The Philadelphia Flyers are aiming to improve this summer. General manager Danny Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones have said multiple times to the media and just the public in general, that the time of them shedding players in this rebuild is over. They have their eyes set on adding talent to this roster. And, according to a recent report, one addition could be young Minnesota Wild center Marco Rossi.
It’s been a long time of this player and team being connected. First, the Minnesota Wild aren’t fully in love with the idea of Rossi being a long-term option as a top-six center. They have Joel Eriksson Ek already taking the top spot and it sure seems like they want to bank on younger prospect Danila Yurov, who just signed his entry-level contract, as more of a player in their own image compared to Rossi. Mix that with the young Austrian center being a restricted free agent this summer and wanting to sign for multiple years for some security but the Wild being cautious of that, and you now get the team that drafted him ninth overall potentially dealing him before he turns 24 years old.
When it comes to the Flyers, they have kept tabs on the player. Rossi’s name came up when the Wild were heavily interested in Cutter Gauthier when Philadelphia was dealing with that whole issue surrounding their former prospect in January 2024 before eventually dealing him to the Anaheim Ducks. So, the Flyers kept Rossi in the Orange and Black in the back of their mind.
Fast forward to this Wednesday and with the rumors surrounding Rossi’s availability beginning to get louder and louder, one report linked the Flyers as a team that is once again interested in acquiring the young center. And it makes perfect sense. A 23-year-old center that just scored 60 points is not normally available, and it just so happens that he would potentially fix Philadelphia’s largest issue on its roster.
The very next day — because we’re taking this journey in chronological order of course — the noise got even louder. Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Di Marco posted on Twitter that there is not a fit between the Flyers and Rossi, noting that the Wild want young winger Tyson Foerster or one of the Flyers’ later first-round picks.
Re. Marco Rossi: I don’t think there is a fit w/ PHI at this time. Speaking with sources, the #MNWild would want Tyson Foerster or one of PHI’s late 1sts; PHI has no interest in either.
Rossi’s contract demands are said to be “too much” for either team.@DailyFaceoff
— Anthony Di Marco (@ADiMarco25) May 29, 2025
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Just hours after this was posted, the Flyers re-signed Foerster to his bridge contract and we all know that the team loves him too much to trade him away for really any player similar to his level.
The first-round picks mentioned would be either the 22nd overall pick that the Flyers own from the Colorado Avalanche, or the pick that the Flyers grabbed from the Edmonton Oilers that could be anywhere from 30th to 32nd overall this June. That’s it, apparently.
After Di Marco’s quasi report, Anthony SanFilippo who added more contextual information. He backed the notion that both Foerster and one of the later 2025 first-round picks are not assets that the Flyers want to give up for Rossi. SanFilippo also added that while the Wild could be interested in acquiring something like one of the first-round picks, Minnesota did not specifically ask for that in return for Rossi, which is crucially important.
Discussions have happened between the Wild and Flyers regarding Rossi, but it sure sounds like no offers or even hypothetical offers have been tabled. That is where we are currently at. The Flyers did not officially reject an offer of Rossi for one of those first-round picks, but all we know that according to someone around the Flyers, that they would not want to part with that asset for Marco Rossi.
Which now leaves us asking questions. Mainly, why and how are we hearing about this and what could the source mean.
Looking further into the reports
Let us ponder just a little bit. Spill out a bunch of thoughts onto the digital page.
So, all of this information sure sounds like it is coming from the Flyers. But, as we all know, the Flyers are an organization that keeps everything as close to their vest as possible. The trades that we have seen come to fruition typically get reported out of nowhere by Elliotte Friedman and then minutes later confirmed by the team or one of the premier sources for anything Flyers. Any notable trade that has happened with Danny Briere and Keith Jones in charge did not have reporting stretched over multiple days but rather came together quickly.
Which all begs the question: Why are we hearing about this?
We don’t doubt the validity of these reports at all. But, maybe it is some sort of public negotiation going on. That’s just a theory. The Flyers let it be known that they don’t really view Rossi as a player worth trading a first-round pick for, which might cause other teams to doubt their own valuation and try to get him for less, for the Flyers to swoop in with the best offer which might be one of those picks, or multiple of their several second-round picks. Something like that. It just feels like these reports were purposefully laid out there for everyone to grab onto and make it seem like Rossi is going to go for a lot less in a trade than everyone was expecting.
Because all of this feels like a whole lot of information is missing. As every single person online came to the conclusion that the Flyers didn’t want to part with a 30th-overall pick for a 23-year-old center that just scored 60 points, that doesn’t feel right. First-round picks get thrown around — especially in this shallow 2025 NHL Draft — for just everyday players at the trade deadline and would be moved for less controllable assets than players like Rossi. Something is just not adding up. Every single team would make a deal like that.
It’s either the Flyers have something else planned for those picks — maybe wanting to move up in the round for whichever top prospect undeservingly falls, or as part of a package for an even better young center than Rossi — or we are only seeing a teeny tiny part of this trade discussion and what assets could be involved.
Marco Rossi could still be a Flyer, but maybe we should wait until something concrete happens to judge anything to do with this front office. If it comes out that it really was as simple as the Flyers rejecting the Wild for wanting the 30th-overall pick for Rossi, then we will happily be critical of the team. Right now, we’re just putting everything on pause until some sort of move is made.
As always, there is always a reason why we are hearing a report about the Flyers at a certain time and what the source is.
Never a dull moment.