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Travis Konecny Very Politely Says that the Flyers Stink and Don’t Have Enough Talent
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This sounds like a guy who knows he’s not winning anything here, at least not any time soon. And this was BEFORE Wednesday night’s game:
TK is biting his tongue, and hard:
“I think the core of the group is obviously here.”
Core? What core? They don’t have a franchise goaltender, a top-line center, or a top-pair defenseman. They’ve got some pieces, and they’ve got Tyson Foerster coming back from injury and Porter Martone coming through the pipeline, but they hardly have a “core” in place.
“I’m not gonna get into details, but I think we obviously need some stuff in, you know, to help us get to that next level. You know, you look at some of the big teams in the league, like we need a little bit of, you know, areas that we need help in. But overall, you know, you look at the talent and the skill and the depth we have on our team, there’s a lot of good things there.”
Konecny was a tough one when the Flyers were tearing this thing down because he was right at the threshold where he was young enough to keep or old enough to trade for a return. Kind of straddling the line. There wasn’t a fan and media consensus on whether it made sense to extend or move him, but the Flyers did the former and he signed for 8 x $8.75 million, which takes him through 2032. He’ll be in his mid-thirties by then.
TK was quoted earlier in the year, frustrated because he was “tired of missing the playoffs,” and the Flyers probably aren’t qualifying this year. They’re eight points back on February 26th, with a jumbled schedule coming out of the Olympic break. And unless Danny B works some kind of magic this offseason, are they a playoff team or a contender next year? TK will be close to 30 by then.
If he wants to win, it’s probably not going to be here. But he’s got a no-movement clause and he’s the only one who can waive it. At what point do these guys ask out and try to join a contender? And is that the worst thing for either party? It might even be a win/win, depending on how you feel about the roster itself.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com