NHL Rumors: Ottawa Senators, Seattle Kraken, and the Philadelphia Flyers

Murray will likely be exposed

Ken Warren of the Ottawa Sun: The Ottawa Senators are only able to protect one of Matt Murray, Joey Daccord and Filip Gustavsson for the Seattle Kraken expansion draft in July. The Senators likely won’t be re-signing goaltender Marcus Hogberg.

The Senators will likely leave Murray exposed for expansion draft as he has had injury issues and has three years and $21 million left on his contract.

Daccord will be 25 and has one year left on his contract at $750,000. The 23-year old Gustavsson is a pending RFA.

The Flyers could be more active in the free agent and trade market this offseason

Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer: The Philadelphia Flyers weren’t able to make up for the loss of Matt Niskanen, with coach Alain Vigneault bringing up again how much they missed him.

They are 31st in GAA and 30th on the penalty kill.

Flyers GM didn’t add a defensive replacement last offseason, instead opting for Erik Gustavsson, who was traded at the deadline. Defenseman Phillip Myers wasn’t able to hold his own with Ivan Provorov on the top pairing.

Coach Vigneault publically criticized some players and sources are saying that some are not happy.

This offseason the Flyers should be more active in the free agent and trade markets.

The Fourth Period: The Flyers will have just over $11.3 million in salary cap space to work with this offseason.

Carter Hart, Travis Sanheim and Nolan Patrick are pending RFAs. Goaltender Brian Elliott will be a UFA.

The Flyers have been linked to Ryan Ellis (Predators), Johnny Gaudreau (Flames), and Patrik Laine (when he was with the Jets).

GM Chuck Fletcher could see if he could work out a deal with the Seattle Kraken to get them to take James van Riemsdyk or Shayne Gostisbehere. Both players have two years left on their deals, and if moved, would give the Flyers some added salary cap flexibility.

The New York Post noted last week that there is no guarantee that head coach Alain Vigneault will be back.

FTP’s Anthony Di Marco noted last week that Flyers assistant GM Brent Flahr said they may not be that interested in moving their 2021 first-round pick but did add “if it helps the Flyers and helps our team, we’ll certainly consider it.”