The Fourth Period: (youtube) David Pagnotta on ‘The Latest’ on what the Philadelphia Flyers could be thinking of doing ahead of the trade deadline as they don’t really have any pending UFAs to move.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kate Pettersen: “Let’s jump over to the East and talk a little bit about Philly. They’ve been inconsistent this season, but they’re two points back of a wild card spot. And I will note in that Eastern Conference wild-card race, there are seven teams within four points of those two spots, so it’s kind of crazy. It will be cool if two months from now, we’re still talking about how long jam that is, and it really comes down to a race to the finish.
But for Philly, they don’t have any major pieces that are UFA has come July. So what’s going on there? What are they looking at doing?”
Pagnoota: “Yeah, they’re maintaining their course of their rebuild, and they’re another team that’s starting to take the next steps in that process.
But as you said, they don’t have any impact guys that are on expiring contracts, that are set for UFA status in July. I think it’s just Eric Johnson, quite frankly, who’s the only regular a part of the roster who’s going to be a pending unrestricted creation.
They have guys with term, whether it’s Rasmus Ristolainen on the back end or even Scott Laughton up front, who has another year left on his contract. Those are players that have generated interest before. Philly and Danny Briere, their GM, they’re going to continue to listen, but it doesn’t look like they’re in much of a position to be a big player in a seller’s market.
I think they’re going to look, explore, see what options are available to them. If a team approaches them about a guy like Laughton who has a $3 million cap hit, very palatable for a team looking to shore up their bottom-six, even their mid-six, that could be a target. And the one extra year is attractive.
But we’ll see kind of how things develop. They’re not in a rush to make any impact type moves. They want to continue to see how their younger kids develop and how this team and this roster can perform down the stretch.”
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