should the Flyers have interest in Pettersson? Yes, absolutely.
Would it be the biggest move the franchise has made is well over a decade? Yes.
Does anybody have faith this front office actually has the spine to make this kind of blockbuster? Ehh… maybe.
The Flyers are in desperate need of a high-end center and it doesn’t get more high-end than Elias Pettersson. It’s not going to be easy, cheap or painless, but it’s the kind of move the legitimizes the entire franchise again. Adding a superstar player that’s going to make those around him better too. For a long time, the Flyers have been guilty of just not making the hard decisions, and even though Briere has talked a good game during his first year at the helm, the work he’s got left to do to truly build the Flyers into a contender is massive. If Elias Pettersson does indeed refuse to sign a new deal with the Canucks, the Flyers not only need to throw their hat in the ring, they need to land the best player available this summer. It could be the deal that finally turns the Flyers around.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: sportsnet.ca
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