5 NHL Trade Landing Spots for Travis Konecny Amid NHL Rumors

The miserable start to the season for the Philadelphia Flyers has everyone looking for answers to find a way out. With an 0-5-3 record and already sporting a minus-21 goal differential, they need to get things right before it gets too far gone. Unfortunately, whenever there's a bad start, rumors start running wild and the latest one to pop up has to do with the team's leading scorer over the past few seasons, winger Travis Konecny.

Konecny was mentioned by Daily Faceoff as a player who is in an increasingly more difficult position and someone who could be traded to shake things up and provide the kind of return that could help alter the lineup in a positive way for Philly. There are some important hangups to doing that.

For one, Konecny has a full no-move clause, which means he has final say on any potential trade. Second, his contract has an $8.75 million salary cap hit and runs until 2033. Even though that price tag has become increasingly more affordable, it's not that easy to move. If the Flyers are going to attempt to run that gamut and make a brash move, we've come up with a list of teams who should be at the front of the line to try and make it happen.

As much as the Philadelphia Flyers were getting involved in trying to add to their roster over the summer, the other team that tried to knock on every door was the Montréal Canadiens. Picture those two teams working something out to produce a blockbuster trade that sent Travis Konecny to the Habs and what that would do to their already highly skilled team.

Adding Konecny to the Canadiens roster would allow them to bring in a natural replacement for the grit, feistiness and pure frustration that Brendan Gallagher provided for so many years there. Konecny's game is so similar to that of the former Habs fixture that making such a move is so obvious it hurts.

What would help make that kind of trade possible is how well equipped the Canadiens' prospect pipeline is to bring Philly to the table and they've got veterans who could be moved as well, an important thing since a Konecny trade would almost have to be a "hockey trade" to even get the Flyers to ask him to consider waiving his no-move protection.

Trading him within the Eastern Conference wouldn't be overly appealing for the Flyers, but Montréal's ability to sweeten any offer would make it difficult to pass up.

The Oilers are cooking to start the year and they're doing it without a few key players in the lineup like Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, not to mention goalie Frederik Andersen. But imagine if the Oilers wanted to really throw down the gauntlet and ruin everyone's Stanley Cup hopes in the West by adding Travis Konecny to the mix.

It would be a pure luxury splurge by the Oilers to make a run at Konecny and given how tight to the cap they are, it would take a really creative and potentially disruptive trade to make it happen. After all, Edmonton is about tapped out on prospects and carving veterans away from what's been a very good roster over the past few years may not be the kind of roster surgery GM Stan Bowman wants to do.

But when you think of what it would be like for the Oilers to matchup against Vegas, Anaheim, or any of the beastly teams in the Central Division with Konecny there to drive them nuts, it would be the kind of move that could finally bring the Cup back to Edmonton.

If there's a team that's meant to be watched if Travis Konecny becomes available, it's Carolina. GM Eric Tulsky has shown an eagerness to be involved, especially for top talent and with the amount of cap space they have, flexibility with the roster and prospects brewing in the pipeline, the Hurricanes can throw their weight around in trade talks.

The biggest hurdle in this case, of course, is the proximity. Carolina and Philly are both in the Metropolitan Division and there's no doubt the Flyers would hate to face Konecny four times a year in the regular season and certainly not in the playoffs.

The Hurricanes starting point for an offer would start with unsigned defenseman Alexander Nikishin and go from there and with Philly looking for defensive help, it's a good way to kick off negotiations. Desperate times can create funny trade partners sometimes and the Flyers and Hurricanes doing business after meeting in the playoffs a year ago would more than qualify.

Overreactions to the Start of the Season

The Mammoth are poised to be players in any trade market and with GM Bill Armstrong at the helm, they've been bold since moving to Salt Lake City. Watching Utah play, their speed and skill stand out but if you took that and added a bit of sandpaper with Travis Konecny, you'd have a team ready to bother everyone a lot worse in the West.

Utah's skill with Clayton Keller, Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther are among the most fun groups in the league. When they added veteran leader Anders Lee to add some extra tenacity, it scratched an itch they were looking for in the lineup. Finding a way to add a player like Konecny and making use of the buildup of their prospect base to make it happen would elevate them more.

After all, Utah has prospects close to joining the NHL in Tij Iginla, Caleb Desnoyers, and 2026 first-round pick Ethan Belchetz along with other young guys who are there now in Daniil But and Dmitri Simashev. That's not to say that Philly would want to further their own rebuild-on-the-fly with younger players still, but if they were going to make a bold move like trading Konecny, adding elite high-end young talent would be appealing.

The Kings are in a bit of a funk to start the season themselves and getting bold and trying to add an agitating force like Travis Konecny would make sense.

Konecny's steady offensive production and ability to irritate opponents would play well in the Western Conference and particularly in a usually punchy Pacific Division battle for the playoffs. Should L.A. want to reinforce their attack on the wing, doing so with Konecny whose contract is settled and priced well for the future is good for them. As for what they could offer, well, that's up to GM Ken Holland to finagle.

There have been (and may still be) connections to Konecny from within the Kings organization from his days of junior hockey, so there are folks there that have known him a long time. The Kings and Flyers have also done a fair amount of business over the years, particularly in big trades, so linking them together has some historical basis.