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Quick Hits: June 20, 2024
1) The Flyers will hold their annual pre-Draft press conference on Thursday at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees. General manager Danny Briere will speak, in generic terms, about the crop of players available in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft. Originally, both Briere and assistant general manager Brent Flahr were tabbed to speak, but Flahr is out of town and there was a scheduling conflict. Flahr will speak at the Draft in Las Vegas.
2) On Wednesday, the Flyers announced that Ian Laperriere has signed a two-year extension as head coach of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The decision was made prior to the Calder Cup playoffs but is now formalized in a new contract. After defeating the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a best-of-three miniseries, the Phantoms lost to the Hershey Bears, three games to one, in the best-of-five second round.
3) I have always been a believer in focusing on a team as currently constituted until there are actual roster changes to discuss. When there is news to report and roster additions or subtractions to dissect, that's when things get real. It's not that I do no track rumors to try to have some sense of what may be looming, but a) teams swap trade ideas frequently, and only a small fraction ever come to fruition, b) a lot of the deals that actually go down are kept the quietest internally, and c) even when certain aspects of a trade are rumored, significant details often change before the deal actually happens.
All that being said, I've been aware of rumors of various iterations of a Flyers-Senators trade dating back to January of this year. They have likely tossed around ideas of both larger and smaller numbers of pieces involved. Will anything actually happen? We'll see soon.
The older rumor involved a Senators defenseman coming back to Philadelphia. Some say it'd be Thomas Chabot, others Jakob Chychrun. The former has no-trade protections (partial NTC) that kick in on July 1 and he's coming off wrist surgery but is a big-minutes D who likes to play fast. The 27-year-old, an alternate captain for the Senators, has four seasons to run on his current contract at an $8 million cap hit per (the soon-to-disappear) CapFriendly.
The latter is a name that has been tied to the Flyers in the past, is coming off a 14-goal, 41-point season. Chychrun's dad, Jeff, is a Flyers Alum and his mom, Nancy, is from the Delaware Valley and still has lot of family here. Jake himself is familiar with the area and has done past injury rehab locally, but grew up in Boca Raton, Florida. The 26-year-old, who has a partial no-trade clause in his contract, will enter the final season of his contract ($4.6 million cap hit) in 2024-25 and then can become an unrestricted free agent next summer if he chooses not to sign a preemptive extension.
At least according to the scuttlebutt, there also may be alternatively/ additionally a swap that would involve the Flyers trading the 12th overall pick in next week's NHL Entry Draft and receiving the seventh overall pick as part of the exchange.
What would be going back to Ottawa? I would think that Joel Farabee, coming off his second career 20-plus goal season and about to enter his prime, would be a player of significant interest to Ottawa. I don't think the Flyers would make either Cam York or Tyson Foerster available. Ditto the rights to Matvei Michkov. It's no secret that the Flyers are looking to add -- not subtract -- a skilled center, but I'd think Morgan Frost could be available as a trade component in the right deal. Scott Laughton, for his penalty killing prowess, leadership and versality to move up and down the lineup and play either center or left wing, remains of interest to teams talking trade ideas.
I would doubt if the Senators make Shane Pinto available. They did not do so last season when he was unsigned entering training camp nor did they move his rights before his long NHL (gambling-related) suspension and eventual compromise contract. I still would expect him to sign a multi-year extension this offseason at some point. Also, I certainly do not expect Brady Tkachuk to be dealt: that's a pipe dream.
The Claude Giroux ship has sailed, in all likelihood. I think the next time "G" pulls on a Flyers jersey will be for some future Flyers Alumni Game the night before his inevitable Flyers Hall of Fame induction. In the meantime, he's still got plenty left in the tank at age 36, to keep playing in the NHL. For what it's worth, Giroux has one season remaining on his contract with the Senators ($6.5 million).
