Carolina Hurricanes: 3 potential trades with the Flyers
Option 1: Adding a rental
Wayne Simmonds is the Flyers’ one big trade chip, in the same way that Micheal Ferland is the big-ticket item for Carolina Hurricanes this trade deadline. Like Ferland, Simmonds is an impending UFA – but he comes in with a higher AAV, and has a modified No-Trade Clause that precludes 12 teams from acquiring his services. For the sake of this proposal, we would assume that there are more than 12 teams below the Canes in Simmonds’ estimation (which is actually quite likely).
Now, why acquire a rental? The answer is simple: Wayne Simmonds brings everything you want in a player. Size, talent, effort, leadership, he has all of the tools to be a huge presence on this Carolina Hurricanes team. A veteran of more than 800 NHL games, Simmonds is just nine goals shy of a quarter-century of career goals, and just 33 points away from 500. He fights, he hustles, and plays a 200-foot game.
To acquire Simmonds will, like Ferland, likely take a 1st round pick. Warren Foegele is the kind of player that would thrive in the Flyers’ middle six, having some of Simmonds’ tenacity and love of going to the net, and so sending Foegele and a 2019 2nd round pick would quite possibly land us the services of a guy who would put everything on the line to help the Carolina Hurricanes secure a first playoff berth in ten years.
Likelihood: 3/5
Option 2: Adding young stars
Any NHL roster prognostications would naturally gravitate towards acquiring the opposition’s best young players. I considered Nolan Patrick as simply unattainable, so too Ivan Provorov, but Konecny is a star on the rise, and Gostisbehere takes a lot of flak from Flyers fans so might be available.
Adding a player like Travis Konecny would give Rod Brind’Amour plenty of options – he is able to play up and down the lineup, plays on the power play, and is a player who gives his all on every shift. His versatility would be of great value to any team.
Shayne Gostisbehere is coming off a career year, posting 13-52-65 in what was a stunning campaign for the defenseman. However, his play has fallen off this year, going just 5-15-20 in 48GP. We would be buying low on a guy who could transform our blueline.
Going the other way would be Justin Faulk, rather than Dougie Hamilton, plus top forward prospect Janne Kuokkanen and our 2019 1st round pick. That’s a lot of futures, but adding Konecny and Gostisbehere would surely get the Carolina Hurricanes into a playoff spot come the end of the season.
Sadly, I can’t see a realistic scenario in which the Flyers let either of these two youngsters go – but if Don Waddell could acquire them, the Carolina Hurricanes would be much better off for it. The question here would be whether the Flyers would need us to add to this deal.
Possibility: 1/5
Option 3: Taking on a bad deal
Jakub Voracek is a veteran playmaker on a overpaid contract. Now 29 years old, his $8.25m AAV deal expires at the end of the 2023/24 season, when he will be 34 years old. He is a consistent 20-goal, 50-assist forward; the knock against him is that he needs quality players alongside him. But then, who doesn’t? In the same way that Gostisbehere falls victim to the ire of some Flyers fans, Voracek regularly gets taken to task for his on-ice transgressions in a way that few of his team mates do.
In acquiring Voracek, the Carolina Hurricanes add a second bonafide top six forward – after already acquiring Nino Niederreiter from the Minnesota Wild – and one able to score at a consistent click, a considerable improvement on Lucas Wallmark‘s current production level. The acquisition would also shelter Andrei Svechnikov, as Niederreiter and Voracek would take the lion’s share of tough matchups, and would also improve the Canes’ power play options.
Here’s how the Carolina Hurricanes would lineup with Voracek in the team; Wallmark departing would see either Greg McKegg or Jordan Staal move into the top six, and only one of those is a realistic option:
Teravainen – Aho – Niederreiter
Ferland – Staal – Voracek
Would the Flyers make this deal? They would escape Voracek’s deal, add two promising youngsters to their collection, and a useful 2nd round pick next year. All would depend on how much Chuck Fletcher wants to change – this would send quite the message to the rest of the Flyers’ lineup.
Likelihood: 2/5
Next. How the Canes can make the playoffs. dark
Any of these deals helps the Carolina Hurricanes move forward – what’s not particularly clear is why the Philadelphia Flyers would consider large-scale changes, when surely just a few small tweaks would suffice. Don Waddell didn’t make any moves with the St Louis Blues when they announced a similar plan – but we feel that with the Canes so close to a playoff spot, now is the time to be bold. Make the Carolina Hurricanes buyers, ahead of the deadline, and get this team over the line into the post-season.