Dylan Larkin trade chatter now has the Flyers in the mix, and not as the destination, according to NHL Trade Rumors.
The report landed Saturday night, with Philadelphia's next game set for Sunday, Nov. 1, against Utah. The Flyers are coming off a 5-2 loss at Washington on Wednesday, their third straight defeat.
Larkin, the Detroit Red Wings center, is off to a quiet but steady start this season. He has 2 goals and 4 assists in 10 games, and he sits at +3.
Career-wise, he has 278 goals and 371 assists over 818 games. He is 30 years old, and the Red Wings drafted him 15th overall in 2014.
Any deal for him starts with the contract. His cap hit is $8,700,000, and the deal runs through 2030-2031 with unrestricted free agency at expiry. No extension has been signed.
Now the Flyers' side. Philadelphia is 3-8-4 through 15 games, with 29 goals for and 51 against, a minus-22 goal differential. The road record is 1-5-1.
A team in that spot acting as a facilitator for somebody else's trade is a strange look. Rick Tocchet's group needs wins and goals, and Daniel Briere's phone is apparently ringing for other reasons.
NHL Trade Rumors noted that the Flyers could serve as a third-party broker to help facilitate a Larkin deal, with the Wild tagged in the post's hashtags.
The post gives no detail on what that broker role would involve, who would be on the other side, or whether any talks are active. Nothing in it says Larkin is available.
What a broker role could mean for Briere's Flyers
It would put Philadelphia at the center of a major trade without Larkin necessarily wearing orange and black. Whether the Flyers get anything out of it is the open question nobody has answered.
Detroit's center is still on the books, and the Flyers still have a three-game losing streak to deal with. Sunday against Utah is the next date on their calendar.
