Preface

This entire article is predicated under a few assumptions. One, my expansion protection list is hypothetical, based solely on what I think the Flyers should do. Two, I believe the core of this team needs a shakeup and the moves below reflect that. Three, I’m just a guy who loves the Flyers and yelling into the abyss, so read accordingly.  

Also Charlie O’Connor from The Athletic posted an incredible article just like this one so definitely check that out when you get a chance. I literally had this queued up to post and then, boom, he drops his, so I waited a bit. 

If you’d like to skip what amounts to my ramblings, you can find my ideal Flyer’s offseason in the Final Notes section. Bullet points, kept it short, all yours.

Expansion Protection List

Forwards:  

Claude Giroux – Captain and heart and soul of this team. Plus the no movement clause so guaranteed protection. 

Sean Couturier – Selke Trophy winner who makes everyone he plays with better. If he could center all four lines, I’d let him. 

Travis Konecny – Brad Marchand-lite. A pest with a penchant for the net, absolutely protected. 

Oskar Lindblom – Imagine exposing the guy who kicked cancer’s ass. #OskarStrong. 

Kevin Hayes – Another no movement clause, guaranteed protection. He may be overpaid a bit but he is still an asset this team needs. 

Nolan Patrick –  I’ve always been a Nolan Patrick believer, and it killed me to see him miss time due to injury. You can’t expose a former second overall pick when he hasn’t gotten the opportunity to prove himself. Nolan Patrick revenge tour coming soon. 

Scott Laughton – After just receiving a large contract extension, it would seem silly for the Flyers to leave Laughton open to exposure. He’s a home grown forward that can slot into most places in the lineup, and underrated defensively. 

Defense:  

Ivan Provorov – Even when he’s struggling he is still far and away the best defensemen we have on the team. I do believe we need to acquire another top flight d-man to really unlock his potential but he’s our 1A until then. 

Travis Sanhiem – Took a step back last year, the whole team did, but a budding young defenseman that can play top minutes is great. 

Philipe Myers – Hoping for a big rebound year for Phil this coming season. 

Goalie: 

Carter Hart – A no-brainer for sure. Granted he struggled a bit last year but he is our goaltender of the future and I just don’t see that changing. 

Notables Left Unprotected

Shayne Gostisbehere – This was by far my hardest decision in terms of creating a protection list. Yes Ghost went on waivers last year and he did struggle but during the latter half of the season he was an impact player on a team that desperately needed one. He was still able to put up 20 points in the 41 games he played last year. Would his cap hit moving help? Yes. But I would still rather keep him on this team.   

James Van Reimsdyk – Great net-front presence guy on his second stint in Philadelphia. The more I think about my protection list, the less likely I find it to be true. Would the Flyers expose JVR after just resigning him? Is that the kind of loyalty we can expect from our organization, or is it just business with no hard feelings? 

Jake Voracek – Another incredibly hard decision for the Flyers to make. Jake Voracek, should he leave the team this offseason, will be a harder loss than most are expecting. It seems like Flyers’ Twitter is counting down the days until Jake is no longer a burden to this team, and part of me understands the frustrations. He can be hard to watch sometimes with the turnovers and errant passes. But his production and leadership will not be easy to replace. He’s been here ten years now and has amassed 604 points in 727 games. 5th all time in assists for the Flyers. If Voracek leaves this offseason, I will surely miss him and everything he’s done for this organization.

Potential Trade with Seattle

Again with so many moving parts, this article becomes more and more difficult to write. I believe the Flyers and Kraken will work out some sort of deal regarding the expansion draft. I can’t imagine it being a blockbuster but it is hard to say as you have no idea what other teams are doing until July 18th. Would we have to give up a prospect or pick for some cap relief? I think that is the most likely trade to happen should Chuck Fletcher go that route. But the quality of players that I have the Flyers leaving unprotected should allow Fletcher to focus on other trades as opposed to dealing with the Kraken.  

Who I think Seattle selects: 

One of Jake Voracek, Shayne Gostisbehere, or Nicolas Aube-Kubel.

Acquisitions

This team needs better defense, and that’s a fact. The defensive shortcomings of this team were in full effect last year and absolutely crippled our chances to make the playoffs. In an ideal world Chuck Fletcher would go out and acquire a top flight d-man and a depth guy, and luckily we have options this offseason. Acquiring any one of these players and I would dub the offseason as a win. Pair any one of these guys next to Provorov and move forward with a bonafide top d pair and watch how Hart and the team rebounds.  

Dougie Hamilton – At this point you’re trying to acquire his rights from Carolina. You have to give up something and you have to make him commit to the team long term. 

Seth Jones – This one seems more and more unlikely by the minute. I’m not comfortable giving up the assets to acquire Jones only for him to leave next offseason. 

Ryan McDonaugh – Only way this happens is if we relieve a bunch of Tampa’s cap issues, meaning we’d have to take on Tyler Johnson and more. 

