It wasn’t the trade that many Flyers fans have been eagerly waiting, butthe organization announced late this afterrnoon that they have traded defenseman Kevin Marshall to the Washington Capitals for forward Matt Ford.
Marshall, 22, played ten games with the Flyers earlier this season where he registered zero points. He was drafted by the organization in 2007 and was due to be a restricted free agent at the end of the season. It’s unfortunate that Marshall was yet another defenseman that the organization failed to successfully develop, but at this point it was difficult to see him making an impact with the big club in the future.
Ford, 27, has developed into a decent forward at the AHL level and should help the offensively-challenged Adirondack Phantoms in the short-term. In his first full season with the Lake Erie Monsters in the 2010-11 season, he had 26 goals and 42 points. He has 10 goals and 18 assists this season with the Hershey Bears.
Ford is now the second best scorer on the Phantoms, behind Jason Akeson (10 goals, 33 points).
It’s unclear yet whether Ford has any real NHL potential, but he’s a player the organization may want to re-sign in the offseason over current players (and soon-to-be free agents) Jon Kalinski (8 goals, 11 points), and Andrew Rowe (3 goals, 4 points in 14 games played).
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??????????? JJ, come back at me when they get Weber or someone useful. This is a AHL transaction. LMFBO!! Just messing with you.
What a weird transaction. Defenseman still have a lot of potential at 22. Forwards at 27? Not so much.
It wasn’t all that weird. The Flyers had eight defenseman with the Phantoms and were not getting much scoring. Ford scored last night to help the team break out of a 4 or 5 game losing streak.
Assuming the organization finds a replacement for Pronger and either keeps or replaces Carle, one of Erik Gustafsson or Marc-Andre Bourdon will be with the Phantoms next year along with Walker, Bartulis, Kessel, and Manning. They were probably not going to re-sign Marshall anyway.