Philadelphia Flyers Rumors: James Van Riemsdyk Linked To Contenders

Sam Carachidi reports that the Philadelphia Flyers have been getting a ton of interest in their veteran winger James Van Riemsdyk.

There are a handful of teams that are around him, all of which are playoff contenders. The Dallas Stars, Winnipeg Jets, Vegas Golden Knights, and Carolina Hurricanes have talked to Flyers' GM Chuck Fletcher, but nothing has intensified. Van Riemsdyk, 33 has had a good career thus far with both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Flyers but has lacked playoff success.

Obviously, much like other contending teams, his cap hit is high and will be a problem for those teams. However, like the Ryan O'Reilly deal, there will most likely be a third team involved to help retain his cap hit. The Hurricanes and Golden Knights make the most sense in terms of fit for Van Riemsdyk. Carolina lost Max Pacioretty for the season and can use his cap space as he is on LTIR. They have the assets to make the deal work, and if they can get the Flyers to retain 50% of his $7 million contract, they can still use part of their LTIR pool to add additional depth.

Vegas is the other team that makes sense as a fit for him. They need some more secondary scoring, and they also have an old linemate of his whom he had great chemistry with. Phil Kessel is on the Golden Knights, when he and Van Riemsdyk were on the Maple Leafs they had played extremely well together. If Vegas can relight that flame and get those two on the same line, it could really improve their bottom six. Similar to Carolina, they have Mark Stone on LTIR, and that will presumably be until the playoffs, which gives them some cap space to work with.

As for both the Jets and Stars, they are in the market to add some more secondary scoring and depth as they both gear up for a playoff run. Although, both teams may need to look at other forwards based on their cap space unless they can get a third team to retain a portion of his cap hit.