It may be early in the 2024-25 season, but it’s never too soon to give a little foresight into what the Philadelphia Flyers may have planned in the future. After refusing to make any outside changes during the summer of 2024 and the early-season struggles looking oddly familiar, the trade deadline and the 2025 offseason could be big for the Flyers to spark real change. They dealt Ronnie Attard in what could be the first move of many, so who’s most likely to be the next Flyer to get traded away?
Number 5: Bobby Brink
If the Flyers decide to be buyers at some point in the near future, trading a young roster player with upside in order to lock down a bonafide main roster upgrade may just have to happen, and Brink would fit that role perfectly. He just hasn’t been utilized well under John Tortorella but has shown promises of potential as a scoring winger. Combining a player like Brink with one of their various first round picks may be enough to land a top six center the team desperately needs.
Number 4: Scott Laughton
At this point there’s probably a better chance of a meteor hitting Earth and wiping out all life on the planet than there is the chance the Flyers trade Scott Laughton, but on the list of players that should *theoretically* be on the trade block on a normal team, he would be high on the list. He’s a veteran depth leader who can play on the wing or center and only has one more year left on his deal at a $3 million cap hit. There’s a good chance the Flyers waited way too long to pull the trigger here with his overall value dropping over the last season or two, and thus they just won’t move him at all.
Number 3: Morgan Frost
Morgan Frost is in a bizarre situation and it’s only getting weirder as time goes on. Thanks to the front office completely ignoring the center depth problem during the offseason, Frost has been their de facto top center, but he still doesn’t seem to have the full trust of John Tortorella… or the talent to effortlessly hold down the demands of the job.
It’d be hard to subtract Frost without adding anybody from the outside to just fill his spot, let alone upgrade. But as a pending restricted free agent on a team that may not want him long-term (or couldn’t afford his services if he actually takes a noticeable step forward this season) than he may have to go.
Number 2: Joel Farabee
Joel Farabee started the season with six points in 12 games, which puts him on pace for his normal mid-40s projection by season’s end. The cap-strapped Flyers just cannot afford to fork over $5 million to a mediocre winger. There’s still time this season for him to “break out” but in year six of his NHL career and nothing above average to show for it, the Flyers may finally have to step up and trade Farabee, even if it’s not going to be the easiest deal to craft.
Number 1: Rasmus Ristolainen
Ristolainen’s name was floated around the trade deadline last season, but he was put on the shelf with an injury around the same time. On the whole, his tenure with the Flyers has been decent and some time has burned off his contract. He’s still got two additional seasons at a $5.1 million cap hit, but that’s not too bad given his improved play. Much like Farabee, the Flyers are going to have to clear cap in some fashion, and Ristolainen’s name rises to the top of the list.
Honorable Mentions
Nobody
Does Danny Briere even know how to make a real trade? We haven’t seen a main roster trade since the 2024 deadline when they sent Sean Walker to Colorado for Ryan Johansen and added Erik Johnson in exchange for a fourth round pick, and he has yet to make a net-positive main roster acquisition during his tenure as GM.
Ivan Fedotov
Ivan Fedotov’s NHL career lasted all of six games before he fell to the third man on the depth chart status. His career 5.18 GAA and .817 SV% is about as bad as it could be, and he’s getting paid over three million dollars this season and next for such skill. Would the Flyers actually dump his cap after all they went through to get him here? Probably not, but the cap-strapped Flyers can’t really afford to be paying yet another goalie NHL money for ECHL results.
Travis Sanheim
Remember when the Flyers tried desperately to move Travis Sanheim’s contract before his extension kicked in and they failed and he’s just been a roster piece ever since? He’s playing well enough where moving him shouldn’t be a huge problem if a deal were based on skill alone, but he’s only in year two of that eight year extension, so just like before, other teams may just not want to make the same insane commitment that the Flyers did.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: Getty Images
brotherlypuck.com 