Flyers make Shayne Gostisbehere a healthy scratch.

The Philadelphia Flyers have just pulled off a rather unexpected move and it has created a firestorm of speculation on social media, although the reality of the situation is probably something much simpler than what many are speculating about. 

On Saturday Philadelphia Flyers insider Dave Isaac broke the news that veteran head coach Alain Vigneault had made the difficult decision to sit Philadelphia Flyers star defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere as a result of his poor and inconsistent play to start the 2019 - 2020 National Hockey League regular season. It was a move that caught fans very much by surprise even though there had been some hints that Vigneault had already considered making the move prior to Saturday, and one that has led to speculation regarding Gostisbehere's long term future as a member of the Flyers. 

To be clear here I do not believe that the Flyers and Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher have put any kind of serious thought into trading Gostisbehere at the moment as this seems to be a move designed to get the defenseman back on the right track. On Friday Alain Vigneault spoke about how he was disappointed he was not seeing more out of the Flyers defenseman and this move seems much more likely to an effort from Vigneault to ignite a fire under his offensively talented defenseman.

“I am expecting a little bit more as far as plays with the puck," said Vigneault on Friday as per NBC Sports. "An offensive defenseman has to have the ability to beat the forecheck and to know when to jump in. I have seen some of that. Ghost is a little bit like our team — he’s a work in progress, he can play better, he will get better.”

Now to be fair to those speculating about a possible trade it is true that rumors did surface this past summer regarding the possibility of a trade involving the talented defenseman, but those rumors were very quickly shut down by general manager Chuck Fletcher. 

Many have been quick to link him to a potential deal with the Montreal Canadiens, a team that has an abundance of cap space to make this type of move, but as of this writing no credible source has come forward to suggest that there is anything going on in that regard.