Phones off, heads down: The Flyers players are trying not to think about Friday’s NHL trade deadline

This time of year, fans, reporters, and insiders’ phones will be dinging constantly with notifications, but there’s a good chance several phones in hockey will be off.

“I’d say most guys probably stay off their phones around this time. You don’t want to see any tweets from guys that are breaking stuff,” forward Garnet Hathaway said with a bit of a grin, a laugh, and a glance as Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman was in earshot in the Flyers locker room in Toronto on Monday.

The NHL trade deadline is fast approaching, with the final horn sounding on Friday at 3 p.m. But while everyone speculates and debates what Flyers general manager Danny Brière and management will do, the players are trying to stay in the moment.

“Focus on what we do on the ice and play some good hockey, try to win some games. Those are things that we don’t control,” captain Sean Couturier said. “It’s more you guys (the media) that talk about it and make big stories out of it. In the locker room, it’s not something we really talk about. We’ve got other things to focus on.”

It’s totally fair for Couturier to say the media makes it a big deal. After all, is it not entertaining when the wheelin’ and dealin’ can come fast and furious? But what we all don’t see is the toll it can take.

Last season, several players acknowledged that the trade of Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee in January to the Calgary Flames and Scott Laughton at the deadline to the Maple Leafs impacted the room. Two seasons ago, it was Sean Walker being dealt to the Colorado Avalanche that sent the defense into a tailspin, leading to a team looking at a playoff spot finding itself on the outside at the end.

» READ MORE: What to expect at the trade deadline, how the Flyers can get a No. 1 center, and more from our Reddit AMA

“One day you’re in one place, and the next morning you’re in a different place, getting ready to play a game,” recalled Owen Tippett, who was acquired by the Flyers in the Claude Giroux trade two days before the 2022 deadline. “I think I was traded at 6 o’clock at night and played the next day at 2 o’clock. So, pretty quick turnaround [after] you pretty much lift up your whole life and move. For me, I kind of had an idea it was coming. But it all happened so fast, so you don’t really have time to think until kind of everything dies down.”

“So, it’s a tough time of year,” he added. “Obviously, you don’t want to see anyone go, and you never know who could be on the move or, if it’s you, then you just kind of have no choice but to kind of roll with it and deal with it and settle things down as quick as you can.”

If the Flyers do make moves — and rumors continue to swirl around defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen being one such player expected to find himself in a new jersey — the player they get in return will be facing an interesting time in Philly. Because the “other things” the captain alluded to are that the Flyers are not just focusing on their first four-game winning streak in over two years when they take on the Utah Mammoth on Thursday (7 p.m., NBCSP), but a playoff spot.

» READ MORE: The Flyers should be firm sellers at the NHL trade deadline despite their recent winning streak

Entering Wednesday, they are eight back of second and third in the Metropolitan Division, held by the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Islanders, respectively, and six back of the Boston Bruins, who hold the last wild card in the Eastern Conference.

“We’re in the thick of it. We’re fighting for a playoff spot,” defenseman Nick Seeler said. “So that’s where our heads are at, and that’s what guys are focusing on, getting wins here, and that’s the most important thing.”