Flyers News

A couple of NHL rumors never hurt anybody. At least, not to my knowledge. Flyers fans have really been beating the drum on social media for Carolina’s Martin Necas, and understandably so. It’s easy to see why he’d be a great fit in Philadelphia in the long term. Tampa Bay’s Tanner Jeannot is another player who just feels like a Flyer, and Danny Briere is cool with Lightning GM Julien Brisebois. Also, former NHLer Ondrej Kase is someone I’d like to see get a chance at making an NHL comeback after some seriously unfortunate health problems.

We talked a little bit about international hockey, too. Sam Ersson won his first international medal, earning bronze as the backup goaltender for Sweden at the 2024 Men’s World Championships in Czechia. Joel Farabee didn’t look too hot playing alongside Kevin Hayes and Trevor Zegras, but just like in Philadelphia, third-line minutes aren’t exactly his thing.

Most Flyers fans now know Hayes as the guy who takes up $3.5 million against the cap whilst playing for another NHL team. That or the breakaway goal he scored against Ersson to tie the game when the St. Louis Blues came to town on March 4 – one of many plays that helped fuel the Flyers’ death-by-1,000 cuts-style collapse at the end of the season. I could tell from the press box that once Hayes had space on the break, the puck was going in. The Blues ultimately took that one in a painstaking shootout.

In case you (somehow) missed it, Matvei Michkov acknowledged the rumors. Yes, those rumors. And most importantly, neither he nor Roman Rotenberg took the opportunity to shut them down. At this point, I feel like there is at least a little substance to this whole situation, but we will never truly know for sure until it happens. The Flyers would never risk compromising this mission in a million years.

NHL News from National Hockey Now

This was always the likeliest outcome after the Seattle Kraken fired former Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol a few weeks back. Dan Bylsma, formerly of the Pittsburgh Penguins and more recently the Coachella Valley Firebirds, is set to be announced as the Kraken’s newest head coach on Tuesday.

The general expectation around the NHL is that the Boston Bruins and star goalie Jeremy Swayman are finally ready to put a long-term contract extension together and get things moving. Swayman is still young, though, and if necessary, he can drag things out to arbitration once again. What a nightmare that would be, huh?

Who needs the IIHF, anyway? The Federation had banned CSKA Moskva from making any international transfers for two years as a consequence for their role in the Ivan Fedotov debacle, but they’re going to go ahead and make international transfers anyway. Former New Jersey Devils defenseman Nikita Okhotiuk has reportedly agreed to a two-year deal with CSKA, though the ban isn’t supposed to actually take effect until August. I wonder if this could impact Okhotiuk’s ability to return to the NHL down the road.

The Florida Panthers’ impossible Game 3 collapse against the New York Rangers is now over and done with. Down 2-1 in the series, there’s still plenty of hockey left for the Panthers if they want it. Head coach Paul Maurice wants to see his troops use their outdoor voices in Game 4.