It was a busy weekend for general manager Danny Brière and the Flyers, but ultimately no trades were finalized as of Monday afternoon.
According to reports, the Flyers worked hard on at least two separate deals over the weekend, one that would have sent forward Kevin Hayes and defenseman Travis Sanheim to the St. Louis Blues, and another that would have seen defenseman Tony DeAngelo rejoin the Carolina Hurricanes after one season in Philadelphia.
Bally Sports reporter/NHL Insider Andy Strickland was first to report that the Blues and Flyers were working on a deal involving Hayes, while Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman broke the potential DeAngelo swap late Saturday evening.
But both deals ultimately hit snags, a potential Blues deal reportedly falling through because St. Louis defenseman Torey Krug refused to waive his no-move clause to this point. Krug has been with the Blues for the past three seasons and has four years remaining at a $6.5 million cap hit. His wife, Melanie, recently gave birth to a baby girl, and at 32 years old, Krug would understandably be reluctant to join a Flyers team that is admittedly in a rebuild.
Krug going the other way in the deal is almost imperative to help balance St. Louis’ books and make room for both part of Hayes’ contract (three years remaining at $7.14 million) and Sanheim’s eight-year, $50 million deal ($6.25 million AAV). By rule, the Flyers can only retain up to 50% ($3.57 million) of Hayes’ contract per season. The deal, which potentially would land the Flyers another first-round pick (likely No. 25 or 29), is not dead, as Krug could yet change his mind — especially if the Flyers found a way to flip him to a desired location — while the Flyers and Blues could also elect to do a much smaller scale deal revolving around Hayes. With two days remaining until the draft, we will see how creative Brière and Blues GM Doug Armstrong can be to get something done.
The DeAngelo deal, at least on paper, looked to be a much simpler proposition. After Friedman’s initial report, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported Saturday that the Flyers would trade DeAngelo to Carolina for a low-end prospect and retain 50% of DeAngelo’s salary. The hang-up there seems to be a little-known rule in the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement that relates to trades and salary retention.
That specific CBA rule states that a team cannot reacquire a player whom they have retained salary from for a minimum of one year after the date of the transaction. Since the Flyers retaining salary is pivotal to facilitating this deal, in theory, the two teams would need to wait until one calendar year has passed before finalizing the deal. The previous front-office regime, led by Chuck Fletcher, acquired DeAngelo’s negotiating rights from the Hurricanes for three draft picks on July 8 last year, meaning they’d have to wait until after July 8, according to the CBA.
The argument here would be that the Flyers still had to sign DeAngelo, so they signed the player’s current deal and not Carolina. According to LeBrun, the league plans to meet with the teams at the draft in Nashville this week before coming to a final decision. It is unknown if the potential delay would alter either team’s plans/interest in the proposed deal.
The 31-year-old Hayes and the 27-year-old DeAngelo have always seemed like the Flyers’ most obvious trade candidates. Hayes’ role and relationship with Tortorella deteriorated as the season wore on, while DeAngelo, who hails from Sewell, N.J., was scratched for the final five games of the season for an unspecified reason. Neither player drew rave reviews from Tortorella for their defensive play, and each spent time in the coach’s doghouse as a result.
Given Hayes’ playmaking ability (18 goals, 54 points in 81 games) and a weak free-agent crop at center, he would provide some intrigue for a contender granted the Flyers help with salary retention. Meanwhile, Carolina’s interest in DeAngelo, who has one year remaining at a $5 million cap hit, would make sense given the success he had there in 2021-22. Insulated by the Hurricanes’ defensive structure, and an elite partner in Jaccob Slavin, DeAngelo had a career year in his lone season in Raleigh with 10 goals, 51 points, and a plus-30 rating in 64 games.
Sanheim, who is also 27, presents the most interesting case. The defenseman had a disastrous 2022-23 season, which would seemingly have his value at an all-time low. The Flyers certainly don’t need to trade him but could elect to get out from under his contract before it starts and/or use him to help dump contracts they don’t want and increase the potential return. Sanheim had an outstanding 2021-22 season, so the Flyers face a dilemma here when it comes to evaluating which season they believe is more indicative of the player Sanheim is and will be over the duration of his deal. As mentioned, the Flyers could also explore other avenues for moving Sanheim separate from the Blues and the deal involving Hayes.
While it remains to be seen whether either trade is finalized, Brière’s objectives are abundantly clear: moving undesired contracts and players who don’t fit the team’s new timeline and acquiring draft picks and prospects in return. The first-year GM has already pulled off one such deal in moving defenseman Ivan Provorov to Columbus in a three-team trade that netted the Flyers a first-round pick this year (No. 22), two future second-rounders, and a defensive prospect in Helge Grans.
The Flyers are certainly rebuilding and Brière looks to be leaving no stone unturned when it comes to trying to turn over the roster and acquire assets for the future. That seems like a pretty good start.
