The New Era of Orange has been ushered in as Keith Jones, Daniel Brière, and company pulled off their first official move, and it was a doozy.
The Philadelphia Flyers have moved on from their minute-munching defenseman, Ivan Provorov, as part of a three-team deal that involved the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Los Angeles Kings. The Flyers received goaltender Cal Petersen, defensemen Sean Walker and Helge Grans, a 2022 first round pick from Columbus, a 2024 second round pick from Los Angeles, and a conditional 2024 or 2025 second round pick from Columbus. Columbus acquired Provorov with the Kings receiving Hayden Hodgson and Kevin Connauton from the Flyers, while retaining 30% of Provorov’s deal.
It is a breath of fresh air that the Flyers were able to receive a grandiose package for a disgruntled player. Yes, Provorov is skilled, has the potential to be a top-2 defenseman, eats a ton of minutes, blocks a lot of shots, and has only missed 3 games in his entire career. However, the writing has been on the wall ever since Chuck Fletcher took over as he has been a prime trade candidate for whenever the retooling Flyers were looking to make a splash.
There were reports that he was a disgruntled teammate as well, with rifts between player and team, and that he was tough to coach because he couldn’t take criticism well. Whether true or not, it was tough to see how his Flyers tenure ended because he was supposed to be the face of this defense.
Now that we have moved on from the 7th overall pick from 2015, the Flyers can tack one off their to-d0 list as the rebuild is in full swing. We don’t have to worry about double-crossing behaviour, or a potential “aggressive retool”, or worse with an “aggressive rebuild”. The Flyers have their eyes fixated on the future, and with that comes rumours regarding players like Kevin Hayes, Tony DeAngelo, and even Carter Hart.
Talking to the media after the trade was made official, Brière said that he talked to Keith Jones 4-5 times a day in regards to making this trade come to fruition, while also keeping Comcast Spectacor CEO and Flyers Governor Dan Hilferty in the loop. He was a little hard pressed when giving out responses to questions about the future, however, no general manager is ever going to show their cards this early – or ever.
He also mentioned that different departments were involved, including amateur scouts, pro scouts, and their analytics department. When asked about whether or not this was a starting point for the rebuild and if this is just the beginning of big trades coming through, Brière was coy and said, “If it makes sense. You never know. If there’s a good return, we’ll consider it.”
That obviously led into what became a massive story leading into the Carter Hart rumours. Moments after the Provorov trade was being leaked out, The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco mentioned that the rumours regarding the 24-year-old goaltender were white-hot.
While a trade isn’t imminent at this very moment, the fact that things started to pick up so quickly, makes us all wonder if we’ve seen the last of Carter Hart in Philadelphia.
He has become a hotbed for discussion because the position itself is so tumultuous. Many people believe you don’t rebuild from the net out, while a large faction of people believe you shouldn’t give up on the young netminder. However, with 1 year remaining on his contract and a modest raise upcoming, it makes you think whether or not the Flyers see him as part of the future. The line of contention is tough because the Flyers are probably 3-4 years away and Hart would have to endure 3-4 difficult seasons, while hampering their chances for a very good draft pick. John Gibson is a great example because he has been a part of the Ducks’ rebuild for some time and he has finally had enough in Anaheim and would like to move on with his career.
For many, it just seems wild for the Flyers to move on from such a promising young goaltender after all the years of suffering they endured with their graveyard of goalies. The Flyers were extremely impressed with Samuel Ersson, Felix Sandström had his moments but there was a lot more needed from him, and Alexei Kolosov did very well this season in the KHL but he’s years away from making the leap. When asked about moving Hart, Brière was quoted as saying, “Still in the same spot I was, we’re open for business.”
This coming off the heels of Brière telling the media that he will listen to offers regarding Carter Hart, but he isn’t necessarily dangling him like bait. Several teams are interested, plenty of teams will be lining up, and there are a handful of teams that are trying to make the leap into contention but need a goaltender as their final piece.
When asked about the acquisition of Cal Petersen and where he figures into the plan, Brière was uncertain at the moment but said they would give him a fair chance and expect him to provide competition at training camp. Petersen has 2 more years at a cap hit of $5 million.
When asked about acquiring another first round pick in a very loaded draft, Brière said, “It’s a deep draft and we felt we wanted to acquire another pick in the first round, not having a second rounder this year. So having a chance to get in at number 22 was critical to the deal for us.”
With the Flyers selecting 7th overall already, they not only added another first round pick this year, but have added 2 second round picks for the future. They were without a first round pick in 2021, were without a second round pick in 2022, and were going to be without one for 2023 and 2024 all because of Chuck Fletcher. Now the Flyers have 2 first round picks in 2023 and 2024, 2 second round picks in 2024, 2 third round picks in 2023, and 2 fourth round picks in 2024.
As of right now, the iron is still hot and deals could be coming at us quicker than we anticipated. The futures of Kevin Hayes, Tony DeAngelo, and now Carter Hart, among others is totally up in the air.
However, it is refreshing to see that the Flyers reputation has changed dramatically with one fell swoop. Chuck Fletcher had done a number on the Flyers, and there’s no chance he would’ve received even half of this deal if he were still around.
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