Flyers management has long said that the players would dictate how the organization approached the NHL trade deadline and whether the Flyers would be sellers or buyers.
Well, when the clock struck 3 p.m. on yet another deadline for president Keith Jones and general manager Danny Brière, the Flyers were a seller of sorts as Bobby Brink was traded home to Minnesota, and Nic Deslauriers was moved to chase a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Moving Brink from a top-nine spot was necessary to create space on the wing, as the players in the system, notably Porter Martone and Alex Bump — Brière said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the latter gets called up before the end of the season, although reading the tea leaves, it could come sooner than later — are close to being NHL-ready.
But while they added David Jiříček as the return for Brink, and have Oliver Bonk, Spencer Gill, and Carter Amico in the system — all big, right-shot defensemen — Brière did not move his most exploitable trade piece, veteran right-shot defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.
“You guys [the media] made a big story. I didn’t know I was trying to sell him,” Brière said on Friday after the deadline. “You guys made it sound like we were dumping Risto for next to nothing.
“Look, at the end of the day, Risto has a lot of value to our team. I wasn’t trying to dump Risto. I wasn’t trying to get rid of him. I think the media turned it into a little bit of a circus, to be honest. And that’s OK. I get it. It’s part of my job to deal with that. But the reality is, Risto is an important part of our defense.”
Unlike the winger position, Brière doesn’t think his defensemen-in-waiting are ready to slot into the top four and play the big minutes that Ristolainen has played; he played more than more than 27 minutes on Monday and 22 more on Thursday. “We need to protect them a little bit,” Brière said.
Sources have told The Inquirer that the Flyers wanted a first-round pick for Ristolainen, the physical defenseman who just had an impressive run for the bronze-medal-winning Finnish squad at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics and has been a standout since.
But while several teams did check in on the 6-foot-4 blueliner with term (he has one more year on his contract), no one matched the Flyers’ ask. And Brière would not confirm if a first-round pick was ever on the table, stating, “All I can tell you is, the value wasn’t as high as we needed for us to move forward.”
“I did get a lot of calls, and we took them seriously,” he added. “We went through all the teams that were serious, but at the end of the day, it just did not make sense value-wise. … We listened, but it made more sense to have Risto with us.”
Here are three other questions the general manager addressed.
Why did the Flyers want Jiříček?
The Flyers were in the mix to get the 6-4, 204-pound defenseman when the Columbus Blue Jackets were shopping him a year and a half ago. And Brière was a bit shocked he was available now, but Minnesota recently added Quinn Hughes, which changed the Czech native’s outlook in the State of Hockey.
Although he hasn’t had the track many expected when the 22-year-old was drafted one slot after Cutter Gauthier in 2022, the Flyers see high potential in Jiříček. Patience was asked by Brière, and while he is a different style of player from Jamie Drysdale, the GM sees similarities when it comes to their development arc.
“They both came in at 18 years old, probably a little too early to turn pro yet,” he said. “They go through some ups and downs, probably lose their confidence along the way. So he’s going to need some love. He’s going to need some reps. Especially, he needs time. He needs to play a lot of minutes and build his confidence.”
Jiříček will head to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League to start. The GM said he didn’t make any promises but said that at some point, if they have a chance, they’d like to give him a look with the big club. Jiříček has played 84 NHL games across four seasons with Columbus and Minnesota.
Why did the Flyers not trade for a center?
Another season and trade deadline came and went, and the Flyers are still without a No. 1 center. Sure, these types of players do not grow on trees, and yes, several who were expected to be available as free agents this summer have since signed extensions.
But if the Flyers want to take the next step, they need to upgrade down the middle.
“A few of the high-end centers that were in the trade market, or their name, we checked on that,” Brière said. “We had some discussions right now. It’s been tabled to closer to the draft [and then] we’ll look back into that. But we looked into it.
“We are aware; we know that it’s an area we’d like to improve. It’s all about timing, value, and when is the best time that you can get the best value for it. But, yeah, we’re aware. We’ve never hid from the fact that we’d like to improve that position.”
So the door isn’t shut, and there is some expectation that the Flyers could be busy around the draft. As Brière reiterated on Friday, it took almost two years to acquire Trevor Zegras.
Speaking of Zegras, he came to Philly excited for the opportunity to play center again, but has primarily played on the wing. The door isn’t closed on him pivoting, but it’s not as wide-open as before.
“He’s been at his best when he played the wing this year — that’s just the reality. I wish I could say the opposite,” Brière said. “I wish I could say he’s much better when he plays center, but the reality is, he’s been at his best when he plays with [Travis Konecny] and [Christian] Dvorak. So, that line has been our best line for a while now, so that’s why … when I mentioned the wingers, that [I] put his name on there, because he’s been mostly on the wing.”
What does the future now hold for the Flyers?
With the Flyers selling, the writing is all but permanently inked on the wall that they will miss the postseason for the sixth straight season. They entered Friday six points back of the Boston Bruins for the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and eight points back of the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins for second and third in the Metropolitan Division.
“I think what’s unfortunate about the trade deadline is the moment you start trading players away, is the realization that, unfortunately, you’ve missed your goal in a sense,” forward Garnet Hathaway told The Inquirer on Friday. “In no way am I saying that we’re not in a position to get in, but it changes things. But we were in a spot that we put ourselves in, and I think that’s what’s frustrating, and it kind of adds on to the fact that you’re sending friends, teammates to a different organization.”
The Flyers decided to keep defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen at the trade deadline.
So what happens now?
In the short term, the general manager wants to see his team continue to play the right way, stay competitive, and play hard. Long-term, the Flyers are still a work in progress, and “the plan never changed as far as looking for the future.”
Brière thinks the difference now is that the Flyers can change that.
“Three years ago, we almost had nothing to work with as far as good young players coming,” Brière said. “So it wasn’t enticing for other teams to trade guys to us, but more and more, the way our young guys are coming along and a lot of centers, those are always a lot of value.
“We have more and more assets that are going to hopefully give us the chance to get in on a player. Or sometimes one of those players [in the organization already] is going to come and take it, kind of like [Denver] Barkey did this year.”
News and notes
Barkey and defenseman Adam Ginning were sent down to the Phantoms before 3 p.m. to make them eligible to compete in the Calder Cup playoffs. According to the AHL transactions page, Barkey has already been recalled. The new collective bargaining agreement says players must play one AHL game before being recalled but there is an exception on deadline day.
Brière said they weren’t trying to trade Deslauriers, “but if you want to have the chance to go chase a Cup, we would give you that opportunity.” Deslauriers was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes for a conditional seventh-round pick in 2027.
Veteran forward Luke Glendening, 36, was picked up on waivers from the New Jersey Devils to stabilize the fourth line and win face-offs. He has a 55.6% career winning percentage in the circle.
Tyson Foerster is on track with his rehab after surgery to repair an upper-body injury (Brière would not disclose what the injury was). The winger has started skating and shooting pucks, and the GM said, “I know he’s going to start knocking on my door soon to get back in the lineup.” But he is not expected to play again this season unless the Flyers make the postseason.
Defenseman Nick Seeler is day to day with a lower-body injury and is not expected to play on Saturday against the Penguins (5:30 p.m., NBCSP).
Although Flyers general manager Danny Brière has the experience of just two NHL trade deadlines in his pocket, if this year is anything like the previous two, expect the Flyers to make some noise.
The buzzer will go off on the wheelin’ and dealin’ at 3 p.m. on Friday, and Brière has already made one deal this week, sending Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League defenseman Roman Schmidt to Minnesota for NHL/AHL forward Boris Katchoul.
Is it the start of something? Potentially, with players such as Rasmus Ristolainen rumored to be on the move.
Here’s a look back at what Brière did in the week leading up to the previous trade deadlines.
What did the Flyers do at the 2024 NHL trade deadline?
The 2024 trade deadline was at 3 p.m. March 8.
March 6 at 3:48 p.m.
Brière was patient, waiting weeks before finally accepting an offer for defenseman Sean Walker. Two days before the deadline, he acquired a 2025 first-round pick and center Ryan Johansen from the Colorado Avalanche for Walker and a 2026 fifth-round selection.
The Flyers initially agreed to retain 50% of the final year and a half of Johansen’s contract as a trade sweetener, but he was immediately placed on waivers for assignment to the AHL. The forward, citing a hip injury, refused to report to Lehigh Valley and never played for the Flyers and was placed on unconditional waivers Aug. 20, 2024, “for the purpose of terminating his contract due to a material breach.”
Walker played 18 regular-season and 11 playoff games for the Avalanche before signing with the Carolina Hurricanes on July 1, 2024. The 2025 first-round pick was packaged in the first-round swap at the draft that helped the Flyers snag Jack Nesbitt at No. 12.
Erik Johnson played just 39 games for the Flyers after getting acquired from Buffalo at the 2024 trade deadline.
March 8 at 2:12 p.m.
In a bit of a surprise move, the Flyers acquired Brière’s old teammate Erik Johnson, a defenseman, from the Buffalo Sabres for a 2024 fourth-round pick.
Johnson played 39 games for the Flyers. Eventually, the Sabres traded the pick to the Winnipeg Jets, who took Kevin He, the highest-drafted player born in China in NHL history at the time.
