Philadelphia Flyers' Top Trade Candidate This Season

The Philadelphia Flyers have surprised this season with the change in culture John Tortorella has implemented in the team. They are playing .500 hockey, but still won't be playoff bound. They are headed towards an actual rebuild where they will have more cap space to work with. There have been a number of players linked to trades this season including James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Hayes, Ivan Provorov, Zack MacEwen, and more.

It is a choice between three of those players as to who is the team's top trade candidate this season. van Riemsdyk is going to be a bit tough to move considering even with 50% retained on his contract, he has a cap hit of $3.5 million. He has been productive when healthy and has seven goals and 18 points in 23 games this season, but his defensive game has issues. Many contenders don't have that much money to spend on additions at the deadline which could cut the potential landing spots down.

Provorov and the Flyers appear to be done with each other and there has been interest from multiple teams around the league. The defenceman has proven he can be very good when the team he is playing for isn't struggling. The last two seasons have seen him have bad seasons, but the Flyers have also been near the bottom of the standing. He's a player who can eat up a lot of minutes, play the top-four or top pairing, and produce offensively if needed. He also blocks a ton of shots and is very physical.

MacEwen is much easier to move as his cap hit is minimal, he is in the last year of his contract which sees him become a RFA, and the Flyers won't be asking for much in return. This physical bottom-six forward has been fairly productive offensively on top of the toughness he provides the team. Many teams are looking to get tougher for the playoffs and he is on a number of teams' radars.

The choice as to who is the Flyers' top trade candidate would have to go to van Riemsdyk. Being a rental who has been very productive offensively is valuable, and the Flyers won't be opposed to taking back a bad contract or retaining as much cap as they can to make a deal work.