It’s no secret that the Flyers — the second-lowest scoring team in the NHL with an average of 2.16 goals per game after Tuesday’s victory over the visiting Montreal Canadiens — could use a goal-scoring winger.
Actually, that cat has been out of the bag for the last few seasons.
Why haven’t the Flyers been able to find one? Two reasons.
First, they've focused on defensemen in recent drafts, and the forwards they have picked have yet to emerge.
Second, teams that do have high-scoring wingers tend to keep them, and on the rare occasion they do put one on the trade market, they tend to ask for a king’s ransom in return.
That said, one of those rare occasions could be brewing down in Tampa, and the Flyers, a team suddenly rich with prospects and draft picks, could be in position to get a deal done.
Over the weekend, the agent for Lightning winger Johnathan Drouin publicly announced that his client is seeking a trade. In fact, he went so far as to say a trade was privately requested as far back as November. This all comes after the winger was recently sent down to Tampa’s AHL affiliate in Syracuse.
Unfamiliar with Drouin and what would make him such an attractive trade target for the Flyers?
The 20-year-old (he’ll turn 21 in March) was the third overall pick in the deep 2013 NHL draft after posting 105 points in 49 regular-season games and 35 points in 17 postseason games in 2012-13 for the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He followed that up with 108 points in 46 regular-season games and 41 points in 16 postseason games the year after for Halifax. He represented Canada in the World Junior Championships in each of those seasons.
He debuted with the Lightning last season, when he posted four goals and 28 assists in 70 regular-season games.
That sounds all fine and dandy, but with as deep as Tampa is with young, talented forwards, Drouin was a healthy scratch for 20 games during the Lightning’s playoff run to the Stanley Cup Final.
This season, Drouin has dealt with nagging injuries throughout first half of the year and has scored just two goals and recorded six assists while mostly playing limited minutes.
Then came the recent demotion to the AHL and now Drouin, the only player picked in the Top 10 of the 2013 draft who is not playing regular NHL minutes, and his agent are at an impasse with Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman. The result was the public acknowledgement of a trade request.
Flyers fans know general manager Ron Hextall’s theory by now — he believes a team should be built from within through scouting and drafting and that free-agent signings and/or trades should be made at this point only to help the team in the long term.
So, basically, don’t trade the future for veterans who can help only in the short term.
This is one of those special occasions where trading the future makes sense because the Flyers would be getting the future back in return. And the future they’d be getting back in return just so happens to play the position that is the organization’s greatest need.
Gone are the days when the Flyers had a dearth of talented, young defensemen in the system.
Recent drafts have brought the likes of Shayne Gostisbehere, Sam Morin, Robert Haag, Travis Sanheim and Ivan Provorov to the Flyers' organization. Even with Travis Konecny in the fold, young, talented forwards are still of great need.
Drouin fits that need, has already played 89 NHL regular-season games, and granted he’s healthy, is ready to step into a big role as soon as possible. On the pro level, he’s barely scratched the surface of his abilities.
As an added bonus, he’ll be motivated to prove to the Lightning that he was misued. That can’t hurt.
But this isn’t fantasy hockey, and Yzerman isn’t going to give away a young asset like Drouin just because the player and club are at odds.
As Sportsnet Canada's Elliotte Friedman points out, Yzerman and the Lightning don’t want to get Tyler Seguin'ed like the Boston Bruins did.
The Bruins traded their young goal-scorer to the Dallas Stars during the 2013 offseason because of off-the-ice issues and slashed playing time during a run to the Stanley Cup Final.
All Seguin has done the two and a half seasons in Dallas since is score 97 goals (third-most in the NHL in that span behind only Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin and San Jose’s Joe Pavelski) and post 114 assists (ninth-most). Those 211 points rank third-most behind only Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and teammate Jamie Benn.
Yes, Seguin was a more experienced and polished player at the time of his trade, but the similarities are still there.
Yzerman is not dumb and won’t let a young guy with so much upside like Drouin leave without an exceptional return.
Plus, the world we live in with the NHL salary cap is not perfect. In fact, it’s far from it.
We all know the Flyers are in cap hell with bad contracts for underperforming veterans. As of this writing, they have just over $695,000 in cap space, according to generalfanager.com.
Drouin is still on his entry-level deal until next offseason, so his cap hit is just under $895,000. That means the Flyers would have to clear up a bit more space to fit him in.
Tampa has just over $2 million in cap space, so the Lightning will be looking for younger, cheaper talent in return, especially since it has a bunch of players to not just re-sign, but also give raises to after this season, including some guy named Steven Stamkos.
And as Friedman pointed out, Tampa would like add defensemen, and the Flyers have those in the system to trade.
So, what are we talking about for a deal?
The NHL salary cap can be tricky and I'm no expert "capologist," so take this with a grain of salt. But let’s start with Brayden Schenn and his expiring $2.5 million deal, a top-level prospect and a high-round pick or two. Maybe more. But that’s just to start. Since Schenn’s deal would put Tampa slightly over the cap, the Flyers would likely have to take a contract back.
That last part may work against the Flyers, though, as Tampa could look to attach the last $16.5 million and three years of defenseman Matt Carle’s contract to any deal.
Either way, some finagling would have to be done on both sides, but there are also needs and fits on both sides.
Again, this is all prospective. Just because Drouin and his agent requested a trade doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
But if it does, the Flyers should be one of the major players in the market.
Drouin fits Hextall’s long-term acquisition check box, and the Flyers have the resources that would be attractive to the Lightning in order to get a deal done.
Above all else, he would fill a huge organizational need right away.
If a deal could be worked out, he’d be the closest thing to a perfect fit.