June 24, 2026
Kyle Ross/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect
The Blackhawks might be on a slippery slope now when it comes to Connor Bedard.
June 23 has developed a unique notoriety among Flyers fans over the past 15 years.
It was the day Mike Richards and Jeff Carter both got traded in 2011. It was when a young James van Riemsdyk got shipped to Toronto for Luke Schenn in 2012, a veteran Scott Hartnell to Columbus for R.J. Umberger in 2014, and a prime Brayden Schenn to St. Louis in 2017, for two first-round picks that became Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee.
It was the day Matvei Michkov arrived to the United States, two years earlier than expected, in 2023, and when the trade was swung with Anaheim for Trevor Zegras just last year.
The odd trend may not be annually consistent, but it's been recurrent enough to the point where Flyers fans in the online sphere (semi) joke that something big involving the team, for better or worse, is about to happen on that day every summer.
But there was far more serious interest in seeing the Flyers make a genuine move this time. The team is young, it just broke through into the playoffs, has significant money to spend under the salary cap for the first time in years, and has a very clear need for a top of the lineup center that many believe is what's needed to take the next step.
Tuesday, June 23, 2026 arrived, though, and the Flyers were quiet, all while other teams across the NHL shook up the landscape with social media-breaking trades as the day turned to night.
And maybe the Flyers standing pat in this spot was for the better. Maybe this June 23 will come to be defined by what they didn't do, rather than what they could've tried to jump for within an offseason trade and free-agent market that has generally been viewed as pretty thin for the past couple of months now.
Because maybe waiting, and for just a bit longer, is about to open up the path to that top center, and not just some relatively unproven middle-sixer who might still get better in a different city either, an outright true No. 1.
Danny Brière and Keith Jones have remained highly patient during their efforts to rebuild the Flyers.
The Flyers did have a list of rumored ties or targets approaching the NHL Draft later this week. But stepping back and looking at any of them realistically, especially when it came to the centers whose names have been floating around, any potential deal would've been a lateral move at best.
Dylan Cozens in Ottawa would've been a clearer upgrade, but neither he nor Shane Pinto were going anywhere after the Senators traded away Brady Tkachuk to Florida.
Dylan Larkin and Mat Barzal are established vets who can produce in the 60-70 point range, but Larkin's current impasse with Detroit only has wanting to be traded to three immediately contending teams, while the Islanders don't seem to be seriously trying to rush Barzal out of Long Island, and especially to a divsional foe – not to mention, each is getting into their 30s and are probably a touch too old for the Flyers' trajectory.
And Shane Wright, to put it bluntly, only comes off as a good idea if you focus just on the label of him being a former fourth overall pick, not if you've actually seen him play in Seattle.
Basically, there wasn't any feasible trade that could be made right now, for as far as what's known out there, that would've been better for the Flyers than just sticking with Trevor Zegras as the top-line center for next season, or that wouldn't have been at risk of being an overpay.
"Right now" is the key phrase, though.
As Tuesday progressed, deals started picking up.
Calgary traded two firsts and a second-round pick to the Devils for Simon Nemec, the Senators traded the ninth overall pick this Friday to San Jose for William Eklund as their means to fill the Brady Tkachuk void, Washington got Jordan Kyrou from St. Louis for Connor McMichael and the 16th overall pick, and then the Chicago Blackhawks went and made Tuesday's real blockbuster, which was also the ultimate headscratcher.
trade alert 🔔 pic.twitter.com/ZpL5eOx0cI
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) June 24, 2026
Chicago traded its fourth overall pick, its second-rounder at 45th overall, and defenseman Louis Crevier to the Buffalo Sabres for defenseman Bo Byram and winger Jordan Greenway.
Byram is the main return of this deal for the Blackhawks. He's 25 and he's a good defenseman. But, the consensus belief around him ever since he broke out with the Colorado Avalanche around 2021 was that he was eventually going to be a great defenseman, and for one reason or another, in Colorado and then in Buffalo, he still hasn't been that.
He's also in a contract year, and expected to receive a substantial payday, which Chicago is likely to give him because you don't forfeit a top-5 pick for just one season, but for now, it isn't currently in place.
That leads into the question of what exactly this trade even is for Chicago, and where exactly the Blackhawks think they are in their rebuild with center Connor Bedard as the young star centerpiece, because from the outside, it looks like a complete misread.
Having the No. 4 overall pick and NOT finally getting Connor Bedard a legitimate winger — either through the draft or through a trade — would be a colossal failure. Just colossal.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) June 24, 2026
where do the blackhawks think they are right now that they wouldn’t just draft whatever defenseman is right in front of them?
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) June 24, 2026
like the chances that guy is going to be better than byram are probably north of 50% right? insane
That's a frustrating – and draining – spot to be in after so many years of losing hockey, with the Byram trade now potentially standing to be one of those rushed decisions that can render a perceived rebuild completely null and void, because the Blackhawks' lineup is still extremely lacking everywhere else, especially when it comes to getting Bedard any significant help on his wing.
But maybe that's an angle for general manager Danny Brière to keep an eye on when it comes to his own rebuilding Flyers team, which is getting somewhere.
Maybe that's an in toward something major, if there's even so much as a hint over these next few months that Bedard is getting dissatisfied with the Blackhawks' direction.
Because throughout the Flyers' own rebuilding efforts over the past few years, which admittedly sometimes looked aimless also, Brière has always and consistently emphasized two key points when it comes to getting involved in the outside market to improve: The Flyers are going to be patient. They're not going to rush or cut corners on their process, but if and when an opportunity does come up for an impact player, they're going to go after him.
And maybe good things do happen to those who wait, because there's one other point of interest for the Flyers when it comes to Bedard and the fallout the Byram trade could stand to have for the Blackhawks:
— Nick Tricome (@itssnick) June 24, 2026
Oops.
Contract source: PuckPedia.
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