June 05, 2026
Rick Osentoski/Imagn Images
Dylan Larkin's trade request shocked the hockey world this week, and caught a lot of Flyers fans' eyes.
All but two NHL teams are working on their offseason plans now, which has the rumor mill spinning with the draft and free agency on the near horizon.
The Flyers have already had their names pop up on the radar a few times, with one potential defensive signing that's pretty straightforward to rationalize, and now with some big-name centers possibly available, at a point when general manager Danny Brière finally has the resources to actually go after one.
Here's a rundown of the latest trade and free agency rumors, and the recent names that the Flyers could be in on, from veteran John Carlson to the summer's new big trade prize in Detroit captain Dylan Larkin...
Carlson will be on the open market this summer after Washington traded the veteran defenseman across the country to Anaheim for the Ducks' playoff run back in March.
He's 36, but still posted 14 goals and 60 points with a plus-9 rating this past season between the Capitals and Ducks, and produced 14 of those points while on the power play.
He can still play. He seems to want to come back to the East Coast, per Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman. And the Flyers appear to have interest, per the Daily Faceoff's Anthony Di Marco.
Carlson is an established right-handed shot, which is highly valuable throughout the NHL. He would bring a great veteran presence to a young team like the Flyers, after all those playoff runs with the Caps and the Stanley Cup win in 2018, while still contributing dependable minutes – he averaged 23:10 of ice time this past season.
And maybe the biggest appeal to him: He's a longtime power play quarterback, who might be one of the Flyers' better and most immediate shots at getting theirs, finally, on some kind of track.
Carlson would be a good fit for the Flyers on a short-term contract, at around 1-2 years tops. A potential deal would only make sense, though, if bringing him in means Rasmus Ristolainen getting shipped out, and maybe Emil Andrae, too.
With right-handed blueline prospects Oliver Bonk, David Jiříček, and left-handed, stay-at-home force Hunter McDonald each expected to press for spots in training camp, the Flyers have a defensive logjam on the horizon since Travis Sanheim, Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, and Nick Seeler are four of the already established parts out of six in the nightly lineup.
John Carlson (right) could be a productive veteran presence for a young Flyers blue line.
Ristolainen will be in the last year of his contract with a $5.1 million cap hit, which is way more appealing now that the cap is going up, and even more so because of the way the big defenseman upped his game in both the Olympics for Finland and then for the Flyers in the playoffs, once the game required way more physicality.
Ristolainen has been on the rumor mill for more than a year now, but the Flyers can probably fetch a hefty return for him, while Carlson would come in as the veteran stopgap to create a bridge for Bonk or Jiříček to eventually take over.
As far as what Carlson might cost, The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun wrote the following late last month:
Carlson had been in talks with the Washington Capitals before they moved him at the trade deadline in March about a two-year extension worth $9 million per season.
I doubt very much Carlson signs for less than two years and $9 million per year, regardless of whether that’s in Anaheim or on the open market. And my sense is there are four or five teams in the East hoping Carlson hits the July 1 market. [The Athletic]
The Flyers might be one of those teams, and they will have the cap room this summer to make it work if they see it as a worthwhile move.
And remember, the salary cap is increasing substantially over the next two years. That $9 million number for a still productive 36-year-old isn't as bad as it sounds.
Earlier this week, Ottawa Citizen columnist Bruce Garrioch reported this nugget about Barzal in regard to the Senators' aim for a top-six forward this offseason:
A league executive told The Citizen that the New York Islanders are exploring the market for forward Mathew Barzal. The club would like to clear some cap space, but it’s a big financial commitment with four years left at $9.15 million through 2030-31.
Reports indicate the Utah Mammoth kicked tires on Barzal last summer, but opted not to make the move. Barzal, 29, finished with 19 goals and 72 points in 81 games with the Isles last season, but that salary would be tough for the Senators to swallow. [Ottawa Citizen]
The Flyers were never mentioned, but that didn't keep fans and bloggers from latching on and drawing a throughline in the online sphere.
After all, Philadelphia does still need a top-six center, and now here's one who suddenly might be available. At the least, too, Barzal is interesting to consider.
As mentioned above, Barzal just turned in a 72-point season and finished it with a plus-10 rating, even though the Isles stalled out down the stretch of the playoff race.
He's a great playmaker, who leans on his excellent skating to win out races and cut straight through the middle of the ice, which in theory, would be great for setting up an on-the-rise goal scorer like Porter Martone or even to open up more ice for a highly creative Matvei Michkov to operate.
