The Philadelphia Flyers have created a little bit more flexibility on the blue line. Defenseman Egor Zamula was placed on waivers Thursday afternoon, and, well, the 25-year-old has gone unclaimed and now can be sent down to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms without worry.
It is not very surprising that no team wanted to add a depth defender who can’t even outplay Noah Juulsen or a player who was just in college a few months ago.
All 3 players from yesterday cleared
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) December 19, 2025
Now, the Flyers need to make a choice. Since there was no specific designation that Zamula will be reassigned to the AHL when the team made the announcement that he was placed on waivers yesterday, they very well could just keep him around with the knowledge that they can send him down at a later date.
Once a player clears waivers, they do not need to go through them again until they play 10 or more cumulative NHL games, or are on an NHL roster for a total of 30 days. So theoretically, the Flyers very well could have Zamula stick around and then just plop him down in the AHL before Jan. 18 without needing to go through this whole process again and risk losing a player for absolutely nothing.
But why would they do that? Well, it just so happens that the NHL holiday roster freeze is in place at 12:00 a.m. on Friday, with no team able to make a roster transaction until Dec. 28. And while they would still have an extra defender in Noah Juulsen during the three games they have during this roster freeze, it certainly doesn’t hurt to have someone around if tragedy strikes and Zamula is actually needed to play a game during the roster freeze.
But again, this is just us guessing why the Flyers didn’t immediately announce that Zamula is on his way down to the AHL.
Phantoms blue line could be getting very crowded
Let’s assume that the Flyers are sending Zamula down to the AHL. Now, the Phantoms suddenly have a whole lot of players to try to find ice for on the blue line.
Oliver Bonk returned from injury; Hunter McDonald, Helge Grans, and Adam Ginning are hanging around; Roman Schmidt is the new addition in the 1-for-1 trade for Ethan Samson from the Lightning; and then of course Christian Kyrou and Maxence Guenette are two more new additions made to this roster. Phantoms head coach John Snowden was already finding it difficult to find time for everyone, and now throw in someone who should be getting a whole lot of opportunity since he was just in the NHL — it’s a mess.
The priority is obviously higher-end prospects like Bonk and then the next tier like Kyrou, but there is still certainly a whole lot of bodies that need to find their place in the crowd.
