Flyers lose young forward on waivers to rival team.

Flyers lose a player on waivers.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Flyers lose young forward on waivers to rival team.
Keystone Press

The Philadelphia Flyers took a risk and it has not turned out the way they would have hoped. 

According to a breaking news report from Sportsnet's National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman, 23 year old forward Danick Martel has been claimed off of waivers after being waived by the Flyers on Friday. Friedman is reporting that the relatively green native of Drummondville, Quebec has been claimed by the Tampa Bay Lightning, a report that has now been officially confirmed by the Lightning organization.

Martel was an undrafted forward who previously played in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League when he was scouted and signed by the Flyers organization to play at the American Hockey League level as a member of the Leigh Valley Phantoms, the Flyer's AHL affiliate team. Since joining the Flyers organization Martel played in parts of 4 seasons at the AHL level for the Phantoms and after showing both solid play as well as a measure of consistency he finally earned himself a shot at the NHL level last season. In spite of the fact that he played in just 4 total NHL games and recorded no points in those 4 games it appears that Martel made enough of an impression on the Lightning organization that their management felt he warranted a waiver pick up. 

Now if the Lightning themselves want to send Martel down to the American Hockey League they will also have to place him on the waiver wire as well, something that would effectively restart the entire process, and with that in mind you have to wonder if the Lightning don't envision a scenario in which Martel will get more playing time at the NHL level. If that is indeed the case this could turn out to be a great career opportunity for Martel in spite of the fact that it will weaken the team that first gave him a shot at both the AHL and NHL levels. 

Perhaps the worst thing to come out of this for the Flyers is that not only has this move strengthened the depth of a rival NHL franchise at the cost of their own depth, but that it also has helped a conference rival. Both the Lightning and the Flyers play in the Eastern Conference and their may even be a chance that Maertel will get to face off against his former team at some point during the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season.

Now it's not all doom and gloom here for the Flyers, first of all Martel was hardly a big contributor for the organization, at least not at the NHL level, and there is also perhaps some indication that Flyers general manager Ron Hextall knew very well that Martel could get picked up today. According to Friedman he had the chance to speak to an NHL general manager following the decision to place Martel on waivers and that general manager informed him that it was likely someone would take a gamble on the young forward. If Friedman was privy to this information I believe it's a safe bet that Hextall was aware of it as well.

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