With the Philadelphia Flyers on hiatus until the 22nd of February, it was meant to be a nice break from the downtrodden season the club had been participating in this year. However, On Pattison’s Anthony SanFilippo dropped a pretty big nugget that correlates exactly with what Daniel Brière and the rest of the front office have been saying all along about their rebuilding plans.
Flyers President of Hockey Operations, Keith Jones, has mentioned it a couple of times that while the rumour mill might be radio silent, the Flyers are working tirelessly and anything that does happen will probably be a surprise. Enter the Cutter Gauthier trade, the Morgan Frost-Joel Farabee trade, and now a trade that almost went through with the Anaheim Ducks.
SanFilippo reported that Brière had discussions with Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek over Farabee and Trevor Zegras. The latter has been mentioned in trade talks with the Flyers for a few years and while it was heavily shot down this past summer, it looks like they’re either reconvening or he never hopped off the train to begin with.
As mentioned in the article, Brière had initially checked in on Zegras at last year’s trade deadline but walked away because the asking price was too high. He circled back ahead of the draft but felt the price was still too high and decided that he would wait until midseason in 2024-25 to check in on him just in case his value had dropped.
And that’s exactly what has happened with the 23-year-old having just 6 goals and 15 points in 32 games this season, albeit in an injury-riddled campaign, but that’s also coming off the heels of an identical 6 goals and 9 assists in 31 games from 2023-24.
Hence, the value dropped and trade discussions were underway.
While they progressed a lot further than in previous attempts and with the Ducks having interest in Farabee, they were unable to come to terms due to their apprehension over his contract and the Flyers unwilling to retain salary.
“Ultimately, Anaheim said no. They weren’t comfortable taking on the rest of Farabee’s contract in exchange for Zegras. It’s clear that Zegras has a higher offensive ceiling than Farabee – and plays a more desirable position – so the Ducks wanted more assurances in case Farabee didn’t rediscover his scoring touch in Anaheim. They wanted the Flyers to possibly retain some of his salary.
“That’s where Briere balked. He was reluctant to do another retention, or move another player on top of Farabee, or a first round draft pick to the Ducks in exchange for Zegras.”
Zegras’ contract runs through 2025-26 at a cap hit of $5.75 million and he will remain an RFA heading into the summer of 2026. He plays a more valuable position and it’s a clear need for the Flyers to fortify that position, especially with someone skillful and offensively-minded but considering the risk involved, it was smart to balk for the time being.
The Ducks also have a lot of cap space to burn with an estimated $39.95 million in projected cap space heading into the summer. With Farabee signed through for 2 more seasons at a cap hit of $5 million, it made no sense for the Flyers to take on the higher AAV while also retaining.
Not to mention they’re still on the hook for Cam Atkinson and Kevin Hayes at a combined rate of $5.33 million for next season.
Brière was on the record recently saying that moving Farabee was mostly due to cap related reasons and they want to use the extra cap space for their number one centre. Dylan Cozens is available out of Buffalo but almost half the league is in on his services, but now we can add Zegras back into the pot.
His relationship with Jamie Drysdale and Cam York is also not lost in the equation and who’s to say a change of scenery won’t help. However, the Flyers just got rid of an undersized centre with offensive skill in Frost, so are they just repeating the mistakes of the past if they continue their pursuit?
Zegras is certainly worth the risk, especially if he can be acquired for a cheaper price. The former 9th overall pick from the 2019 NHL Entry Draft showcased his abilities in year 2 and 3 when he potted 61 and 65 points, respectively. Injuries have derailed his last 2 years but there’s no question that his game has also seen a dip.
With the Flyers lacking depth down the middle, Zegras would become a defacto top-6 forward immediately with a great opportunity of reclaiming his 1C status on a rebuilding club in need of offense.
With the trade deadline fast approaching and with trade talks being thrown around with the 4 Nations Face-Off about to kick off, the Flyers are a team to monitor closely as they could look to buy and sell this year.
Moving off of Scott Laughton and Rasmus Ristolainen while simultaneously acquiring a future top-6 centre is very possible and something to keep an eye on.
Worst case, things are expected to pop off heading closer to the draft where the Flyers currently have 7 picks in the first 2 rounds.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login