The Philadelphia Flyers season has gone surprisingly well. The new additions to the roster are doing their part and contributing to a team that finds themselves in a playoff spot by points percentage, and there are some internal improvements that are thankfully compensating enough for some disappointments elsehwere.
We don’t need to get into all that. But, it means that the Flyers are actually icing a somewhat competitive roster and there isn’t the creeping thought in the back of our heads that eventually we will be cheering for them to drop in the standings as much as possible for better draft lottery odds. And while we could still see them sell off some pending free agents as a smart way to not completely bottom out but to gain as many assets as possible for the long-term outlook of this team, the Flyers are looking to make some additions as well.
According to one recent report, general manager Danny Briere is working the phones to try and get another center for this team.
Flyers are in the trade market for a center
On Friday’s episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast Elliotte Friedman reported that the Flyers are looking to acquire a new player, specifically a center.
“It’s not the biggest thing, but I did hear from a couple places that Philly’s looking for another center. Maybe more of a depth guy as much as anything else, but definitely another center.”
Friedman’s co-host Kyle Bukauskas then hypothesized that the Flyers are trying to stay in the playoff hunt, and Friedman agreed — essentially confirming what Flyers management has been saying all along this season, that they don’t want to take a step back.
“I’m formulating some thoughts on them,” Friedman continued about the Flyers. “Might take another pod or two but I’m formulating some thoughts on them. I’ve been watching them a lot more lately.”
It’s an interesting tidbit. We might not see anything formulate from this report for months, but the Flyers are still looking to add more than subtract at this point in time. As Friedman speculates, it’s not like Philadelphia is eyeing up the biggest fish that can play down the middle and be here for the next decade, but just a solid depth option so that they have some security and possibly knocking Rodrigo Abols out of the lineup.
Is Rodrigo Abols’s roster spot in jeopardy?
The 6-foot-4 Latvian easily won his spot as the Flyers’ fourth-line center in training camp and was only not included in the lineup every single game because of Jett Luchanko’s presence and the team wanting to see if the 19-year-old could stake a claim to it. Once the prospect was sent back to the OHL’s Guelph Storm, Abols has been there ever since and while he just managed to earn his first point of the season Thursday night, scoring a goal against the St. Louis Blues and having an all-around good game, he hasn’t been rocking anybody’s world on the ice.
The 29-year-old Abols has been perfectly neutral. He’s not generating any offense but he’s also not messing up so much that he’s a defensive weak link. Exactly in the middle — not a driver one way or the other, just there and not doing any harm. Essentially, Abols is the perfect candidate to be a replacement-level player and the Flyers are clearly looking for his replacement.
Abols has been a great story — coming back to the NHL after being a draft pick that stayed overseas for his entire career until his late-20s and signing with the Flyers as a free agent in 2024 — but he does suit the roster more as a 13th forward and to hang around Nic Deslauriers in the press box whenever head coach Rick Tocchet doesn’t need someone to punch a player on the other team.
Considering Tocchet has been rarely using his fourth line — Abols is averaging just 9:22 TOI per game — maybe Briere is hoping that by making an addition down the middle to play with Nikita Grebenkin and Garnet Hathaway for the rest of the season, that it can ease the burden on the rest of the lineup and not have Sean Couturier burn out by January.
Who could this mystery trade target be? Could it be someone on the younger side to solidify that depth center role for years to come? Or is it just a patchwork player that does something a little bit more than Abols currently does? We might find out soon enough, or never find out at all and the large Latvian will be the fourth center until the summer.