What’s up with all the Trade Rumors Surrounding Joel Farabee?

While I get the team is in the middle of a rebuild right now, and when in that situation anything is possible. I have to say that I was dumbfounded to see and hear all the trade rumor chatter surrounding the Flyers 2018 first-round pick Joel Farabee. Because, if I were the one contracting the rebuild Joel would be one of the last ones I would trade away.

Now, if you have read any of my past articles before, you know that unlike other sites out there covering this team, who are nothing but a bunch of fanboys who view every Flyers player as if they can do no wrong, I am always going to bring you the truth, whether it be viewed good or bad.

So, I’m merely writing this to try and convince management that moving Joel would be a bad choice unless they are presented with a Godfather-type offer that they just can’t refuse!

I mean, come on, Farabee is just 24 years old, and he just finished his fifth season in the NHL. This means he has been a contributing factor to this team since a very young age. To the point that at just 20 years old, he was able to finish the season as the Flyers top goal scorer with 20 goals.

A feat that he was able to quietly surpass this season when he ended the year with 22 goals. To go along with that, Farabee was also able to beat his previous career high in points by more than ten tallies this season when he finished the year with an impressive 50 points!

So, with that being said, I would think that management would have him grouped alongside the team’s other untouchables, Owen Tippett and Tyson Foerster.

In doing so, hopefully, they will try to make a conscious effort to keep their promising youthful core together. This of course is probably easier said than done, with so many prospecting teams calling about Joel’s availability right now and proposing some tantalizing offers I’m sure. But, when receiving those offers, Briere and his cronies must try to divert those callers’ attention off Farabee and onto other Flyers players like the inconsistent Morgan Frost, the Swiss Army Knife Scott Laughton, who we have five other clones just like him currently manning the dots. Or, for that matter, even Travis Konecny, who may be in his prime now at 27 years old but will surely be on the decline when this team’s group of youngsters will all be hitting their strides and be considered cup contenders in two to three years’ time.

Think about it. Packaging up pawns like Frost and or Laughton with one of the Flyers first-round picks this summer could afford them the luxury of moving up in the draft to select a franchise-changing prospect they can’t live without. Or making the hard decision of trading a guy like Konecny, who would surely hurt now, but it would also offer the team a better return on their investment down the road.

Take, for instance, if Philadelphia was to make a trade again with the Anaheim Ducks. Because if you have been paying attention, rumors are that the Flyers and Ducks have been discussing another trade, or at least the possibility of one, ever since they exchanged Cutter Gauthier for Jamie Drysdale.

The reason for these talks are because the Ducks are a very different team from the one in 2007 that won them the Stanley Cup that was comprised of legends like Teemu Selanne, Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Most of these players are now long since retired, and Anaheim has struggled ever since. But with those endured struggles comes a great opportunity in the form of draft pick compensation, which has resulted in the team being able to restock their cupboard with a great deal of young talent.

But there is one thing that they don’t have a lot of, and that is experience. Enter Travis Konecny into the conversation. Konecny is an eight-year veteran with one year left on his deal without any no-movement clauses. He could offer the Ducks All-Star caliber performance as well as genuine leadership. Listen, agree with me or not but I think Travis should have been given the C here in Philly. Coots is a fantastic guy, but at this point has become injury-prone. He missed the entire 22-23 season and, throughout the last five seasons, has only managed to play in 217 games.

Travis, on the other hand, has been there to carry this team through the hard times and did so by not just putting up points but also playing every game like it is game seven of the Stanley Cup. This makes him precisely the type of player a struggling franchise with an immense amount of young talent and no leader needs.

What could the Flyers get back in return if they deal Travis? Well, I don’t think it would be their third overall pick. But it could be the Oilers 1st round pick that the Ducks acquired in a three-team deal involving Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick.

Well, one name that keeps hitting the rumor mill for the Ducks is Drysdale’s best friend, Trevor Zegras. Zegras is a 23-year-old gifted center who is capable of filling up a highlight reel every night all by himself. He is able to do things with the puck on his stick that few others in the league are capable of. And it is because of these talents that he already has multiple 23-goal seasons under his belt not to mention a career high of 65 points. Trevor is signed through the 25/26 season for a respectable $5.75 million. Which is only a couple hundred thousand more than Travis’s 5.5 million dollar annual salary.

Now, with the Ducks having other young centers like Mason McTavish and Leo Carlsson hitting their strides and still on their rookie deals. It makes the possibility of trading Zegras for a veteran like Konecny more appealing.

Thus, if the Flyers were able to retain Joel Farabee and instead deal another current roster player in order to bring back an electrifying player like Trevor Zegras this offseason. I not only feel the two would be able to gel almost instantaneously both on and off the ice, but it would add so much more to the cohesiveness of this team’s current roster and long-term plans.

I mean, a core that could consist of Own Tippett, Joel Farabee, Tyson Foerster, Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, Cam York, and Sam Errson, all of whom are under 25 years of age. Not to mention the likes of Matvei Michkov, who is rumored to be on his way over earlier than expected, and my oh my, that becomes a team I would be rushing home from work to see play every night.

Just a thought, you tell me what you think?