We’re just a few weeks away from the NHL offseason picking up with the 2025 draft and free agency to follow. The Philadelphia Flyers led by Danny Briere need to have themselves a busy summer if they want to save this sinking ship, so let’s make some early predictions about every move they’ll craft this offseason!
It means we gotta think like the Flyers. It’s hard to drop you IQ that low, but we’re gonna try. It means that there needs to be plenty of movement but minimal progress actually being made. So with that being said….
Trade Nic Hague for Bobby Brink
Vegas wants a cheap winger and the Flyers want size on defense.
Hague is a 26-year-old left-handed defenseman who recently appeared in the rumor mill connected to the Flyers. He’s a hulking 6’6″ and 245lbs, that basically tops out as a third pair body. None of his stats stand out positively or negatively (which may actually be an upgrade compared to some of the current defensemen.) He’s currently a restricted free agent in need of a new contract.
Getting rid of Brink isn’t a huge loss, and it opens up a rare forward slot for a team that otherwise has a full roster. He posted 41 points in 79 games last season and has one year left on his current contract at a $1.5 million cap hit.
The reality is it doesn’t make a ton of sense for the Flyers to be adding Hague. They’ve already got enough bodies to fill out the defense. Size is great and all, but they don’t need another random depth player, and five of the seven of their defensemen (if York returns) are already lefties. “They need size for the playoffs” says the team that hasn’t made the playoffs in five years because they’ve got no real talent. It’s a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.
Sign Maxim Shabanov
The Flyers have been linked to Russian sensation Maxim Shabanov for much of 2025, but as of this writing, nobody seems any closer to actually verifying the continued rumors. The 5’8, 157lb 24-year-old forward (he turns 25 in October) will more than likely end up on the wing in the NHL. He’s essentially replacing Brink. A smaller, older version of Brink who may or may not be better.
The Flyers aren’t in a position to turn down potential upgrades wherever they arise, so taking a waiver on Shabanov is a potential low-risk, high-reward outcome. But it’d be nice to focus adding proven talent instead of another shot in the dark. If they want a winger with upside and no experience, just give Alex Bump a roster spot.
Trade Cam York for Bowen Bryam
The original hope was that if the Flyers were going to trade Cam York that it’d be for a center. Not only has that hope faded, if the were to ditch York, it opens a pretty big hole on the defense.
Thus, the need to send him to Buffalo in exchange for 24-year-old lefty and fellow unsigned restricted free agent Bowen Byram. Both he and York probably end up with similar contracts and the teams need to shake up their individual rosters as well. Byram’s injury history makes him a bit of a worrisome add, but if the bridges are burnt with York, they have to have some kind of fallback plan.
Worth noting that the Flyers were rumored to have interest in Byram back when they were shopping Cutter Gauthier before ultimately dealing him for Jamie Drysdale, so it’s not a completely unfathomable outcome that they’d circle back, it’s just a matter of whether or not it’s the right call in the first place.
Sign Mikael Granlund
The Flyers need to find someone to play center next season. Given how thin the free agent market is and how adverse the Flyers seem to be to someone like Marco Rossi, settling on a 33-year-old stop-gap may just be the best plan of action.
Despite his age, Granlund has played very well as his career progressed. He posted 105 points in 121 games with the San Jose Sharks over the last two seasons, and 21 points in 31 games with the Dallas Stars after being acquired before the 2025 trade deadline.
There are better options out there, but there are definitely worse options out there too. Granlund’s success with the lowly Sharks means that he may be able to help an anemic Flyers’ squad as well. It’s not a long-term solution, but it buys them a little bit more time as they wait for a magic bean to fall into their laps.
Draft Brady Martin Sixth Overall
Not gonna pretend to be a draft guru by any means, and the mock drafts and theories are totally beaten to death, re-animated, and beat to death again this time of year. But if there’s one thing we know about the Flyers when it comes to drafting, it’s that they love to think they’re the smartest guys in the room and select “their guy” no matter where they fall in the draft.
Martin isn’t projected to be a top six pick, but there’s been a significant amount of smoke around the Flyers wanting him, and thus, they take “their guy” no matter who is still on the board at six.
Given the uncertainty around this year’s class, who knows whether or not that reach pans out in a few years. But passing on, say, Porter Martone to snag Brady Martin has the chance to age like milk in the sun, and that’s the kind of drafting we’ve come to know and loathe from the Flyers.
Package 22nd & 40th overall picks for Montreal’s 17th overall and draft Joshua Ravensbergen
If you want to argue about which picks get traded, and to which team, more power to ya, BUT the theory of the Flyers packaging some of their picks together to move up into the mid-first round and select top goalie prospect Joshua Ravensbergen feels like the smartest thing they could possibly do in this year’s draft. They don’t need the quantity of seven picks in the first two rounds, they only need to make a few picks and make them count, and this is the best way to do that.
Given the uncertainty of the draft order this year, who knows where Ravensbergen ends up, but he’s projected in the late teens or early 20s, so 17th overall (MTL holds both 16 and 17) may be good enough to get the job done. Their desire to big-brain the sixth overall pick will look less stupid of they hit a home run elsewhere in the first round.
Sign Kaapo Kahkonen
The Flyers need a new third string goalie with Cal Petersen’s contract finally off the books. With the unreliability of the Ersson/Fedotov tandem and whether or not Kolosov returns (and the unlikely nature that he’s anything more than an ECHLer if he does), it’d make sense they’d want someone with some NHL experience as a fallback plan. Kahkonen is currently leading the red hot Charlotte Checkers to a Calder Cup appearance in the AHL.
If Kahkonen ends up stuck in the AHL, he’s clearly got a decent track record down there, but he’s also got 140 games of NHL experience in the chance they need him on the main roster.
Anything Else?
The main roster is more or less already accounted for. It seems unlikely they do much tinkering with more Hague-for-Brink type of deals. It’d be great if they swung for the fences and added a Marco Rossi or Mitch Marner, but those dreams are more or less DOA now.
Hopefully they put some serious thought into adding a few standout players for the Phantoms this season to guide along their copious prospects ending up down there. Now’s the time to turn that team into a contender if they really wanted to.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 