The NHL is going absolutely bananas for a Wednesday during the Stanley Cup Final when no hockey is being played. Jakob Markstrom is now the New Jersey Devils’ goaltender, Pierre-Luc Dubois and his wretched contract is with the Washington Capitals, and a couple other minor moves like a former first-round pick in Ty Dellandrea went to the San Jose Sharks.
This kind of action usually doesn’t happen until either closer to the NHL Draft, or days after the dust of free agency settles down in early July. So, of course, in the middle of this hubbub, the Philadelphia Flyers had to get involved.
According to TSN’s Travis Yost — who also was the first to solidify reports of the Markstrom trade earlier Wednesday — the Flyers and the Ottawa Senators have something cooking behind the scenes and it could happen any day now.
No names have officially been mentioned or reported, and the timeline of this deal is as vague as ever, but there seems to be something that is going to be made official within the next week, before we get to the first night of the 2024 NHL Draft next Friday.
So, who could be involved in this hypothetical-but-real trade? These two teams have reportedly been in talks about a move for months now and there are several players that both teams could be interested in on the other team.
Scott Laughton comes up as a primary target for a team like the Senators, who desperately need to make the next jump into not being a rebuilding team anymore and drafting in the top-10, and the off-ice leadership mixed in with some solid bottom-six forward work, just feels like a player they would want. Travis Konecny played junior hockey there so there is a connection, and he would instantly make the Senators a threat in the Atlantic Division, but the most recent reports have been that the Flyers really want to sign him to a long-term extension more than anything.
In Ottawa, a young center like Shane Pinto appears to be on the outs for the Senators and he could certainly be useful to a team that doesn’t want to tank but still wants to stay as young as possible. And then there is, of course, Jakob Chychrun who has the obvious connection to Philadelphia and has been linked to the Flyers previously.
Maybe more than any other trade partner with the Flyers, there are boundless options for what this trade could be. Both teams don’t want to sell but are happy making the a formidable “hockey trade” to suit their needs. We just hope we’ll find out sooner rather than later so we don’t all go absolutely insane.
