The Flyers made a late-night shakeup, reaching a deal with the Flames that sent longtime faces Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost to Calgary.
In return, the Flyers are getting wingers Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, a second-round draft pick this summer and a seventh-round draft pick in 2028.
Kuzmenko, 28, is in the middle of his 3rd NHL season after making the move over from Russia, which might be a key with him here as he overlapped with Matvei Michkov going back to SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL. Presumably, he'll be someone to try and skate on the prized rookie's line – at least at the outset of this trade.
Kuzmenko is also on the last of a two-year contract at $5.5 million per and is headed for unrestricted free agency, so there is little commitment being made on the Flyers' end right now.
Pelletier, 23, was the 26th overall selection by the Flames in the 2019 NHL Draft, but between injuries and setbacks in his development, he hasn't yet found consistent footing as a pro. He's making $800K and will be a restricted free agent after this season.
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman and the Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli were the first to report word of the deal as it was coming together on Thursday night, then the Flyers themselves made it official just shy of 1 a.m. Friday morning.
Kuzmenko was pulled from Calgary's lineup before they played the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night, and Frost was gone from the Flyers' bench ahead of the third period of their 3-0 home loss to the New York Islanders.
TRADE ALERT: We’ve acquired forwards Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier, a 2025 2nd round pick and a 2028 7th round pick from Calgary in exchange for forwards Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost. https://t.co/l8graUmhlE
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 31, 2025
Frost and Farabee, to this point, have been regular roster players for the Flyers going back to 2019, and in numerous spots, were being hoped on to develop into key pieces for the franchise's future – first under Ron Hextall, the general manager who drafted them both as first-round picks in 2017 and 2018 respectively, then under Chuck Fletcher, and for one more time under current GM Danny Brière and his vision for a rebuild.
Both were given considerably long leashes by Brière and head coach John Tortorella, mostly on the count of a lack of roster depth while the front office evaluated who to take with them moving forward, but neither was ever able to fully rise to the occasion, despite flashes of promise.
Frost can be a skillful center, but has proven a habitually slow starter who won't find any sort of rhythm until the back half of a respective season, which handcuffs his production. He's also fallen out of sync with Tortorella multiple times since the coach took over behind the bench starting with the 2022-23 season, which has led to benchings and sometimes lengthy scratchings that have left Frost working from even further behind.
Even so, he was one of the Flyers' more talented centers over the past couple of years at a position where they're starved for depth.
In the short term, losing him up the middle will hurt the on-ice product, although the organization does seem willing to brunt that.
The team will likely miss Farabee, too, as he developed into a respected locker-room voice and a skater who the organization frequently praised for doing all the little things right. However, that all was matched by the 24-year-old's offensive production taking a sharp drop off this season, which Tortorella lost patience for eventually and got met with a several-game scratching earlier this month, while behind the scenes, it's clear now that the organization made the call that it was time to move on.
Farabee leaves the Flyers with just eight goals, 19 points, and a minus-11 rating through 49 games on the season. He was under contract for three more years after this season at an annual cap hit of $5 million, but the Flyers took that off the books with Thursday night's trade.
Frost had 11 goals, 25 points, and a minus-11 rating through 48 games. He carried a $2.1 million cap hit, and was set to be an arbitration-eligible RFA after this season.
Kuzmenko and Michkov were on SKA St.Petersburg together during the 2021-22 season, when Kuzmenko put up 20 goals and 53 points, while Michkov, as a rookie to Russia's top league, put up two goals and five points through 13 games.
Kuzmenko leaped to North America and the NHL that offseason, signing on with the Vancouver Cancucks for a 2022-23 campaign that went on to quickly see him produce 39 goals and 35 assists (74 points) through his first 81 games with Elias Pettersson as his main center. He re-upped to stay in Vancouver midway through that season, but his sophomore year in the NHL hit its snags, and he was used as one of the pieces for the Canucks to acquire Elias Lindholm from the Flames last January.
In Calgary, Kuzmenko finished last season with 14 goals in the last 29 games, but only had four goals and 11 assists through 37 games across this one.
The Flyers, however, will hope another change of scenery and a reunion with Michkov can set him somewhat back on track.
Pelletier has four goals and 11 points in the 23 games since he came up with the Flames back at the start of December. He skated on Calgary's top line against Anaheim Thursday night with Jonathan Huberdeau on the opposite wing and Nazem Kadri as his center.
With the acquisition of that second-round pick in the trade, the Flyers will have 13 picks in the NHL Draft this summer, including seven within the first two rounds alone.
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