As I’m sure you’ve figured out in the hours leading up to the opening of the NHL’s free agency period, the Philadelphia Flyers are most likely not going to be too involved. With the acquisitions of Kevin Hayes, Justin Braun, and Matt Niskanen before both free agency and the draft even began, the Flyers have addressed a lot of the major needs heading into the 2019-20 season.
While we all would have liked to see them get the big names like Jacob Trouba or P.K. Subban, or of course an Artemi Panarin, realistically these things were just not going to happen. So heading into the season, the team has addressed the need for quality veterans on defense despite them not being stars, and they acquired a legitimate second line center in Kevin Hayes. A lot of what the Flyers absolutely needed to fill has already been done, hence the lack of activity we’ll be seeing today.
At this point, the only area where Chuck Fletcher and the rest of the Flyers front office really need to address is the third line right wing position to go along with Nolan Patrick and whoever his left wing will be between James van Riemsdyk and Oskar Lindblom. Some of the wingers available today would be a great fit, but the problem the Flyers face is how much they’ll cost.
The likes of Gustav Nyquist, Colin Wilson, and former Flyer Justin Williams would be solid options, but the cost would be far too great for a team still needing to sign Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny. Sure, the Flyers could mess around and look at some other wingers available like an Oscar Lindberg type player, but then the question is why not just give one of the young kids like Morgan Frost or Joel Farabee a chance in that role on a sheltered third line.
The Flyers are by no means a perfect team heading into next season and they have some clear deficiencies that will hopefully be addressed and met by the young kids stepping up and filling those needs. The main point is, don’t expect much from this team today on free agent frenzy. Unless Chuck pulls a fast one on us and does get one of those pricier wingers, this will be a relatively boring day for us Flyers fans.
And the thing about that is, it’s okay. The team has already improved the team heading into next season by a good margin especially on the blue line. Does that mean Fletcher shouldn’t still be active and attempt to continue to improve the team with free agency officially starting? No, he absolutely should be. But this is a day where players receive paydays they might not exactly deserve, but get because of the way the market works. We already saw Hayes receive a bit of an overpayment and I’d rather see Fletcher stand pat than allocate that money towards anyone but Ivan Provorov or Travis Konecny.
