Last week, Brotherly Bully’s Brandon Sommermann tweeted out that the Philadelphia Flyers and Vegas Golden Knights were engaged in preliminary talks regarding a forward and a defenseman. It sounds like that defenseman in question is Nicolas Hague, which was confirmed by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
On the surface, a trade between both clubs makes perfect sense considering the surplus of wingers at the Flyers’ disposal and conversely the surplus of defensemen in Vegas. Alex Pietrangelo, Shea Theodore, and Noah Hanifin have staked their claim at the top of the pecking order, which has relegated Hague to either second or third pairing duties.
Vegas also has Brayden McNabb firmly entrenched as a top-4 defenseman, having played in all 82 games over the last 3 seasons, Zach Whitecloud, and Kaedan Korczak, who many believe is finally ready for full-time NHL minutes. For at least 2025-26, the Golden Knights have all 6 defensemen spots filled up without Hague’s services.
The former second-round pick from the 2017 NHL Entry Draft is now a six-year veteran with 364 games of experience under his belt. He has collected 20 goals and 83 points to go along with 235 PIMs, a plus-20 rating, 17:33 ATOI, and a whopping 489 blocked shots to 572 hits.
The 6’6”, 245-pound Hague also has 44 games of playoff experience, which includes 6 points, 27 PIMs, and a plus-12 rating during their 22-game run to the Stanley Cup in 2023 that also saw him average 18:34 TOI.
Hague is currently an RFA so if the Flyers do acquire him from the Golden Knights, they would need to sign him to a new deal. He is coming off a 3-year deal that paid him $6,882,450 or an annual cap hit of $2,294,150 and should come in at a little higher evaluation on his next deal.
For the Flyers, their back-end currently has Travis Sanheim, Jamie Drysdale, Nick Seeler, Emil Andrae, and Egor Zamula. Cam York is a pending RFA and Rasmus Ristolainen may miss the start of the season due to a ruptured triceps he suffered late last year that required surgery.
It remains to be seen if Andrae has a job stapled for the start of 2025-26 after a somewhat disappointing finish to the season, and the same can be said for Zamula who fell down the pecking order and was very quiet near the end of the year. With those question marks added to Ristolainen’s absence, acquiring Hague might actually be necessary.
Hague would provide the Flyers’ back-end with the size, physicality, and aggression that is required in today’s game, especially in Ristolainen’s absence. Seeler can’t be the only one entrusted to strike fear into the opposition, get into every scrum, and set the tone with a hit or a fight.
Speaking of York, there’s not much news coming out of either camp in regard to a new contract. There were issues last season between player and coach but with the latter having been removed, it’s possible that a fresh start is what will be in store for the former first-round pick under Rick Tocchet.
After a great season in 2023-24, one that saw him net 10 goals and 30 points but also almost 25 minutes a night in the final months, York took a big step back in 2024-25 and it was almost unknown as to what had happened. Now that he will no longer be challenged by the fiery John Tortorella, York needs to stake his claim as the top-pairing defenseman the Flyers need him to become.
Given that the Flyers won’t be getting much help from any reinforcements from the AHL and prospects like Oliver Bonk may not be quite ready for the NHL game yet, trying to find cost effective quality defensemen on the market will be the way to go but it’s easier said than done – most of the time.
With the Flyers engaged in talks for Hague, there’s a clear need from the front office to address the left-side of the defense while also trying to shore up a positional weakness. It might come at the cost of a versatile forward like Bobby Brink but to get quality, you have to give quality in return.
With Tyson Foerster, Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov, and Owen Tippett ahead of him and prospects like Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, and Nikita Grebenkin waiting in the wings, and bottom-6 roles occupied by Noah Cates, Ryan Poehling, and Garnet Hathaway, there just doesn’t seem to be much room left for Brink to expand his game.
The Knights also desperately need cost effective forwards and Brink would do wonders in their top-9 alongside Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Tomáš Hertl, and Ivan Barbashev. With just $9,615,000 in projected cap space this summer, Brink’s $1.5 million dollar cap hit would help immensely for depth purposes.
Sommerman added that Los Angeles and Florida will be teams interested in Hague as well should be become available, pitting the Flyers in a bidding war for his services.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out and expect the chatter to increase with the draft set to take place in just three weeks at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
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