This won’t come as a huge shock with Philly five points out of a playoff spot, but at least it’s now official -- the Flyers won’t be buyers at Monday’s trade deadine.
“We’re not going to add,” general manager Ron Hextall said, per CSN Philly. “We feel like we have depth, quite honestly. I feel like we have a couple guys up in Lehigh Valley that can help us, so we feel that we have enough depth right now to make it through the year.”
The announcement is in lockstep with Hextall’s methodical strategy of rebuilding the Flyers. He’s jettisoned some of the club’s more onerous contracts via trade -- Vincent Lecavalier, specifically -- and hasn’t been shy about burying expensive, underachieving veterans in the minors (like Andrew MacDonald and Sam Gagner.)
Eventually, the plan is to have a defense featuring all of the club’s ballyhooed prospects -- Samuel Morin, Travis Sanheim, Robert Hagg -- along with Shayne Gostisbehere, who’s burst onto the scene in a major way this season.
In that light, it’s worth mentioning that CSN Philly floated the idea of 38-year-old Mark Streit being moved at the deadline, though that could prove difficult given he has this year and the next remaining on his five-year, $21 million deal, one that carries a $5.25M average annual cap hit.
Hextall also showed last deadline he’s not afraid to sell. He moved Braydon Coburn to Tampa Bay for a tidy sum (1st- and 3rd-round picks, Radko Gudas) and Kimmo Timonen to Chicago for a nice return as well (2nd- and 4th-round picks).