It’s two games into the exhibition season for the Philadelphia Flyers. Of the 12 defensemen combined that have dressed, Egor Zamula is second only to Travis Sanheim in terms of ice time. Sanheim had 25:50 TOI in the Flyers 4-2 loss to Montreal Tuesday night while Zamula saw 25:29 in the exhibition season opener against the Islanders (a lengthy 3-2 shootout win). He also had an assist, was plus-1 for the night, and had five blocked shots. All in all a decent effort for the first of seven meaningless games.
Yet Zamula is probably looking over both shoulders as the Flyers beefed up the back end over the summer. Flyers general manager Danny Briere signed Dennis Gilbert and Noah Juulsen in free agency, both on the cheap and both on one-year deals. Low-risk acquisitions that could do the trick this year, helping the club throughout the highly-concentrated schedule. However, to Zamula, they are competition. Players who could perhaps shine in training camp and make an argument for them to be the sixth or seventh defenseman. As well, Helge Grans and Emil Andrae are also looking to make a strong statement to avoid the initial rounds of cuts. Suddenly, the solid footing Zamula thought he had last season is rather shaky ground in heading into the 2025-26 season.
Rick Tocchet mentioned how strong Gilbert has been in camp. He has also given kudos to both Andrae and Grans for trying to stand out, particularly Andrae given how smaller he is compared to the other blueliners. So Zamula probably doesn’t need a translator to tell him he needs to do everything possible to keep his spot on the third pairing. Otherwise, he might find himself playing far less than the 63 games he appeared in last season. Or possibly playing elsewhere. But first, let’s look at the bigger picture.
What we know
What we know is Travis Sanheim and Cam York will be here for a while. Sanheim has a no-trade-clause and six years remaining on his deal while York (who has no such protection) signed a five-year deal in the summer. Ryan Ellis is on the roster and taking up cap space. But he’s never playing again, so that still makes two defensemen. Rasmus Ristolainen is presently injured but on the mend, and Briere expects the blueliner back with the club a month or six weeks into the season. That makes three. Nick Seeler is a steadying presence on the middle pair or bottom pair. That makes four. And Jamie Drysdale hopes to take a big step forward this year with his play, possibly becoming a keeper on the power play’s top unit and making a case to sign an extension with the Flyers. So that’s five spots it would seem to be spoken for once Ristolainen returns to full health.
That leaves the sixth spot with Zamula, Andrae, Grans, Juulsen, and Gilbert possibly vying for that position on the third pairing. Last season Zamula was sixth on the Flyers in terms of ice time for defensemen in all situations (1040:55). Andrae was seventh (728:28) while Grans was essentially called up for a cup of coffee (86:45). Meanwhile while in Vancouver, Juulsen saw just 570:10 as he missed the last three months due to a sports hernia surgery. Gilbert, who played 29 games, split his time in Buffalo (251:43) and Ottawa (52:06). Simply put, Gilbert’s usage was similar to what Erik Johnson had in Philadelphia before he was traded to Colorado: a spare that could be used if injuries flared up.
In the summer we looked at the underlying metrics between Zamula, Gilbert and Juulsen. Zamula led in a few categories but was second to Gilbert when it came to Goals For Percentage (GF%) and High Danger Goals For Percentage (HDCF%). Perhaps the one thing however that puts Zamula behind both Juulsen and Gilbert is Tocchet. Juulsen played for Tocchet and the physical defenseman was a pet favorite in Vancouver, and Tocchet has recently praised Gilbert so there is some level of desire there. He doesn’t know what Zamula can do outside of the small sample size in training camp and what he may have seen on tape. And if coaches are known for anything, it’s often leaning on the side of what they know versus what they don’t know.
Juulsen’s hit, Andrae, and Tocchet’s willingness factor
The first big check of the Flyers preseason was thanks to Noah Juulsen. And although it was pre-season against an up-and-coming prospect, Juulsen levelled first-round Islanders pick Kashawn Aitcheson with a hard, heavy, open-ice hit. And the optics couldn’t have worked better for Juulsen.
Here is the hit on Kashawn Aitcheson that knocked him out of the game pic.twitter.com/E9X1S3gGV2
— Rob Taub (@RTaub_) September 22, 2025
It’s a hit that doesn’t mean a lot for anyone not named Kashawn Aitcheson. Yet it does look great not just to Tocchet but Flyers’ president of hockey operations Keith Jones, who loves having big, mean players who play with an edge. A hit like that could do wonders for Juulsen this exhibition season. In the two seasons Zamula has played for the Flyers, it’s hard to remember him delivering something remotely similar on the opposition. Zamula is big but uses his size to separate the player from the puck, not to attempt to separate the player’s upper torso from his lower body. It’s a part of the game Zamula doesn’t really have or use much in his toolbox.
