Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers Trade Ryan Ellis to San Jose Sharks
The Philadelphia Flyers have made a trade before the regular season rosters are submitted.
No, the Flyers did not make a move for a starting defenseman. Nor did they even trade an active player. Flyers’ GM Danny Briere has finally done what once seemed unthinkable: he has traded defenseman Ryan Ellis.
The San Jose Sharks have acquired Ellis and a conditional 2026 6th-round draft selection from the Flyers in exchange for RW Carl Gundstrom and LHD Artem Guryev. The condition is that the Sharks receive the earliest of the Flyers’ two 2026 picks, either their own or Columbus’s pick.
Gundstrom is a 6-foot winger who played 56 NHL games for the Sharks last season, and 292 total. He has 43 goals and 33 assists for 76 total points in his NHL career. Gundstrom totaled nine points last year with three goals and six assists.
Guryev is a 6’4″, 225-pound defenseman who has spent his whole career in the minors. He has spent time in both the ECHL and AHL within the Sharks Organization. Guryev was second on the ECHL Wichita Thunder last season in penalty minutes with 81. He also had four points (2G-2A) in 47 games. According to the Flyers’ press release, Guryev will be assigned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms immediately.
Gundstrom, 27, has just one season left on his contract. He carries a $1.8 million cap hit. With the trade, the Sharks acquired Ellis’ full $6.25 million AAV. Ellis is under contract for the next two seasons.
With that, the Flyers effectively freed up $4.45 million in cap space this year, and $6.25 million in cap space next season. Per Puckpedia, the Flyers have $7,240,238 in cap space this season after the Ryan Ellis trade. The Flyers also avoid having to use the LTIR. That is something the team has been hesitant to do.
Ellis has not played since November 13th, 2021. He only played four games in a Flyers uniform.
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Sharks may have had to get to the cap floor of $65M.
https://www.spotrac.com/nhl/san-jose-sharks/yearly
It’s nice that the team cleared up the 6.25 million to spend next year, but on whom? Any free agent worth having more than likely is just going to resign with their own team at a much higher rate because of the cap going up over the next few years.
There will be only a handful of impact type free agents available and more than likely the Flyers will not be one of the teams they will have on their short list. They will probably end up over paying for a second or third tier free agent.
The best thing for the team would be to stumble and get as many ping pong balls for McKenna as possible, especially since the Penguins are in full free fall, even more so after they trade two or three of their primary assets over the course of the season.
and if they do stumble now they have more space they can retain in a trade. Great trade
Too bad their isn’t an award for GM of the year! Yippee Kayay!
there is