Should Philadelphia Flyers Trade for Rising Star Wild Center?

Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella has been adamant about needing more production from the center position for virtually the entire season. He’s also been very clear that the Flyers are at the beginning of their journey, not in the middle or towards the end.

At the same time, good young centers don’t just grow on trees. You have to be really bad to be in a position to draft one that elevates your franchise, and even then, it takes a bit of luck with the NHL Draft Lottery.

If the Flyers aren’t able to draft centers like that with any consistency, what are their other options?

Free agency won’t work, because the best young centers will be qualified RFAs, meaning that the Orange and Black would have to pony up hefty draft compensation if their prospective offer sheet is not matched.

You could sign a veteran center way past his prime and end up like the present day Boston Bruins, though.

Trade is the last, and perhaps most efficient, option. And maybe the Flyers trade for rising Minnesota Wild center Marco Rossi.

But who is Marco Rossi, and why should the Flyers trade for him?

Rossi, 23, is a former No. 9 overall pick from the 2020 draft embarking on his second full season at the NHL level. The Austrian center was up and down at times last season, but so were the Wild.

Rossi ultimately finished the season with 21 goals, 19 assists, and 40 points in 82 games. That’s impressive durability for a 5-foot-9 rookie, isn’t it?

And Rossi’s sophomore season in the NHL hasn’t been half-bad, either. Through 19 games, the 23-year-old playmaker has five goals, 10 assists, and 15 points in 19 games, and he also has a plus-7 plus-minus rating to pair with the offense.

He’s currently on pace to finish the season with 22 goals, 43 assists, and 65 points with a plus-30 rating whilst playing in all 82 games for the second straight year. So why would the Wild trade a rising young star like that?

Minnesota Wild could trade Marco Rossi

“I am still convinced they are going to trade him,” Michael Russo, who covers the Wild for The Athletic, said of Rossi on the “Worst Seats in the House” podcast. “I don’t know when. I don’t know if it’s imminent, by the deadline, or next summer. I just think that they do not feel he’s the player to commit to long-term.”

That last bit from Russo might strike a chord with Flyers fans. That sounds a lot like Morgan Frost, a center who, like Rossi, has a productive history but has seemingly fallen out of favor with the coaching staff and/or the front office.

Recall that Frost, 25, held out into September before signing a contract last year on the heels of a career-best 46-point campaign in 2022-23. For all his troubles, Frost only received a two-year, $4.2 million contract.

Frost ultimately finished with 41 points, though he concluded his 2023-24 season on the bench in Game 82 against Washington with the Flyers in desperate need of a goal. To start 2024-25, Frost is once again being yo-yo’d in and out of the lineup, and he’s on an expiring contract to boot.

“It just seems to me, for a guy that’s done everything they wanted; skipped his sister’s wedding, didn’t go to participate in the Austrian Olympic Qualifiers,” Russo continued about Rossi. “They asked him to get faster; he worked with Andy Ness all last summer. They asked him to get stronger; he worked with Matt Harder all last summer. He wants to win. He’s a total pro.

“To cut ties with this guy at 22 [sic] and sometimes, in my eyes, treat him they way they are, I just think that they are going to really regret this.”

One team’s pain could be another team’s gain.

The Flyers, as we know, have three first-round picks and three second-round picks in the upcoming 2025 draft. There’s a very small likelihood the Flyers actually select players with all six of those draft picks instead of acquiring a known commodity at the center position, like Rossi or a guy like Trevor Zegras.

But do the Flyers trade multiple assets like that for Rossi, a player another team does not covet? That’s the risk assessment Tortorella, Danny Briere, and the Flyers staff will have to conduct in the coming days, weeks, and months.