24-year-old former 1st round pick rumoured to be available in Philly; Dubas should put in a call
It has been an eventful Wednesday in terms of hockey news, but perhaps one of the more interesting stories of the day comes straight from the mouth of Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, and it's in relation to one of the Philadelphia Flyers' best young players.
Per Friedman on The Jeff Marek Show, the Flyers had nearly moved forward Travis Konecny in the summer and the team informed the player that they decided to hang onto him, as they viewed him as a part of the solution in Philadelphia. The interesting part in all of this was what Friedman said next.
"So what that says to me is that if you want to call Philadelphia and make an offer for Travis Konecny, they're going to at least listen to you," Friedman stated.
Now, there's obviously a difference between listening to offers and willfully shopping a player, but there are certainly a bevy of teams who could benefit from acquiring a spark plug like Travis Konecny. One team, at least from my perspective, is the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Konecny was selected in the first round (24th overall) in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft - a pick that the Leafs were in possession of before they had elected to trade down. For more on that story, click here to check out an article from Sportsnet's Luke Fox.
If Konecny is indeed available, I believe that Kyle Dubas should at least pick up the phone and see what it would take to get the deal done. I'd imagine that the Flyers are looking for your standard roster player, good young prospect, plus a 1st round pick sort of deal. Could the Leafs put together a package enticing enough to get Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher to bite? They certainly have the assets.. it's the financial aspect of things that would be tough.
The 24-year-old is signed for 3 more seasons after this one at a very reasonable $5.5M cap hit and could certainly benefit from a change of scenery. After exploding for 61 points in 66 games back in 2019-20 in his third consecutive 24-goal season, Konecny has seen a bit of regression over the last two years, managing just 11 goals last year and 7 so far this season. Even with this regression, Konecny was still on pace for 55 points last season and is on pace once again this season to come close to the 50-point mark. Respectable production from the kid, and the Flyers haven't exactly been shooting the lights out over the last couple of seasons.
You'd have to wonder if the Flyers would consider a deal centered around Alexander Kerfoot, one of Nicholas Robertson/Rodion Amirov and a 1st round pick.. The Leafs would still need to ship off Nick Ritchie in a separate deal in order to make things work from a cap perspective, but that would certainly give the Leafs the appropriate amount of space to make it all fit.
According to TSN's Chris Johnston on Tuesday's edition of Insider Trading, the Leafs are not looking for a lot of expiring contracts again this season, but rather players with term remaining. Konecny certainly fits that description. Food for thought.