March 8 at 2:47 p.m.
The Flyers acquired forward Denis Gurianov from the Nashville Predators for Wade Allison.
A second-rounder in 2016, Allison played 75 games across three seasons for the Flyers but never really stuck at the NHL level. Gurianov played four games in Philly and, as an unrestricted free agent, opted to sign with the Kontinental Hockey League that summer.
What did the Flyers do at the 2025 NHL trade deadline?
The 2025 trade deadline was at 3 p.m. March 7.
March 7 at 12:45 p.m.
The Flyers acquired a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL draft from the Los Angeles Kings for forward Andrei Kuzmenko and a 2025 seventh-round pick. Philly retained 50% of his salary.
Kuzmenko was acquired by the Flyers at the end of January of that season from the Calgary Flames with Jakob Pelletier for Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee. He played in seven games, registering five points, and the pending unrestricted free agent looked like someone the Flyers could re-sign.
Instead, he was shipped out weeks later and signed a one-year deal on June 30, 2024, to stay in Hollywood. He has 18 goals and 42 points in 74 regular-season games and three goals and six points in six playoff games across his tenure with the Kings.
March 7 at 4 p.m.
Although the trade had to be registered with league by 3 p.m. the Flyers officially announced at 4 p.m. that they acquired forward Nikita Grebenkin and a first-round pick in the 2027 NHL draft from the Toronto Maple Leafs for Ontario native Scott Laughton, a 2025 fourth-round pick, and a 2027 sixth-round pick.
In the deal, the Flyers retained 50% of Laughton’s salary, which comes off the books after this season. Toronto’s first-round pick is Top 10 protected; however, the Leafs are in a free fall, so, because they owe the Boston Bruins their 2026 pick from the Brandon Carlo deal, it could slide to 2027, as the 2026 pick is top-five protected.
Scott Laughton (center) has 16 points in 63 regular-season games with the Maple Leafs since being traded by the Flyers at last year’s trade deadline.
Even before the trade was announced, the team was taking down banners at the Flyers Training Center with Laughton on them. A depth center, Laughton is rumored to be on the trade block now in Toronto — he was held out of the lineup on Wednesday for roster management — and has 16 points in 63 regular-season games and two assists in 13 playoff games with the Maple Leafs since being acquired.
Grebenkin played in the minors last season after being acquired, collecting seven points in 11 regular-season games and four points in seven playoff games for the Phantoms. He has spent the entire 2025-26 season with the Flyers and has 12 points in 46 games, including his first NHL goal, which tied the game at 4 in a 5-4 shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 4.
Smith, who was a pending unrestricted free agent, played 10 regular-season games for Lehigh Valley last season, registering a goal and an assist, and played in seven playoff games. He signed a professional tryout agreement with the Carolina Hurricanes for the 2025-26 training camp, earning a two-way deal in early October.
When the curtain rose on the Flyers’ 2025-26 season on Oct. 9 in Sunrise, Fla., it almost seemed preordained that they would be in the exact position and dilemma they find themselves in at the NHL trade deadline.
Entering Thursday’s game against Utah (7 p.m., NBCSP), the Flyers’ final tilt before Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline, Rick Tocchet’s seesaw club finds itself on a sudden upswing and just six points out of a playoff spot with 22 games to play. That brings us to the all-important question: Should the Flyers be buyers or sellers before Friday’s buzzer?
Just a week ago, that answer seemed clear-cut. The Flyers emerged from their three-week Olympic sabbatical sitting eight points out of both third place in the Metropolitan Division and the final wild-card spot, and reeling from having lost 12 of their previous 15 games. A sleepy loss in Washington to the Capitals last Wednesday in their first game back from break, followed by an early 2-0 deficit in New York the next night to the lowly Rangers, seemed to be the final nails in the coffin. The Flyers were open for business … as sellers.
But after rallying to beat the Rangers in overtime, followed by wins over wild-card rival Boston and then Toronto, the Flyers players have made that buy-or-sell decision a little more difficult on shot-callers Danny Brière and Keith Jones. Jones said before the season that “in the previous two years, we would be quick to make changes in order to get better for the future. Now, it would be about staying on course, which is advancing. It’s not about moving back.”
So are the Flyers still taking the long-view approach to rebuilding or has patience worn thin? The next 48 hours will tell us a lot about how the organization views itself and those in charge.
Why the Flyers should sell
The proof is in the pudding. The Flyers are a wildly inconsistent team that hasn’t won more than three games in a row all season, and whose minus-11 goal differential ranks 12th of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference. In the conference, only the Rangers (14) have fewer than the Flyers’ 19 regulation wins, which also happens to be the first playoff tiebreaker.
The Flyers have largely ridden an excellent season from goaltender Dan Vladař (.908 save percentage, 11 goals saved above expected, according to Money Puck), and some hot shooting at five-on-five (11th in shooting percentage, according to Natural Stat Trick). They’ve also been able to grind out points by getting to overtime in 20 of their first 60 games. Those three factors have largely papered over more worrying cracks, such as the team’s 24th-ranked Corsi For percentage, which measures control of shot attempts, 29th-ranked power play (16.2%), and the ongoing absence of a No. 1 center with no clear heir apparent in the organization.
Dan Vladař has covered up a lot of the Flyers’ warts this season with his stellar play in goal.
The team’s recent 3-1-0 stretch post-Olympic break is also a bit of fool’s gold, as two of the wins came after regulation, while the Flyers have lost the expected goals percentage in three of those four games. The Flyers still need to leapfrog five teams to make the playoffs, which would likely require them to take at least 27 or 28 points from their final 44, or to play at somewhere near a .620 points percentage the rest of the way. They’ve played at a .558 clip so far this season.
Even if the Flyers — who, according to Money Puck, have just an 11% chance to make the playoffs as of Wednesday — did pull off a miracle and reach the playoffs for the first time in six seasons, they would likely get steamrolled in Round 1 by Carolina or Tampa Bay, whom the Flyers haven’t beaten in six tries this season.
While the Flyers are desperate for postseason hockey to return to the newly named Xfinity Mobile Arena, Jones, the team’s president, told The Inquirer in January that while it is “important that we reward our players,” the goal remains being “a playoff team that is a sustainable one. Not just a one-and-done.”
If he’s true to his word and takes a good look at the Flyers in the mirror, the team won’t be adding short-term pieces to try to get over the playoff hump.
What the Flyers have to move
The Flyers aren’t moving Vladař, Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Matvei Michkov, Trevor Zegras, or top prospect Porter Martone, but everyone else would seem to be — and should be — in play.
Topping that list is rugged but oft-injured defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who has been on the trade block each of the past two seasons but has so far stayed put. The 31-year-old doesn’t fit the team’s timeline, has a year remaining on his contract, and is exactly the type of player that contenders tend to overpay for due to his physicality and “playoff brand of hockey.”
Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is an in-demand player as the trade deadline nears.
Trading him at this deadline would at minimum land a second-rounder and a legit prospect, and potentially a first-rounder. The Flyers should look to cash in on the 6-foot-4, 208-pound Finn on the heels of his eye-catching Olympics and should be seeking a first-round pick or a high-end center or blueline prospect in return.
The Flyers also have a surplus of wings with Konecny, Michkov, Zegras, Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Bobby Brink, Denver Barkey, and Nikita Grebenkin, and more on the way, headlined by Martone and Alex Bump. Sooner or later the Flyers are going to have to make room for guys, and parting with Tippett or Brink would start that process and recoup the Flyers something in return, potentially at a position of need.
With teams always looking for a scoring punch this time of year, trading the 27-year-old Tippett, who is cost-controlled for the next six seasons and on his way to a third 25-plus-goal season in four years, would yield the largest return, assuming Konecny and Zegras are off limits. The Flyers reportedly have a high ask on the speedy Tippett, including a first-round pick, but could a package that includes a center be enticing? The Flyers could opt to hold fast for a better return at the draft, when this type of trade may be easier to complete, but trading a winger or two before next season seems inevitable.
The Flyers don’t seem willing to meet the high price for St. Louis Blues All-Star Robert Thomas, but Detroit’s Nate Danielson, Minnesota’s Danila Yurov and Charlie Stramel, Buffalo’s Noah Ostlund, Tampa Bay’s Conor Geekie, and Seattle’s Shane Wright are some younger center prospects who could be available in a package involving Ristolainen, Tippett, or someone else.
Detroit Red Wings center Nate Danielson, 21, is the type of young center the Flyers need to add to their system.
In addition to trying to move pending unrestricted free agents Nic Deslauriers, Noah Juulsen, and Carl Grundström, the Flyers could explore trading depth center Noah Cates or restricted free agent defensemen Jamie Drysdale and Emil Andrae, all young players with runways to improve who would generate some interest around the league. Like Ristolainen, Cates is a player that contending teams could view as a final piece due to his versatility, penalty killing, and two-way play. Andrae looks to be in need of a change of scenery and could be swapped for a player in a similar boat.
Nick Seeler would have some value as a steady, stay-at-home defenseman, but the 32-year-old, who is currently nicked up, would have to waive his no-move clause. Maligned backup goalie Sam Ersson also could be offloaded for a mid-round pick, especially if the team has already decided it won’t extend a qualifying offer to the pending free agent.
