There is a major fire sale coming in Philadelphia.
Earlier today Philadelphia Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher met with members of the Philadelphia media and spoke about the direction of the franchise as they head towards the 2019 National Hockey League trade deadline. The expectations from many was that Fletcher, a general manager who was appointed mid season after the termination of former Flyers general manager Ron Hextall, would look to make wholesale changes to the organization and that speculation appeared to be confirmed on Monday.
According to a breaking news report from Philadelphia Flyers insider Sam Carchidi, one of the media members who was present when Fletcher spoke earlier today, Fletcher has made every single player on the roster available for trade with the notable exception of Flyers captain and National Hockey League All Star Claude Giroux. Carchidi did add however that he expects that rookie goaltender Carter Hart is also likely exempt from any such trade, which would make sense given just how well Hart has performed for the Flyers this season since finally being called up from the American Hockey League.
That is of course a very interesting bit of news when you consider just how many talented players are currently on the Flyers roster. Although certainly the team has greatly under performed relative to the expectations of ownership and their fan base, players like Jakub Voracek, Shayne Gostisbehere and Wayne Simmonds remain extremely well respected players around the NHL. You have to imagine that any one of those players would fetch a big price ahead of the NHL's trade deadline and that could mean that Fletcher is looking to do some major retooling in order to get his team back to being competitive.
Of course the rumors surrounding Simmonds have been particularly loud given his status as an unrestricted free agent at the end of this current season and Fletcher was quick to address those rumors when asked on Monday. Fletcher admitted that he has indeed had talks with Wayne Simmonds' agent but would not confirm whether or not he has extended an offer to Simmonds at this time. Carchidi is reporting that this made it sound like Simmonds would indeed be traded by the Flyers.
Stay tuned to this one, because we may be in for some major shake ups in Philly.
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