Flyers’ acquire Andrei Kuzmenko, send Frost, Farabee to Calgary

Andrei Kuzmenko

PHILADELPHIA – All through their two-year rebuild, the Flyers insisted they weren’t going to trade any young players unless a deal made sense.
Well, Thursday night’s big swap with Calgary, which brought 28-year-old forward wing Andrei Kuzmenko to Philadelphia in exchange for forwards Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee (both in their mid-20s), just might be a change in that thinking.
Rumors of the transaction started gaining traction late in Thursday night’s game between the Flyers and the Islanders at the Wells Fargo Center which ended in a 3-0 New York win.
Neither Frost nor Farabee were made available for comment after the game. Likewise general manager Danny Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones.
Both Frost and Farabee are former first-round draft picks who have underachieved this season. In 50 games, Farabee has only eight goals/19 points and Frost also have been disappointing with 11 goals/25 points.
Apparently Briere sensed the Flyers needed some shaking up. They’ve been shut out the past two games and have looked lethargic doing it.
Perhaps Kuzmenko is the answer to inject some energy into this team, which finds itself sitting in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division and five points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Russian, who is 5-foot-11, 194 pounds, has played 190 NHL games, with 65 goals/135 points.
He broke in with the Vancouver Canucks in 2022-23, posting 39 goals/74 points his rookie campaign. But since then his numbers have dropped. He registered just 22 goals in a split season between Vancouver and Calgary last year and has just four goals/15 points in 37 games this season.
Rumors were flying around the internet on Thursday night that Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov and Kuzmenko are friends and perhaps the latter can serve as an advisor, friend, confidante to his pal from Russia.
Kuzmenko signed a two-year, $11 million contact in January, 2023 with a cap hit of $5.5 million per season and it ends at the conclusion of this season.
Kuzmenko has played for several high-powered teams in Russia, including CSKA Moscow and St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League.
The Flyers have been hoping Frost and Farabee would live up to their potential but that hasn’t been the case, at least not this season.
Frost, 25, was taken in the first round (27th overall) in the 2017 NHL Draft. The Aurora, Ontario native first made the Flyers’ roster in 2019-20, playing in 20 games.
The center made a breakthrough in the 2021-22 season, getting into 55 games. The following year was his best with 19 goals/46 points. Last year, however, he fell into disfavor with coach John Tortorella and was scratched a total of 10 games and scored only 13 goals.
This season has been a little better, as he played in 49 games but Tortorella still was critical of his play at times.
Frost, who is signed to a two-year, $4.2-million contact with a cap hit of $2.1 million per season, is scheduled to become a free agent at the end of this season.
Farabee, 24, was taken 14th overall in the 2018 NHL Draft. He hails from Syracuse and showed a lot of promise in his one year at Boston University, notching 17 goals in 37 games.
The left wing is signed to a six-year, $30-million contract he inked on Sept. 2, 2021. It expires at the end of the 2027-28 season.
Due to the shortened 2020-21 season, Farabee got into only 55 games but scored an impressive 20 goals. Last year he bounced back from two off years to get 22 goals. For his career, he’s played 384 games with 90 goals/201 points.

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About Wayne Fish 2701 Articles
Wayne Fish has been covering the Flyers since 1976, a stint which includes 18 Stanley Cup Finals, four Winter Olympics and numerous other international events.