The Philadelphia Flyers continued their rollout of the New Era of Orange on Tuesday morning, this time in the literal sense. The Flyers are bringing back the burnt orange of years past as they enter their new era.
That’s all fine and good. The Flyers needed a fresh look and the new jerseys give them just that. However, as it is the offseason, let’s read way too much into the Flyers’ new jersey announcement.
Daniel Briere and the Flyers are in the early stages of another rebuild. They have already shipped out Ivan Provorov and they’re taking calls on other high-profile players. Given that, it may have been a struggle to find players to feature in the jersey reveal.
The new age of Orange & Black.
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) June 20, 2023
Owen Tippett, Joel Farabee, Nicolas Deslauriers, and Travis Sanheim were the four Flyers players featured prominently in the fresh threads.
Tippett is turning into quite the player for the Flyers – and could end up being one of Chuck Fletcher’s better moves in Philadelphia. Farabee, after a disappointing season, is still very much in the Flyers’ future plans with his $5 million cap hit through 2028 for the 23-year-old forward. Sanheim seemed like an obvious choice on the blue line as he’s also locked up for the foreseeable future – through 2031 at $6.25M, to be exact – with a full no-trade clause that kicks in on July 1st. However, he was one of six Flyers players to land on Frank Seravalli’s updated Top 40 Trade Targets list on Tuesday.
Then there is Deslauriers, one of just a few Flyers with a no-trade clause, although his is of the modified variety. Chuck Fletcher scooped him off the free-agent market for a cool $1.75M per year through 2026. He’s going to be a part of the bottom six for years to come.
More importantly, however, is the players that the Flyers didn’t feature in the announcement. Now, these players could’ve been unavailable for whatever reason, but we’re throwing logic to the wayside for this exercise.
Travis Konecny
Konecny is one of the Flyers that Briere is likely fielding a lot of calls on. He has 113 points (47 goals, 66 assists) in 139 games over the last two years, including 61 points (13 goals) in just 60 games last season. The 26-year-old forward is in his prime and could be a great option for a contender given his $5.5M cap hit for the next two seasons.
Konecny also seems like a guy that thrives under John Tortorella and could be a piece to build around. Of course, only having two years left on his contract could be an issue.
Scott Laughton
Laughton is the defacto captain of the Flyers and is also in trade rumors around the NHL. The Flyers are in a bit of a win-win situation with the two-way forward who has quite the reputation around the league for his gritty play.
Featuring Laughton in the new jersey would’ve felt right, but the fact that he was playing for Team Canada – and won gold – over in Europe for most of May could’ve thwarted those plans.
Carter Hart
We’ll finish up the train of potential trade chips with Hart. Some speculated that Hart was the next domino to fall after the Flyers traded for Cal Petersen from Los Angeles, but perhaps he’s just here to be a veteran backup or trade piece.
Of course, there is also the investigation into Hart’s 2018 World Juniors team still ongoing.
Rasmus Ristolainen
Again, there were possibly some scheduling conflicts here with the Finnish defenseman likely returning to his homeland for the summer, but President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones is a huge fan of Ristolainen and he is under contract through 2027.
Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, Ryan Ellis
Just to prove they exist.
