The Philadelphia Flyers made their first substantial transaction of the season on Thursday, trading away homegrown young forwards Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost to the Calgary Flames in exchange for a pending free agent in Andrei Kuzmenko, a young winger in Jakob Pelletier, and a couple draft picks.
Since then, questions have been raised about why the Flyers decide to move on from two players who could certainly show something more in their new home.
Flyers general manager Danny Briere spoke to the media on Saturday morning and explained why this trade why right now, in the middle of the season more than a month before the trade deadline.
“I think it speaks more about the development of the players around those two guys, than it does themselves,” he said. “We’re in a different spot, we’ve admitted that we’re part of a rebuild and we’ve added a lot of draft picks the last few years, we’ve added some young guys; the players around them have really taken a step forward. When you think of the development of guys like Tippett the last couple years, Foerster coming on, Bobby Brink, also Noah Cates’s play this year. You also have Poehling, while he’s hurt right now, he’s been really good in that sense and still in his mid-20s.”
Before the season started, the Flyers had a major crop of young forwards that they needed to see take the next step. Owen Tippett signed a long-term extension with the club and is closing in on 20 goals; Tyson Foerster started slow but has recently picked up his production for how young he is; Bobby Brink has been electric some nights and has really established himself as a depth scoring threat; and then Noah Cates has suddenly become this team’s best center. That leaves Farabee and Frost on the outside looking in and quickly at the bottom of this pile of young forwards.
But was there another reason other than just the two newest Flames not living up to expectations after they were given plenty opportunity to play in important roles? Well, it certainly helps the Flyers’ cap structure.
“Well the biggest thing in all of this is the cap flexibility that it gives us moving forward,” Briere said. “Maybe not this year per se, but moving forward. It’s no secret, especially in Joel’s case, the cap hit moving forward was tough. Most discussions we had, teams were not willing to take on his full salary, especially with the term left on it. And Morgan was getting close to getting paid a lot more money.”
Farabee is under contract for three more seasons after this one at a $5-million AAV, and Frost is a pending restricted free agent who could’ve got a decent raise in pay considering he is inching towards hitting the open market. In addition to the two roster spots, the Flyers are now getting over $8 million of potential cap space freed which they could certainly use — more than having two middling forwards clog up the middle of the lineup.
Considering Frost and Farabee are two former first-round picks that a prior regime selected, but still had a major role on this team. And the Flyers put so much effort into making them the best players they could be, moving on from them still stung Briere.
“It’s a tough one,” he said. “When I came into the organization five or six years ago, one of my first asks was to work with Morgan. So my relationship with him was fairly special. We spent a lot of time together, especially early on. That’s the job I have — I’m here to make the tough decisions and that’s one of them for me on a personal level. Those two guys were great around the room and there certainly were not any problems around the locker room. We thank them for what they did for us. They were great teammates. We saw Joel fight for his teammates many times and stand up for them, so it was a really tough trade to make but we feel for the future, the cap flexibility that it brings us the chance to do something — now I don’t know how soon. Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen in the next few weeks or months, but moving forward for years to come it gives us more cap flexibility.”
Now with some extra room to spend without these contracts on the books, is there something coming? Briere said probably not this year, since Kuzmenko’s $5.5-million cap hit will still be around, but there is a little bit more room to improve the team than there was before the trade.
“It gives us some possibilities going into the offseason. It’s like cracking the door open a little bit. Not going to say it’s wide open, or the year that we go out — it has to be the right player or players if we do decide to open up the checkbook and go after free agents. But it does crack the door open to some possibilities. We don’t know who is going to be there yet, it’s a little too early, but it’s possible that it gives us the chance to start dipping our toe in a little quicker. … We’re not going to start spending money for the fun of it.”
No matter what, though, without Farabee and Frost, this team looks significantly weaker upfront. Having a player that could potentially score 50 points, like Farabee did last season, be on the third line was a luxury. And now the Flyers do not have that luxury — so are they giving up on the season? Deciding to call it in, sink to the bottom of the standings and hope for some lottery luck? Well, not exactly according to Briere.
“It depends. It’s not us giving up on the season,” Briere said. “Kuzmenko has proven to be a game-breaker before. So if there’s some chemistry there, who knows what happens. Pelletier also has the chance to play and we’ll see what he has. He’s spunky, maybe brings a spark. A lot is going to depend on the chemistry that is being built and it will have to be done quickly, obviously. Joel’s impact lately — it’s no secret that it’s been a tough year, he’s been struggling; and Morgan has had an up-and-down season. So if those two guys come in and find some chemistry and can help us, who knows what can happen. It’s not giving up on the season. Really, this was a move for the future not so much about this year, the way I look at it.”
That puts it better than anything. This is not a move focused on the team right now but it opens future potential of making a move that will greatly improve the future of the team and the likelihood that they are a future Stanley Cup contender. It’s all about looking forward and Farabee and Frost were just not good enough to stake their claim to a roster spot for the next good Flyers team.