Brière has said he expects a quiet deadline, but trading Ristolainen is a must, while being creative to try to add another young center prospect to the pipeline should also be on the agenda. The Flyers aren’t ready to contend yet and still have several needs to address. We’ll see if they agree come Friday at 3 p.m.
This time of year, fans, reporters, and insiders’ phones will be dinging constantly with notifications, but there’s a good chance several phones in hockey will be off.
“I’d say most guys probably stay off their phones around this time. You don’t want to see any tweets from guys that are breaking stuff,” forward Garnet Hathaway said with a bit of a grin, a laugh, and a glance as Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman was in earshot in the Flyers locker room in Toronto on Monday.
The NHL trade deadline is fast approaching, with the final horn sounding on Friday at 3 p.m. But while everyone speculates and debates what Flyers general manager Danny Brière and management will do, the players are trying to stay in the moment.
“Focus on what we do on the ice and play some good hockey, try to win some games. Those are things that we don’t control,” captain Sean Couturier said. “It’s more you guys [the media] that talk about it and make big stories out of it. In the locker room, it’s not something we really talk about. We’ve got other things to focus on.”
It’s totally fair for Couturier to say the media makes it a big deal. After all, is it not entertaining when the wheelin’ and dealin’ can come fast and furious? But what we all don’t see is the toll it can take.
Last season, several players acknowledged that the trade of Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee in January to the Calgary Flames and Scott Laughton at the deadline to the Maple Leafs impacted the room. Two seasons ago, it was Sean Walker being dealt to the Colorado Avalanche that sent the defense into a tailspin, leading to a team looking at a playoff spot finding itself on the outside at the end.
General manager Danny Brière could move a couple of Flyers players by Friday’s trade deadline.
“One day you’re in one place, and the next morning you’re in a different place, getting ready to play a game,” recalled Owen Tippett, who was acquired by the Flyers in the Claude Giroux trade two days before the 2022 deadline. “I think I was traded at 6 o’clock at night and played the next day at 2 o’clock. So, pretty quick turnaround [after] you pretty much lift up your whole life and move. For me, I kind of had an idea it was coming. But it all happened so fast, so you don’t really have time to think until everything dies down.”
“So, it’s a tough time of year,” he added. “Obviously, you don’t want to see anyone go, and you never know who could be on the move or, if it’s you, then you just have no choice but to roll with it and deal with it and settle things down as quick as you can.”
If the Flyers do make moves — and rumors continue to swirl around defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen being one such player expected to find himself in a new jersey — the player they get in return will be facing an interesting time in Philly. Because the “other things” the captain alluded to are that the Flyers are not just focusing on their first four-game winning streak in over two years when they take on the Utah Mammoth on Thursday (7 p.m., NBCSP), but a playoff spot.
Entering Wednesday, they were eight back of second and third in the Metropolitan Division, held by the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders, respectively, and six back of the Boston Bruins, who hold the last wild card in the Eastern Conference.
“We’re in the thick of it. We’re fighting for a playoff spot,” defenseman Nick Seeler said. “So that’s where our heads are at, and that’s what guys are focusing on, getting wins here, and that’s the most important thing.”
It’s been three years since the Flyers fired Chuck Fletcher and replaced him with Danny Brière. Here’s a look back at everything that’s happened since.
Flyers president Keith Jones (left), governor Dan Hilferty (center), and GM Danny Brière (right) have been overseeing the team's years-long rebuild.Anton Klusener/ Staff illustration. Photos: Tyger Williams, Yong Kim/ Staff Photographers; Miguel Martinez
Wednesday marks exactly 1,083 days since Danny Brière grabbed the wheel of the rudderless ship that the Flyers had become under previous captain Chuck Fletcher, and a lot has happened since.
From Brière’s use of the previously taboo term “rebuild” at his introductory news conference to the dawning of “New Era of Orange” to the arrival of Matvei Michkov to the team’s ongoing search for a No. 1 center, where do the Flyers stand three years into their process — and are they close to turning the corner?
story continues after advertisement
Ahead of the upcoming March 6 trade deadline, here’s a look at all the key moments and moves from Brière’s first three years as general manager of the Flyers.
The Flyers fire general manager Chuck Fletcher less than a week after the NHL trade deadline and name Danny Brière as interim GM. At his introductory news conference, Brière notably uses the word “rebuild” to define the Flyers’ situation.
May 11-12, 2023
‘New Era of Orange’ begins
The Flyers make the Brière hire permanent and hire former Flyer Keith Jones, who was then covering the NHL on TV, as the team’s president of hockey operations. The moves are unveiled as part of the team’s “New Era of Orange” ceremony as the organization’s leaders lay out a broad vision and plan for the team’s future.
June 6, 2023
‘Trader Danny’ announces himself
MIGUEL MARTINEZ / For the Inquirer
Brière makes his first major move as GM, trading top defenseman Ivan Provorov to Columbus in a three-team deal. The Flyers land the No. 22 overall pick in 2023 (Oliver Bonk), defenseman Sean Walker, goalie Cal Petersen, defensive prospect Helge Grans, and two future second-round picks (from the Kings and Blue Jackets). The Flyers later traded the two second-rounders in deals to move up and select Carson Bjarnason and to acquire Trevor Zegras.
More on the Flyers
From trade bait to untouchables, here’s where the Flyers roster stands less than two weeks before the deadline
The Flyers haven't committed to being buyers or sellers, but they have some pieces they could move for the right price by March 6.
June 24, 2023
Sanheim trade falls through
Brière gets close on a trade involving defenseman Travis Sanheim and center Kevin Hayes, but it is nixed after St. Louis defenseman Torey Krug exercises his no-trade clause. Sanheim’s full no-trade kicks in the following week.
June 27, 2023
Offloading Hayes
After the larger trade with the Blues falls through, Brière ships the 31-year-old Hayes to St. Louis for a 2024 sixth-round pick. Hayes’ relationship with coach John Tortorella had deteriorated to the point where a trade seemed unavoidable.
story continues after advertisement
June 28-29, 2023
Michkov falls to the Flyers
With his first draft pick as Flyers GM, Brière takes winger Matvei Michkov with the seventh overall selection. The Flyers draft Bonk later in the first round (No. 22), as well as Bjarnason, Denver Barkey, and Yegor Zavragin on Day 2.
July 1, 2023
A quiet free agency
As expected, the Flyers are relatively quiet as free agency opens, with Brière signing only depth players Ryan Poehling and Garnet Hathaway. Later they add veteran blueliner Marc Staal.
More on the Flyers
Flyers hit the Olympic break at a crossroads. Will they sell for the future or try to push for the playoffs?
The Flyers are eight points out of a playoff spot but have games in hand with 26 remaining. Is it time to stick or twist for GM Danny Brière ahead of the March 6 trade deadline?
July 15, 2023
The subtraction continues
Brière continues to clean house as the Flyers place defenseman Tony DeAngelo, whom Fletcher traded three picks for the previous summer, on waivers for a buyout. The Sewell native had been benched by Tortorella to end the season.
Jan. 8, 2024
The Gauthier-Drysdale shocker
Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Brière trades No. 2 prospect Cutter Gauthier, then playing at Boston College, to Anaheim for defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a 2025 second-round pick. Brière soon reveals that Gauthier’s camp had demanded a trade for unspecified reasons and that his camp had cut off all communication. Days earlier, Gauthier had been named the best forward at the World Junior Championship as Team USA won gold. Gauthier has never confirmed the exact reason he forced a trade, whether it was because of Tortorella, the team’s decision to send him back to college for a second year, or the Flyers’ overall direction.
Jan. 26, 2024
Tippett signs eight-year extension
The Flyers hand 24-year-old winger Owen Tippett a lucrative eight-year, $49.6 million contract extension ($6.2 average annual value). Tippett, who was acquired in the Claude Giroux trade, had 18 goals in 46 games at the time of the extension, and had tallied a career-high 27 the year before.
Jan. 30, 2024
Hart charged with sexual assault
Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
A week after taking a leave of absence, franchise goaltender Carter Hart is charged alongside four other professional hockey players in connection with an alleged sexual assault in 2014 in Canada. Hart is acquitted in July 2025 but never plays for the Flyers again.
March 6, 2024
Flyers land first-rounder for Walker
The Flyers flip Sean Walker, a salary dump by Los Angeles in the Provorov trade, to Colorado with a fifth-round pick, for a first-round pick and half of Ryan Johansen’s contract. The Flyers, who were in a playoff spot at the time of the trade, prioritize the long term in moving the thriving pending free-agent defenseman for future assets. On the same day, the Flyers extended veteran defenseman Nick Seeler, another potential trade chip, with a four-year, $10.8 million contract.
story continues after advertisement
March 23, 2024
A surprise playoff push
Having punched above their weight all season, the Flyers enter their final 11 games with a 36-26-9 record and four points above the playoff cut. According to hockey analytics company Stathletes, they have an 88% chance of making the postseason.
