NHL Rumors: Flyers Linked To Two Center Trade Targets

Thursday, December 18, 2025 , ,
St. Louis Blues captain Brayden Schenn skates with the puck during 2025 game.

The Philadelphia Flyers aren’t shopping for a blockbuster, but they are clearly shopping for help down the middle. 

After moving out multiple centers over the past year and watching their bottom six go stale at times, the front office’s next priority is pretty straightforward. They want to find another center who can stabilize the lineup and keep the team’s playoff push from getting wobbly.

The immediate tell is how much attention is landing on depth roles. When your fourth line is fighting for consistent impact, you can’t just wait it out until March. You either fix it, or you keep bleeding minutes every night.

Flyers trade need: a fourth-line center with bite

The cleanest fit is a fourth-line center who can win draws, hold defensive structure, and let the coaching staff slide other pieces into more comfortable roles. That’s especially true when you’ve got veterans who aren’t producing and young players who can look fine one night and disappear the next. 

If Philadelphia can add a dependable center, it gives them options to reshuffle the wings and reduce the nightly scramble.

It’s also the kind of move that usually doesn’t require the Flyers to touch their premium young assets. They can stay disciplined on the big-picture plan while still improving the roster in a way that actually matters in one-goal games.

If Dvorak walks: do the Flyers aim higher at center?

The fork in the road is if the Flyers think Christian Dvorak is trending toward testing free agency, they may have to consider a more aggressive pivot. Dvorak has been productive this season, and that’s exactly why his next contract could get expensive if he keeps it up.

That’s where the bigger center targets start making sense, and where Kevin Kurz of The Athletic makes the arguments for.

A player like Brayden Schenn would cost more and comes with term and a significant cap hit, but he’s the kind of proven, hard-to-play-against option that changes how a coach can run matchups. Schenn has six goals, 13 points, a -20 plus/minus rating, an 79 hits across 34 games.

Ryan O’Reilly sits in a similar bucket. He's older, but still a respected two-way center type that contenders always circle, and his contract structure has been discussed as relatively team-friendly for what he brings. O'Reilly has recorded 10 goals, 26 total points, a +3 plus/minus rating, and holds a 57.2 faceoff win percentage over 32 games.

Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

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