The Philadelphia Flyers are trying to be a team that regularly contends for the playoffs and once their young players grow into their primes, they can potentially challenge for the Stanley Cup. That’s the plan but right now, we’re still in the first of several steps to that goal. While in the infancy of this next stage, some trades could happen to potentially push them along — to provide a little jolt towards being taken a little more seriously.
While we’ve already had a glance at a couple trades the Flyers could make with the Montreal Canadiens for potential long-term pieces, and two trades that could be agreed upon with the Boston Bruins to just make this team better, we’re going to take a look at a team more in the news.
The Minnesota Wild are in desperate to get Quinn Hughes signed to a contract extension and their entire season depends on it. Sure, they could walk into October with one of the two best defensemen on the planet a pending unrestricted free agent, but that could end in disaster. They traded almost their entire future to get him and could have just 18 months of Hughes to show for it. So, what about some other moves?
They need to do something to either convince Hughes to re-sign, or to mold this roster into something competitive if they have to move on from the superstar. These aren’t perfect ideas, but considering just how flexible this Wild roster might become once general manager Bill Guerin gets desperate to seemingly push this team forward, they are players who the Flyers could snatch up and be better for it.
Jonas Brodin could be the perfect stop-gap defenseman
On the surface, this might not make a lot of sense but please stay with me. Jonas Brodin is a 33-year-old left-handed defenseman that is signed for two more years at a $6-million AAV. Why would the Flyers want to acquire someone who would instantly become the second-oldest player on their blue line (an entire month younger than Nick Seeler) and hasn’t scored over 30 points in a season for his entire 14-year career.
Well, it’s because Brodin is simply one of the best defensive defensemen in the entire NHL and could feasibly be available.
By almost every single metric you want to cite, Brodin is elite defensively. He’s earned the sixth-highest defensive GAR among every single skater in the league over the last three seasons. His 2.31 xGA/60 while on the ice at 5-on-5 last season was sixth-lowest among all defenders who played over 800 minutes. Over on HockeyViz, all you see are giant blue bubbles in the Wild’s own zone for when Brodin is on the ice. We can comb over whatever numbers you want to use, or even just look at some of his tape, but it will result in the same thing: Brodin is one of the best defenders on the planet.
Okay, fine, have a chart. His defensive impact is literally almost off the charts:
That is the stable force that could be perfect for the Flyers right now and could take them truly to the next level. Whether it is in a projected pairing next to Travis Sanheim or Jamie Drysdale, Brodin’s presence would let them run free knowing that they have a solid foundation beside them.
While he’s not as physical as Rasmus Ristolainen, he would certainly make the Flyers win many more hockey games if he was in their top four. That’s not debatable. Add in the bonus of Brodin being locked up for just two more years, providing an extreme stop-gap player until prospects like Oliver Bonk, Spencer Gill, and maybe even Maksim Sokolovskii start to get ready for NHL roles.
So, what would it cost?
It isn’t going to be easy to pry Brodin away from Minnesota but considering his age and contract situation, it wouldn’t be impossible. Maybe there is a world where the Wild want some more cap flexibility for next season, since it will potentially be the first year of Hughes’s megadeal. Ristolainen could bring them that and having a right side of Brock Faber, Jared Spurgeon, and Ristolainen certainly feels impactful.
Would the Flyers need to add much more to that? It could be as low as a mid-round draft pick, if Guerin thinks highly of Ristolainen, or maybe it’s a solid prospect for the Wild to then use as more draft capital to make another trade in the future. Either way, if the Wild are open for business surrounding Brodin, it could be an extremely smart move to go after the veteran defenseman to raise the floor of this team even further.
Can you imagine Brodin in Rick Tocchet’s system? There might be negative expected goals allowed when he’s on the ice.
Yakov Trenin is such a Flyers trade target
Brodin might be a little bit of wishcasting, so how about something that is super realistic if these two teams are engaged in trade talks?
Yakov Trenin is an experienced forward who can play center in a pinch and is known more for hitting people and blocking shots than scoring goals. That’s a Flyer. I really don’t know how he managed this, but the 29-year-old forward finished last season with 413 total hits. Trenin was averaging over five hits per game while playing just over 13 minutes. That’s some bull in a China shop stuff.
He did manage to put six pucks into the net and earn 23 total points in all 82 games, but when it came for the playoffs, he was a healthy scratch twice — sometimes being seen as luxury and not necessary for the postseason. Could that mean he’s on the way out?
Trenin is under contract for two more seasons at a moderate $3.5-million AAV and has a 10-team no-trade list. It’s perfectly understandable if he is a trade target for the Flyers if they find themselves wanting exactly that in the middle of this season, because he is still a valuable player if he’s not scoring and is really only a disruptor.
While we’re not going to dive into the math, Trenin did finish seventh on the Wild with 1.8 WAR — above players like Joel Eriksson Ek, Mats Zuccarello, and Ryan Hartman despite playing fewer minutes than all three of those forwards. While there is an exterior of a Hockey Man-esque player, being someone big who hits, Trenin really is an analytics darling under the hood and would really be a big add to the Flyers’ bottom six.
Now, of course there’s the issue of the Flyers having roughly several hundred forwards on their roster right now. Why would they target Trenin?
We’re thinking of a world where Nikita Grebenkin is a little bit of a disappointment to start the year, and maybe a forward is traded so the likes of Alex Bump or Denver Barkey move up in the lineup, leaving a big hole on the fourth line that would be great for Trenin to jump into. Getting a fourth-line forward isn’t the move that would take them to the next level, but he would easily make them a better team.
How much would it cost? Considering the Wild themselves added Michael McCarron for a second-round pick at the last trade deadline, that sort of set the benchmark. Trenin is not towering over most like McCarron is (he’s still 6-foot-2, so it’s not a problem) and isn’t regularly playing center, so would it be crazy to think about him as a player they could get for a third-round pick?
To potentially add someone impactful and fills a need, while making your fourth line extremely dangerous and a threat all over the ice, for a mid-round pick — that’s not a bad piece of business. It’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but seeing Trenin truck every single opposing player and run guys over every night would make it feel like the Flyers got him for too cheap.