March 24-April 9, 2024
Colossal collapse
Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
The Flyers lose eight straight games to fall below the playoff cut, culminating with a 9-3 embarrassment in Montreal. They win their next two to push their slim playoff odds to their final day of the season, but are officially eliminated on April 16 with a 2-1 loss to Washington. They finish four points out of a playoff spot.
June 28, 2024
Jumping for Jett
The Flyers go off the board to select center Jett Luchanko with the No. 13 overall pick in the draft. Brière and the Flyers had moved back one pick in a trade with Minnesota that netted them an additional third-rounder. Minnesota selects defenseman Zeev Buium. The Flyers then trade their second first-rounder — Pick No. 32 from the Giroux trade — to Edmonton in exchange for a 2025 first-rounder. Edmonton selects Sam O’Reilly with the pick.
July 1, 2024
Michkov arrives early
After much speculation, the Flyers sign Michkov to his entry-level contract, after reports circulated in late June that he would come over to North America two years earlier than expected. He arrives in Philly on July 23.
July 25, 2024
Flyers keep Konency
The Flyers sign 27-year-old winger Travis Konecny to a massive eight-year, $70 million extension ($8.75 million AAV). Konecny, who was coming off career highs in goals (33) and points (68) and was the team’s most valuable asset, had one year remaining on his contract.
story continues after advertisement
Jan. 30, 2025
Bye-bye, Beezer
The Flyers continue to subtract as they move Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee to Calgary for Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier, a second-round pick (Shane Vansaghi), and a 2028 seventh-round pick. The Flyers are five points out of a wild-card spot at the time; Farabee has 3½ years left on his contract at a $5 million cap hit.
March 7, 2025
Laughton to the Leafs
Sitting five points out of a playoff spot with 19 games to play, the Flyers trade beloved glue guy Scott Laughton and two late-round picks to Toronto for a package that includes a protected 2027 first-round pick and forward prospect Nikita Grebenkin. Laughton has one year remaining on his deal. On the same day, the Flyers flip Kuzmenko, whom they acquired a month and a half earlier, to Los Angeles for a third-rounder.
March 27, 2025
Tortorella fired
Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
With the Flyers losing 11 of 12 games, Tortorella is fired after almost three seasons. The firing comes a day after the coach said, “I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at right now.” It later leaks out that Tortorella and Cam York had a heated verbal exchange during the Toronto game a night earlier. Tortorella, who was hired by the Fletcher regime, leaves with a 97-107-33 record with the Flyers.
April 17, 2025
Playing out the string
After winning five of interim coach Brad Shaw’s first six games in charge and seeing several young players thrive, the Flyers lose their final three games to ensure they will have the fourth-best draft lottery odds. They finish with a 33-39-10 record.
May 5, 2025
Bad bounce
The Flyers drop the maximum two spots in the lottery and learn they will pick sixth in June’s NHL draft.
May 14, 2025
Flyers name Tocchet head coach
Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Flyers Hall of Famer Rick Tocchet is named the 25th head coach in franchise history, becoming the sixth former Flyer to hold the post. The 61-year-old arrives with a 286-265-87 career record and is a year removed from winning the Jack Adams Award as Coach of the Year with Vancouver. Brière cites Tocchet’s passion for the Flyers and his communication and teaching skills as reasons he is the right fit to oversee the next stage of the rebuild.
More on the Flyers
The Flyers are in Rick Tocchet’s ‘blood.’ Now he’s tasked with returning the once-proud organization to prominence.
Tocchet, who was beloved as a player in Philly for his combination of toughness, heart, and goal-scoring ability, believes he can be "part of the solution of bringing the Flyers back to dominance."
May 29-June 3, 2025
Keeping the kids
Brière extends two homegrown pieces of the Flyers’ young core, signing winger Tyson Foerster to a two-year bridge deal ($3.75 million AAV) and center Noah Cates to a four-year contract ($4 million AAV).
June 10, 2025
Michkov Mania
Charles Fox / Staff Photographer
After leading all rookies with 26 goals and tying for second in points (63) with Macklin Celebrini, Michkov finishes fourth in Calder Trophy voting. Brière calls Michkov’s rookie campaign “exciting” and says the Russian surpassed all expectations.
June 23, 2025
‘Z’ is for Zegras
After years of speculation, the Flyers acquire Trevor Zegras from Anaheim in exchange for Ryan Poehling and second- and fourth-round draft picks. Zegras goes on to post 20 goals and 49 points in his first 56 games with the Flyers.
June 27-28, 2025
Porter’s house
The Flyers draft power forward Porter Martone with the sixth overall pick, then send their other two first-rounders (Nos. 22 and 31) to Pittsburgh, moving up to take center Jack Nesbitt with pick No 12. On Day 2, the Flyers select seven players, highlighted by second-rounders Carter Amico, Jack Murtagh, Vansaghi, and Matthew Gard.
Subscribe to The Philadelphia Inquirer
Our reporting is directly supported by reader subscriptions. If you want more in-depth stories like this, please subscribe today.
The Flyers sign goaltender Dan Vladař, depth center Christian Dvorak, and defenseman Noah Juulsen on the first day of free agency. Brière reiterates that the Flyers are focused on “flexibility” and “short-term” deals with an eye on the 2026 free-agent class. As expected, the star-studded 2026 class that included Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, and Kirill Kaprizov dries up in the months that follow as all of the top players sign extensions.
July 7, 2025
York extended
The Flyers sign the 24-year-old York to a five-year extension that carries a $5.15 million cap hit. Brière says York has untapped potential and says the organization views him as “a main piece on our blue line.”
Sept. 10, 2025
‘Not moving back’
Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Jones and governor Dan Hilferty won’t commit to making the playoffs but tell the media that the Flyers are done making “changes in order to get better for the future,” adding that “now, it would be about staying on course, which is advancing. It’s not about moving back.” Jones says they owe it to the players to add to the team after years of subtracting.
Oct. 5, 2025
Exiting the Ellis contract
The Flyers get out of the final two years of the injured Ryan Ellis’ contract by trading it to San Jose. The blueliner, who played only four games in 4½ years for the Flyers, had a $6.25 million cap hit for this season and next. The move, which cost only a sixth-round pick, frees up significant cap space for the Flyers.
Jan. 5, 2026
Dvorak’s new deal
Months after they signed Dvorak to a one-year, $5.4 million deal, the Flyers extend the center for five years and $25.75 million ($5.15 million AAV). After citing “flexibility” and the importance of “short-term” deals in the summer, Brière reverses course by signing Dvorak through his 35-year-old season, while also handing him full trade protection in the first two years of the deal. Dvorak, who was having a career season and was on pace for 53 points at the time, would have been an attractive trade chip as a rental at the deadline.
More on the Flyers
Contract grades: Was signing Christian Dvorak for the long haul the right move for the Flyers?
Dvorak turns 30 next month and is now signed with the Flyers through age 35. Here's what our writers think of the team's decision to lock up the center, who is enjoying a career year.
Jan. 6, 2026
Flying high
The Flyers hit the halfway mark in style with a 5-2 beatdown of Gauthier and the Ducks at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Zegras scores two goals as the Flyers improve to 22-12-7 and climb to ninth overall in the league standings.
Jan. 8-Feb. 5, 2026
Hitting the wall
The Flyers win just three of their next 15 games entering the Olympic break and go from two points above the playoff cut line to eight points below it. Injuries also strike as Drysdale, Vladař, and Bobby Brink all miss time.
Feb. 3, 2026
Tocchet-Michkov saga comes to a head
Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Days after Tocchet reiterates on several podcasts that Michkov came to camp out of shape, contributing to his sophomore slump, Brière calls a news conference, trying to quell speculation about the relationship between player and coach. Brière says the two “have a good relationship” and that “Matvei Michkov is not going anywhere. Let’s make that clear. … Matvei is going to be here for a long time.” He confirms that Michkov was out of shape and says this situation will be a learning moment for the young player.
Feb. 25, 2026
Stick or twist?
Sitting eight points out of a playoff spot, albeit with two games in hand, the Flyers return to game action against Washington. With just 10 days and five games until the March 6 trade deadline, the Flyers have one last chance to impress Brière. Will the Flyers be buyers, sellers, or stand pat? Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen is among the players who could generate a significant return on the trade market.
So are the Flyers in a better place than they were three years ago when Brière took charge? In short, yes. The prospect pool is now top 10 leaguewide and much deeper than before, a product of several savvy long-term-view trades that netted a haul of first- and second-round draft picks. They have also added three star-level talents to the organization in Michkov, Martone, and Zegras, and may have finally solved their longstanding goalie riddle with Vladař.
On the other hand, the Flyers haven’t fully bottomed out and thus have missed out on landing top-5 picks — where teams usually land stars at premium positions like center and defense — and also were forced to trade a high-end prospect in Gauthier. With those gaping holes still to fill, Brière will need to get creative both in the draft and the trade market over the next six months if the Flyers are to truly shift their rebuild into the next gear in 2026-27.
Looking down one, the Flyers are buyers, trying to make a playoff push beyond the NHL trade deadline on March 6.
The other road is more well-trodden by this organization: the one where they are sellers. In the distance, maybe one can make out a third road, the one general manager Danny Brière has mentioned, that entails a quiet trade deadline.
But Flyers president Keith Jones and Brière have long said “the players will decide” which road the organization will take. It’s hard to gauge where things are right now.
