So Ron Hextall bit the bullet and made the trade with Detroit anyway.

He really had no choice.

The Flyers acquired Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek for two conditional draft picks (which I’ll break down in a minute).

In essence, what they did late last night (Hextall’s conference call with reporters was at 11 p.m. – right in the middle of me recording my segment for today’s Crossing Broadcast, which, if you listen, makes me sound pretty prescient! Haha!), was trade for a healthier version of Michal Neuvirth.

Mrazek is only 26 and at one time was considered the Red Wings’ goalie of the future. And although he had chances to take that job and run with it, he never did. He was wildly inconsistent – at times looking like a world beater – an impenetrable force – and other times looking like Swiss cheese.

The Czech goalie is one who relies on emotion and competitiveness, so when things are going well, so is he. And when they’re not – well… neither is he.

There have also been whispers that he’s not the most well-liked guy in the locker room, and while there is no hard, public evidence, when you start hearing things like that in hockey, usually there is at least some smoke, if not a full-on fire.

Combine that with the fact that the Red Wings were quite eager to get rid of him – they retained 50% of Mrazek’s salary for the rest of the year, which is the maximum allowed in a trade – and you begin to wonder if the Flyers know what they’re getting but were willing to risk the red flags out of desperation.

After all, it appears that Neuvirth’s lower body injury, believed to be a groin, is one that’s going to keep him out long-term. He was placed on injured reserve to allow the Flyers to get Mrazek on the roster.

And we already know Brian Elliott is out another 4-5 weeks with his core muscle injury (formerly sports hernia, formerly abdominal strain, formerly groin pull).

So the Flyers want to assure they get into the playoffs, and relying on an AHL tandem of Alex Lyon and Dustin Tokarski wasn’t going to cut it.

Additionally, top prospect Carter Hart isn’t eligible to be recalled from junior hockey, even if he were ready for the NHL (which he’s not), or even if the Flyers wanted to turn to him. CHL rules prevent players from being recalled to the NHL until after the CHL season is over.

So the Flyers had to pay a price.

Let’s look at that price.

It’s likely going to end up being at least the same third round pick the Red Wings originally asked for last week that the Flyers balked at.

So, it starts off as a 2018 fourth round pick. If Mrazek injures his core muscles driving to the rink today and is done for the season, that’s what the Red Wings will get.

However, if Mrazek wins five games for the Flyers and they make the playoffs, the 4th rounder becomes a 2018 3rd rounder.

Additionally, if the Flyers reach the Eastern Conference Finals, and Mrazek is the goalie they are riding and he accumulates six playoff wins, the pick becomes a 2018 2nd rounder.

Then, there’s a conditional 2019 third round pick. That is conveyed to Detroit if the Flyers re-sign Mrazek after the season.

This is an interesting scenario as Mrazek is a restricted free agent and is currently making $4 million, so it’s a hefty price to pay. Considering the Flyers have Elliott and Neuvirth under contract already for next season makes the situation all the muddier.

Look, I’m not saying this was a bad move by Hextall. It’s not. He needed an NHL-caliber goalie, and although Mrazek may be inconsistent or a little bit of a head case, he has proven he can win at the NHL level, and that’s what the Flyers needed the most right now.

Yes, it was a steep price to pay – likely one third rounder, and maybe two – because if Mrazek comes in, is a good soldier and thrives because he just needed a change of scenery, then the Flyers would be wise to keep him as an upgrade over Neuvirth next year.

But, the situation here is not ideal. Hextall doesn’t want to trade away draft assets unless he’s improving the team long-term, because he is a good drafting GM, and this was a trade of necessity, not necessarily longevity.

In addition to all of this, the Flyers activated goalie Anthony Stolarz, who has missed the entire season recovering from a torn meniscus, and assigned him to Lehigh Valley. Stolarz was originally slated to return in March. These two injuries to Elliott and Neuvirth may have expedited his time table by a couple weeks.

That’s not to say he’s going to be ready to jump up to the big club any time soon. He hasn’t played in 10 months. He’s going to need to get back in hockey shape and then play some in the AHL before he can even be considered an option for the Flyers. Maybe he’s ready in a month – but that might even be stretching it. I wouldn’t count on Stolarz as a viable option for the Flyers this season.

Now, all told, this story might be burying the lede today.

That’s because the Flyers also recalled Oskar Lindblom from the Phantoms late last night.

Most fans will be celebrating this move, because they’ve been calling for him all season. Fans would rather see Lindblom than the veteran trio the Flyers roll out for their fourth line every night – Dale Weise, Valterri Filppula and Jori Lehtera.

However, there’s a reason they haven’t to this point. Lindblom is not a fourth line guy. He needs more minutes than that. He’s an offensive-minded forward. He needs to be in a top six, or at worst, a top nine forward role.

I’ve been told they view him long-term as a second line winger – and those are the kinds of situations they want him playing in.

When Russ Joy asked me on the podcast last night about Lindblom, I told him, this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me unless there’s an injury to a top nine forward.

Lo and behold, Hextall said on his conference call last night there was another injury that they’ll update everyone on today.

Uh oh.

I hate to be Debbie Downer, but that sounds like it’s a top six guy. I hope I’m wrong, but – if it was one of the aforementioned veterans, they wouldn’t have recalled Lindblom but rather a guy like Tyrell Goulbourne or Mike Vecchione.

And although Lindblom could conceivably be the guy called if it were a third line guy – like Jordan Weal or Michael Raffl, I’m not sure the Flyers would have withheld mentioning the player a whole other day.

Maybe, but I don’t think so.

So, by deductive reasoning, this to me is a top six forward injury. I won’t say it’s 100 percent top six. Nor will I speculate at the severity of the injury to the unknown player – but I’m just basing this on how the Flyers have done things in the past.

If it’s a long-term injury to one of those guys, we might start seeing chinks in the armor for the Flyers, who seem to be a team that operates right on the 50/50 line of most games and can’t have little things pull them onto the wrong side of that line when they’ve relied so heavily on the little things to keep them on the right side of it for the past two months.

Fans who want to see Mrazek and Lindblom debut for the Flyers should head over to PhiladelphiaFlyers.com to purchase tickets for tonight’s game against Montreal or Thursday’s game against Columbus. About 1,000 ticket remain for each game at all price levels.