Articles by Kevin Durso (5321)
It took all of 30 minutes following the end of the roster freeze for the other 31 teams in the NHL for Chuck Fletcher to make another trade. This one served a key purpose for the Flyers, because without it, not only were they limited in what they could continue to do with the roster ahead of the coming season, but they also wouldn’t even be able to fill all of the roster spots necessary.
The Flyers will open the 2021-22 season on Oct. 15 by hosting the Vancouver Canucks. They will play their second game of the season on Monday, Oct. 18, against the Seattle Kraken, marking their first meeting against the NHL’s newest team.
The Flyers have traded defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, plus a 2022 second-round pick and 2022 seventh-round pick to the Arizona Coyotes. While Arizona sent nothing in return to the Flyers in terms of a player or pick, they did absorb all of Gostisbehere’s $4.5 million cap hit.
On the Flyers end, the selection by the Seattle Kraken was rather surprising. While many focused on names like Jake Voracek, James van Riemsdyk, Shayne Gostisbehere, Justin Braun and Robert Hagg, who were left unprotected, the Kraken selected forward Carsen Twarynski as their pick from Philadelphia.
Who will it be? Will Seattle simply select a player or is there a side deal that could be in place? There are three potential outcomes for the Flyers in Wednesday night’s expansion draft, and we’ll detail each possibility and how it could impact the Flyers offseason plans.
When Saturday afternoon’s trade went down and sent Ryan Ellis to the Flyers for Phil Myers and Nolan Patrick, it came as a surprise to the veteran defenseman. That said, it also marks the beginning of a new chapter for Ellis.
The Flyers announced the new addition on Monday, naming Darryl Williams to the team’s coaching staff alongside head coach Alain Vigneault and assistants Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo.
The Flyers have protected forwards Claude Giroux, Kevin Hayes, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Oskar Lindblom, Scott Laughton and Nicolas Aube-Kubel. They have also protected defensemen Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim and the newly-acquired Ryan Ellis, as well as goalie Carter Hart in the upcoming Expansion Draft.
The Flyers completed a trade with the Nashville Predators, adding defenseman Ryan Ellis in exchange or defenseman Phil Myers and forward Nolan Patrick. Patrick was sent to the Vegas Golden Knights in a separate deal involving the Predators and New York Rangers.
As GM Chuck Fletcher and assistant GM Brent Flahr met with the media on Tuesday morning, it marked the beginning of what should be a busy few weeks for the team. They need to get better. They know it. And they know time is of the essence.