What NHL insiders are saying about the Flyers ahead of the trade deadline

With the Flyers having lost eight of their last 10, any faint chance of making a surprising push for the playoffs has been extinguished, meaning the team will be positioned as seller ahead of Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline.

With the Flyers having already completed one minor deal — trading 6-foot-6 forward Isaac Ratcliffe to Nashville for future considerations — and expected to be active in the final five days of the window, here are the latest trade buzz, reports, and rumors surrounding the team:

» READ MORE: Assessing the Flyers’ potential trade chips ahead of Friday’s deadline

Frank Seravalli, of the Daily Faceoff and formerly the Daily News, released his updated top 50 trade targets Monday, and four Flyers cracked the list. The most notable was Kevin Hayes, who came in at No. 3.

Seravalli says the market has “heated up” on Hayes in the “last 24-48 hours with intelligence that the Flyers are willing to retain some salary on a transaction in order to facilitate a deal.” It is worth noting that Hayes and John Tortorella have clashed at multiple points this season, despite the 30-year-old’s being on pace for a career-high 65 points. Hayes recently earned his first All-Star nod and has three years remaining on his contract after this season at a $7.14 million salary-cap hit.

How much salary the Flyers are willing to retain will play a major factor in just how much of a market is there for the center, whom Tortorella shifted to wing this season. The report added that Carolina, Colorado, and Minnesota are three teams that have inquired about Hayes’ availability. Hayes was held out of practice Tuesday for a “maintenance day,” but maybe there is more to the story there.

James van Riemsdyk (No. 5), Joel Farabee (No. 26), and Nick Seeler (No. 34) also appeared on Seravalli’s trade target list.

While it was always assumed that van Riemsdyk, an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, would be traded before the deadline, it sounds as if he could be on the move sooner rather than later.

ESPN insider Kevin Weekes said Monday to keep an eye on van Riemsdyk, as action has started to pick up among buyers regarding the veteran winger.

Weekes’ update coincides with power forwards like Timo Meier (New Jersey) and Nino Niederreiter (Winnipeg) falling off the board this past weekend. While JVR might be a rung or two below those players, teams that missed out on their top options will now be scurrying to make contingency deals. Minnesota, Carolina, Dallas, and Vegas have been linked with van Riemsdyk, although Dallas and Vegas made deals over the weekend that would presumably take them out of the running.

» READ MORE: How will the scuffling Flyers approach the trade deadline?

Van Riemsdyk, 33, has size, good hands, and scoring ability and would represent a good rental for a contending team. This season, he has nine goals and 23 points in 40 games, and for his career, he has averaged more than 20 goals per year. Keep an eye on the goal-strapped Wild, as they’ve yet to make a major move and van Riemsdyk happens to live and train in Minnesota during the offseason.

In the latest “32 Thoughts” podcast that was released Monday, Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman assessed every NHL team ahead of Friday’s deadline.

In their Flyers discussion (which begins at around the 40-minute mark), Friedman said the Flyers are seeking “reclamation projects” and young players, à la Owen Tippett, who they can audition. Friedman said he believes they were in on Denis Gurianov, whom Dallas traded to Montreal on Sunday, and Vitali Kravtsov, who was acquired by the Vancouver Canucks from the New York Rangers on Saturday.

The Sportsnet insider also said he doesn’t think the Flyers would have traded Travis Konecny even before he was injured unless they were completely blown away by an offer. After he briefly touched on van Riemsdyk, Hayes, Seeler, Justin Braun, Felix Sandström, and Ivan Provorov, who he said have all been “out there,” he threw out Tony DeAngelo as a final name to watch.

“I wonder about Tony DeAngelo, too,” Friedman said. “The tough thing about DeAngelo is it’s not working this year, but they gave up a lot to get him. I think they’ve had interest on DeAngelo; one of the teams I’ve wondered about is Carolina possibly reacquiring him.”

Trading DeAngelo just 60 or so games in, after the team was willing to overlook his off-ice baggage, trade three picks, and commit $10 million to the defenseman, would certainly be an admission of guilt by the organization. That said, DeAngelo has been a liability defensively as expected and Tortorella has said as much. While the deal was a mistake in the first place, admitting wrongdoing and recouping some picks would be a positive step.

» READ MORE: The Flyers have mismanaged the 2022-23 season, but they can still get the trade deadline right

The Flyers certainly seem to have some irons on the fire as we close in on the trade deadline, and it will be interesting to see just how dramatically general manager Chuck Fletcher and Co. are prepared to alter the roster.