Ex-Flyers Defenseman Hits Out At NHL Stars Requesting Trades

Amid all the Matvei Michkov drama, and controversies surrounding other well-known stars around the NHL, one former Flyers defenseman with over 1,000 games of experience in the league has planted his flag with an authoritative, disapproving stance.

Since the 2026 Winter Olympics, an increase of players have requested trades away from their teams. Notably, former Senators captain Brady Tkachuk was shipped off to Florida, and Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck ended up in New Jersey after holding out into the 2026-27 regular season.

Some, like Dylan Larkin, are still waiting for their turn. As for Michkov, he's in the last year of his entry-level contract, and despite the turmoil internally and externally, the Flyers have refuted reports that their young star wants to play elsewhere.

Former Flyers defenseman Erik Johnson, who played with Michkov in his rookie season in 2024-25 and with Flyers GM Danny Briere in Briere's last season in the NHL in 2014-15, has called out all Larkin and all the NHL players looking to leave their teams in the middle of their contracts during a pre-game segment for ESPN.

Johnson, 38, went through this kind of situation nine years ago in the prime of his playing career, when top forward Matt Duchene asked out of Colorado.

"The core guys of the team, Gabe Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, we went to [Avalanche GM] Joe Sakic, we said, 'Get him out of here. We want to be a part of the Avs, we want to be a part of the solution.' We ended up being rewarded for that [with a Stanley Cup], Johnson noted.

The Avalanche obliged, and Duchene ended up in Ottawa as part of a three-team trade, and Colorado ended up with a 2018 first-round pick that later became Bowen Byram.

"Now, Dylan Larkin, I can't stand these guys halfway through their contracts that they signed in good faith with their team now bailing ship and wanting to go for greener pastures," said Johnson. "As a former player, I don't like these guys abandoning their teams mid-season, mid-contract."

The other wrinkle of Johnson's comments is that many players, like Larkin and Hellebuyck, have no-trade and no-movement clauses that allow them to dictate where they will accept a trade to.

For the Flyers, if it comes down to it, that won't be the case with Michkov, though his status as a pending free agent will undoubtedly play a factor for inquiring teams.

Reports have indicated that the Flyers are not the most happy with the play of their veteran players; players like Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, Travis Sanheim, and Christian Dvorak all have full trade protection, while Owen Tippett has a 10-team no-trade list.

As things develop in Philadelphia, this could make for a potentially interesting situation a few weeks and months down the road. And the feelings of experienced pundits, like Johnson, are clear as this trade drama becomes more and more commonplace around the NHL.