As far as Andrae goes, let’s see what Andrae did last season (granted a smaller sample size) compared to Zamula at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick.
| CF% | GF% | xGF% | HDGF% | |
| Emil Andrae | 51.85 | 47.27 | 55.10 | 51.43 |
| Egor Zamula | 50.09 | 43.53 | 54.04 | 37.78 |
Andrae marginally edges out Zamula in the share of shot attempts (CF%) and also expected goals percentage. However he’s ahead of Zamula a bit more in the share of actual goals scored, and markedly ahead of him in the share of high-danger goals while on the ice. While small, Andrae seems to have more of an offensive flair to his game than Zamula. That could be the difference in seeing Andrae sticking around and Zamula on the outside looking in. Physically, Zamula has the advantage. But offensively, he’s behind Andrae.
When asked Tuesday morning about Andrae and if his spot could be the sixth spot or somewhere higher in the pairings, Tocchet said he was “in the mix.” “Every practice, every game he’s got to try to separate himself the way he plays,” the coach said. “You don’t always have to be a big guy to defend. You defend with your brain or you have the puck on your stick all night. Quinn Hughes has the puck on his stick all night so he doesn’t have to defend.
“He (Andrae) has his attributes and he’s good with the puck. Now he’s just got to understand the next play. He’s got to be careful not to throw pucks away or try too much. So that’s the balance for a kid like him. Yeah we want him to move the puck, we want him to join the rush. I want him to make plays at the blueline. If he wants to dance a guy, go for it. But be a little calculated. You got to be careful you don’t throw pucks away or make those ill-advised passes in the middle of the ice. So that’s the sweet spot he’s going to have to find.”
As well — and perhaps crucial to this discussion — Tocchet also said that players on the bubble during training camp are all capable of making a play. But for him it came down to “what are you willing to do?” “I have to see that, what are willing to do?” he said. “Are you willing to play aggressive? Are you willing to box out? Are you willing to block a shot? Are you willing to help out your teammate? Those are the intangibles.” Juulsen has made a case just from the Aitcheson hit alone what he’s willing to do. Zamula? Well we’re still waiting for some great defensive play, a strong rush up ice, or simply flattening somebody.
The Ristolainen dilemma
Probably the main saving grace for Zamula that could keep him here is the situation with Ristolainen. Although he has two years left on his deal ($5.1 million AAV), it’s highly unlikely a team is going to take a chance trading for a soon to be 31-year-old oft-injured defenseman. Not without the Flyers eating part of the cap hit or adding a draft pick to sweeten the deal. Ristolainen isn’t in Ellis territory yet, but another injury to the same area in his upper body could be enough to end his season, if not his career. Knowing Ristolainen is somewhat damaged goods may be all Briere needs to keep Zamula around a little while longer. Zamula sliding up to the fifth defenseman would enable one of Juulsen, Gilbert or Andrae to play. A Ristolainen injury after a Zamula trade certainly throws more newcomers into the realm. Does Briere risk having two of Andrae, Grans, Gilbert or Juulsen in the lineup throughout most of the season due to a Zamula trade and a long-term Ristolainen injury?
On the other side of the coin, from a salary cap perspective, it might make the most sense to find a buyer for Zamula at some point soon. Both Juulsen and Gilbert combined make $75,000 more than Zamula’s final year of his contract ($1.7 million AAV). And both are basically one-year trials, seeing if there’s anything significantly there to warrant another short-term extension. Grans, 23, has two years left on his contract ($787,500 AAV) and remains a restricted free agent. Andrae has a year left ($903,333 AAV) with the Flyers still retaining his rights. Again, Zamula isn’t breaking the bank, but he could be in the way of a younger, cheaper (for now) and higher skilled defenseman on the horizon. And the team acquiring him would still retain his rights.
One only has to look back to earlier this month to realize Briere can clear up a personnel logjam quickly. The goaltending mess heading into training camp was resolved a bit more when Ivan Fedotov was sent to Columbus. That left the same number of spots with the Flyers and Lehigh Valley for the same number of goaltenders, a rather novel concept after the circus that was last season. Taking that into account, Briere could do the same thing on the blueline, simply clearing up a spot for a guy the Flyers think is better suited than Zamula.
Egor Zamula has done enough to keep himself as a third pairing blueliner on what has been at best a team seeking a wildcard spot. On a contender or Stanley Cup champion it’s doubtful he sees any action at all. Or is maybe a decent seventh or eighth on the depth chart. If Zamula, using Tocchet’s words, is unable or unwilling to do something that makes him a cut above his competition, it might be time for the Flyers to cut ties. He still has time to make a case to stick around. But time seems to be running out as Oct. 9 and a date with the Panthers approaches.
