As the draft draws ever nearer, the rumors beginning to trickle out are getting even hotter. The idea’s been repeated time and again, that picks inside the top-5 are just not moved, at least not recently, in the salary cap era, but that certainly doesn’t seem to have stopped the Flyers from trying.
On the most recent edition of Insider Trading, Pierre LeBrun is reporting that the Flyers have been trying to do exactly this, making a play for Columbus’s fourth overall pick. Says LeBrun:
“We’re being told the Flyers made a pretty aggressive pitch to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday. Offering a swap of first-round picks, also a roster player, plus perhaps next year’s first-round pick — all part of a package to try and get the fourth-overall pick from the Blue Jackets. I believe the answer was no, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try again.”
This is, is short, wild. For a team that has been pretty measured in their moves made to date, a trade of this magnitude would be huge.
And there are a few things we can infer from this rumored attempt. First, we can assume that this means they’re making an aggressive play for a player like Cayden Lindstrom (one of the top rated centers in this class) or Ivan Demidov (perhaps the second best player in this class, but at risk of falling a la Matvei Michkov last year), whoever drops outside of the top-3. And second, this tells us that the volume approach to drafting, just getting a handful of good players and going from there, no longer feels like it will be enough for them. That is, the early arrival of Michkov has turned up the pressure to find more really high-end talent (particularly a young high-end center to support him), and to explore all possible avenues to find that, and fast.
As LeBrun notes, just because this trade didn’t materialize, it doesn’t mean that the door to any trade for that fourth overall pick is closed, and further offers could be made before the draft officially opens. And, naturally, this is a situation that we’re going to be monitoring very closely indeed.
UPDATE:
We have a very crucial update to this story, just hours before the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft.
On Friday morning’s episode of “32 Thoughts”, Elliotte Friedman expanded on this report and clarified what the actual trade package was that the Blue Jackets wanted for fourth overall.
According to Friedman, they asked for the Flyers’ 12th-overall pick, the 32nd-overall pick, and the Colorado Avalanche’s 2025 first-round pick that they got in the Sean Walker trade earlier this year. That 2025 selection is top-10 protected so worst-case scenario (and you don’t really see the Avalanche not making the playoffs) it is a mid-first-round pick.
So that would technically be three first-round picks to get fourth overall tonight, but also most likely one 12th-overall pick and then two that fall into the last quarter of the round.
It is an intriguing offer that makes you really think about it. The assumption is that one of Cayden Lindstrom or Ivan Demidov will be available at pick No. 4 tonight. You are either getting your top-line, 6-foot-3 center that teams dream about, or an ultra dynamic and electric winger to compliment Matvei Michkov. Two players that should change franchises.
But, if Briere is getting the sense that he likes a player a whole lot that will be available at 12th overall — like a Berkly Catton, for example — that makes it so much more interesting. Is the difference between Demidov and Catton worth two first-rounders?
We should get that answer soon enough, as the Flyers and Blue Jackets continue to have conversations.
