Philadelphia Flyers: Fan thoughts on a David Pastrnak trade
Trade speculation surrounding restricted free agent David Pastrnak hit a fever pitch last week as Philadelphia Flyers Twitter exploded with trade scenarios after news broke that the Bruins were open to trading the 21-year-old forward.
Philadelphia Flyers Twitter was thrown into a frenzy when on Monday NHL Network’s Brian Lawton tweeted out this bombshell:
Trading David Pastrnak would not only be dumb but continue a hilarious trend of the Boston Bruins trading away perennial all-stars before their 22nd birthday.
Phil Kessel was the first to go, he of four 30-goal seasons, three all-star games, and two Stanley Cups since leaving Boston.
Next up was Tyler Seguin, whom the Bruins drafted with the pick they received from the Maple Leafs in exchange for Kessel. Seguin has gone on to play in four all-star games and places 8th in goals scored since leaving Boston at the end of 2012.
As you can see, the precedence is there for a move like this to happen. Ron Hextall and the Philadelphia Flyers front office have the resources to get a deal done. The Flyers potentially have two 1st round picks in next year’s draft, and a farm system rated the best in the NHL (article behind a paywall).
Don’t Ever Read the Comments
While reading through the many trade scenarios on my Twitter timeline, I came across an article on CSNPhilly.com that kept getting retweeted. In it, some of the local analysts gave their thoughts on whether the Flyers should pursue Pastrnak.
Spoiler Alert: They all said yes.
What interested me though wasn’t their opinion but that of the commentariat. The comment section is always the place to get the spiciest takes, and this article was no different.
Here are just a few of the best (read: worst) comments I came across.
Ghost for Pasta
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Here we have Albert saying that the Bruins front office should be happy with a straight up swap of Shayne Gostisbehere and David Pastrnak. My favorite part isn’t the insane notion of the straight swap, but that if the Bruins were to reject that deal (they absolutely would), the Flyers could just throw in Scott Laughton to sweeten it.
Wingers with Pastrnak’s skill don’t just grow on trees. Last season he averaged 0.93 points per game. That was better than players like
Shayne Gostisbehere is a fine defenseman, but he in no way has anywhere near the same value as David Pastrnak.
Gabriel Landeskog and a Pick
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Scott thinks the Flyers do not have the resources to make a trade for Pastrnak. Scott is wrong and apparently, wants the Bruins to make a bad deal with Colorado.
Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Duchene are good players, but they’re 24 and 26 years old respectively. Duchene is only under contract for one more year and hasn’t eclipsed 60 points in three years. Landeskog hasn’t scored more than 30 goals or totaled more than 70 points in his career. Pastrnak did both of those things last year when he was 20.
The draft pick would be the most valuable asset the Bruins would get in Scott’s theoretical trade.
Not a PPG Player
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In the last 20 years, only eight players have averaged at least a point per game in their career.
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If twpman46 is going to be waiting around for a point per game player, he is going to be waiting for quite a while. Think it’s time to have more realistic trade expectations, man.
In Conclusion
Next: Philadelphia Flyers newbies at forward: What should we expect?
There are a lot of fans with good ideas on trades and transactions. I interact with many of them on Twitter. So, please don’t read this as an indictment of the knowledge Flyers fans possess for their team and hockey in general. It’s just amusing to weed out some of the more bizarre and terrible ideas some fans concoct. It’s very cathartic.
What is true for me though, is after reading through that minefield of bad takes, it makes me appreciate Ron Hextall all that much more.