You know the deal by now, the Flyers are an absolutely miserable team on their way to a historic third 10-game losing streak in one season, and it has forced the organization to question the future of their lineup, their captain, and their identity into the future.
There have been plenty of pieces of speculation about what Claude Giroux will decide to do as the trade deadline approaches. Will he waive his no movement clause and allow the Flyers to send him to an organization that will finally let him be part of a real competitor, or will he simply choose not to? Either way it’s gonna suck, and a lot of people will not be happy with whatever decision is made.
So far, Claude Giroux has been the only serious focus of the Flyers trade deadline. Rumors and speculation have picked up in the past month or so and while Giroux himself stays as focused on the games at hand as possible, all signs point to a change of scenery for him.
As we get closer to the deadline though, more names start to pop up on other teams interest lists, or we get little hints at what the Flyers want to do with their current group going forward. One name that has been popping up A LOT is that of defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. Apparently Ristolainen isn’t happy to have gone from a shitty Buffalo team to this shitty Flyers team, but General Manager Chuck Fletcher doesn’t want to let Ristolainen go so easily. That’s not really a surprise since the price paid for the defenseman meant any admission that he still isn’t good (despite less defensive responsibilities) would make Chuck a huge loser.
When the Flyers actually traded for Ristolainen I wanted to rip my goddamn hair out. The move felt like a cancellation of the addition of Ryan Ellis, who might just be a figment of everyone’s imagination anyway. With the Flyers, Ristolainen hasn’t been the worst defenseman in the league (Keith Yandle has that spot basically locked up), but he hasn’t been worth what Fletcher is apparently valuing him at.
I’ve seen this ridiculous offer talked about all over, apparently reported by the Snow the Goalie Podcast, but no where else I’ve seen. If it’s true it’s insane. Fletcher is desperate to keep Ristolainen on board, while Ristolainen is miserable still losing and wants out. Chuck’s options are to wildly overpay, trade him as a deadline rental to a team desperate for a bottom three defenseman, or worst of all let him walk in the offseason for nothing.
The Flyers defense is in a bad place. The only two defensemen the Flyers have under contract past this season are Iven Provorov and Travis Sanheim. Justin Braun and Keith Yandle probably can’t be long-term options for this team and are probably just as frustrated with constant losing as Ristolainen is. Ellis technically exists, but also who knows with this medical team. Looking at the current defensive group and imagining it without Ristolainen may put Fletcher in a panic, but giving him Andrew MacDonald money doesn’t give them a lot of space to actually improve it. In fact, that’s a great way to keep everything as bad as it is right now. Lateral moves to keep an underperforming team in tact just because you can’t eat shit for that real bad trade you did isn’t a great way to run a hockey team.
Maybe that cost could be balanced if the Flyers trusted any of their prospects to ever play in the NHL, but who knows if they’ll ever get to that point.
The Flyers may not want to go into full-sell mode at this deadline to avoid the idea that they are rebuilding instead of retooling, god-forbid, but if their only focus is to remove talent from their lineup and spend a whole lot of money making sure that mediocre bodies stick around, it’s gonna be painful now and long into the future.
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