If there was any remaining hope that newly acquired forward Ryan Johansen might one day suit up for the Philadelphia Flyers, general manager Daniel Briere quashed it about an hour before puck drop on Thursday.
“Probably not,” Briere bluntly responded when asked if Johansen was part of the organization’s plans moving forward.
The Flyers could have found a spot for Johansen if they really wanted. He’s certainly not the $8 million player he once was, and he’s really not even a $4 million (his current cap hit) anymore, either — Dom Luszczyszyn’s model at The Athletic places his on-ice value at $1.4 million. But he’s a veteran of 905 NHL games with six 60+ point seasons to his credit, can play both center and wing, and has skated over 13 minutes a night for a Stanley Cup-contending Colorado club for the past five months prior to Wednesday’s trade. He’s not completely finished as an NHL-caliber player.
Plus, Johansen is under contract for one more season after this one. The Flyers could have played him the rest of this season and into next, worked to try and rehabilitate his leaguewide value, and then attempted to flip him at the 2025 deadline for more assets as a rental player.
According to Briere, that scenario isn’t on the table. Instead, the Flyers are working to flip Johansen now.
“We’re gonna see if we can give him the chance to go somewhere else,” Briere said. “We haven’t decided what the future looks like for him yet.”
The Flyers had already telegraphed their disinterest in Johansen on Wednesday, when they waived him immediately after the Sean Walker trade was finalized, hinting that Johansen was indeed just a vehicle to allow the Flyers to secure a first round pick. Unsurprisingly, Johansen cleared waivers on Thursday, giving the Flyers the option to send him down to their AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley.
So did they demote him? Sort of, but not really.
“He’s been reassigned this afternoon, yes, after he cleared waivers,” Briere confirmed. “But we’re trying to see if there’s something we can do. Maybe there’s another team somewhere that has a need for him. So we’ve asked him to stand pat for a day or two.”
In other words, Johansen on paper is now a member of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. But the Flyers are not requiring him to report there just yet, because they’re actively looking for a trade partner in order to send him to another club that might use him at the NHL level.
Briere doesn’t have much time to make a trade, though. The deadline is looming at 3 PM EST on Friday, and he’s shopping a player who the entire league just passed on adding for nothing at his current $4 million cap hit.
Per a source, the Flyers are open to retaining salary to order to expedite a Johansen trade — which makes sense, given that otherwise, no clubs would have any interest in him at all, given the lack of takers for him on waivers yesterday. That said, retaining salary on Johansen would mean that the Flyers would then have two of their three salary retention slots filled up for the entirety of the 2024-25 season, given Kevin Hayes’ retained money already on their books. Teams can only retain salary on three players at one time, putting the Flyers’ dangerously close to the limit.
It’s not ideal for a team to only have one slot remaining over a full season, especially in terms of what it does to trade negotiation flexibility. But the Flyers are seriously considering it, which speaks to the depth of their desire to move Johansen out.
The Johansen situation also likely knocks the Flyers out of the third-party broker sweepstakes for the final day of deadline madness. Briere already picked up a 2024 fifth round pick late on Wednesday night by retaining 25 percent of Noah Hanifin’s contract en route to his final destination of Las Vegas. Retention on Johansen would be the Flyers’ third and final retention, leaving no more room for another broker opportunity this season. Don’t expect them to make another such deal before 3 PM Friday, so long as they believe it’s possible they might be able to move out Johansen at the last minute.
Which brings us to the most intriguing question in this situation — why are the Flyers so adamant about not wanting Johansen?
It certainly appears that even if the Flyers can’t find a taker by Friday, Ryan Johansen won’t be donning the Orange & Black — he’ll be in the AHL with the Phantoms. I was even told on Wednesday that an offseason buyout of Johansen hasn’t been ruled out as an option.
The organizational message has been clear: The Flyers don’t want Johansen on their team, and only took him to maximize return in the Walker deal.
But why don’t they want him?
“I can’t really go into that at this point. We have a different vision at this point. That’s about all I can say,” Briere responded on Thursday.
Some theorized that the presence of John Tortorella is why the Flyers are opposed to the idea of Johansen — the two did not see eye-to-eye in 2015-16 when Tortorella coached Johansen in Columbus, and Johansen was traded to Nashville just three months into Torts’ tenure.
But I’ve heard that’s not the driving force behind the Flyers’ lack of interest in having Johansen join their club. Instead, there’s a belief that he wouldn’t fit the culture that the Flyers have worked to build in their room, and excised players like Kevin Hayes, Ivan Provorov and Tony DeAngelo last summer with the aim of establishing. As the re-signing of Nick Seeler on Wednesday proved, the Flyers value their culture to a exceptionally high degree — and they simply don’t believe Johansen will fit it.
Will a Ryan Johansen trade ultimately get done by Friday? It will be tough. There’s a reason why the Avalanche were so motivated to dump him that they were willing to give up a first round pick for a player in Walker they apparently didn’t believe had first round value by himself. And there’s a reason why 30 other NHL teams passed on claiming Johansen at a $4 million cap hit. Even at $2 million — if the Flyers retain the maximum 50 percent — there likely won’t be a significant market for Johansen.
But Briere is going to try. And if he can’t find a trade partner, Johansen still won’t be a part of the Flyers’ future plans. They’ll just find another way to jettison him at a later date.
