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Ryan Ellis Traded to Flyers in 3-Team Deal with Predators, Golden Knights
July 17, 2021
After spending the 2020-21 season searching for an impact defenseman, the Philadelphia Flyers found one by acquiring Ryan Ellis from the Nashville Predators as part of a three-team trade Saturday.
Ellis was traded for Nolan Patrick and Philippe Myers, and Patrick was rerouted to the Vegas Golden Knights for Cody Glass.
Frank Seravalli @frank_seravalliProjection is with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Flyers?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Flyers</a> moving Nolan Patrick, they will now have the ability to protect James van Riemsdyk. Pretty big change for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SeaKraken?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SeaKraken</a> in last few minutes.
Per Cap Friendly on Twitter, trades and player signings were frozen Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, and 5 p.m. ET is the deadline for clubs to submit their expansion draft protection lists to the NHL and NHL Players' Association.
The Seattle Kraken will start to fill out their roster during the expansion draft Wednesday.
There had been speculation leading up to the regular-season trade deadline April 12 that Ellis' long-term outlook with the Predators wasn't promising.
Elliotte Friedman reported in March that Ellis had been considered untouchable but that "something's made the Predators think."
Ellis has six years remaining on the eight-year, $50 million deal he signed in August 2018.
That contract should fit well for Philadelphia, which is trying to get better in the short term but also has a long-term outlook in mind after missing the playoffs twice in the past three years.
Ellis missed six weeks last season after undergoing surgery on his upper body in March. He finished with 18 points in 35 games during the regular season. The 30-year-old was terrific with five points in six games in Nashville's first-round playoff loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Philadelphia did sell low on Patrick, who scored just nine points and was minus-30 in 52 games last season. The Golden Knights are betting the 22-year-old will return to the level he showed over the previous two years, when he scored 61 points in 145 games.
The addition of Ellis made Myers expendable for the Flyers. Myers is 24 years old and will give the Predators a plug-and-play defenseman alongside Mattias Ekholm.