Quick Hits: July 22, 2021
1) The Seattle Kraken largely eschewed bigger-name, higher-contract forwards in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft with only a few exceptions such as Jordan Eberle. The Kraken were unable to make any trades specific to the Draft in terms of the players they ultimately selected. The Flyers lost left winger Carsen Twarynski to the Kraken.
Twarynski is essentially a callup depth player at the NHL level. He's a good straight-line skater, and brings some physicality on the forecheck. He has an underrated shot, but goal-scoring isn't his niche at the pro level. From a hockey standpoint, losing the player is unlikely to make much impact.
The Flyers, however, were like other teams that were hoping to get some cap relief from the Expansion Draft that they could use toward making other moves this offseason: they got no relief whatsoever from Seattle's selection of Twarynski. With Seattle unable to make any deals that traded cap relief to other teams in exchange for Draft pick assets on top of still-productive (but expensive) players, teams' hardest-to-trade contracts with high cap hits and two or more seasons of remaining term remain tough to escape. It appears that Seattle general manager Ron Francis set the price tags too high because there wasn't a single taker. Any pre-Draft deal tied specifically to which player was selected from a given team in exchange for assets would have been announced yesterday.
Seattle also signed two unrestricted free agent defensemen in whom the Flyers may have had interest had they been available come July 28: Adam Larsson (Edmonton Oilers) and Jamie Oleksiak (Dallas Stars). They also selected Mark Giordano from Calgary and brought him onstage last night. It seems far more likely that the 37-year-old defenseman, who won the Norris Trophy in 2017-18, will be named the Kraken's inaugural captain rather than being immediately flipped to the New York Rangers (as was rumored pre-Draft) or another team this offseason.
All in all, the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft day was kind of a dud in terms of the fact that it didn't throw the rest of the offseason wide open for player movement.
2) At 1 p.m. EDT today, the NHL's moratorium ends on trades that did not specifically involve the Expansion Draft. All 32 teams can once again trade amongst themselves. This includes Seattle potentially flipping some of the players they selected yesterday to other NHL clubs.
Elliotte Friedman reported on his post-Draft podcast last night that one such player on the move today is expected to be Tyler Pitlick (selected from Arizona yesterday). Friedman said that Calgary is Pitlick's most likely destination but the Flyers are also involved in trying to reacquire him instead. Pitlick, who spent the 2019-20 season with the Flyers before departing via unrestricted free agency to sign with Arizona (who gave him a two-year contract and a $750,000 AAV salary bump) last offseason. The contract, which has one season remaining, carries a $1.75 million cap hit. Pitlick will turn 30 on Nov. 1.
3) As of right now, the Flyers still have all of their 2021 and 2021 Draft picks, including the 13th overall pick of the first round in the 2021 Entry Draft. They currently have $9.385 million of available cap space (with a need to re-sign restricted free agents Carter Hart and Travis Sanheim as well as to bring in a goaltending partner for Hart).
4) The mock Entry Draft that I wrote for the 2021 first round plus the opening pick of the second round on Saturday (since Arizona had to forfeit its first-rounder and there will only by 31 first-round selections this year instead of 32) will be posted later today on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com. I won't go into the "mock pick" rationale here but I will say that I had the Flyers selecting Cole Sillinger in the 13th spot.
5) Today is the final day of the Flyers Alumni autographed game-worn jersey auction. There are two jerseys that have not received a bid, so there's a good chance of snagging one of them with one bid. Proceeds benefit the Flyers Alumni Association. The following autographed jerseys are available: Jesse Boulerice, Danny Briere, Dave Brown, Jeff Chychrun, Riley Cote, Doug Crossman, Scott Daniels (no bids to date), Robert Esche, Adam Hall (no bids), Mark Howe, Bob Kelly (pregame ceremony jersey), Mike Knuble, Mitch Lamoureaux, Ian Laperriere, John LeClair, Brad Marsh, Carl Mokosak, Kjell Samuelsson, Al Secord, Dave Schultz (pregame ceremony jersey), Jody Shelley, Chris Therien, Jim Watson (pregame ceremony), and Joe Watson.
The auction ends this evening at 8 p.m. ET. To check out the jerseys and place a bid,
click here.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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