The Flyers Want To Profit Off A Trade For A Guy Who Will Not Play Here

Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff, Nov. 5, as relayed by HockeyFeed and Markerzone: the Flyers act as the third team in a Red Wings and Wild deal, absorb Yakov Trenin's $3.5 million, send Tippett to Minnesota, and receive prospect Charlie Stramel plus a future first-round pick.

Rumor vs. Fact

RUMOR: The three-team framework attributed to Anthony Di Marco, Daily Faceoff, on Nov. 5: Philadelphia is not on Dylan Larkin's 10-team trade list, so GM Daniel Briere would instead facilitate a Red Wings and Wild deal for Larkin. The Flyers absorb Wild forward Yakov Trenin and his $3.5 million cap hit, Minnesota gets Owen Tippett, and the Flyers get center prospect Charlie Stramel, the 21st overall pick in 2023, plus a future first-round pick.

CONFIRMED: The Flyers are 4-9-4, 30th in the NHL, and lost 3-2 at the Rangers on Nov. 5. Tippett has 1 goal and 1 assist in 11 games this season, after 28 goals and 51 points in 81 games last season. His contract is eight years and $49.6 million, a $6.2 million cap hit through 2031-32, with a 10-team no-trade list of his own until 2029-30. Trenin has 0 goals and 2 assists in 17 games. Larkin has 6 points in 10 games.

PUSHBACK: No team has confirmed any of it. HockeyFeed, one of the outlets relaying the framework, calls the whole thing speculative, notes that none of the three organizations has confirmed it, and flags that its own relay may have been written with the help of AI tools. The framework also contradicts Di Marco's own reporting from June, when he said the Flyers were not shopping Tippett and would only move him in a hockey trade for a top-six center or top-four defenseman, not for picks and a prospect. And two blockers go unaddressed in the relays: Larkin's 10-team list controls his destination, and Tippett's own 10-team no-trade list could block Minnesota.

Give this rumor credit for one thing: it is the most Philadelphia scheme imaginable. Dylan Larkin, Detroit's captain and a genuine top-line center, is apparently available to the right teams. Philadelphia is not one of them. The Flyers are not on his 10-team trade list, which means the front door is locked, the side door is locked, and Larkin has looked at the Flyers' record and chosen, politely, to live somewhere else. So per the reporting of Anthony Di Marco of Daily Faceoff on Nov. 5, Daniel Briere's answer is to charge admission to somebody else's trade.

The framework, as relayed by HockeyFeed and Markerzone: the Flyers slot in as the third team in a Red Wings and Wild deal. Minnesota gets Owen Tippett. Philadelphia absorbs Yakov Trenin and his $3.5 million cap hit, a forward with 0 goals and 2 assists in 17 games, which tells you exactly what that part of the deal is. In exchange for Tippett and the stomach to eat Trenin's deal, the Flyers receive Charlie Stramel, the Wild's 21-year-old center prospect taken 21st overall in 2023, plus a future first-round pick. It is the hockey version of getting paid to help your friend move, except the friend is moving to a nicer house than yours.

The desperation underneath it is real, and it is wearing orange. The Flyers are 4-9-4, 30th in a 32-team league, and they just lost 3-2 at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 5. Tippett, who scored 28 goals and put up 51 points in 81 games last season, has 1 goal and 1 assist in 11 games. Di Marco reported on Nov. 2, citing Flyers sources, that the team would be open to trading him. When a 27-year-old winger on an eight-year contract faceplants to open the season on the league's second-worst team, everybody starts doing math out loud.

The Flyers cannot get Larkin. The rumor says they have decided to get paid for that fact instead. That is either genius or a cry for help. The Negadelphia read on the facilitator framework

Now, the cold water, and there is a lot of it. Start with the math on Tippett's deal: eight years, $49.6 million, $6.2 million a year through 2031-32. That is not a rental. Any team taking him is marrying the bounce-back, and the bounce-back comes with Tippett's own 10-team no-trade list, which runs until 2029-30 and could include Minnesota for all anyone has reported. Larkin's list is the other locked door: the relays themselves admit it is "the single biggest factor" in where he lands, with Montreal, Boston, Los Angeles, and Buffalo all circling a player whose camp has drawn a hard line.

Then there is the sourcing, which we are going to be honest about because this site puts its name on things. No team has confirmed a word of the framework. HockeyFeed, relaying it, calls it speculative and even flags that its article may have been written with AI assistance. And in June, Di Marco himself reported the Flyers were not shopping Tippett and would only entertain a hockey trade, a top-six center or a top-four defenseman coming back, not picks. Either the collapse changed the front office's mind, or the framework is thinner than it looks. Both can be true.

So file this under clever, fresh, and unproven. The Flyers finding a way to profit from a star who refuses to come here would be the most on-brand move of the Briere era. But until one of the three teams involved says something out loud, it is a framework in search of a confirmation, and Tippett is still a Flyer with one goal.