Mathew Barzal's rumored availability shakes up this summer's center trade market.
But where does the idea fall apart?
Barzal's contract, in itself, isn't terrible. He'll be going into the fourth of his eight-year deal at an annual cap hit of $9.15 million, which again, gets easier to take on with the rising ceiling.
It's just where Barzal is at in his career and with his play style. He's 29, his contract lasts until he's 34, and it's a lot more likely as he hits 30 that he'll lose a step in his skating than not, when speed is very much at the core of his game.
He also has a 22-team no-trade list in his deal, so there's a high likelihood that he would have to waive it and ultimately approve of any offer the Islanders might want to jump on.
Really, this feels like a case of good player, wrong time.
The Mathew Barzal of five years ago would've been perfect for this current version of the Flyers to come up with. But that's not what's there now.
Just as word started to circulate about Barzal's name being out there, along came another top-line center, when Dylan Larkin's request for a trade from the Red Wings was reported on Thursday by Sportsnet's Elliott Friedman.
Dylan Larkin has requested a trade from the Red Wings, per @FriedgeHNIC. pic.twitter.com/uRKj7b6oy3
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 4, 2026
Much like with Barzal, the news about Larkin immediately grabbed Flyers fans – and Wild fans, and Bruins fans, and Kings fans...really, like two-thirds of the league because the center market is that starved – without much, if any, connective tissue.
But the appeal is obvious.
Larkin has been a 30-30 level scorer for the past several years as the Red Wings' captain, despite Detroit's continuous struggles to get back into the playoffs, and his play on the way to gold for Team USA at the Olympics opened up a lot of eyes toward how he would fare on the big stage – a lot like how the Olympics also shifted the perception for Flyers defensemen Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim.
Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman will likely come to the table demanding a lot, like first-rounders, maybe Ristolainen, or even Owen Tippett, and Brière probably would at least have to listen, because if the Flyers get Larkin, he immediately goes right to the top of their lineup.
But he also might be another case of good player, wrong time when it comes to Philadelphia.
Larkin is also 29, like Barzal, and while his game should hold up a bit better long-term as a more controlled, positionally sound two-way game, he has a much stricter full no-trade clause in his contract, which essentially lets him dictate where he'll end up.
His contract carries him until he's 34, as well, albeit at a slightly cheaper hit of $8.7 million per year.
The Flyers can go for a long-term star center moving into his 30s, but ideally, they would want a young guy to grow alongside the rest of the core.
Mason McTavish is another young Duck who might be after a change of scenery.
McTavish fits that idea better age-wise at 23 years old, who still isn't too far removed from being the third overall draft pick by the Ducks in 2021.
Skill-wise, though, there's a lot more skepticism.
First, what has McTavish on the radar to begin with, again via Garrioch and the Ottawa Citizen from another column last week that tied the young center to the Senators:
He is coming off a difficult season with only 17 goals and 24 assists for 41 points in 75 games. McTavish was scratched for two games in the playoffs by Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville, and that has left his future with the organization in doubt. Teams have been calling to see if he’s available.
...
It’s believed the Philadelphia Flyers would be among the teams that would show interest in McTavish because they need help in the middle, along with the Montreal Canadiens. [Ottawa Citizen]
McTavish was drafted under Anaheim's original vision for a rebuild led by former general manager Bob Murray, who is now an advisor to the Flyers after he resigned from the Ducks in November 2021.
It's easy to see Murray's influence on the Flyers' current trajectory, as core pieces Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale were his draft selections in Anaheim who were each eventually brought in as reclamation projects for the Flyers – and to great success.
It's also easy to imagine McTavish as another piece in the Ducks-Flyers pipeline that has been maintained by Brière and current Anaheim GM Pat Verbeek ever since the Cutter Gauthier trade more than two years ago.
But this scenario seems tougher to imagine actually working.
McTavish's skating, if he were to fit into a top-six role, wouldn't impress with what he has shown so far, and his contract wouldn't grant the flexibility for the Flyers to show a similar type of patience toward him as they did for Zegras and Drysdale, who were each still in their restricted free agent years when they were traded to Philly.
McTavish isn't. He just signed a six-year deal at $7 million per season last summer, and that's a difference. That's an already established commitment, of which the Ducks might already be exploring how to get out from.
And that's probably a bad sign.
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