Oliver Bonk had high hopes this training camp. He was going to dazzle during Rookie Camp and the two games against the prospects of the New York Rangers, then he’d be solid throughout the Flyers training camp. He would hope to survive the cuts and eventually end up as one of the six defensemen Philadelphia would carry to start the season.
However, Bonk got hurt early in Rookie Camp, reportedly an upper body injury he couldn’t quite shake. Two weeks ago he had imaging done to see what the problem was. Meanwhile Danny Briere described it as something that “just popped up on him.” And on Sept. 18 he was listed as being day-to-day with the upper body injury.
Injury update: Defenseman Oliver Bonk is day-to-day with an upper body injury.
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) September 18, 2025
Now, with just two games left in the exhibition schedule, and no sign of Bonk being anywhere near ready for practice or game action, it appears he missed a golden opportunity to become one of the blueliners penciled in for the Flyers third pairing. However, when you look at just how ordinary to underwhelming some of the defensemen still vying for the fifth, sixth, and seventh positions have been, one could argue Bonk still has a puncher’s chance. In fact, he might be in the running simply by having not played.
That’s not to say Bonk will hit the ground running and establish himself as an outstanding rookie defenseman immediately. Yet, the average to rather uninspiring play from some of the blueliners not in the top two pairs has Bonk with a chance. Bonk might end up with the Flyers as soon as he’s physically ready to play. Most likely he’ll spend a few weeks in Lehigh Valley to get himself into game shape and work some of the rust off. Should he get the nod, it’s probably safe to say that Bonk is a cut the group of mediocre defensemen who were still with the club after five exhibition games.
Helge Grans had a great chance to make the club, particularly with Bonk and Rasmus Ristolainen both dealing with injuries. Yet some mind-numbing defensive miscues (and a very untimely fall) had the Flyers place him on waivers on Monday and cut him on Tuesday. Grans was given time to show his wares, but those wares wore thin on the Flyers coaching staff and management. He’ll now have a chance to hone his game in the American Hockey League. So we know Bonk is probably ahead of Grans on the depth chart.
On Monday night in Boston, it seemed like an audition for six defensemen for those final precious openings: Dennis Gilbert, Noah Juulsen, Egor Zamula, Emil Andrae, Adam Ginning, and Hunter McDonald. Gilbert has been better than Juulsen most of the camp, but considering Juulsen’s biggest highlights were two hits (one which was a kneeing penalty), it’s not saying a lot. However, Rick Tocchet saw it differently, praising Juulsen and Ginning for their play against the Bruins. Put head-to-head it seems the Flyers would opt for Bonk over Juulsen any day of the week given his ability, age, and potential. And the same could be said for Bonk regarding Dennis Gilbert also. Gilbert hasn’t been bad, and has looked decent at times, yet he’s not going to impede the development or readiness of Bonk if and when he’s good to go.
Tuesday afternoon the Flyers reduced their training camp by 10 players, with McDonald, Andrae, Ty Murchison and Grans assigned to Lehigh Valley. So that leaves Juulsen, Gilbert, Zamula and Adam Ginning still vying for two or three positions. Aside from Zamula and the two other free agents the Flyers signed this summer, Adam Ginning is still alive and well with the Flyers roster. Ginning took a hard hit on the numbers against Boston on Monday night but shook it off and had a good game (22:58 with four blocked shots, two hits, a takeaway and a giveaway). Again, one has to ask themselves if Bonk would be a better option than Ginning. Most would probably take Bonk over Ginning as he seems to have a better skill set.
Rick Tocchet didn’t mince words earlier in camp when he was asked specifically about Gilbert’s play. Tocchet seemed to put Gilbert in a quartet of defensemen he said he wasn’t overly impressed with. “I would put him in the pack with about four guys, you know, vying for the — you know, nobody’s really kind of stood out to me yet,” Tocchet said. “I mean, we need one of those guys to play a good game for us and they’re all kind of in that area. He’s in that mix but I’d like to see a little bit more from him, obviously. I mean, it’s not in indictment to him, it’s just, when you’re evaluating people, you’re looking for somebody to step ahead. And whether it’s [Gilbert] or [Juulsen] or McDonald or Ginning or whoever, you know, we’re looking for those guys to kind of take over what we’re looking for on the defensive side.”
Emil Andrae had some ups and downs in his game over the exhibition schedule, rarely looking like he was taking over a game. He might have had his best game Monday night against Boston where he had some offensive chances, had a big hit or two and generally moved the puck smartly and quickly. He was on the ice for the Bruins game-tying goal, but more often than not Andrae appeared to use his quickness and brains to get the puck out of the danger zones. Unfortunately for Andrae, it appears that the Flyers are going to send him back down to Lehigh Valley. Although nothing was confirmed by the club as of Tuesday morning, Andrae was seen skating with Alex Bump and Devin Kaplan and not part of the bigger group.
The foursome on the back end that were cut Tuesday leaves Bonk possibly looking at the sixth position if he is going to make the Flyers at some point. You wouldn’t want Bonk as the seventh as you want him playing, regardless of where he’s at. It also could lend some to believe that the Flyers are, at least for starters, leaning towards size and brawn over quickness heading into game one. Egor Zamula seems to have the upper hand on everyone in the depth chart for now not named Rasmus Ristolainen. And Tocchet stated on Tuesday afternoon that Zamula is going to be the fifth defenseman barring something unforeseen happening. Zamula has been average at best, often being used a lot yet not really tilting the ice towards the Flyers favor. What’s also apparent is he’ll most likely see himself with a new defense partner to start the season given Ristolainen’s status. He’s been okay for now. A healthy Ristolainen now probably would’ve put Zamula in jeopardy heading down the stretch to these final cuts. He’s fine, just hasn’t really moved the bar at all.
It’s truly strange (and to some maybe quite damning) that Bonk has an advantage over some Flyer blueliners on the depth chart simply because they have set the bar so low. The chance is there for him, especially if he can find his game early with the Phantoms and be the guy Philadelphia brings up should injuries arise. The Flyers provided some update on Bonk’s health Wednesday, announcing he’ll be out two weeks with the upper-body injury.
The idea heading into training camp was to have competition on the back end to see who would rise to the top. At least that was what both Tocchet and Briere preached before camp started. However, the truth seems to be a lot of the defensemen at camp outside the top two pairs weren’t turning heads or dropping jaws in a good way. It made everyone realize this group mentioned above were at best third-pairing blueliners, nothing more. None of them truly distanced themselves from the others when it came to crunch time. The batch of borderline third-pairing defensemen the Flyers are sorting through right now are living up to their billing as being borderline third-pairing defensemen. At the end of the day it’s not going to cause the rebuild to stall. It just would’ve been nice to see a bit more verve or oomph seen in this batch’s play. The only person smiling right now from this malaise on the backend might be Oliver Bonk. And for good reason.
