After making a big splash earlier in the day when they traded Sean Walker to the Colorado Avalanche, Daniel Brière and the Philadelphia Flyers weren’t finished making moves as he first extended Nick Seeler to a 4-year deal, before finishing the night off as the third team in the Noah Hanifin trade to Vegas.
Elliotte Friedman first announced the Hanifin trade on live TV alongside the crew on TNT. The two-way defenseman was the cream of the crop ahead of the trade deadline and after countless rumours and discussions with teams like Boston, Florida, and Tampa Bay, the Vegas Golden Knights swooped in at the 11th hour. The details of the trade were not yet announced and it went into the late hours until Darren Dreger tweeted out that the Flyers would help brokering the trade.
The Golden Knights officially acquired Hanifin for a 2025 first round pick, a conditional third round pick, and Daniil Miromanov, while the Flyers acquired a 2024 fifth round pick for retaining 25% of Hanifin’s $4.95 million AAV. The conditions on the third round pick is that it can be upgraded to a second round pick if Vegas wins one round in the playoffs the spring.
The Flyers also traded the rights to forward Mikhail Vorobyev to Vegas, according to Frank Seravalli. Vorobyev has not appeared in the NHL since 2019-20 and is currently playing for KHL powerhouse SKA Saint Petersburg.
Earlier in the day, the Tampa Bay Lightning brokered the trade between the Anaheim Ducks and the Edmonton Oilers that saw them retain 25% of Adam Henrique’s contract in exchange for a fourth round pick, so the going rate seemed to be a mid-round draft pick, which works out for the Flyers as they shipped out a fifth round pick alongside Walker to Colorado.
The Golden Knights had just placed Mark Stone on LTIR, freeing up a ton of cap space just ahead of the deadline. The cap circumvention debate has been ongoing ever since Tampa Bay took advantage when they initially won their cups, however, if you can weaponize that rule, might as well take advantage – right or wrong.
As for the Flyers, they might be done in regards of the trade deadline as Seeler has been extended, Walker is on the move, and with Rasmus Ristolainen, Jamie Drysdale, and Seeler on the mend, Marc Staal will most likely stay put after all. It will be interesting to see if the young defensive trio in Ronnie Attard, Adam Ginning, and Egor Zamula can step up to the mark and keep the Flyers playoff hopes afloat with a gauntlet of a 10-game stretch upcoming and core defensemen out on a week-to-week basis.
