Usually, American Thanksgiving is an important time in the NHL season. Some teams will decide whether they will be buyers or sellers in view of the end of the campaign.
With their start to the season, the Philadelphia Flyers are already shaping up to be in the sellers’ camp.
TSN colleague Darren Dreger reports that defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen and forward Scott Laughton are already attracting interest even though the March 7 trade deadline is still a ways off.
“The Philadelphia Flyers are building the foundation of their team for the future. Daniel Briere is one of the most active general managers and he’s gotten a lot of calls,” Dreger said Tuesday on Insider Trading. There is a lot of interest in veteran defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. I mean, he’s a top 4 defenseman and he’s also under contract for the next two seasons.
“Another interesting name that has been on the market over the last couple of years is Scott Laughton. There’s a lot of interest in him, but – again – Briere is in no rush to trade him. It could well wait until the trade deadline and the price will be much higher at that time. »
Ristolainen is in his fourth season with the Flyers and is under contract through the 2026-27 season. He receives a salary of $5.1 million. He has one goal and five points in 22 games this season while averaging 20:35 of playing time, which ranks third among Flyers defensemen.
The 30-year-old defenseman was limited to 31 games last season due to injuries.
Chosen eighth overall by the Buffalo Sabers in the 2013 draft, Ristolainen has scored 53 goals and 290 points in 735 NHL games. He was acquired by the Flyers in 2021 for first and second round picks and defenseman Robert Hagg.
Laughton is under contract until the end of next season at an annual salary of $3 million. He has two goals and eight points in 22 games this season. The 30-year-old forward scored 13 goals and 39 points in 82 games last season, after recording a career-high 18 goals and 43 points in 78 games in 2022-23.
Selected 20th overall in the 2012 draft, Laughton spent his entire career with the Flyers, collecting 97 goals and 246 points in 623 games.
The Flyers only have one player who will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Veteran defenseman Erik Johnson signed a one-year, $1 million contract last summer.
As of Wednesday, Philadelphia sits two points out of the final playoff spot among drafted teams with a 9-10-3 record. The team narrowly missed the playoffs last season and has not participated in spring ball the last four campaigns.