Adam Larrson – Underrated d-man that would look great in the Orange and Black, 

Erik Gudbranson – My top free agent target. Solid stay at home d-man with an edge to his game.  

Mattias Ekholm/Ryan Ellis – I don’t think either of these players are actually available but they keep ending up on Trade Bait lists so it felt incorrect to not include them. Would have to be a player swap with both teams sending cap. Chuck please don’t take Matt Duchene or Ryan Johansen’s contract.  

Adding any one of these players would obviously take a pretty substantial trade but the returned value would be worth it. The only problem here is that you would want to get a long term commitment out of these players which seems to be difficult. Seth Jones has already reportedly said he wouldn’t commit to Philadelphia long term should he be traded.  

In terms of adding to the forward core I expect some form of player swap, depending on Seattle’s selection, involving JVR or Voracek. There is also the possibility of using our younger assets to acquire a top flight forward. Fletcher has to acquire an impact forward, someone to replace the talent that we expect to be leaving this offseason. A player in need of a change of scenery perhaps?

Sam Rienhart – Put the Jack Eichel dream to bed, this is the prize to win from Buffalo. I would be happy to move a first, prospect and player to acquire Reinhart. 

Vladamir Tarsenko – With Tarasenko requesting a trade, it would be asinine to not kick tires on the perennial thirty goal scorer. While his injuries are a concern, he is the dynamic sniper that Giroux has always dreamed of. 

Rickard Rakell – With Anahiem on the rebuild, could Rakell be available? A change of scenery could do him well and it could be done at a reasonable cost.   

Johnny Gaudreau – Johnny Hockey will always be tied to the Philadelphia Flyers, and if Calgary is looking to sell, this year could be the year it actually happens. Cap concerns really cornhole this into a player for player swap. 

Gabriel Landeskog – There is no way the Avalanche Captain leaves Colorado, right? 

Goalies? Or just Goalie, I guess? 

I wouldn’t mind bringing back Brian Elliot. He’s a solid back up though I think we should acquire someone a tiny bit better because if Hart struggles again we will need someone to come and be competitive for 20-30 games. I just don’t think Brian Elliot is that guy anymore. If I had to pick one? Give me Antti Raanta.

Draft

If we somehow still have our draft pick post expansion draft I would love to pick up Mason McTavish. In Craig Button’s latest rankings he has McTavish going 10th overall so we would need some luck or even a trade to acquire the budding power forward. Other than that I haven’t done much research on the draft as a whole. I fully expect the Flyers to use their first this year to upgrade the team in some way but we will have to wait and see. 

Offer Sheets, and other stupid things that won’t happen:  

It just never does, does it? Every year we read puff piece after puff piece about how this year we will see multiple offer sheets and teams poaching young RFA’s but it never happens. I suppose we should blame former Flyers GM Paul Holmgren for that huh? Shea Weber is still worth his contract so maybe he was onto something.

Final Notes

So in total I would view the ideal Flyer’s offseason as follows:  

• The Flyers protect G, Coots, TK, Oskar, Hayes, Patrick, and Laughton 
  • Provorov, Myers, Sanhiem. 
  • Carter Hart. 
• Seattle selects one of Jake Voraceck or James Van Reimsdyk. 
  • I don’t believe the Flyers would need to entice them to take either but we may end up short a pick to guarantee it.
• The Flyers acquire the rights to Dougie Hamilton from Carolina, and sign him long term at probably more than 8 million per year. 
• The Flyers sign Erik Gudbranson in free agency. 
• The Flyers swap one of Jake/JVR plus X asset(s) for Vladamir Tarasenko. 
• Flyers give up Morgan Frost plus for Sam Reinhart,
• Flyers sign Erik Haula and Mattias Janmark for depth. 
• Let Brian Elliot walk and bring in a reliable back-up in Antti Raanta. 
• All in all I expect the Flyers to lose the following assets: JVR, Voracek, our first round this year, Morgan Frost, Shayne Gostisbehere, and who knows what else.  

Projected Roster:

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny  

Vladamir Tarasenko – Kevin Hayes – Joel Farabee 

Oskar Lindblom – Scott Laughton – Wade Allison 

Mattias Janmark – Erik Haula – Nolan Patrick

(Sam Morin, Nicolas Aube-Kubel)

Dougie Hamilton – Ivan Provorov

Travis Sanhiem – Erik Gudbranson 

Philipe Myers – Justin Braun 

(Robert Hagg, Cam York)  

Carter Hart 

Antti Raanta 

The hardest part about this article is that it is all speculation. There are so many variables at play here with the expansion draft coming that it hammers home the fact that I would not be a very good NHL GM. So I will sit here in my armchair and hope that this team can navigate the next few months of uncertainty because I’m struggling here with just the hypotheticals. Cheers and Let’s Go Flyers!