The Philadelphia Flyers will be undergoing some significant roster changes over the next few seasons. Ready to tear it down and start again, interim GM Daniel Briere says the club will do anything short of holding a fire sale and that means making some personnel changes, dumping contracts, and making trades that some will see as necessary to get back on track.
As Sam Carchidi of Philadelphia Hockey Now reports, head coach John Tortorella understands what’c coming next. In fact, he seems to be advocating for a number of players going out the door before the Flyers look to add anyone else.
Tortorella has commented on what he thinks the direction of the Flyers needs to be and said, “For me, the next step with this organization is that you don’t start adding players until you subtract players. I think there needs to be some subtraction. Those will be in discussions at the end of the year.” He didn’t drop names — no coach would do that and expect there to be respect between the player and the coaching staff — but there is some talk the Flyers might look to move a right-winger, with names like Travis Konecny, Cam Atkinson, Owen Tippett, Tyson Foerster, Wade Allison, and Bobby Brink being among the potential trade candidates.
The biggest name to potentially leave would be goaltender Carter Hart and there was also talk at this year’s trade deadline that Kevin Hayes, James van Riemsdyk, and Ivan Provorov were being shopped, even though none of those names were ultimately traded. A failure to do so was said to be a key motivator in relieving former GM Chuck Fletcher of his duties.
Is Anyone Safe in Philadelphia?
If there are any players who are on this roster the Flyers wouldn’t be willing to trade if the right offer came along, that might surprise a few people. There might no player the organization wouldn’t consider moving if it helped their rebuild and if the right return was there.
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