Flyers Surging, Closing Strong; Interesting Maple Leafs Trade

It certainly has not always looked great, but the Philadelphia Flyers are surging to close out the month of October, the first of many months in the 2024-25 season.

A 2-0 shutout win over the Boston Bruins and a crazy 7-5 victory over the Minnesota Wild bookend a listless 4-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Aleksei Kolosovs NHL debut, but I suppose you cant win them all.

Not in this league, and not with the way most of the forwards have played so far.

Flyers News In other Flyers news, Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid is expected to miss a few weeks; two or three weeks, with a lower-body injury.

That could eliminate him for anywhere between five and 10 games, which is notable because the Flyers own Edmontons 2025 first-round pick.

The Oilers have already struggled with McDavid in the lineup, so I can only imagine how they are going to perform without him.

Who knows? Crazier things have happened, for sure.

That first-rounder is top-12 protected, though, so if the Oilers tank too hard, the Flyers are not going to see that pick until 2026.

Lets see how the next few weeks unfold out west.

Maple Leafs Trade Timothy Liljegren The NHL trade market for defensemen does not appear to be too hot this year, though that always goes out the window come desperation time at the trade deadline.

The Toronto Maple Leafs traded defenseman Timothy Liljegren , a perfectly capable second-pairing defender who rarely uses his body, to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for defenseman Matt Benning, a 2025 third-round pick, and a 2026 sixth-round pick.

With the addition of Benning, the Maple Leafs still have eight healthy defensemen on their roster and are preparing to welcome Jani Hakanpaa back to the active roster, so this one was a bit of a head-scratcher.

The third-round pick is nice and the Maple Leafs managed to shed some salary, but you have to wonder if Toronto dug its own grave on the return by making Liljegren a healthy scratch for so long.

My last bit of Flyers news for the day is not really news, but more so just pointing out that the Colorado Avalanche have suffered five regulation losses at home this month.

Five! The Flyers have their 2025 first-round pick also, but as I mentioned above, if the Avalanche really just stink (and the injury bug has been maliciously unforgiving for them this year), that pick is top-10 protected.

So, by the end of the season, the Flyers could get really lucky and land two bonus draft picks in the teens, miss out on them entirely and wait until 2026, or watch as both teams make miraculous comebacks and drag the draft picks back into the 20s.

Based on the hockey Ive seen from them, my money is on the former.

This article first appeared on Philly Hockey Now and was syndicated with permission..

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