Standing pat doesn’t make sense, but which direction are the Flyers heading? Are they the team from the beginning of the season or the team that has three wins in the past 15 games? And what about the future, with players like Porter Martone, Alex Bump, and Oliver Bonk waiting in the wings?
The Flyers closed out the unofficial first half of the season with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. Jamie Drysdale scored late to tie the game after a master class by the Flyers’ six-man unit before Tim Stützle dipped the puck around Dan Vladař in overtime.
“Obviously a huge point for us,” defenseman Nick Seeler said. “But, man, it would have been great to get that extra point. But you know what? I give our group a lot of credit. Fight till the very end.”
The loss left the Flyers with a 25-20-11 record through the first 56 games, as the NHL is on a break for the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. They sit eight points out of two different playoff spots — third place in the Metropolitan Division, behind the New York Islanders, and the Eastern Conference’s second wild card, which the Boston Bruins occupy. The Flyers also have two games in hand on the Islanders and one on the Bruins.
“Some good, some bad,” coach Rick Tocchet said when asked to assess the first 56 games.
It’s fair for a team that at one point boasted one of the best penalty kills, conceded among the fewest goals, and, for once, has a power play that didn’t completely stink. But after their massive January slide, the Flyers are tied for 16th on the penalty kill (79.1%), tied for 21st in goals allowed per game (3.16) — on Jan. 1, they were 10th (2.85) — and are ranked 28th on the power play (16.1%).
But like a famous ex-Phillies pitcher once said with another team that shall remain nameless, the Flyers are saying: “Ya gotta believe.”
“The season’s not over,” captain Sean Couturier told The Inquirer on Wednesday. “People seem almost like we’ve thrown in the towel, but we haven’t. We still believe in our group, and it’s really on us to just kind of step up and take our game to the next level.
“We’re still in the mix here. A little behind, but we still have [26] games left, so lots of hockey left. Anything can happen from now on, and we’ll just control what we can control.”
Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim will be playing for Canada at the upcoming Olympics in Italy.
No, Couturier hasn’t gone off the deep end. The Flyers may be a handful of points out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but they really do control their own destiny.
Of their remaining 26 games, 18 are against Eastern Conference teams, with just three against the two teams below them in the conference, the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. After returning on Feb. 25, they have seven games against one of the 10 teams below them in the overall NHL standings.
“We’ll need to get red-hot, I think that that’s kind of it,” Drysdale said. “I think we’re capable of it. Everyone, take this break and reset — good luck to [Travis Sanheim and Vladař] and the guys who are playing in the Olympics — but we’ve got to come out swinging right away, not waste a game.”
Time is definitely not a-wastin’. It’s a bit bonkers to think that the season has just 26 games remaining and will end in 67 days on April 14 against the Canadiens. Where the Flyers will be at that moment is the biggest question mark.
When the majority of the team reconvenes on Feb. 17 in Voorhees for practice, it will be the same squad. There is a leaguewide trade freeze until 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 22. Across the 12 subsequent days — until 3 p.m. on March 6 — there’s a good chance teams, including the Flyers, will start wheeling and dealing.
But sellers or buyers? The recent slide, and with how poorly the Flyers have played this month, are good indicators that the team isn’t in a spot to add pieces; however, as expected, they certainly aren’t giving up inside the room.
“I think just everything we learned in this first half, kind of put it all together and go on a run,” defenseman Cam York told The Inquirer on Wednesday after the team’s final practice.
“We’re young, but we’re an experienced group at the same time, I think, and I think we all want that pressure almost and we expect to make it.”
Yes, teams can go on runs and make pushes. Heck, the St. Louis Blues were last in the NHL on Jan. 1, 2019, and then, after that fateful day in South Philly where they sang “Gloria” at The Jacks NYB, they went on a magical run ending with the team hoisting the Stanley Cup
Of course, we’re not saying the Flyers are heading there, but the point is: As much as losing streaks can happen, so can winning ones. Can the Flyers dig themselves out of the hole they dug themselves and get back to who they were just a month ago?
Flyers general manager Danny Brière will have some tough decisions to make ahead of the March 6 trade deadline.
And who will be there for that?
There is no denying that the Flyers need to make room for the future. So with a team that isn’t far outside the playoff picture, do you upset the apple cart now or wait until, what most expect, the offseason?
Regardless, it’s a tough call to make with the team kind of there but not fully there in the playoff race. While Jones and Brière have said the players will dictate how they go, right now, it’s sell. Because while the message from the players is that they believe, the play on the ice right now is telling a different story.
So, two roads diverge in Philadelphia. Will they take the one less traveled? Or the one that they’ve gone down before?
Flyers general manager Danny Brière stood in the Gene Hart press box at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Tuesday and stated that he “wanted to address a little bit of the noise that is going around.”
Although he first spoke on the team’s recent “rocky patch,” the main objective was to — obviously — discuss the recent discourse swirling around his coach, Rick Tocchet, and one of the franchise’s rising stars, Matvei Michkov.
“We’ve never hidden anywhere. We’ve been up front with our fans. We have nothing to hide. So I don’t have a problem with that,” he said of the comments recently and the information divulged publicly.
“We’ve been up-front. That’s why I’m talking here. We have nothing to hide.”
Are Michkov’s days in Philly numbered? The short — and long — answers are no. After posting 26 goals and 63 points in 80 games as a rookie, Michkov has struggled to find that form. Entering Tuesday against the Washington Capitals, he had 13 goals and 28 points in 53 games, putting him on pace for 20 goals and 43 points.
“One thing I can tell you, first of all, is: Matvei Michkov is not going anywhere. Let’s make that clear. OK,” the GM said. “Matvei is going to be here for a long time. He’s going to be a good player here for the Flyers, and what he’s going through right now is all part of the learning process. So that’s out of the way. He’s not going anywhere. He’ll be here. He’ll be a good player.”
On reports Michkov wasn’t in shape for camp
In mid-October, the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast reported that sources told them Michkov was “out of shape” and when asked the same day, Tocchet revealed that the Russian winger suffered an ankle injury this offseason — which the coach said he “didn’t even know about” — which impacted the winger’s training and put him ”a little bit behind the eight ball.“
“One thing I know about Matvei is how driven he is. He wants to be the best player he can be,” Brière said Tuesday. “He admitted himself that he wasn’t in the best physical condition coming in. It’s going to be tough to catch up now. He’s in better shape than he was when he arrived this season.
“Unfortunately, everybody is in better shape than they were in training camp. So it’s really tough for him to catch up with the amount of games that we have, the amount of travel that we have; it’s just tough for him to catch up in season. He’s going to do that in the offseason. It was a good lesson for him, and just going to make him a better hockey player coming next year.”
Matvei Michkov has endured a sophomore slump, as he has just 13 goals and 28 points in 54 games.
Michkov said in early December he would spend the time during the upcoming Olympic break training to get ready for the rest of the season. “If you’re going to have good physical form, everything else will come along,” he said through a team translator.
But as Brière said, it is a short window.
The winger also said at the time he would start training in Voorhees at the Flyers Training Center over the summer.
“We hope so,” Brière said when asked specifically about that. “Yeah, he said that, and we hope that’s true. Again, being around Matvei the last few years, I know how driven he is, so I have no worry about the future. I think this is just a little hiccup.”
There’s been some conjecture that Tocchet is not happy with Michkov. It was the same when John Tortorella was here as the team’s head coach. As he did last season, Brière tried to temper that on Tuesday.
“I said it a couple of years ago, when Matvei arrived earlier than expected, we knew there would be some bumps along the way, and that’s kind of what is happening,” Brière said. “The other thing I can tell you, and I talk to Rick Tocchet on a daily basis, he wants Matvei to succeed. He wants to develop him to be the best player he can be, and along the way, there are tough lessons that come with that. That’s like raising a child.
“There’s tough lessons that he’s learning. It doesn’t matter if he’s playing 12, 14, 16, or even if he was playing 52 minutes a night; he’s learning along the way. It’s part of the process, and it’s going to make him a better player along the way.
“And Rick Tocchet wants that. He wants to be here for the long haul to lead this team. Him and Matvei, they have a good relationship. Sometimes they’re fiery. Sometimes when you’re not winning, things are done and said, but they always come back to the table. And they want the best for this team, and Rick wants the best for Matvei.
Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet and winger Matvei Michkov have not seen eye-to-eye on everything this season.
At the Flyers Charities Carnival on Sunday, Tocchet was a guest on the PHLY podcast and was asked about Michkov’s minutes.
“Matvei did not come into camp in shape. It’s hard to play your way into shape. I have not told him, or any of our players, to [not] take a guy one-on-one, come out of the corner with the puck, make a play through the rush. Right now, he’s having a tough time in these situations,” Tocchet said.
“So, you could say other players try. Maybe they don’t have [the same] skill set, but we’re trying to get [Michkov] to that level, how to develop him. [That is] practice, making sure you are on time for treatments and stuff like that. There is so much that goes into [your development], the way you eat.”
Some would say these comments, especially about missed treatments, should have been kept in-house. Brière said the comments were not directed at Michkov, per se, saying it was about all the youngsters on the team learning how to be a pro from treatments, massages, workouts, and proper nutrition.
