Is There a Difference Between Listening and Shopping In the Hockey/Sports World?

A few weeks back in a meeting with local media members, Danny Briere admitted that nobody on the Flyers roster can be considered "untouchable", and rightfully so. If he made players "untouchable" on a team that's rebuilding, the rebuild would be a disaster because a GM has to give up high value to receive high value back in return.

With that said, when a team says they have to listen to offers on certain players does it actually mean they are "shopping" that player? I guess that could be debatable, but for the sake of this excise, we're going to go with no, listening to offers does not mean a team is shopping a certain player.

Using the Flyers and certain players as examples, by Briere's admission, we know the Flyers aren't actually shopping Goaltender Carter Hart or Forward Scott Laughton, however, we also know, thanks to the Ivan Provorov trade, that he's gotten calls regarding deals for both players and has been doing his due diligence by listening to the offers and parsing through them with President of Hockey Ops, Keith Jones, Comcast Spectacor CEO, Daniel Hilferty, as well as other members of the Flyers senior executive team. Thus far, both players remain on the Flyers roster, so it's clear no offers have been intriguing enough for Briere to pull the trigger on any potential deals. At least, up to now, that is.

On the other end of the spectrum, however, thanks to reports that have been released since the Provorov trade last week, we know the Flyers are for sure shopping defenseman Tony DeAngelo, and while it's unconfirmed, it's also extremely likely they're shopping Forward Kevin Hayes.


Like "listening to offers" on players, "shopping a player" does not always result in a trade deal being made, but it's far more likely for a deal to be made when a player is actively being shopped than when a team is simply listening to other teams offers. When shopping a player, the deal may very well be a "small" one where as when a team is not inclined to trade a player it's likely to take a much larger deal to complete the trade.

For example, a team is not going to pry Carter Hart or Scott Laughton away by offering a few draft picks scattered throughout the rounds of various drafts; it's going to take at least that plus - potentially - a few "ready now" type prospects to get the deal done because the Flyers reportedly aren't actually looking to trade either of those players.

As a more specific example, let's say now that they've completed the Provorov deal, Columbus decided on calling the Flyers back with another deal involving Hart and/or Laughton along with the #7 or #22 pick in this years draft. For their part, Columbus is willing to give up the #3 pick, 2 top prospects within their system that are NHL-ready but key lineup players have them blocked, as well as a middle-six player.(I'm not a great follower of other teams, so I'm not going to pretend to know Columbus system; hence why I'm not using actual specfic players.)

It's not an offer that likely gets the deal done for either Hart or Laughton or even both players packaged together with one of the two Flyers first rounders, but the Flyers have to at least entertain it, if for no other reason than the #3 pick being in play.

However, while highly unlikely, if that same deal were to come up in regards to Hayes or DeAngelo, depending on exactly who the prospects and the middle-six player are, the Flyers would likely jump on it with little second thought because they want and are actively looking to deal both of those players.

The biggest difference between "listening" and "shopping" in the hockey/sports world is want and desire versus need and require. Can a team's general manager acquire what they want while dealing players they don't need now, or do they have to use players they desire now to acquire players they're going to require later on down the road?