The Philadelphia Flyers have made at least one decision when it comes to who will be on their blue line to start the 2025-26 NHL season and it’s not too surprising.
Announced by the league at 2:00 p.m. sharp, the Flyers have placed defenseman Helge Grans on waivers. While we could wait for official word from the team themselves, we have to assume that this is obviously to reassign him down to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Plainly put: Grans did not make the Flyers.
#NHL waivers Monday:
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 29, 2025
Everyone from Sunday cleared.
Jiri Patera and St. Albert's Matt Murray are the two goalies on waivers today. pic.twitter.com/U8Lfgd2MQ1
This is the first year that Grans is eligible to be placed on waivers and there is a distinct possibility the blueliner could be snatched up by a team that wants a little bit of youth in a depth defender. The 23-year-old was a second-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in the 2020 NHL Draft, after all.
Grans was slated to be one of the frontrunners to be on the Flyers’ blue line for at least the first couple weeks of the season. With Rasmus Ristolainen out for at least the next month, the 23-year-old, 6-foot-3, 205-pound, right-handed defenseman seemed like an easy solution to provide at least some of what the Finnish veteran can.
In addition to just being physically similar, Grans was able to make his NHL debut with the Flyers last season and in those six games he didn’t look completely out of place. He might not have made many progressive plays or would activate on the rush, but he was just a very steady even-keeled presence during his brief stint. So, coming into training camp some assumptions were made that Grans has an advantage over everyone and all he had to do was not mess up — and unfortunately he did exactly that. Some misreads leading directly to goals against, not being able to be physical enough against NHL veterans and not playing up to top-level pace; Grans just looked not ready and therefore has been cut from the team and sent down to start his season with the Phantoms.
With the Phantoms last season, his second year in the Flyers organization after being part of the Ivan Provorov trade with the Los Angeles Kings and Columbus Blue Jackets, he managed to see an increase in production. Compared to just eight points in 56 games for the 2023-24 season, Grans scored eight goals and 23 points in 66 games for the Phantoms last season. He won’t be an offensive dynamo but his role has certainly increased.
We’ll have to see just how large of an opportunity he’ll get with Lehigh Valley this year. On the right side of the blue line, Oliver Bonk will surely get some important minutes to try and develop after graduating from junior hockey, and Ethan Samson should get a decent look as well. There will be major competition for minutes among the Flyers prospects in Allentown and Grans will still have to fight for them, especially after his showing this preseason.
The Flyers have not made any announcement regarding additional cuts to the training camp roster but considering that the likes of Dennis Gilbert, Noah Juulsen, Hunter McDonald, Emil Andrae, and Adam Ginning are all playing Monday night against the Boston Bruins, there shouldn’t be anything else from the blue line point of view.
