Shea Weber has been in the news a lot this off-season, hasn’t he? He’s with the Montreal Canadiens now – but four years ago today, the Philadelphia Flyers ensured the Nashville Predators signed him to one of the more expensive deals in the NHL by sending him an offer sheet.
Had the Predators chosen to let Weber go, he would have been a Flyer these past four seasons.
The Flyers would have also had to send four first round picks to the Predators. For 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, the Flyers’ first rounders would have gone to Nashville.
That means the Flyers wouldn’t have:
- Samuel Morin (11th overall, 2013)
- Travis Sanheim (17th overall, 2014)
- Ivan Provorov (7th overall, 2015)
- German Rubtsov (22nd overall, 2016)
It doesn’t necessarily mean the Predators would – with Weber, the Flyers’ picks likely wouldn’t have been as high as they were; the Preds also may have made completely different selections – but none of those players would be in the Flyers’ system today.
That’s a steep price to pay – especially when you consider Provorov. None of these kids have made the NHL yet, but they provide hope for the future; Weber, meanwhile, is already 30 years old and under an expensive contract until he’s 40.
On the other hand, maybe the Flyers don’t sign Mark Streit or Andrew MacDonald. Or maybe they have P.K. Subban now!
There are a lot of possibilities in the alternate universe in which Weber becomes a Flyer. We’ll never know what would have happened – but maybe things turned out okay the way they did, after all.
