If the Philadelphia Flyers are to consider trading Ryan Ellis and the two years left on his contract, Friday's Carey Price trade knocked down the first domino.

Price, 38, was dealt to the San Jose Sharks Friday evening, alongside a 2026 fifth-round pick, in exchange for defense prospect Gannon Laroque.

Laroque, 22, has played just 22 games in total since the start of 2022-23, with a slew of major injuries threatening to derail his playing career.

Effectively, this trade was the Canadiens offloading Price and his $10.5 million cap hit with a late-round draft pick serving as the sweetener.

It should be noted, too, that Price's $5.5 million signing bonus was paid earlier this month, and he has a $2 million base salary in 2025-26. That's all the Sharks are on the hook for, despite what the salary cap says.

As for the Flyers and Ellis, the injured defenseman's salary has decreased by $1 million in each of the last two seasons. The 34-year-old will make $5.5 million this season and $4.5 million next season, even though his cap hit is $6.25 million.

Flyers Should Pull the Plug, Trade Ryan Ellis's Contract Now The <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers">Philadelphia Flyers</a> have officially reached the point where they can't afford to hold onto the rotting contract of Ryan Ellis any longer.

This steady decrease would make Ellis increasingly attractive to low-revenue teams like San Jose or Anaheim that need to stay above the cap floor.

Now, it should be said that Ellis does not have any signing bonuses that get paid out on certain dates, so his salary is his salary, and the price the Flyers have to pay to potentially move on from his contract more or less remains the same.

It helps, too, that the salary cap continues to increase, which will help keep that price down and reduce their own internal desperation (if there is any) to move forward.

Following the Price trade, the Sharks still have a cushy $9.24 million in cap space available, and they're expected to be sellers at the deadline.

Perhaps they, or a team like Chicago or Pittsburgh, would be interested in adding Ellis to their books next year to stay above the floor, assuming they shed their more desirable veteran players for other assets.

At the time of this writing, the Flyers have just $370k in cap space. PuckPedia currently projects them to have a measly $1.692 million to spend at the deadline.