Totally not concerned about the answer from Rick Tocchet about Michkov’s ice time from PHLY pic.twitter.com/8j5KTdn0AU
“He showed up, he wasn’t in the best physical condition. That’s true. And Matvei was the first one to admit it. But Rick knows how important he is to the future of this organization. He wants to make it work,” the GM said Tuesday.
“The coaching staff has probably spent more time with him, trying to help him out. So there’s no problem with the relationship there. … I don’t see any issues between the two of them. They are both very critical of themselves, and they both have that inner drive. I played with Rick Tocchet, I see how Matvei is. They’re both very driven individuals, and they want the best for the team and for the Flyers.”
Flyers president Keith Jones went on the PHLY podcast, too, and said: “It’s important we keep reminding them [the coaching staff] to play our young players and involve them in the process of getting better, I mean that’s the only way they do get better.”
It was an interesting comment considering Michkov is the second-youngest player on the team and is averaging 14 minutes, 32 seconds a night, the ninth-most among Flyers forwards.
"It's important that we keep reminding them [the coaches] to play our young players and involve them in the process of getting better" 👀
“Those are always discussions that we always have within the staff. We always talk about that. And that’s part of the rebuild, right?” Brière said. “Everybody’s aware that we’re trying to build a team that’s going to be good and contend for Stanley Cups down the road, not just to make one appearance in the playoffs and then miss out the following year.
“We’re trying to create a team here that’s going to be good for years to come, so that’s kind of the direction that it was meant for.”
Danny Brière has officially been the Flyers’ full-time general manager since May 11, 2023. In the two-plus years since, he has made 27 trades, with most involving draft picks or swapping players in the AHL.
But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been splashy deals. And two of the biggest ones are with a little guy he doesn’t hate working with, Pat Verbeek of the Anaheim Ducks.
As the Flyers get set to host the California team, let’s revisit them:
Who was involved in the Flyers-Ducks trades?
Trade 1: Jan. 8, 2024
Flyers received: Jamie Drysdale and a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL draft
Ducks received: Cutter Gauthier
Trade 2: June 23, 2025
Flyers received: Trevor Zegras
Ducks received: Ryan Poehling, a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL draft (Eric Nilson), and a fourth-round selection in the 2026 draft.
As for Gauthier, Flyers fans may want to look away.
Selected with the No. 5 overall pick in 2022, Gauthier never played for the Flyers after forcing a trade out of Philly.
“We tried to give him space,” Brière said the night the trade was made. “We tried to get in touch with him many times. They would not communicate, as far as the Gauthier side. So at some point, we had to make a decision.”
Why? No one knows.
“It wasn’t one specific reason why I asked for a trade,” Gauthier said on a Zoom with Anaheim’s media after the trade. “It was multiple, [recurring] issues that I’d seen over the past year and a half, two years of being under the Flyers organization. It kind of hit me all at once, thinking, ‘I can’t move forward with this, and I really need to step up for myself and see what’s best for my future,’ and that’s what I did.”
Last season, Gauthier notched 20 goals and 44 points in 82 games, finishing fifth in Calder Trophy voting with 92 votes — well behind fourth-place finisher Matvei Michkov — and was named to the All-Rookie Team. Amid that, he returned to a city that did not show him any brotherly love on and off the ice in a 6-0 thrashing by the Flyers last January.
Cutter Gauthier, once the Flyers’ top prospect before forcing a trade, has 19 goals this season for Anaheim.
This season, he already has 19 goals and 39 points in 42 games for an upstart Ducks team that is tied for third in the Pacific Division. Gauthier, who turns 22 this month, is on pace for 37 goals and 76 points.
In October, Gauthier had an eight-game point streak, helped by his first NHL hat trick against the Florida Panthers. He skates on the left wing of the Ducks’ top line, alongside Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn, while also getting time on the second power-play unit, where he has tallied four power-play goals and eight points.
Poehling, a first-round pick in 2017 for the Montreal Canadiens, resurrected his career in Philly after being signed to a one-year, bet-on-himself deal on July 1, 2023.
The speedy center, who collected 28 points in 77 games that season, became a favorite of then-coach John Tortorella and earned himself a two-year extension on Jan. 26, 2024. The following season, despite being impacted by injury, he set career highs in goals (12) and points (31) in 68 games with the Flyers.
Across his two seasons, Poehling was heavily relied on to kill penalties. He skated the second-most shorthanded minutes among forwards (235 minutes, 17 seconds). He tied Scott Laughton and Garnet Hathaway for second on the team with three shorthanded goals during that time frame and tied Hathaway, with whom he was often paired, for third with five shorthanded points.
Poehling, who has two goals and 14 points this season, has eight points across his last 12 games while centering Anaheim’s fourth line with Jansen Harkins and tough guy Ross Johnston.
What happened to Drysdale and Zegras?
In summation, two words: good things.
The two buddies have been key to the Flyers’ good vibes this season, with Zegras leading the team in goals (15), points (39), power-play goals (five), and power-play points (12) through 40 games.
While Zegras has officially put his last two years in Anaheim behind him, Drysdale has quietly shifted from being just a purely offensive blueliner who is questionable on defense to a guy who can play a complete 200-foot game.
Jamie Drysdale, who is still just 23, has improved defensively in his first year under Rick Tocchet.
With Drysdale paired with Emil Andrae since Nov. 22, the two have skated more than 300 minutes together and have been on the ice for 18 goals by the Flyers and just nine against.
So does Drysdale like being the veteran on the pairing with Andrae, who is the same age as him (23) but has played 182 fewer NHL games?
“A little bit, I do, yeah, I like it,” Drysdale said. “I love playing with Emil. He’s got a good mind, and I think that we have similar mindsets as well on and off the ice. And it’s good to build off each other.”
Drysdale is known to be a quiet guy, but he says he’s been more chatty on the ice, which is important as the veteran in the pairing. And a lot of it is to remind himself what to do, too, which seems to be working.
He takes a lot of pride in his trajectory, noting that the defensive side is “coming to me more naturally now.” And while Drysdale’s power-play time is up and down, coach Rick Tocchet likes that he is consistent at five-on-five and is very good at following his philosophy of skating forward to defend.
“Well, I had heard a lot of different things, but what’s his identity?” Tocchet said when asked what he knew of Drysdale before coming to Philly. “And I didn’t really know that, but I know the one thing is that he came to camp in really good shape and he wanted to shake the tag that he wasn’t a good defensive player.
“So he corrected those two things, right? Came in great shape. He’s been really good [at] defending, so now we’re going to ask him [for] a little more offense eventually, but that’s a work in progress. I don’t want him to suffer in his other parts of the game to try to get the other part. I think he’s just got to chip away at that part, and he’s a very coachable kid.”
What is the trade grade today?
Originally, our Drysdale-Gauthier trade received an A-minus grade, and the Zegras trade an A. Today, almost two years after the former and just over six months after the latter, it’s an overall A.
Why?
Although Gauthier would rank No. 2 in scoring on the Flyers behind Zegras across several categories and has a promising career ahead of him as a goal scorer, the forward made it clear he didn’t want to play in Philly. So why keep a malcontent?
Trading him away became inevitable, and it made sense to bring in another young guy with pedigree like Drysdale, who has not only shown a stark improvement — and a desire to do that — but is good in the room. He has become a key defenseman for the Flyers while skating an average of 21:35, tying his career high from 2023-24. And he has worked so well with Andrae that the Swede has finally become an everyday defenseman on a pairing earning top-four minutes.
And what can one say about Zegras? The New York native has been a revelation on the ice and in the locker room.
Those 39 points in 40 games are setting him up to demolish his previous career highs — he’s on pace for 31 goals and 80 points — set in 2022-23, before then-Ducks coach Greg Cronin moved him to the wing. Is he playing the wing in Philly? Sure. Is he also playing some center? Absolutely. And he’s in a spot where he’s able to shine with his creativity and awareness while also having buddies like Drysdale, Cam York, and linemate Christian Dvorak around.
Flyers players and close friends (from left) Trevor Zegras, Cam York, and Jamie Drysdale have had a strong season since being united.
“You’re always looking for high skill level, talented players, and at the time, he was a distressed asset. … You have to be thoughtful and a little bit lucky, and provide an environment where the player can shine,” Flyers president Keith Jones recently told The Inquirer.
“He’s done a great job,” Jones added. “It’s really proof of Danny’s willingness to wait for the right time, and he was really patient on this one. It’s been well-documented that it was a long process. Trevor kind of fit what we were looking for, and he has been all that and more with what he’s done for us.”
A star player was available for trade. The Flyers reportedly showed some interest. The team elected not to pony up the required assets to make the deal. The star player landed elsewhere and sent the Flyers back to the drawing board.
I’m obviously referring to Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Quinn Hughes being traded on Dec. 12 from Vancouver to Minnesota for a package that included blue-chip prospect Zeev Buium, middle-six center Marco Rossi, prospect Liam Öhgren, and a first-round pick. Hughes, the second-best defenseman in the world, and notably a well-documented fan of Flyers coach Rick Tocchet from their time together with the Canucks, is exactly the type of needle-moving superstar the Flyers are missing on their blue line. So why no deal?
