{"id":574254,"date":"2026-02-08T02:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T02:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/574254\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T02:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T02:51:09","slug":"flyers-curran-rifai-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/574254\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers, Curran, Rifai \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"byline\">\n  By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prohockeyrumors.com\/author\/brianlarose\" title=\"Posts by Brian La Rose\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brian La Rose<\/a> |<br \/>\n  at February 7, 2026 6:01 pm  <\/p>\n<p>Flyers executives have said before that the team will ultimately decide whether they buy or sell heading into next month\u2019s trade deadline.\u00a0 <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/flyers\/crossroads-olympic-break-danny-briere-buy-sell-nhl-trade-deadline-20260206.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer examines<\/a> their situation, suggesting that while they might not want to throw in the towel on the season just yet, selling is the logical route for them to take.\u00a0 Philadelphia sits eight points out of a playoff spot with a team in the bottom ten in offense so the odds of a successful playoff push are low.\u00a0 On the other hand, their list of pending unrestricted free agents isn\u2019t exactly the most appealing, headlined by veteran wingers <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/grundca01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-07_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Carl Grundstrom<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/deslani01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-07_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nicolas Deslauriers<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 Accordingly, even if they do opt to sell, it could be a fairly quiet deadline unless they want to move players signed beyond the upcoming season.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere around the hockey world:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"longlis\">\n<li>Avalanche prospect <strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/player\/679687\/max-curran\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Max Curran<\/a><\/strong> will make the move to the NCAA next season. The forward <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DUThogKDw9W\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">announced<\/a> on his Instagram page earlier this week that he will play at UMass in 2026-27.\u00a0 Curran was a fifth-round pick by Colorado back in 2024, going 161st overall.\u00a0 This season, the 19-year-old has 14 goals and 27 assists in 31 games with WHL Edmonton.\u00a0 Had he not made the move, Colorado would have needed to have either signed him or dropped his rights by June 1st.\u00a0 Going to college will now push that timeline back, giving the Avs more time to decide his future.<\/li>\n<li>The Maple Leafs\u2019 AHL affiliate announced on Friday (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AHLMarliesPR\/status\/2019776645284897271\" rel=\"nofollow\">Twitter link<\/a>) that defenseman <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/rifaima01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-02-07_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Marshall Rifai<\/a><\/strong> was returned to the Marlies. The move comes as no surprise with the Olympic break in full effect.\u00a0 Rifai recently returned from a preseason injury and has four assists in a dozen games in the minors.\u00a0 Recalled late last month, Rifai got into one game with the Maple Leafs but saw just 9:40 of playing time.\u00a0 The demotion will allow him to keep playing and also land Toronto some extra cap flexibility heading into next month\u2019s trade deadline.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Brian La Rose | at February 7, 2026 6:01 pm Flyers executives have said before that the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":574255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[10490,2995,249425,249426,1317,293,3108,21208,62,1304,1650,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-574254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ahl","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-marshall-rifai","tag-max-curran","tag-ncaa","tag-nhl","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-snapshots","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-transactions","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116032745268581405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}