The Flyers will be forced to stick to the plan.
While the Philadelphia Flyers may have missed the boat for a potential Dylan Larkin trade, all hope is not lost for finding a top-six center this offseason.
Larkin will turn 30 next month, and while is talent and leadership are undeniable, the Flyers can find themselves better long-term fits elsewhere.
Plus, they need their young players, such as Matvei Michkov and Porter Martone, to find their stride and reach their maximum potential at the NHL level before adding a veteran star.
Those two, at the peaks of their powers, are the whole appeal to Philadelphia's operation anyway.
One of the more intriguing names the Flyers have been linked to in recent weeks and months is Seattle Kraken center Matty Beniers, who, 331 games into his NHL career, has yet to finish a season with 30 goals or 60 points.
Beniers, 23, was the esteemed No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, and a 57-point rookie campaign helped earn the Hingham, Massachusetts, native a seven-year, $50 million contract with the Kraken.
Heading into Year 3 of that deal, the Kraken are still very much a mess of an expansion team. Beniers, with just four full seasons under his belt, has already played for two different general managers and three different head coaches.
Lost in Seattle's island of misfit veterans and prospects, the Kraken pivot could very well do with a change of scenery, which the Flyers can and should be willing to provide for Beniers.
With Michkov, Martone, Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, and Trevor Zegras in the fold, the Flyers have significantly more talent, and more dynamic talent, than the Kraken do, and that would help Beniers ascend offensively.
He may not ever be more than a Nico Hischier-type at his absolute peak, but Beniers is a player the Flyers can win with if they continue to build properly.
The player picked right after Beniers in 2021 was Mason McTavish, who was selected by the Anaheim Ducks.
We've already seen this movie with Zegras, where a young player succeeds early but struggles with coaching changes and additional responsibilities that don't mesh with play style.
McTavish, a swashbuckling power forward with very little speed, looked like he was turning the corner last year with 22 goals and 52 points, but his ice time and opportunity decreased significantly with Joel Quenneville taking charge of the Ducks.
Still, McTavish did finish the season with a respectable 41 points in 75 games, plus six points in 10 playoff games.
Comparatively, though, Noah Cates did finish with 47 points for the Flyers this season.
With a McTavish trade, the Flyers are betting purely on potential.
The 23-year-old is already a questionable fit due to his skating, but the Flyers are reportedly interested and they are in a position where they can afford to be patient.
Such a move has already paid dividends with Zegras, and Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet is the type of coach who can find parts of himself in McTavish and coax those elements out of him onto the ice for quantifiable results.
McTavish has five years remaining on his contract at a $7 million cap hit, and his trade value may very well never be lower than it is now.
(Photo: Rob Gray, Imagn Images)Last but certainly not least is Utah Mammoth forward Barrett Hayton, who just limped through the worst statistical season of his NHL career.
Hayton, a 26-year-old pending RFA, broke into the NHL under Tocchet in 2019-20, and he was the fifth overall pick back in 2018.
Hayton, of course, has some talent to him to earn that draft slot, and he did score 20 goals and 46 points for Utah just a year ago, establishing career-highs in both categories.
After the way this season went, though, a change of scenery is in order.
Tocchet knew heading into last season that veteran center Christian Dvorak, who played for Tocchet in Arizona and was teammates with Hayton, had more offense in his game.
Dvorak promptly responded with 18 goals and 51 points for the Flyers this season in a top-six role, and Hayton, four years younger, could follow a similar path.
Hayton struggles with playmaking and finishing, at times, but he's a fairly decent skater at 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, and knows where he needs to go to put himself in a position to score.
As was the argument for Beniers, Hayton would thrive in a new environment with more skilled, dynamic talents to support him.
With the 26-year-old in need of a new contract, now is a natural time for the Flyers to buy low and invest in Tocchet, his coaching skills, and a former top-five draft pick.