Braun, a sneaky-good trade chip, knows his situation with Flyers

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VOORHEES, N.J. — Justin Braun is not oblivious to the fact that he could be playing for another team and living in a different city about a month from now.

The 12-year veteran defenseman can decipher when a club is buying or selling as trading season nears. So with the March 21 trade deadline ahead, he does think about it.

"Yeah, a little bit," Braun said Sunday after practice. "But that's everyday life in the NHL. You never know when you're going to get moved if you don't have a no-move or no-trade or whatever. You've just got to keep working every day, trying to help your team win. That's the goal every time I go out there."

The Flyers' 15-25-9 record and Braun's steady game and expiring contract all make him one of the club's likely trades. For contending teams, he could be one of the more underrated blueliners on the market. He has goal-prevention smarts, a team-friendly $1.8 million cap hit and 100 games of playoff experience.

"Probably the best word is reliability," Flyers interim head coach Mike Yeo said Thursday about Braun. "That's something that's a real compliment, you get a lot of respect from your teammates and from your coaches when you're a guy who's reliable.

"He'll show up night after night, he'll take hits to make plays, he'll be first on pucks, in the d-zone, he'll block shots, he has attention to detail. He does all of the things that are asked of him."

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With offseason acquisition Ryan Ellis having played only four games this season because of a lower-body injury, the Flyers have showcased the 35-year-old Braun in a top-pair role for most of the season.

And he has shown well.

"It's nice to be back playing those kind of minutes, but when you're not winning, it's not really ideal either," Braun said. "You kind of hope to be doing those top minutes on a winning team, but unfortunately we haven't been there yet."

Braun is playing 20 minutes per game, up from the 17:16 he played during 2019-20, his first season with the Flyers. He has played in all 49 games this season, putting up four goals and nine assists. What will attract suitors, though, is the way he closes gaps and defends. He has a plus-1 mark on a team that has a minus-47 goal differential, while ranking second among Flyers defensemen with 93 blocked shots and 65 hits.

As the Flyers push through a second straight underachieving season under his watch, general manager Chuck Fletcher is set to "aggressively retool" the club. He'll want to cash in on the value of a 35-year-old defenseman with an expiring deal.

Braun was acquired in June 2019 during Fletcher's first offseason running the Flyers. The longtime Shark played a solid third-pair game in 2019-20 as the Flyers fell one win shy of the Eastern Conference Final.

"The first year, obviously we had a really good group and really enjoyed the experience here," Braun said. "With the COVID stuff and everything, it's kind of been hampered a little bit, but I have really enjoyed my experience here."

Fletcher could aim to land what he gave up to acquire Braun. A second-round pick would be an ideal return. The GM traded a 2019 second-round selection and a 2020 third-round pick for Braun back in June 2019.

For Braun, what he can control is helping the Flyers experience some more winning. They've experienced just two victories in their last 19 games (2-13-4). They have 13 more games before the trade deadline.

"At the end of the night, you've got to go out there and play to win," Braun said. "You can't just show up and get through the games, because you don't want to make any logo you have on your chest — especially the Flyers' one — look bad."

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