Key Flyers Defenseman Makes New National Trade Board

With an influx of young talent giving the Philadelphia Flyers a much-needed boost following a season-opening nine-game losing streak, management will be faced with some tough roster decisions going forward, with trades certainly on the table.

Players like Oliver Bonk and Cole Knuble have quickly established themselves after joining the Flyers in recent weeks, and even older prospects like Hunter McDonald and Jacob Gaucher appear to have wrested spots away from veterans like Michael Bunting and Simon Benoit.

With Rasmus Ristolainen out with a hand injury, the Flyers thrust Bonk, 21, into a featured role immediately, pairing him up with No. 1 defenseman Travis Sanheim on the top defense pair.

Ristolainen returned for Saturday afternoon's 5-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, and Bonk remained with Sanheim. Combine that with the fact that Ristolainen played just 14:34 in his return from a three-week absence, including 2:01 shorthanded, and it's easy to get the sense that the 31-year-old has lost his place as a top-pair defender on the Flyers.

The Flyers' burgeoning situation on defense is one that is getting national attention now, too, and that was reflected in a recent trade board.

On Friday afternoon, Sportsnet's Nick Kypreos published his second trade board of the season, which featured a healthy complement of pending UFA defensemen, including Ristolainen, Quinn Hughes, Vince Dunn, and Erik Karlsson.

"Out with a broken bone in his hand since the third game of the season, the 31-year-old Ristolainen is now in the final season of his contract. A right-shot blue-liner and a big body, it’s growing more and more likely that this is the year the Flyers will trade him, especially if they continue to chase the pack of playoff teams ahead of them," Kypreos wrote.

Kypreos's last point is especially prescient, as he published this trade board one day before the loss to the Ducks.

The Flyers had been playing well, winning three games in a row coming into Saturday's game, and then they dropped another. Sitting at just 3-7-3 this season, the loss to the Ducks just goes to show how hard it's going to be for the Flyers to dig themselves out of the nine-game hole they started the season in.

If, over time, Bonk, McDonald, and even David Jiricek prove that they can handle NHL workloads on a nightly basis, Ristolainen's days in Philadelphia might be numbered after years and years of trade rumors.

Kypreos has his finger on the Flyers' pulse, and it certainly seems possible this year's trade market could be a hot one for veteran defensemen.