Lastly, because of their Flyers family ties, the names of power forward Tyler Boucher (son of multi-stint goalie and current broadcaster Brian Boucher) and promising young center Ridly Greig (son of Alum player and current longtime western Canada-based amateur scout Mark Greig) often seem to pop up. I don't think the 21-year-old Greig is readily available for trade. He's a burgeoning Swiss Army Knife type of player with grit. The 21-year-old Boucher has been set back by injury issues but has a huge frame and plays an aggressive physical style that could appeal to Philly.
Both Greig (2020, 28th overall) and Boucher (2021, 10th overall) were first-round picks by the Senators. The Senators took Boucher earlier than his pundit-consensus selection range, projecting him to develop over time into their version of Washington's Tom Wilson. The injuries have set him back.
Greig went right about in his projected range. His dad, well aware of the inevitable complaints of "nepotism" and "old boys' network" that would have come out from people who'd never seen him play, asked Flahr and former general manager Chuck Fletcher to draft someone else. The Flyers -- not specifically because of Mark Greig's request but going strictly by their internal best available player rankings, selected Foerster. Now that several years have passed, and the younger Greig has shown he's a bonafide NHL player, the "Flyers Alum son" tag is a non-issue: most teams would have interest if there was a deal to be made.
Lastly: All of this is based SOLELY on my own read on these possibilities and the rumor mill scuttlebutt. I have no "hard info" directly from management sources regarding specific interest or what's been in any actual trade dialogue. Take it all with a grain of salt.
4) Today in Flyers History: Flyers AND Rangers Acquire Lindros Rights (June 20, 1992)
Drafted by the Quebec Nordiques with the first overall pick of the 1991 NHL Draft, Eric Lindros declined to play for the team. A fierce bidding war ensued to acquire his rights, with numerous NHL teams offering massive returns to the Nordiques for the rights to the highly touted teenager. For the next year, the Nordiques declined all offers, as the prices escalated higher and higher.
Finally, as the NHL convened for the 1992 NHL Draft in Montreal, one of the biggest and most controversial blockbuster trades in NHL history was culminated -- twice.
Quebec sent Lindros' rights to Philadelphia in exchange for NHL roster center Mike Ricci, goaltender Ron Hextall, defensemen Steve Duchesne and Kerry Huffman, Swedish prospect Peter Forsberg (the Flyers' 1991 first-round pick), $15 million (USD) in cash, the earlier of the Flyers' two first-round picks in the 1992 NHL Draft and the Flyers first-round picks in the 1993 (Jocelyn Thibault) and 1994 drafts (Nolan Baumgartner).
After verbally agreeing and shaking hands with the Flyers on the deal, the Nordiques turned around and decided instead to trade Lindros' rights to the Rangers. Although not revealed publicly at the time, the New York trade offer included forward Alexei Kovalev, goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck and future star forwards Doug Weight and Tony Amonte along with similar cash compensation and draft pick assets.
With the disputed trade held up by the NHL, the Flyers selected Ryan Sittler with the seventh overall pick of the Draft. The Flyers had not anticipated making the pick, which was part of the package of assets they'd agreed to trade to the Nordiques. The NHL instructed Philadelphia to make the selection, since the pick still officially belonged to the Flyers while the double-dealing trades that Quebec perpetrated had yet to be sorted out as to which one was enforceable.
On June 30, 1992, following lengthy and emotionally charged arbitration hearings in Toronto, arbitrator Larry Bertuzzi ruled that the Flyers had made an enforceable trade first and the Rangers deal was nullified. To complete the trade with Philadelphia, the Nordiques accepted enforcer prospect Chris Simon (whom the Flyers had drafted in the second round of the 1990 Draft) and an additional draft choice in lieu of the pick already used by the Flyers on Sittler.
5) June 20 Flyers Alum birthday: Dave Snuggerud (1966). Note: the FlyersHistory.com site erroneously lists today as Peter Forsberg's birthday. Foppa was born on July 20, 1973, not June 20
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