The Philadelphia Flyers are out of playoff contention and have made a handful of players available as they look to rebuild under new head coach John Tortorella possibly. As fans and players have seen, Tortorella isn’t the easiest coach to play for. For the first-year Flyers coach, he has already made it clear what type of players he wants in the city of brotherly love. This has rubbed several veterans the wrong way, and with the trade deadline set to close at 3 pm EST today, expect a few to be on the move.
The 33-year-old James van Riemsdyk is the top player left on trade bait boards, as the veteran left-winger would provide leadership and depth for a contender. While he is having a down year, he still has 23 points in 41 games and has 71 games of Playoff experience.
This morning the price for acquiring the veteran left-winger was revealed as insider Chris Johnston has reported that it will only take a third-round pick to pry him away from Philly. Johnston also revealed three teams with interest in JvR as the Vegas Golden Knights, Winnipeg Jets, and Seattle Kraken have all inquired.
Vegas and Winnipeg make the most sense, as JvR would fill a need for both teams. The Golden Knights are currently first in the Pacific Division and have been looking for a player to help shoulder the loss of captain Mark Stone. Winnipeg has already acquired Nino Niederreiter from the Nashville Predators, and adding JvR would help with their secondary scoring. Winnipeg has fallen out of the top three in the Central and is clinging to the second Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
Seattle is an interesting team to join the list, as their biggest need is defense and not an aging winger. They have remained quiet so far at the deadline, but now that they are back in third place in the Pacific, could we see general manager Ron Francis pull off a deal?
It will be a wait-and-see situation as the deadline clock ticks away, but one thing is for sure, JvR has played his last game in Philly and will be on a new team by 3 pm EST.
