For several weeks, the proverbial elephant in the room had been the looming trade deadline and how the Philadelphia Flyers’ blue line would look after March 8. Some story lines took care of themselves before we even got there.
For instance, Rasmus Ristolainen suffered an upper-body injury on February 10 and still doesn’t have a clear timetable for a return, all but quelling any possibility he’d be traded. Nick Seeler, on the other hand, voiced his strong desire to remain in Philadelphia and inked a multi-year extension to make that a reality.
That left Sean Walker as the likely odd man out, and out he went to Colorado for a cap dump in Ryan Johansen and a first-round pick.