The Philadelphia Flyers are about to have a unique opportunity to take full advantage of a crazy trade market ahead of this year’s March 6 NHL trade deadline.
On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Penguins traded veteran defenseman Brett Kulak to the Colorado Avalanche for defenseman Sam Girard and a 2028 second-round pick, with the latter gearing up for a deep playoff push with clear aspirations of winning another Stanley Cup.
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On the surface, though, this isn’t a very impressive trade by Colorado. They’ve already won with Girard on their roster, and Kulak, 32, finds himself on his third team in as many months after originally getting jettisoned by Edmonton in December.
Kulak, at 6-foot-2, is much larger than the 5-foot-10 Girard, and he’s played 22 or more playoff games with Edmonton in each of the last two years.
The price of that size and experience, though, was a smaller but more accomplished puck-moving defenseman in Girard, plus a premium draft pick.
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As for the Flyers, they’ve long had interest in moving burly right-hander Rasmus Ristolainen for the right package, though nothing matching their trade taste buds has come to fruition just yet.
Ristolainen, 32, has two years remaining on his contract at a $5.1 million cap hit, and the Flyers have the requisite retention slots available to cut that down to as low as $2.55 million to sweeten the pot for a prospective buyer.
Because Ristolainen is 6-foot-4 and a right-shot, he is inherently more valuable on the NHL trade market, and especially to those who still harbor the old-school hockey views.
Teams like Detroit, Tampa Bay, and Dallas have been said to have interest in adding a right-shot defenseman, and Ristolainen fits the bill.
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The value a smaller, left-shot defender in Kulak fetched should set the Flyers up to have a massive trade deadline day if they play all their cards right.
After re-signing Christian Dvorak for five years earlier in the season, Ristolainen is now by far their most attractive trade chip.
Forwards Owen Tippett and Bobby Brink will have value, too, to be clear, but Tippett’s size and fairly reasonable $6.2 million cap hit work favorably for the Flyers. Any inquiring team will have to take on the full seven years remaining on his deal, with trade protection set to kick in this summer, lasting until 2030.
As for Brink, he’s an inexpensive pending RFA and has excelled in a checking role for the Flyers, but contenders may be turned off by his combination of (5-foot-8) lack of size and lack of playoff experience.
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So, with that all said, now is as good a time as any for the Flyers to maximize the return they can get for Ristolainen. The market clearly favors them, but the final choice will be theirs to make.
