An NHL Rumour Report post this afternoon, citing Anthony Di Marco, says the Flyers are not happy with Travis Konecny, and it goes back to last spring's playoffs.
That's a loud message for a winger who is 29 and has spent his entire career in Philadelphia. The Flyers took him 24th overall in 2015.
According to the post, Di Marco wrote that there is a sense Konecny has no interest in leaving Philadelphia. But speaking with team sources since the beginning of the year, Di Marco said the team is not happy with the player going back to last spring's playoffs.
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Nothing in the report says what happened, and we won't guess. It does not say a trade is close, either. What it does say is that the feeling inside the organization has been there for months, not days.
Konecny is not the only name tied to the Flyers bench lately. We looked at the new Flyers bench video of Matvei Michkov and Travis Konecny earlier today, a clip that has fans asking questions about the mood in that room.
The timing is awful for everyone involved. Philadelphia is 5-10-6, 28th in the NHL, and lost 3-2 in overtime in Edmonton on Wednesday night.
Konecny was held without a point in that game despite five shots on goal. On the season he has 6 points in 11 games and sits at -4.
Could the Flyers really move Travis Konecny?
The reported willingness to stay is one side of it. The other side is that a team can still move a player who wants to stay, and the Flyers sit seventh in the Metropolitan Division with a -22 goal differential.
A team in that spot usually starts asking who is part of the next version of the roster. Konecny has a contract that runs through 2032-33, so any deal would need a partner willing to take on that commitment. That makes this complicated, and general manager Daniel Briere has plenty to weigh.
Our view: if the team is truly unhappy over something from the spring, this does not heal itself with a few good weeks. Fans can love a player and an organization can still run out of patience, and the Flyers have little room to pretend otherwise at 5-10-6.
Philadelphia plays again Saturday in Columbus, and Rick Tocchet will be asked about this soon enough.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
Should the Flyers trade Travis Konecny this season?
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