The Calgary Flames and Philadelphia Flyers completed a 4 player, multi-pick deal late Thursday night which will see both teams swap out multiple young pieces.
Heading to Calgary are forwards Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee, while Philadelphia will acquire Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier, a 2025 2nd round pick, and a 2028 7th round pick. No salary was retained by either club as part of the trade.
“This came together pretty quick this morning, to be honest. We talked about these players last year and this year, but I think it never really made sense. It wasn’t the right time or right return,” Flames GM Craig Conroy said. “Today, it really sped up and made sense for both teams.”
Frost, 25, comes in at a salary cap hit of $2.1M this season, before becoming a restricted free agent this summer, while Farabee, 24, sports a $5M AAV and is locked up through 2028. Both will look to bolster a Flames lineup that’s largely exceeded expectations this season, sporting a 25-18-7 record, and currently occupying the 2nd wildcard spot in the Western Conference.
Meanwhile, Russian forward Andrei Kuzmenko will now join his 3rd NHL team since joining the league in 2022-23. When he first broke in, he looked like he was on track to be the next Russian star, registering 74pts (39G, 35A) across 81 games with the Canucks.
However, that production has declined steadily since, resulting in a trade to Calgary, and subsequently to Philadelphia. On the year, the Yakutsk native has 15pts (4G, 11A) through 37 contests thus far.
Currently sporting a $5.5M cap hit, Kuzmenko will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. Interestingly though, he was a former teammate of dynamic Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov back in the KHL with St. Petersburg SKA.
By swapping out Farabee’s contract for Kuzmenko’s, Philadelphia now gets a free look at the 28 year old to see whether he can recapture some of his magic with his old Russian teammate. And if not, they have no financial obligations beyond the summer, and can look to dip back into the free agent market for another forward in the $4-6M range.
Philadelphia currently sits 5 points back of a wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference with 29 games left to play. The Flyers are next in action on Sunday, February 2nd vs. Colorado, while the Flames host the Red Wings on Saturday in a 10pm ET showdown.
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.