That answer is more nuanced than “the Flyers were being cheap again,” and we will address that in a minute. Nevertheless, missing out on star talent has been an all-too-familiar and frustrating pattern for Flyers fans over the past few years as the team has carried out its rebuild and focused largely on subtraction rather than addition.
But that was all supposed to change next summer, when Danny Brière, Keith Jones, and the Flyers suggested they would pull out the checkbook and aggressively try and sign a marquee free agent. One problem: That 2026 free agent class, which was once headlined by Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, and Kirill Kaprizov, has all but evaporated outside of soon-to-be-overpaid consolation prizes like Alex Tuch, 34-year-old Artemi Panarin, and Rasmus Andersson, none of whom play center, the gaping hole the Flyers need to address most.
With that in my mind, could/should the Flyers have pulled the trigger on a Hughes deal? And where might the team turn from here to solve its 1C problem?
The Flyers were right to pass on Hughes
To start, Hughes would have fit perfectly in Philly, as he is one of only three or four genuine game-breaking defensemen who exist in the league. One of the world’s top 10 players, his dynamic skating ability, particularly his lateral movement and ability to walk the line, and playmaking prowess would have provided a seismic jolt to an anemic offense and struggling power play, and subsequently bumped the rest of the team’s defensemen back into their appropriate slots. More simply, Hughes, while a wildly different player, would have been the team’s best defenseman since Chris Pronger’s injury-shortened spell from 2009-12.
The Flyers were interested in Quinn Hughes but reluctant to move their top two assets in Matvei Michkov and Porter Martone.
So could the Flyers have traded for him? In short, yes.
The Flyers boast a consensus top-10 prospect system, own several future first-round draft picks, and have players who would have intrigued Vancouver, namely Matvei Michkov and Michigan State phenom Porter Martone. Both of those players are viewed as untouchables for the Flyers, and not including them would have all but removed them from the Hughes sweepstakes. Some combination of Jett Luchanko, Jack Nesbitt, Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Cam York, Oliver Bonk, and first-round picks, while nothing to sniff at, was not besting the return Vancouver ultimately landed, headlined by Buium.
What will infuriate Flyers fans is that the team had a chance to draft Buium just 18 months ago. Ranked No. 4 among North American prospects in 2024 according to NHL Central Scouting, the former University of Denver star slid directly into their laps in that draft, only for the Flyers to trade the pick to Minnesota and move down one spot and select Luchanko. While the Flyers still believe in the speedy Luchanko, the simple fact is the centerman is not as highly regarded a prospect as Buium leaguewide. Obviously, there is some revisionist history here, but if the Flyers had taken the consensus top player on the board in 2024, maybe they would have been in a better position to make this type of deal.
While the Flyers could have potentially pulled this deal off by including Michkov or Martone, they were right not to. But wouldn’t landing a superstar be worth the price of a promising young player or a highly regarded but unproven at the NHL level prospect? Not when you consider the Flyers’ current standing and Hughes’ current contract situation.
Hughes, 26, is only signed through the end of next season, and his agent Pat Brisson said “that under no circumstances could we guarantee a contract extension with anyone.” In other words, the Flyers, who are not ready to compete for a Stanley Cup in the next year and a half, would be rolling the dice on Hughes’ connection to Tocchet and willingness to extend beyond that point. That is far too risky for a team in their position, especially one that was already forced to punt away one high-end prospect in Cutter Gauthier, and couldn’t afford to part with another like Michkov or Martone for a one-and-a-half-year lottery ticket.
The Flyers passed on drafting Zeev Buium with the 11th pick in 2024.
So where do the Flyers go from here?
While the Flyers refuse to put a hard timeline on their rebuild and have continued to preach patience, the clock is ticking for a couple of reasons.
First, the team is 17-10-7 and more likely to earn a playoff spot than land a top-10 draft pick to select a prospective No. 1 center or No. 1 defenseman. For context, I’d count 27 players leaguewide as worthy of that true No. 1 center designation, and 15 of them were top-three picks, 19 were top-10 picks, and 24 of them were first-rounders. In other words, the Flyers either need to trade for a No. 1 center and/or hope they can uncover a gem like Robert Thomas (20th overall), Wyatt Johnston (No. 23), Tage Thompson (No. 26), Sebastian Aho (No. 35), Roope Hintz (No. 49), or Brayden Point (No. 79). Rightly or wrongly, the team is no longer constructed in a position to bottom out for that type of draft capital, and that isn’t likely to change going forward.
Second, as we mentioned earlier, there don’t seem to be any ready-made solutions left in free agency next summer. The top unrestricted free-agent center options available are Evgeni Malkin, who will turn 40 before next season if he doesn’t retire; former Flyers captain Claude Giroux, who will be 38 and has shifted mostly to wing over the latter half of his career; Nick Schmaltz, who turns 30 in February, has never reached 65 points, and is best on the wing; and Christian Dvorak, who is already a Flyer.
So who could be available if the Flyers are ready to deal? That conversation will always start with Thompson, who is on pace for his third 40-goal season in four years and is wasting away in Buffalo. The 28-year-old All-Star wouldn’t come cheap, but he is a unique player at 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds, and attractively, is signed for the next four years at a relative bargain price of $7.14 million.
Tage Thompson is one of the league’s premier goal scorers and would immediately fill the Flyers’ hole at 1C. He would command a Quinn Hughes-like haul though.
Buffalo, which changed general managers last week, still seems to think it can make the playoffs, but when that pipe dream is extinguished, which could be sooner rather than later, don’t be surprised to see Thompson push for a change of scenery. Buffalo and Philly make a lot of sense as trade partners, too, as Philly has some attractive young NHL pieces, prospects, and picks it could send back to Buffalo if the Sabres decide to tear it down … again. Thompson would be plug-and-play on the Flyers’ top line and bring a mixture of size, skill, and one of the league’s top shots to Broad Street.
Outside of Thompson, the path to landing a 1C or even a 2C is a lot murkier, as the Flyers would seemingly be out on guys in their mid-30s like Nazem Kadri, Brayden Schenn, and Ryan O’Reilly, with most others unavailable. Elias Pettersson, another high-end center who has been shopped in recent years, is also likely off the block now and would be an odd fit given his up-and-down time under Tocchet in Vancouver, anyway.
I’ve always wondered about Seattle’s Matty Beniers, who has been solid but hasn’t truly taken off offensively since being the No. 2 overall pick in 2021. With Seattle likely stuck with 31-year-old Chandler Stephenson for five more years (yikes), and centers Berkly Catton, Shane Wright, Carson Rehkopf,and Jake O’Brien rising in the system, could the Flyers pry Beniers, 23, away from the Kraken with the right offer?
St. Louis’ Robert Thomas and Toronto’s William Nylander are two others I could see becoming available for massive hauls if things break right. Detroit, which is under pressure to take a step and make the playoffs, and was also a leading contender for Hughes, might be tempted to move a young center like Marco Kasper or Nate Danielson for a package headlined by a proven top-six NHL winger.
Seattle Kraken center Matty Beniers is a young player with untapped potential.
How about a team like Minnesota, which just pushed its chips to the middle and went all-in? Would moving young Danila Yurov for immediate upgrades at wing or center, say Owen Tippett and Minnesota-born Noah Cates, make sense? Would Anaheim, which has its long-term top two centers figured out in Leo Carlsson and Mason McTavish, quickly flip 2025 No. 10 overall pick and oft-injured Roger McQueen for help at wing as it pushes for the playoffs? We know Brière and Ducks GM Pat Verbeek have each other on speed dial by now. Would Eastan Cowan, especially given his London ties, be a prospect the Flyers target if the Maple Leafs look to bolster their postseason chances?
One way or another, the Flyers’ search for a No. 1 center goes on, and there are fewer obvious solutions than ever. It’s time to act and time to get creative. Your move, Danny Brière.
It’s the time of the year to be thankful and Flyers fans have several reasons to be overflowing with gratitude.
Or at least you would think so …
The Flyers, whose front office made clear its desire for the team to take a positive step forward in its rebuild this year and be more competitive, are 15-8-3 under new coach Rick Tocchet, and have the seventh-most points and the seventh-best points percentage in the NHL. If the season ended Thursday morning, the Flyers would occupy the third spot in the Metropolitan Division based on points percentage and be in the playoffs for the first time in five seasons.
“We expect more of a fight internally, and we hope that it’s going to make us better, it’s going to hopefully make us more competitive throughout the season, and maybe push to get closer to the playoffs,” general manager Danny Brière said in September. “At the end of the day, we want to make the playoffs.”
Beyond their record, the Flyers have struck gold with inexpensive offseason acquisitions Trevor Zegras and Dan Vladař, the former flashing his puck handling wizardry and superstar potential, and the latter playing like a bona fide Vezina Trophy candidate over the first third of the season. The Flyers’ checkered history between the pipes is well documented, but maybe, just maybe, Vladař, who is 28 and signed through next year, can bring some consistency to the position for the next few seasons. And in the 24-year-old Zegras, a restricted free agent at season’s end who leads the team with 26 points, the Flyers hope they have identified part of their long-term solution down the middle.
