How the Elias Lindholm Trade Affects the Flyers

Our first ground-breaking NHL trade of the 2023-24 season has officially taken place, with the Vancouver Canucks pulling the trigger on an Elias Lindholm trade that sent Andrei Kuzmenko, a first-round pick, Hunter Brzustewicz, and more to the Calgary Flames. With this, silly season has begun. The Philadelphia Flyers are officially a team to watch.

Indeed, the Flyers are unlike the Flames in the sense that they do not have a fringe No.1 center to sell to contending teams. However, after the Lindholm trade was more or less completed, reports emerged from multiple sources that the Canucks are after Chris Tanev as well and that a separate deal will have to be struck.

That’s good news for the Flyers. They have two top-four defensemen, Nick Seeler and Sean Walker, that they are likely to sell. The faster Tanev gets shipped out of town, the more valuable those two become with a month until the NHL trade deadline.

The key here is desperation.

The Canucks wanted the best center on the market and paid the price in the Lindholm trade. Lindholm is a great player but is having a terrible season by his normally lofty standards. As for the Flyers, Walker and Seeler are both having excellent seasons and command lower cap hits. There’s also something to be said about 24-year-old Morgan Frost, who played with his hair on fire in January and landed at No. 20 on TSN’s latest “Trade Bait” list.

Flyers general manager Danny Briere has made it clear that he will not be making trades just for the sake of it. With the market the way it is (and has now shown to be), that’s great news for the Flyers and bad news for teams that are in on Seeler, Walker, Frost, or others. Philadelphia looks to have even more bargaining power than previously anticipated.

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