As the calendar turns to 2025 and the trade deadline is now less than two months away, the rumor mill is heating up. The most recent name to supposedly be gaining momentum is Vancouver Canucks’ forward Elias Pettersson.
The recently turned 26-year-old has 440 points in 441 NHL games and has been over a point-per-game for the last two seasons. He’s in the first season of an eight-year, $92.8 million ($11.6 mil aav) contract.
So should the Flyers be interested in his services? Let’s weigh some pros and cons.
Pros
He’s a center
This is pretty much atop the Flyers’ checklist with any addition these days. Unlike Dylan Cozens, Quinton Byfield or Trevor Zegras that we’ve looked at in the past, Pettersson is actually playing center, and he’s doing it competently. A point-per-game center that’s actually a center is exactly what the doctor ordered for an ailing Flyers offense.
He’s a star
One thing the Flyers need more than anything else right now is a few players that can stand above the crowd, not only on the ice but in the eyes of the fans. It’s been a long time since the Flyers made a trade of this caliber, and the organization desperately needs this kind of shakeup. It’s help the roster make a playoff push and help abate some of the growing fan unease with Danny Briere.
His trade value…
The Flyers are more than set up to make a few big splashes when it comes to trades. They’ve got an entire AHL team they refuse to touch, and with an overflowing roster of good-not-great pieces in need of change, crafting some kind of mega deal shouldn’t be out of the question for the Flyers.
Cons
… His trade value
Even with the growing trade rumors, the Canucks aren’t going to let their star go for cheap. Theoretically, can the Flyers make a deal? Yes. Can they execute a deal in real life given everything we’ve seen from Briere (and the org as a whole the last 15 years)? That’s a much bigger hurdle.
“Culture”
The Flyers love their culture. They value it more than anything else, for better or worse. The entire reason the Canucks are rumored to have interest in trading Pettersson is some growing tensions in their locker room. Star power be damned, it anybody attempts to shatter their perfect candyland they got going, it’s not going to be an easy add to convince them to make.
His contract
The Flyers hand out massively stupid contracts to every one of their own players, so this one isn’t necessarily a good argument for mot pursuing Pettersson, but $11.6 million for seven more season is quite the number to dance with regardless given the flyers’ cap situation.
Conclusion
Pettersson is easily the biggest name to emerge ahead of the 2025 trade deadline, and the Flyers better be interested in his services. It’s the exact caliber of player that can be strapped to Matvei Michkov and make him a real star and goes a long way to fix their forever lackluster center position.
His cap hit clocking in at $11.6 million is a daunting number for the cap-strapped Flyers. The Canucks are in the hunt for a playoff spot, and don’t appear to be bottoming out in the long-haul anytime soon, so just giving them multiple pieces of overpaid scrap and draft picks probably doesn’t interest them all that much. Do they package Tippett and Farabee? Or Farabee and Ristolainen? There has to be some combo of those players just to get the cap to work, let alone adding in actual value.
Some of the recent trade rumors out there indicate the Canucks want a top four defenseman and adding an offensive winger, two things the Flyers could offer. They’ve got more wingers than they know what to do with, and a player of Pettersson’s caliber may be enough to shake their love for Rasmus Ristolainen or to move on from Emil Andrae, who has been banished to the AHL anyway.
Luckily the Flyers won’t be the only team struggling to add that kind of salary easily. Unless he ends up in Anaheim or something, who could eat than number without much trouble, the Canucks may be trying to deal a star, but it’s not going to be a smooth deal.
The growing controversy that is the Canucks’ off-ice problems seem to focus around Elias Pettersson, but there hasn’t exactly been much detail as to what’s going on. Is he the aggressor? Is he the victim? Is it all just a mess? Either way, the Flyers’ love of culture can’t be overlooked in this case. Turning down a superstar center because be may not be BFFs with Nick Seeler is absolutely a believable outcome for this front office, no matter how dumb it may be.
Things are starting to get intense for the Flyers ahead of the trade deadline. They’re on pace to miss the playoffs again for a fifth consecutive season and third straight under Tortorella, the offense and powerplay remain stagnate, and the abysmal 2024 offseason are starting to turn the pressure up on Danny Briere to do something to bail out his team. This is the first real name to emerge that is truly worthwhile for the Flyers to be kicking tires on.
This simply can’t be an easy “not interested” decision for them. This isn’t quite now or never for Briere, but it’s pretty close. Rarely do the skies open up and drop a player in the rumor mill of this caliber, particularly at a position of need. Briere lands Pettersson and he’s a hero. He walks away from the trade deadline (and/or offseason) empty handed and his time at the top may be coming to early end. There’s probably not going to be a more perfect scenario than this to boost his team, and the ball is in Briere’s court to make a blockbuster, franchise-altering trade. Godspeed.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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