The Flyers are Rumored to be doing their Due Diligence This Off Season

Photo Credit: Philadelphia Flyers

Despite Philadelphia not making it into the Stanley Cup playoffs this season, the team’s General Manager Danny Briere has not let that deter him from continuing to try to return this once great franchise to its rightful place alongside the league’s other perennial playoff contenders.

To do so, it has been rumored that the team has been doing their due diligence this off-season by checking in on what it would take to acquire the services of some very productive NHL players from around the league. The latest being the 25-year-old Czech-born Martin Necas from the Carolina Hurricanes. But while trading for this former 2017 first-round pick who has previously been able to set career highs of 28 goals and 71 points would be nice. It might prove harder than some may think, given the fact that the Flyers will hold the highest dead cap space of any team in the league next season, thanks to them being forced to wait to place Ryan Ellis on LTIR every year, agreeing to pay Kevin Hayes $3.5 million a season not to play for them. Them having $1.6 Million already allocated to Anthony DeAngelo’s buyout. On top of figuring out what to do with the four million dollars in retained salary, they are inclined to pay for Ryan Johansen and most likely another $3.85 million in buried cap penalties so they can hide Cal Petersen back down in Lehigh Valley again next season.

So, when you factor all that in, the chances of the team being able to bring in a player like the aforementioned impending free agent Martin Necas, who may seem like a bargain at just three million for next season, might be easier said than done.

Unless this workup is meant to be a backup plan in case the team cannot come to terms with their own impending free agent, Travis Konecny, who has been rumored to be seeking upwards of nine to ten million dollars a season for the duration of his next contract. A price that the Flyers just cannot afford to pay out at this time and would likely then be forced to have to move Konecny out of town in order to get something for him before he is a free agent.

But with the team still seeming optimistic about possibly re-signing Travis, a less flashy but more cap-friendly acquisition that I would suggest for this upcoming season is the potential pickup of the Los Angeles Kings forward Arthur Kaliyev.

Kaliyev, who was taken in the second round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and who still is just 22 years old, would cost the team fewer of their stockpiled assets to acquire than Necas. Given that he is much younger, still unproven, and has become frustrated with his lack of playing time in LA which in turn made him recently ask the Kings for a trade.

Now, I get it: Kaliyev is nowhere near as good a player as Necas is, but he could soon be! Because, like Owen Tippett was before Philly brought him in, Arthur is a virtually untapped offensive threat with an elite-level shot which is buried on the Kings’ depth chart and in need of a fresh start.

If you don’t remember him, before being drafted, Arthur played three seasons for the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL, where during that time, he was able to compile 126 goals and 122 assists for a total of 248 points.

But since being drafted, he has had to battle for ice time and has never really been given a fair shot with any sort of consistent line-mates at the NHL level with which to build chemistry. However, despite being forced to deal with those irregularity’s, Kaliyev has still been able to produce, reaching the teens in goals in back-to-back seasons prior to this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeohA87K72E

Arthur is signed through next season with a cap hit of just $894,167. Making him, at least in my mind, a low-risk-high reward type guy who could prove to make an immediate impact once brought in to be a part of this team’s young nucleus that they are currently building.

As for what it would take to land him, I don’t know about you, but I would be willing to offer up center Morgan Frost and his $2.1 million cap hit, being that the team has already re-signed Ryan Poehling and have centers Sean Couturier, Scott Laughton, and Noah Cates all still under contract.

You may disagree with me, but Frost (who was often in Tort’s doghouse this season) could prove to be a much-needed upgrade for the Kings over the under-performing center Blake Lizotte, who tallied just 15 points in 62 games played this season for LA.

As always, I appreciate the read and hope you enjoyed the little food for thought on what the Flyers are up to this off-season.