Over the last several years, the Philadelphia Flyers have developed a penchant for making opportunistic buy-low trades, especially for players who were formerly high draft picks.
As they head into the offseason in desperate need of more talent at center and an upgrade on defense, it’s time for them to explore this habit once again.
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On Thursday morning, The Athletic released its latest NHL trade board as we approach the beginning of June, and it’s chock-full of interesting options for the Flyers.
For this article, though, I wanted to focus on Seattle Kraken center Shane Wright, who was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft.
Wright, 22, ranks 11th on the new trade board and fourth amongst centers, behind only Vincent Trocheck, Mason McTavish, and Elias Pettersson.
Wright’s the youngest of the bunch and coming off the most disappointing season; he scored just 12 goals, 15 assists, and 27 points in 74 games for the Kraken after having 44 points in 79 games last season.
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Now entering a contract year, it’s now or never for Wright in Seattle, and the Kraken, at this point, aren’t obligated to give him that opportunity.
The Burlington, Ontario, native can and will be replaced by prospects Berkly Catton and Jake O’Brien at center behind Matty Beniers, and the Kraken have long been looking for winger upgrades to complement those players.
Of course, it goes almost without saying by now that the Flyers have loads of wingers to trade in a deal that makes sense for them, and this might be one of those deals.
Shane Wright showed flashes of developing into a productive offensive player in the 2024-25 season. (Evolving-Hockey)
Wright’s trade value has never been lower, and that should be music to the Flyers’ ears.
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In the recent past, the Flyers have shown a demonstrable level of patience when it comes to finding the right trade for them while maintaining interest in the players they want.
This was the case with David Jiricek before he was traded to the Minnesota Wild, and discussions around Trevor Zegras took place over an extended period of time before the deal was finally done last summer.
The Flyers also picked up Owen Tippett, a former No. 10 overall draft pick, in 2022 in the Claude Giroux trade.
That precedent tells us that now is the Flyers’ time to trade for Shane Wright.
It has been suggested in the past that the Flyers were not especially interested in Wright, but again, the opportunity is presenting itself to Philadelphia at a great discount.
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Wright had 44 points as a 21-year-old in his first full NHL season a year ago, and on the Flyers, he would be playing alongside much more talented wingers, such as Tippett, Matvei Michkov, Porter Martone, and Travis Konecny.
It helps, too, that Wright is a right-shot center, one of the reasons the Flyers went out of their way to claim Luke Glendening off waivers a few months back.
Wright, unlike someone such as Jett Luchanko, is already a qualifiable, established NHL center, and with one year on his contract, the Flyers won’t be tying themselves to a gaudy undertaking if things don’t work out.
For a player who was once widely regarded as 2022’s No. 1 overall prospect, this is a chance worth taking for the Flyers.
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