What To Do With Sean Walker Come Deadline

Sean Walker. Essentially a throw-in when the Flyers, Kings, and Blue Jackets came together to formulate a 3-way trade. A trade that sent Ivan Provorov to the Blue Jackets and Helge Grans, Cal Petersen, and Sean Walker to Philadelphia.

Walker, 29, played 5 seasons with the LA Kings, with his best season (so far) coming in 2019-2020 when he was 25 years old, putting up 5G-19A-24P in 70 games.

Now, I haven’t followed Walker, or the LA Kings close to enough to sit here and give you a year-by-year breakdown of his game and how he played in those 5 years.

But right off the bat, as an outsider looking in, you know LA has Drew Doughty (a right-handed shot), Matt Roy, 28, (another right-handed shot), Gavrikov (on Injury reserved right now), and Jordan Spence, a 22-year-old who has 10 assists in 27 games.

And not to forget about their #1 defensive prospect Brandt Clarke, an RHD who is going to be a very, very good player for them. With that, it’s not hard to see how Walker would’ve been a guy LA necessarily might not have wanted to sacrifice to move Petersen’s contract and create space but had to.

And cheers to Danny Briere for capitalizing on LA being backed into a corner and receiving not only Walker but Helge Grans, Oliver Bonk (22nd pick in 23′), and two second-round picks in 2024 in total from LA and CBJ in the entire deal.

Now the question presents itself.

What do you do with him come TDL?

You had a rumor in early Dec. regarding teams reaching out to Briere and the Flyers on packaging both D Nick Seeler and D Sean Walker in a deal. Considering it’s December 20th and we still have 79 days (March 8th) until the trade deadline, I wouldn’t take those early-December rumors straight to heart. Take all of it with a grain of salt.

But still, at least we know teams are fishing around on Walker, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone

A 29-year-old right-handed defenseman making $2.65M, that can move the puck and play on the second PP unit if you want him to. The only downside in the prospect of trading Walker in terms of Walker himself, is that he’s a UFA next year and he’ll be purely a rental for most teams looking to win a cup and add him.

Sure, some team could trade and sign him and that’s where you have to trust Briere to gauge the situation. If he gets the sense the team you’re trading him to wants to immediately re-sign him, that price is going to go up. If he’s purely a rental, you can’t demand a ton because of the risk he walks away from that team via free agency this summer.

I don’t have to sit here and act like I know what goes on in GM trade negotiations but you get the point.

Getting anything, let alone a 1st-round pick, for someone who was handed away 6 months ago, would be a huge win on paper for Briere and company. It’s like flipping a cheap house and finding a suitcase full of 100’s in the attic. They essentially hit the jackpot with Walker.

But that raises another question…

What if the Flyers are still tops in the Metro come late February?

GM Danny Briere was on the broadcast at intermission with JJ and Boucher during the Avalanche game and reiterated that despite the recent winning the team has experienced, “the plan hasn’t changed.”

Quote from GM Danny Briere:

“We know where we are. We’re trying to get out of that rut where we make the playoffs one year and miss (the next year). –We know we have a long way to go and we’re trying to build a team that’s going to be a contender for years to come, not just one year.”

If he’s telling the truth and the plan is still to make moves in the best interest of rebuilding and accumulating picks, etc, Walker is a goner, right?

Say the Friedman rumor has a little fire to it. A team that is trying to make the playoffs thinks Seeler + Walker or even just Walker is going to help their cup odds and is genuinely offering you a 1st round pick, do you say no? While being 3rd-4th in the Metro come February?

We talked about the idea of shaking up a room that’s flowing so well right now on Episode 103 of The Liberty Yell and how it could send the wrong message to the rest of the players.

“We’re winning games, in a playoff spot in late February and shocking the hockey world, and you’re trading away analytically, a top 10 defensive pair in the NHL this year.”

I can see how one would worry about sending the wrong message to the rest of the guys in the room, especially the younger ones. And it could be looked at as a slap in the face of Sean Couturier, who has worked so hard to get back to playing high-level hockey.

But if your true intention is to stay on this course, and not to add, but to subtract despite the winning, the logical thing is to cash in on Walker (Or + Seeler).

Business is business and if that offer is on the table it’s really hard to see Briere turn it down. But as we all know, RHDs in this league are a hot commodity. If Walker was 3-4 inches taller, we’d have teams knocking the WFC door’s down for him. Hell, Tortorella probably would’ve already signed him to an extension himself.

Do the Flyers decide to hold onto him and sign him to a 3-4-year deal and use him as a bridge for Oliver Bonk? Danny Briere certainly has a few interesting decisions to make in a couple of months. But it’s a good position to be in. Keep a good eye on the Sean Walker front.

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Mandatory Picture Credit: Jess Starr / The Hockey Writers

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