The Philadelphia Flyers are getting named a whole lot in recent trade rumors and the latest is that the Vancouver Canucks are looking over to the east coast to try and snag a winger from the Orange and Black.
While the Flyers are still trying to figure out their way around the devastating injury to Tyson Foerster and how that affects the outlook of their season, trade rumors are still taking place and it is surrounding another winger who has been given a whole lot of opportunity to produce in Philadelphia.
Owen Tippett is a name that we have heard in trade rumors before but we haven’t seen a definitive linking between the player and a potential new team this season. Well, until now.
Canucks eyeing up Flyers’ Owen Tippett in trade talks
On Wednesday’s edition of Donnie & Dhali, Canucks insider Rick Dhaliwal dropped a little bit of a very solid link between the Canucks and the Flyers. While it is known that the two teams are talking, according to several other reports, any specific player not named Quinn Hughes has not been named until now. According to Dhaliwal, the Canucks are very interested in Owen Tippett.
“You know how Canucks and Philadelphia are talking trade? Someone told me that the Canucks really like Owen Tippett in Philly. But, that would be a hard get,” Dhaliwal said Wednesday afternoon.
There has been endless discussion and reports and pondering and podcast clips surrounding potential trade action between Vancouver and Philadelphia. The Flyers are obviously interested in world-class defenseman Quinn Hughes if he is made available and the Canucks switch to more of a rebuild. And recently, Elliotte Friedman made the connection that head coach Rick Tocchet could want to get some of the Canucks’ veteran players if the team goes through a full fire sale, to reunite on the Flyers. And now, one of the most trusted reporters in Vancouver is directly connecting the Canucks to Owen Tippett and how they would be interested in acquiring the 26-year-old winger from the Flyers.
Back in October, there was some noise surrounding Tippett and how some teams are really eyeing up the Flyers winger and it makes perfect sense. On paper, he is a 6-foot-2, goal-scoring winger that skates as fast as Connor McDavid in a straight line. The tools are immense. This season, he is backing up some of that chatter with eight goals and 17 points in 25 games played, on pace to hit career-high numbers.
But, it’s not like he’s going to escape from Philadelphia as a free agent anytime soon, either. Tippett is under contract through the 2031-32 season after inking an eight-year contract extension in January of last year that carries a cap hit of $6.2 million. The total package of contract certainty and the cap rising makes him even more attractive to other teams.
While some fans in Philadelphia might not be absolutely in love with the player, since there is a concern for inconsistency, Tippett is more than attractive for any team that wants some talent for the next little while. His age, toolkit, and contract situation alone makes him a fairly valuable piece and it makes all the sense in the world for a team like the Canucks, who don’t want to tear it down but want to get younger and faster, would target someone like Tippett.
But, why would the Flyers so easily part ways with someone that seems like a really good player and an unproblematic contract?
Why the Flyers would trade Tippett to Vancouver
Well, as almost every single Flyers fan is hyper-aware of, this team has a whole lot of talent on the wings already. Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny, and Tyson Foerster are three of the four top-six wingers that the Flyers have plans for when they want to be competitive on a regular basis again. Throw in 2025 first-round pick Porter Martone, and that’s pretty much locked. And then you have prospects like Alex Bump and Denver Barkey excelling in their AHL rookie seasons, Shane Vansaghi and Jack Murtagh in the NCAA, and then even young Nikita Grebenkin in the NHL — and that’s a whole lot of wingers. Oh, and we almost forgot about Bobby Brink while typing this very paragraph.
Basically, something will have to give eventually and the Canucks really eyeing up Tippett as a solution to some of their problems could play in the Flyers’ favor.
The Canucks do have their next two first-round draft picks if general manager Danny Briere wants to go that route. And in addition to the picks, there are some really intriguing young defensemen like Elias Pettersson, Victor Mancini, and Tom Willander that could address some of the lack of true high-end prospects on the blue line for Philadelphia.
There might be something cooking here and a trade that just works for both teams and solves a whole lot of problems. We might not see it happen anytime soon due to Tyson Foerster’s injury and depleting this lineup of even more offensive talent while they’re in playoff contention wouldn’t be the best signal to send to the locker room; but, could we see it happen around the trade deadline? Possibly.