The Philadelphia Flyers look to be making some kind of move to their personnel between now and the trade deadline Friday afternoon. Signing an AHL veteran is the tell.
The team is about to sign Lehigh Valley Phantoms veteran Garrett Wilson to a National Hockey League contract. Wilson was placed on waivers Thursday by the Flyers. If he clears (and it’s almost a certainty that he will), then the forward will be signed by the Flyers on Friday. Before the club made an official announcement, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman broke the news Thursday.
Garrett Wilson (PHI), who is being signed to an NHL contract
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 5, 2026
The Flyers made the news official shortly after Friedman’s tweet:
There was speculation Thursday afternoon of a possible deal between both sides being imminent. The thought is that the Flyers are in the process of trying to find a new home for veteran enforcer Nic Deslauriers. Deslauriers, who turned 35 over the Olympic break, is in the homestretch of a four-year contract he signed with the Flyers worth a total of $7 million ($1.75 million Average Annual Value). It’s expected to be traded to a club who is looking for an enforcer or policeman element to their club as they head into the playoffs. Or simply someone who will help a club protect their star players from being taken advantage of physically.
Wilson, who will turn 35 on March 16, has not played a game for the Flyers since he joined the Phantoms back in 2020-21. In six season with the Phantoms, he has 62 goals and 86 assists for 148 points. And he has a boatload of penalty minutes in his years with Lehigh Valley. In 2022-23 he had 195 penalty minutes while the following season saw Wilson with 216. This year through 51 games he has four goals and 12 assists for 16 points. And 99 penalty minutes.
While it might be a rather minor move in the grand scheme of things, it also seems to continue a tradition of Flyers general manager Danny Briere trying to “do right” for a player. Last season the Flyers sent veteran Erik Johnson back to Colorado for a run at a Cup. And although they certainly were helped out by a first-round draft pick coming back from Toronto (not to mention Nikita Grebenkin), sending Scott Laughton to the Leafs to be closer to home also seemed to be a small but kind gesture for a veteran Flyer. Moving Deslauriers to a club who is in the playoff hunt is another similar move as it appears to be long odds at best for Philadelphia to get in. And giving Wilson a chance to play a homestretch of games for the Flyers after six seasons of service in Lehigh Valley also seems the right thing to do.
Wilson has played NHL hockey before. Drafted in the 2009 NHL Draft by the Panthers, Wilson has played 84 career NHL games, 50 of them with the Penguins back in 2018-19. He has two goals to go with six assists for eight points overall, all of them with the Penguins.
