Martin Jones

The Flyers face the Minnesota Wild, who come in on a six-game winning streak. The Flyers, meanwhile, have losses in three of the four games on the road trip.

Tanner Jeannot’s goal with 1:19 left in the third was the difference as the Nashville Predators defeated the Flyers, 5-4, on Sunday night.

Travis Konecny had a pair of goals, but Hayden Hodgson stole the show in his NHL debut with a goal and an assist, as the Flyers snapped the streak against the Blues with a 5-2 win.

The Flyers road trip only gets tougher as they go through the gauntlet of Central Division teams all in playoff position. That begins on Thursday night against the St. Louis Blues, a team slipping a bit with a 3-4-3 record in the month of March.

As the trade deadline passes and the Flyers open up a few roster spots, it presents more of an opportunity for younger players to get more of a look at increased roles in the NHL. GM Chuck Fletcher used Sunday’s game as an example of what he hopes to see for the rest of the season, “energy, hard work, young players playing a bigger role and getting an opportunity to show what they can do for next year.”

The Flyers moved Justin Braun at the trade deadline to the New York Rangers for a 2023 third-round pick. So was Derick Brassard, who heads to the Edmonton Oilers for a 2023 fourth-round pick.

The 2022 NHL Trade Deadline is just a few hours away, and with the Flyers trading their longtime captain on Saturday, what will they do on Monday?

“We signed Claude eight years ago to a lengthy, superstar type of contract, which he earned, and as part of that contract he had a no move clause and he earned that right to decide, to have a big say in where he would go, I think is the best way to put it,” Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher said. “I did have a very limited market in terms of the teams I could speak with.”

In the end, Giroux ultimately held the keys to his destination. Florida was where he wanted to be. That left the Flyers limited in what they could get in return. If nothing else, the return in the Giroux deal is more of a reality of what the state of the Flyers is and remains after this trade, and the result of years of shortcomings by the organization.