The NHL trade deadline is Friday, but this season, trades have been coming fast and furious in the week or two leading up to it.

The Flyers have not been part of that flurry of early activity.

Sure there was the Isaac Ratcliffe trade, but the needle didn’t even get warm, let alone move at all with that one. Otherwise, things have been very quiet in Flyer land.

This shouldn’t surprise, because the Flyers don’t have a lot to trade at this deadline.

Seriously, let’s look at the possibilities:

JVR

James van Riemsdyk is a veteran who traditionally has a scorer’s touch, but he’s been available via trade for more than a year, and no one has bit. On the right team, JVR could be a nice addition as a net-front presence on the power play, but he is otherwise a depth forward, and not a very good one at that this season. His game has dropped precipitously. He only has nine goals. Full games go by and you forget that he’s even on the ice. The Flyers are willing to retain half his remaining salary, and even still, interest has been lukewarm. Teams are interested, but only as a Plan C or Plan D. The notion of the Flyers being able to get a good draft pick for him seems to be dwindling by the hour. JVR will still get traded, but the Flyers are likely not going to get a return they were hopeful for when discussion started ramping up last month. I’ll predict a third round pick at best, and likely one that is down the road (2025 or later).

Killer Bs

Justin Braun and Patrick Brown are both on expiring contracts and neither offer much in the way of excitement for other teams looking to add for the playoffs. At this point, Braun is a No. 7 defenseman who would provide insurance in case of an injury to a starter. Brown is a fourth line guy whose best quality is he’s very good in the faceoff circle. The Flyers are even willing to retain up to 50 percent of their salaries, but neither have huge value. If you get a couple of late round picks for them (5th or 6th) you did well, but right now, I’m told, interest on both is mild.

The All Star

Kevin Hayes is having the best offensive season of his career, and yet, there is no interest from other teams in trading for him at the moment. The hurdle is his albatross of a contract, which comes with a $7.14 million cap hit for the rest of this season and the next three as well. That’s not to say there aren’t teams that would trade for him under the right circumstances, because there are. But those conversations would have to start with the Flyers retaining 50% of his remaining contract. They aren’t willing to go that far. They think it’s too much dead money/cap hit and the interested teams think anything less than that is too much salary and term for which they’d be on the hook. As such, there are crickets. To me, this seems more likely to go into the offseason, where a contract buyout is possible.

Provy

This is the one that we knew would be a hot button topic at the deadline and also knew could be too hard to pull off in March, but that good groundwork could be laid for an offseason transaction. Provorov is their best trade asset at this point. He could bring in a nice return. And teams are interested considering he has a manageable cap number, is under contract for another two seasons beyond this one, and is still young, durable and reliable from a minutes played perspective. But trading Provorov is likely a “hockey trade,” which means that both parties are willing to move talent for talent. Provorov isn’t just for a couple draft picks, or a prospect, or a pick and a prospect. No. His value is certainly higher, so a trade for Provorov has to net NHL-ready players in return. Winnipeg is still interested. They’ve liked Provorov for years, so this doesn’t surprise. However, pulling off a trade like this in-season is a lot harder than in the summer when you have cap flexibility. I’d still say this doesn’t happen before the deadline, but, as long as there’s a conversation, there remains a chance.

The rest

Other names have come up as potential trade candidates. Nick Seeler is one, but Torts likes what he brings to the table, he’s affordable, and is useful as a third pair guy, so I don’t see him getting moved. The whole Joel Farabee thing got blown out proportion by his agent yapping to national insiders, so I don’t see that happening. Tony DeAngelo was a target of the Hurricanes before they traded for Shayne Gostisbehere. That doesn’t mean they preferred Ghost over TDA, it just means that getting Ghost for a 3rd round pick four drafts from now was a lot more palatable than what it would have cost to get TDA from the Flyers. Remember, they traded him to the Flyers because they wouldn’t pay him $5 million a year. Maybe they wanted the Flyers to eat some of that salary and the Flyers wouldn’t, or maybe the Flyers were holding out for a much better offer than what Ghost cost the Canes. Either way, while someone could still swoop in before the deadline and offer what the Flyers want, I think TDA stays too. Travis Sanheim would have had great value at the deadline if he wasn’t signed to an 8-year contract on opening night. As it is, if the team is interested in moving him, that would have to be a summertime deal as well. The one young player I don’t think is in Torts’ long-term plans is Morgan Frost, but again, I don’t think he’s being traded this weekend.

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