I love spite. According to Elliotte Friedman on his 32 Thoughts podcast, the Flyers waived Ryan Johansen in part because of his history with Torts and also because his agent represents Cutter Gauthier:

The section about Johansen came about halfway through the episode.

Friedman:

“Initially when it happened, I didn’t think there was any chance Johansen was going to play there. He was going to be waived and when he cleared, that he was gonna go to the minor leagues, whether it was in the Lehigh Valley or somewhere else. And then I understand there was some attempt at – also don’t forget Tortorella and Johansen have a complicated history to say the least – then I heard there was some attempt at reconciliation, that Johansen indicated that he would like to make it work, and he wanted to play in the NHL and play for the Flyers. And I heard the Flyers were willing to have the conversation, then came word that Johansen was battling something, whether an injury or (whatever) the case was. So now that’s all on hold. And I think at the time of the deadline some of these things get thrown into the background. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes because Johansen would probably be bought out at the end of the year, and if you’re injured you can’t be bought out.  

…

Also too, there’s some hard feelings there, just in general because Johansen is represented by Kurt Overhardt, and Kurt Overhardt represents Cutter Gauthier, or ’cause he’s in the NCAA, he’s Gauthier’s ‘family advisor’ … So there’s some hard feelings there and people wonder how much this plays into all of this, but we’ll see where that goes with Ryan Johansen and Philly.”

Was  Johansen the smoking gun the entire time? Did he get in the young guy’s ear? Could’ve been.

I’ll tell you what, I love The New Era of Orange! Dan Hilferty is paying Torts’ fines, the Flyers are winning, and Danny Briere is moving and shaking at the trade deadline. I mean look at this chud. I’d hate his guts too. He looks like a healthcare exec who just raised the price of my grandmother’s hearing aids by 35%:

Kinkead: not for nothing, but there’s some prior beef with Overhardt and Frank Seravalli that’s pretty funny and probably worth sharing (though Seravalli doesn’t have anything to do with the above) –