The positives don’t end there. Zegras’ close friends Cam York (24) and Jamie Drysdale (23) have leveled up after surviving John Tortorella’s wrath, and so had fellow first-rounder Tyson Foerster (23), who had 19 goals in his last 30 games dating back to last season before suffering an upper-body injury on Monday that will sideline him for two to three months. York was banged up on Wednesday but is listed as “day-to-day.”
Owen Tippett, 26, has had more good moments than bad this season as he strives for consistency, while Matvei Michkov, who is still just 20, is coming on strong after a slow start. Noah Cates (26) and Bobby Brink (24) have also picked up where they left off last season, while the exciting Emil Andrae (23) looks to have made himself into an everyday NHL defenseman. In other words, the kids are getting better.
The Flyers have high hopes for 2025 first-round picks Porter Martone (right) and Jack Nesbitt (left).
The Flyers have more on the way as they boast a top-10 prospect pool in hockey and probably couldn’t have dreamed up better starts for their potential future stars. Porter Martone, the No. 6 overall pick in June, is dominating college hockey with Michigan State; Alex Bump and Denver Barkey are off to fast starts in their first full pro seasons with Lehigh Valley; and Egor Zavragin continues to put up historic numbers for a 20-year-old goalie in Russia. Even Jett Luchanko got the trade many felt he needed to further his development in the Ontario Hockey League. Martone, Bump, and Luchanko will all be expected to break camp with the Flyers next season.
So all is good in Flyers land, right?
Not if you scroll through X or find yourself wading through the ever dark and gloomy depths of Flyers Twitter:
“I hate Rick Tocchet hockey man…,“ tweeted @aftern_alex earlier this month.
or
“I DO NOT LIKE TOCCHET AT ALL. IF BREIRE AND JONES R ON BOARD WITH MICHKOV GETTING 13 MINUTES A GAME. FIRE THEM ALL,” wrote @Philly4everrr.
So why is a large portion of the fan base so unhappy amid the team’s surprising start? Well, it largely boils down to three things: (1) Tocchet’s style of play; (2) Michkov’s usage under Tocchet; and (3) the Flyers not tanking for a No. 1 center or No. 1 defenseman. Let’s explore those three points further.
Tocchet’s teams will never be confused with the ‘80s Edmonton Oilers, the ‘90s Pittsburgh Penguins, which he played on, or the Detroit Red Wings around the turn of the century. He’s a defensive coach first and has said as much. The Flyers are 25th in the NHL in scoring (2.85 goals per game) and are fourth-to-last in shots per game (25.2), which matches with previous Tocchet teams’ low volume of shots.
On the other hand, the Flyers are much improved defensively and have taken a lot of the “risk” out of their game. Some of that is thanks to better goaltending from Vladař, who has saved almost 11 goals above expected, per Money Puck. But the Flyers are also conceding fewer shots, high-danger chances, and rush attempts. They have allowed the eighth-fewest shots per game (26) and have surrendered the 13th-fewest high-danger shots at five-on-five (64), per Money Puck. They also rank 10th in the league in fewest expected goals against at five-on-five (54.9).
Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet has helped bring defensive stability to Broad Street.
Sure, everyone would love for the Flyers to score a few more goals and shoot a little more, but there also has to be an expected tradeoff there, as the Flyers last season were historically bad at keeping the puck out of their net (28th in goals against), and partly due to bad goalie environments had the league’s worst save percentage (.879). Tocchet’s philosophy centers around keeping opponents to the outside and allowing his goalies to see the initial shot, and the Flyers have largely executed that plan.
New coaches also tend to focus on laying a defensive foundation first and then building out from there. The Flyers, while improved, are far from a finished product offensively and weren’t this high-flying team that scored a ton of goals last year either — they averaged 2.83 goals per game. Making permanent judgments or broad assertions about Tocchet and the Flyers’ future after 26games and where the roster stands hardly seems fair.
The Michkov dilemma is probably the biggest criticism of Tocchet, as the Russian winger is ninth among Flyers in average ice time at 14 minutes, 51 seconds per game. There’s no way around saying Michkov started the season slowly — one goal in his first 13 games — as his conditioning was not up to par after an offseason ankle injury, and he made several ill-advised decisions with and without the puck. So it was hardly surprising to see him play less than other forwards.
Tocchet clearly wants the youngster to earn his ice time and kick some of his bad habits. He also wants to win games and, at times, has felt that he couldn’t trust Michkov in tight games when the team is protecting a lead. While it’s easy for fans to yell “Play Michkov more!” Tocchet has a responsibility to the rest of his players to hold everyone accountable and look out for the best interests of his team.
“I know he’s the lightning rod for everybody around here. He’s got to relax,” Tocchet said in mid-October. “He’s got to get himself into shape. He’s got to be in positions … you can’t just leave the zone. And it’s OK, he’s gotten better at it.”
Flyers right wing Matvei Michkov is coming on strong after a slow start.
Michkov has “gotten better at it” of late and has seen more ice time as a result. His better decisions with the puck and cheating less has coincided with his offensive uptick; he has four goals and seven points in his last seven games and is playing his best hockey of the season. Tocchet is rewarding Michkov’s improved play, as the Russian winger has skated at least 15:37 in three of his last four games.
While it can be frustrating to see a talent like Michkov playing less, it looks as if the message has been received and the winger will likely be better in the long run for it. That said, there needs to be a balance and Tocchet has to teach Michkov good habits without curbing his creativity or reprogramming such a talented player.
Despite what you may read online, Tocchet has no personal vendetta against Michkov or desire to see him fail. He simply wants him to play winning hockey and learn from his mistakes. While this relationship, language barrier included, remains a work in progress, don’t be surprised to see Michkov continue to get more ice time as the season wears on and for this to eventually become a whole lot of nothing.
Why aren’t they tanking?
Should the Flyers have tanked more and kept rebuilding for at least one more season, especially without obvious solutions for their future No. 1 center and No. 1 defenseman holes? This is a completely reasonable take, if not the most feasible one, considering how the roster is and was constructed.
Could the Flyers have bottomed out more and stripped their roster thinner over the past years to get more/better bites at the draft apple? I guess so, but they did largely do the latter.
Brière inherited many of the team’s salary cap problems and actually did some impressive work to get out from players like Ivan Provorov, Kevin Hayes, and Tony DeAngelo, and net high-end drafts picks and prospects in deals for Provorov, Sean Walker, Scott Laughton, Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, and Andrei Kuzmenko. The only other three obvious and needle-moving subtractions would have been to trade well-paid veterans Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, and Travis Sanheim. Rasmus Ristolainen is another player they might have moved, but bad injury timing has largely tied Brière’s hands there, not to mention the GM could still move him.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere has taken a patient and measured approach to rebuilding. Now, he wants the Flyers to take a step forward.
Given Couturier’s contract, which still has 4½ seasons remaining at a $7.75 million average annual value, he was and remains all but impossible to trade. Regarding Sanheim, Brière DID try to move him before his new deal kicked in but that move was nixed due to a St. Louis player opting not to waive his no-move clause. That nontrade might be the best move Brière didn’t make, as Sanheim has blossomed into a top-pairing defenseman and the Flyers’ leader on the backend. Whether the Flyers should have traded Konecny before extending him can be debated, but most teams usually try to hold onto 30-goal, almost-point-per-game players who are in their mid-20s and on an upward trajectory.
In other words, the Flyers largely carried out their rebuild the right way, they subtracted when it made sense, stockpiled assets, and didn’t jeopardize their long-term vision for short-term success, a la trading Walker amid pushing for the playoffs in 2023-24. But what about landing that all-important 1C and a 1D?
Those problems are not isolated to the Flyers, as those two holes, along with the starting goalie, are the three hardest to find. There is a shortage of true No. 1 centers across the league, and the teams that have them don’t usually like to give them up. The Flyers have also drafted centers in the top half of the past two drafts in Luchanko and Jack Nesbitt to try and address the position, and also have several young defensemen — York, Drysdale, Oliver Bonk, Spencer Gill — they believe could one day play in their top four.
Listening to Brière and president Keith Jones, the Flyers were prepared to pay up and probably envisioned finding that No. 1 center in what was once a rich 2026 free agent class. That crop has since dried up, but that doesn’t mean all hope has.
Armed with a deep prospect pool, future draft picks, including Toronto’s first in 2027, and a plethora of young wingers and defensemen, the Flyers have valuable pieces to package in a deal for a top-end center when one becomes available. Wouldn’t Tage Thompson look nice in burnt orange? Could things between William Nylander and Toronto turn sour? Might St. Louis be blown away to move on from Robert Thomas and tear it down? Is Quinton Byfield untouchable? The Flyers can bide their time for now and can feel good that they have the type of assets to compete with most offers.
Or on the backend, Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes, a huge fan of Tocchet from their time together in Vancouver, could soon be available. As could younger options like Bowen Byram, Brandt Clarke, and Šimon Nemec, for the right price.
The Flyers are set up well for the long term, whether they make the playoffs this season or not, so let’s just enjoy them for a while and see where this season goes. It’s been a long time since this city has had a hockey team it could be proud of. The complaining can wait.
Could Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson be the answer to the Flyers’ 1C conundrum?
