[Charlie O’Connor] The Draisaitl news today speaks to my belief that the Flyers can’t depend upon the UFA market to solve their high-end talent problem. The trade market, I still hold, is the way to go if they’re going to add those kinds of guys from outside the org.
by upcan845
10 Comments
Who are the bonafide 1Cs that have been traded in the past 10 years? Eichel?
Who are the bonafide 1Ds that have been traded in the past 10 years? Karlsson (twice), maybe McDonagh?
The Draisaitl news just shows the easiest way to retain these types of high-end talents is to have drafted them in the first place.
I agree with this sentiment. Throw the house at someone you want can’t just wait around. If it doesn’t work out we can’t say with didn’t try. Didn’t win. Cup with Lindros but it was fun at least.
Always made me chuckle when I saw people say Draisaitl was a viable option for us to go after in free agency.
Showed pretty well who just pays attention to the flyers and who actually followed the league as a whole.
Who’s going to be your trade partner? Teams don’t trade away top talent because it’s so hard to come by. This is a pipe dream, much like the idea that the Flyers could trade into the top 5 of a draft.
Really just shows me how far away the flyers STILL are to becoming legitimate contenders.
Hmmmm, if only there were some third method to try to acquire a 1C and 1D, perhaps some way where you could avoid needing a trade partner and say “The Philadelphia Flyers claim this teenager with 1C potential.”
Unfortunately, no such system exists as far as I am aware.
It’s frustrating the Flyers had the opportunity to really tear it down and do a true rebuild and instead, here we are finishing in the same position they have for the majority of the last decade, stocked with late 1st round picks in 2025 where it’s exceptionally rare to find 1C/1D type players, and pigeon holing themselves into having to trade for those players. Same shit different management regime.
If we are generally gonna talk about the 1D/1C elephant in the room:
At this point there are *maybe* 10-12 guys in the entire NHL that I think classify as a “true 1D” the way people typically think about a 1D, and I don’t think the last 2 cup winners had any of them (even with Forsling/Theodore/Pietrangelo playing very well). High quality defenders seemingly tend to move to new teams via FA/Trade market way more often than Centers, and the Flyers already have a fairly strong foundation in place for their blue line longer term. Obviously having a superstar defender on the back end makes building a contender easier, but I don’t think the need to hunt for a 1D is as pertinent as most people in our fanbase seem to think.
Center is a much bigger concern and much more difficult hole to fill to be sure. There’s not much of a presedence for those guys being moved, but looking around the league I think the number of 8 year contracts that were handed out by middling teams in an attempt to fit under the cap during the flat cap COVID years paired with the league seemingly having a larger influx of talented players in recent memory and a playoff landscape that’s a ticking timebomb for significant change makes me think there may be more options available in the next couple of years than in the past. It also helps that our winger core looks like they have the potential to be top-3 group in the league long term, which I think negates at least *some* pressure off of building down the middle
Really thankful I have Charlie O’Connor’s opinion on how to build a team. The dude just HAS to be on some franchises’ GM interview list…
Is this an upcan thread with upvotes?!