What We Learned: Two ways to view new Travis Konecny contract

There was talk for a while there that the Philadelphia Flyers might end up trading Travis Konecny.

That was true last summer, that was true during the season, and that was true for the start of this offseason. And yet, the Flyers ended up sticking with him, locking the forward in for eight years and an $8.75-million AAV late last week. It begs the question, "What do the Flyers see in their group?"

There was a good chunk of last season where the club dramatically outperformed preseason expectations both in terms of wins and losses — and let's be real, just about anyone can PDO their way to 60ish points by the All-Star break — but also in terms of generating quality chances and denying them to their opponents. As of Jan. 1, 2024, the Flyers had the 12th-best expected-goals percentage in the le