Flyers

Rumor: Talks between Flyers and Senators heating up

Flyers drama! Finally. The off-season, until now, has featured nearly nothing in the way of NHL news. Matvei Michkov has dominated the headlines. Seemingly, the Flyers-and most NHL teams-were waiting for the conclusion of the Finals to get down to business.

Well, Danny apparently watched game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final and said there’s no way—NO WAY—he’s putting the drama on hold for THIS!

Now, here’s what we’ve heard so far. At the end of this piece, I’m going to take my stab at mapping out this deal. But first, let’s lay some foundation. The report that there’s a deal in the works is well accepted.

According to this tweet, they have the framework of a deal, but it isn’t done yet, and the trigger hasn’t been pulled.

Now, NHL Rumors Daily believes that the Flyers brass is using this deal as a means to move into the top 10.

Charlie O’Connor says that it’s something of an open industry secret that the Senators and Flyers have been talking heavily about a trade for a few weeks now, and several names were brought up.

The idea that this won’t go down until Draft Day, which was the talk of the initial tweet, could potentially be people hedging, but it’s more to do with the Flyers having an ulterior motive to trade up.

Pronman’s latest mock draft had the Flyers selecting Konsta Helenius. (A talented center that has shot up the draft board in recent months.) But in his notes, he mentioned that they’d be thrilled with either Catton or Helenius. Catton, in this particular mock draft, was off the board at 11. In truth, he could easily be gone sooner.

That’s the first time we’ve heard the Flyers linked to Catton by someone in the know. As I said before, the guy Danny Briere likes is usually the guy you rarely hear about.

(Here are some Catton highlights. The kid is very good.)

Pronman did ultimately mock Gauthier and Michkov to the Flyers, but in Michkov’s case, the news didn’t go out until very late in the process that they’d be a team to take Michkov if he made it to them. He’s genuinely connected on the prospect side of things.

Now, that’s a potential legitimate explanation for needing to wait until Draft Day because they’re targeting Catton.

With all of that said, what is my guess for what this trade looks like down the road?

Joel Farabee and the 12th overall pick in exchange for Thomas Chabot and the 7th overall pick. Trade is executed when the Flyers feel satisfied that Berkly Catton makes it to 7.

Now, there may be minor inducement thrown in from either direction. I won’t be that specific.

But Farabee has been in the rumor mill for some time now. Feels like almost every offseason at this point.

Chabot was thought to be the one coming on top of an internal decision on whether to keep him or Chychrun, but I’m beginning to wonder if the new owner in town doesn’t feel the opposite way than the old regime did.

  • Chabot is currently locked up to a contract that will pay him $8M per year for 4 years until he’s 32.
  • Joel Farabee is making $5M for the next 4 years.

That $3M gap in the contracts traded, I believe, is a significant portion of what the Flyers are giving up to trade up.

Once again, in this world, Danny weaponizes salary cap space and Comcast’s endless money supply to purchase draft capital.

This time, it’s for a very particular reason.

Flyers
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Mandatory Credit: (Matt Slocum/ Associated Press)

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