Flyers Cannot Afford to Keep Star Travis Konecny

Konecny’s appeal is similar to Hart’s in that he is young, talented, and team-friendly thanks to a $5.5 million cap hit through 2025 (perhaps Chuck Fletcher’s only good contract extension). ‘TK’ is coming off the best season of his career, with 31 goals and 61 points to pace the Flyers despite missing 22 games to injury. He has finally grown into the sniper his early potential always suggested he would become, and any team bidding for his services would have two years to iron out an extension with the disruptive forward. So why have early rumors surrounding him been limited to an optimistic pocket of Edmonton Oilers fans whose team has precious few assets to trade? Simple: the Flyers are too sentimentally attached to Konecny.

A Flyer Through and Through

It is not hard to tell why; Konecny is the only homegrown player left on the team who remains unburdened by fan disappointment. That even includes Hart, who had all the makings of a dominant netminder during 2019-20. Streaky tendencies and a two-year slump mean there are still plenty of questions about the goalie as he becomes a hot property on the trade market. 

Top center Sean Couturier has missed over 100 games because of a back problem that might never leave him, Scott Laughton is an exemplary pro but is best suited for bottom-six minutes, and Travis Sanheim is an average player and bonafide albatross thanks to the outrageous $6.25 million salary Fletcher awarded him through 2031. That leaves Konecny, who the fanbase and coach John Tortorella share a massive affinity for.

There is a lot to like, of course. Konecny scored on an atrocious offense that combined for 220 goals, the fifth-fewest in the NHL, and scored on a league-worst 15.6% of its power plays. He did so with forechecking, constant jawing, and a career-best 16.2 shooting percentage. His play was an outlier on a team whose second-leading scorer, Kevin Hayes, had just 54 points. After Konecny was injured, Tortorella admitted to NBC Sports Philadelphia that the 26-year-old “is involved in so many different things with this team to keep us going.”

A Great Player is a Luxury Rebuilding Teams Cannot Afford

Still, Konecny’s stellar year and a playstyle tailor-made for Philadelphia fans should not gloss over the fact things may never be this good again for the right-handed shot. He reached similar heights during his age-22 season in 2019-20 with 24 goals and a joint career-high 61 points in 66 games, only to regress for the next two years. 

From 2020-2022, Konecny managed just 27 goals in 129 games as his confidence in front of the net abandoned him. One year of successful collaboration with Tortorella should not erase that reality, and whether Konecny turned a corner or was a mirage in 2022-23 should not be the Flyers’ mystery to solve. That is especially true when there is only so much Briere can do to tear the Flyers down to their foundation in the wake of the Fletcher era. 

Former first-rounders Morgan Frost (17 points in 21 games after March 1) and Owen Tippett (27 goals) have only begun to scratch the surface of their potential and have a critical season ahead of them as the Flyers decide which players are part of the solution. Tippett and Frost are just two Flyers whose value on the ice is greater than in the trade market, as Laughton’s cheap contract and intangibles mean a trade out of Philadelphia would hurt more than help.

The Flyers are saddled with other players for monetary reasons. Big blueliners Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen ($5.1 million cap hit through 2027) are stuck on Broad Street with untradeable contracts, while contending teams will consider expensive veteran goalscorers Cam Atkinson and Couturier untouchable; they lost their respective seasons to surgery.

Even as they sell off assets, the Flyers will inevitably add contributors in the near future. Prospects Joel Farabee and Cutter Gauthier could each bolster the Flyers’ top six within the next two seasons. Meanwhile, Cal Petersen, a once-valued goaltender who went to the World Championship with Team USA, and Sean Walker, a veteran right-handed defenseman who could partner Cam York, were acquired in the Provorov trade.

As long as they have that many viable pros, the Flyers will never be worse than below-average under vaunted coach Tortorella. They cannot seek first-overall picks with a skeleton crew like the Chicago Blackhawks did last season and must leverage their most valuable NHL players against draft assets. That leaves Hart and, yes, Konecny on the chopping block.